Which 480GB-512GB SSD to buy

My 256GB SSD is nearing capacity, so I'm going to upgrade and pass along my smaller SSD to my wife.

My top considerations are:
1) reliability
2) value

My workflow does not rely on constant read/writes, the ssd just makes everything smooth (especially opening large drawings in AutoCAD) so I don't think I need the fastest possible SSD. Of course my laptop isn't even 6GB/s, but I'll be upgrading that too soon.

My top contender right now is:
SanDisk Extreme SSD 480 GB SATA 6.0 Gb-s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SDSSDX-480G-G2​5
currently $330 at Amazon

I haven't been waching SSD prices. The discount merry-go-round that was happening when I bought my Crucial drive seems to be over. There were constant SSD sales back then, you just had to wait for the one you wanted to take its turn at the discount game (and you didn't have to wait long). I've been waiting for something in this capacity segment to go on sale for about 2 weeks but haven't seen anything yet. Should i just give up and buy, I don't want to wait much longer.

Any recommendations?

 

This thread should cover this size pretty well.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/solid-state-drives-ssds-flash-storage/726787-go-big-small.html

The price of last generation Extreme is very good but I would choose this gens performance increase at a little higher cost. Not a lot of owner reviews in this size for this gen. yet. Crucial, Intel, Samsung are all considered reliable. The Extreme line also has good reviews. Amazon mixed reviews for both gens of the Extreme and all sizes, which is not at all helpful.

Crucial m500 480GB $370 Sandisk Extreme II $430
There is a tight supply of NAND right now. The law of supply and demand. So, prices are up and may rise.

The true best value is the m500 960GB drive. price per GB, capacity, good performance, Crucial reliability.

 

First caveat: do the new M500's play nice with SATA2 platforms? (No reason that they shouldn't; but that is no guarantee that they do...).

Second caveat: while the newer SSD's (M500, SanDisk Extreme II's, Seagate 600 Pro's) are essentially just as fast (or faster) at the 480GB size capacity as at the 240GB size capacity, that is not the case with 'older' SSD's such as the SanDisk Extreme 480GB, Intel 520 Series 480GB etc.

As a matter of fact; these older (SF based) drives did substantially worse than their 240GB capacity models.

See:
Intel SSD 520 Series 480GB review: Verdict | Disk drives (hdd & ssd) Reviews | TechRadar

With the above said; this may still be an okay drive for your specific uses/expectations.


I would still be looking at a more modern drive like the Crucial M500 Series and/or the SanDisk Extreme II's for example - especially if you think you'll be moving it to a newer platform with SATA3 capabilities soon (within a year).



For the potential ~$70 saved though... I could not recommend this purchase (even for your specific situation) - when you buy a performance component - make sure you get the performance first (the cost is secondary... especially when amortized over 4+ years).


This is still your decision - and the 'right answer' is still what is 'right to you' - but now you have all the facts... proceed accordingly.


Good luck.

 

Thanks guys. I just ordered the m500 480GB. Amazon currently has a code for use with Amazon Rewards Visa so I got $20 off.

Final Price: $363.22
Prime shipping
no sales tax for MN

 

Looking forward to your impressions of the new drive vs. the old one.

Congrats!

 

I got the old drive cloned onto the new drive. Biggest difference so far is boot time. My m4 was very slow for some reason at booting (~40+ seconds) but the files loaded fast so I was too lazy to do anything about it. The m500 boots in about 20 seconds, which isn't blazing fast, but I'm very happy, my laptop is SATAII after all.

EDIT: Actually, AutoCAD LT 2011 is running noticeably smoother. Drawings open about as fast as before, but the dynamic drawing effects don't lag nearly as much as before. I'm really happy about this.

 

Glad to hear it!:thumbsup: