Which SSD? M4, 520, 830?

A friend of mine wants an SSD. I'm selling a number of SSD's, and he really doesn't want to spend much, but one of the three SSD's I have that I will sell to him cheap are:

(1) Crucial M4 256GB
(2) Intel 520 240GB
(3) Samsung 830 256GB

This is for his desktop and he wants a couple games put on it. I am having a hard time determining which one would be best for this, or if it even matters, but thought I'd throw it out there and see what you guys think. They are all lightly used, and the M4 is actually brand new. I am leaning towards the Samsung 830.

Thanks!

 

I'd say Intel 520.

Long warranty, decent drive and an absolute steal at what you want for it.

My $0.02 only....

 

But but but It's SANDFORCE.

 

Oh I agree.

With that said, it's the least offensive implementation of the aforementioned controller IMO, and has plenty of good Intel warranty left.

 

What is his workflow?

The Crucial M4 256GB model is slower in both 'snappiness' and actual productivity (productivity = sustained storage subsystem performance).

The Samsung 830 would boot/shutdown the fastest - but the snappiness and productivity would be equal (if not below) the M4.

The Intel 520 Series would be my choice for the snappiest performance, sustained storage subsystem and the value that the Intel SSD Toolbox offers too.

All the above assumes 30% OP'ing, of course.

If you can SE the drive for your friend before they do a clean install (Win8.1 x64 Pro Update 1 recommended with IRST 12.9), that will give them the best 'new SSD' feeling and ensure that they are starting out with the best foot forward.

Curious what prices for the drives?

 

Go with 830, it have consistent speed with compressed/uncompressed data...

 

What the what? I made a post and was just dumped for some reason... I'll try again I guess.

Workflow is just basic browsing and rudimentary office stuff and a handful of games. He's fine with his hard drive, but wants faster boot times and faster load times for games like BF4 so he doesn't join a match five minutes after everyone else (literally, lol). Anything else is just gravy, and the difference between drives for traditional OS tasks is not going to be noticeable for him compared with hard drive.

I have already SE'd the drives, and I will install the OS for him. But he will also need to buy an OS, and I reluctantly recommended Windows 8. He's afraid his Windows 7 won't reactivate because he bought OEM version and over time swapped out a lot of components and last time he reinstalled Windows MS gave him a hard time about activation because of it. Since then he's swapped out a couple more components and is afraid they will poo poo his activation.

In any case maybe I'll go with the 520.

 

The Intel SF implementation is the best balance of snap and sustained speed imo for his expected use (mainly as an O/S drive + games it seems).

The files that can be compressed will be and the ones that can't, won't - this is what makes the 520 Series 'snappy'.

Btw, choosing Win8 is the best decision that was made for this new install.

Before connecting to the Internet; I would recommend to install Office 2013 right after the O/S finishes setting up (and all drivers installed too, of course. Important ones include touchpad, video, sound and notebook specific Power Management drivers) and also adding any language settings he/she requires (if they need anything other than US English). At this point I would be doing all the Windows Updates, installing Quicktime, Adobe Reader, Java and Adobe Flash for other browsers (even if they don't use any other browser than IE).

When there are no more updates and the system is at the 8.1 Update 1 level; continue to install the rest of the programs he/she needs.

Check WU again a final time, run a full Windows Defender scan (I don't recommend any other A/V) and disable the system from sleeping and let it sit overnight so it could do it's optimizations/maintenance routines.


With sufficient RAM (at least 12GB or more...) and ensuring their programs don't require it; I would be disabling the pagefile, disabling Hibernation, disabling Error Reporting, disabling animations and disabling all sleep timers on the system (turning off the display after x minutes is still desirable).


Windows 8.1 is a fairly self-sustaining O/S; when you give him/her the new system, mention that they should leave the system on overnight with sleep timers disabled at least once a week.

At this point I would create a strong password for this (the main) Administrator account and then create a User account for your friend to use on a daily basis. (You might need to setup some programs again for him/her in the new User account...).


Show them how to search for programs/files with a few letters when they hit the Windows key, make the computer boot to the desktop on login and pin their most used programs to the Taskbar (and show them how to do it themselves too) and Win7 will be forgotten in a few days and the streamlined power of the new O/S and hardware will be their new gold standard.


Don't give in and put junk 'start menus' on their new system - let them learn two new things and allow them to have all the power that Win8 can offer them (now and as soon as Update 2 on so on is released in a few months from now).


To do all the above properly, I charge in the $250-$600 range depending on the programs installed (plus the SSD of course).

This really is a new computer (with new O/S), better hardware and some tutoring all in one.


The above cost is nothing considering the above setup will be functional a half decade from now (barring any mechanical or virus failure).


Word of caution: with a fully setup system as outlined above; your friend may unexpectedly hug/kiss you with tears in their eyes - depending on how sensitive they are to the difference between their old and new systems prowess.


Hope some of this helps.

 

Thanks Tiller, but you're preaching to the choir. I've done Windows installs and staging probably hundreds of times... most of them gratis. (People will really pay $250-$600 to do this for a $1000 machine?)

I use Startisback with Windows 8 and it's the best thing I ever did, and recommend it for anyone who is hesitant to migrate to Windows 8. It only fixes one of the Win 8 concerns by offering a tried and true and familiar but abandoned feature, but it's a good start. I haven't touched the Metro GUI at all since I've installed StartIsBack. He doesn't have Office 2013, just Office 2010 which is all he needs. He's a veteran computer tinkerer too, just has gotten away from it the last few years due to other interests and responsibilities. He could manage on his own I'm sure, but it will just be an excuse to get together and drink.

Thanks for all the input. I'll go with the Intel 520 for him.

 

For the record, I would have gone 520 or 830. My 520 has been giving pretty good and reliable performance so far and uit has seen its share of abuse a year ago.