Your SSD Opinions Solicited!

I am thinking of installing a 256GB SanDisk Ultra Plus SSD in my CF-30 Mk1. I am also considering the the Samsung 840 250GB. BTW, the Samsung is on sale right now! :thumbsup:

Has anyone else had experience with either of these drives? I am certainly open to other HDD (SSD and Electromechanical) as well.

Sorry for the rain of questions and posts, but to anyone that has been around here long enough to remember when I got my CF-29, I kind of go crazy till I get it right!

LoL!

 

I have both of them. I have one Sandisk and 3 Samsung , 120gb and two 250gb. Very good drives so far. I got mine at newegg at christmas time for $140 and the other one for $155. I also have the Kingston hyper X 250gb drive which I have in my 53 and in my 30 I have the intel 320.

 

I have 250 GB Samsung 830s in both my CF-30 MK 3 and my CF-52 MK 2. The transition was painless, I just cloned the SSDs in the computer and went to work. The increase in performance is stunning. I'm getting a CF-53 shortly and am considering a Samsung 840 evo or a Crucial M500 this time around. Don't get too hung up on boot times, the speed of 4K operations is more important for actual day to day use.
CAP

 

If choices rather than cost were involved I'd choose the 840. Both are excellent SSDs, though I think the SanDisk uses a Marvell 9175 instead of a high-end controller. Probably better write performance from the Samsung also

 

samsungs has been very good IMHO and experience. Sandisk isn't a bad brand either, but I have never tried them.
So far I've been using Samsungs (about 4) Intels (320's and 330's) and a few OCZ Vertex 3. I had one Intel 320 600Gb with some odd behavior, but it was replaced under warranty. The OCZ's I had several fail and I stopped using them.

 

I haven't got any newer SSD's. I have played with the older X25 G2 intels. Had good luck with them so far. CF-19 Mk1 on XP (girlfriends oldest boy), CF-19 Mk2 with 7 (girlfriends), CF-19 Mk3 with 7, CF-74 Mk3 with 7 (daughters), CF-T7 with 7, CF-74 Mk4 with 7(for the girlfriend, her dell died Loading it up right now). Even with all of these being used. Got two desktops with them in it as well all of them still show good life. The three 40gb that some one had in some kind of raid before upgrading are the only ones that showed any real wear at all. Still it's only down 2 to 3% from 100% life span.

 

Azrial , check out this link. These guys know SSD's inside and out TSSDR TechX Forums and this link is for setting up your SSD http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/2/

 

I am kind of leaning towards the Samsung 840 250GB based on what I have read and what has been said here. At $165 including S&H, it looks like the winner, plus it is newer design then the SanDisk Ultra Plus SSD. I am also considering buying the extended 3 year warranty for $20. From what I have read here this looks like a lunch or two skipped. well spent.

Pros, cons, phrase, flames?

 

That's a good price, newegg wanted twice that (only 2 years @ $34.00)

 

Thanks, that looks like an interesting site! I just read this article and they really liked the Samsung! So, I think I'll drop the hammer in the next few minutes and get that one. Thanks for any and all help!

Here are the cheapest prices I have found for both drives on the Internet!

256GB SanDisk Ultra Plus - Priced at $159.99 with free shipping (till ???)

250GB Samsung 840 - Priced at $164.94 With FREE Shipping! (till August 24, 2013)

 

Just be aware that the standard 840 is deemed to be inferior to its predecessor, 830. It's the 840 Pro that is all the rage nowadays.

I've got Crucials (C300 and M4) in my ToughBooks and love them dearly. Wouldn't say no to 830 or 840 Pro for the next machine. Wouldn't come anywhere near a SanDisk, but that's me.

Happy shopping.

 

The 830s are history and as of Thursday the 840 evo is the new kid on the block. The M500 is now the go to Crucial. I am very happy with my 830s but the new CF-53 can actually use some of the speed of the newer models.
CAP

 

Samsung and recently Intel (again) with their new series (DC S3x00), are AFAIK the only SSD manufacturers that produce everything on their own (R&D, NAND Flash, controller, firmware). Samsung even has its own factory.
That means they have full control over the whole process, and should be very quick to resolve potential issues, and optimize production for reliability and lower costs.

I'm also looking for a 256GB SSD, and have my eye on the 840 Pro, which has 90K random write 4KB IOPS vs 840's 30K, let alone the MLC vs cheaper USB flash-drive like, TLC NAND.
Ah, and AES-256 FDE.

 

I think we're getting into the weeds here. Az has a CF-30 MK1. Toyo has discussed his futile efforts to get his CF-30 to get more than SATA 1 out of his controller. The question is what will be a reliable, affordable, SSD for a Mark1 CF-30. I think the general consensus here is that Samsung, Intel, and Crucial are all good drives. Staying within these brands the best buy for Az will be the drive, in the size he needs, that has the lowest cost per GB. IMHO, boot times are a lousy way to evaluate drives. Any recent, decent SSD will be faster than his computer can utilize. My preference for Samsung drives is based on the ease of transition when I switched over. The other manufacturers may be as easy, I just don't have experience with them.
CAP

 

Two my unit has Samsung 840 series. The CF-19MK3 and Getac B300


ohlip

 

SqueakSqueak, SqueakSqueak, SqueakSqueak...

*gets off of rusty old tricycle*

I have a Super-Talent FPM32GRSE in my EEEPC!!! It wuns Winbows X-pee weall good!

*Cheesy proud grin*

*gets back on rusty old tricycle*

SqueakSqueak, SqueakSqueak, SqueakSqueak into the distance...


mnem
*Random-Mode*

 

I have a SanDisk SSD (Win8), a SanDisk Hybrid (Win7), and a WD Blue (spinner) (WinXP)..... Win8 boots up right now, as soon as you turn on the CF 19 MK IV. Win7 is fast with the hybrid (40G in SSD (200 as standard drive), it's no where near the SSD. Win XP, yawn.... If I were, and I am, going to buy another SSD, I would go with the 500G SanDisk or Samsung. A little more in the price, but you get 250 more G for $130.00 more. At least that is what I have seen at the M-Center here in SoCal....

 

Yeah, I looked at the Samsung 500GB, and you are right, that is not a bad price per GB. However I read something many years ago that has been my rule of thumb since on HDD purchases.

"You don't buy a Greyhound Bus as your daily transportation because one day you might want to take 45 of your friends to the Superbowl!" HDD will always be faster and larger for cheaper, tomorrow.

I took a current assessment of my CF-29 that I have been using for several years. It have about 256GB loaded on a 320GB HDD, and I am muleing a around a LOT of data that I don't really need with me on a daily basis. I don't need 500GB right now, however, your mileage may vary...

Thanks for the info! :thumbsup:

 

Not sure what prices you guys see for 500gb but all I pay for my 256gb was a low of $130.00 to a high of $150.00 at newegg. Any of the 500gb I have seen was $370 to $480

 

Or you can be a cheap skate like me and buy a small/moderate size drive and a usb stick to keep the rest of the data in your pocket.

 

I've bought the Kingston Hyper X several times and love them! They work very well.

But I don't clone... I set it up from the get-go as an SSD drive with all the little tweaks per the link Blair posted in another post. 20-25 second boot times and battery life all day!

 

I have that in my CF-53 and it works great and the price I paid at newegg helped too...about $0.60 per GB :thumbsup: .

 

The new Cf-53 was a bit of a dog on boot with the factory hard drive. I didn't time it but it seemed slow. I cloned the 64 bit restore partition to the Samsung 830 out of the CF-30 which, sadly, is going on the block. Boot time, I think including post, 20.98 seconds, I'll check that. Its been a while since I really had to pay attention to catch F2 before Windows started to load. I'm not swearing to anything yet, but my feeling is that if you have the new i series processors you have to have a SSD to come close to realizing the potential of the machine.
CAP

 

I agree Cap, my boot time was cut in half and every thing is so much faster.

 

So I checked again. Since loading Office 2010, Acrobat X Pro, Kaspersky IS 2013, Glary Utilities, MS Streets and Trips, and some others I don't recall at the moment the boot time on my CF-53 MK2 with Samsung 830 256Gb SSD is 26.64 seconds including post. That's running Win7. I don't believe that there is enough to be gained by tweaking the SSD to make it worth the time and effort. Does W7 pretty much do it for you? Post goes by so fast it's really nearly impossible to catch if you are not clicking the F2 key when you hit the power button. I'm not using the CF-53 at the moment as I'm buried with work and want to set it up at a leisurely pace. The real test will come when I try to render a 17-24MB NEF raw image in Lightroom or CS5 or upload a card full of those images. I'm guessing the USB 3.0 is going to help as will the extra 4Gb of ram that's in the future.
CAP
I'll stick this here, totally Off Topic but Mrs Dogfish just sent it to me and I think its pretty neat!
http://img0.liveinternet.ru/images/attach/c/5/3970/3970473_sprite198.swf

 

Nice fish......Yes I know it's not really a fish...

Where I found the Win 7 tweaks to really help is to adjust the wait to shut down response of programs. My cf52 shuts off in about 4 seconds. Never actually measured it.

 

I have posted this link before but just in case others have missed it here it is The SSD Optimization Guide Redesigned | The SSD Review . This guide could cut your boot time by 8 seconds but I found its more like 5 seconds. It takes about 30-40 minutes to do the 18 steps in the guide.

and also check out "The Windows 7 Optimization Guide" here The Windows 7 Optimization Guide | The SSD Review

 

I purchased an OWC Mercury Extreme 240 GB SSD for a MacBook Pro I had a couple of years ago. Wasn't long after I installed it the motherboard went out. When I got my new work laptop, a CF-53JALZY1M, I bought another HDD caddy off ebay (someone here is selling them still) and popped the drive in it. I set it up with Win XP Pro 32 bit so it would play nice with all the stuff I need to connect to for work (seems a lot of the devices really don't like Win 7). Anyway, it FLIES.

I rememebr setting up XP for the drive was a pain but once it was installed, zero issues. I know Win XP has no means of defragging/optimizing the SSD but it has not become an issue yet. I have had it up and running about a year now with zero issues (from the drive or Win XP).

Every driver you could want was on the Panasonic website for installing XP on the CF-53 and I have no complaints.

 

I ended up with a Samsung 840 Pro 128 GB... been through that site many times along with the Samsung magician software. Everything is fast and stable in my CF-74... except shutdown? Just can't get it right and it takes a long time?

 

Have you tired the UWT yet?

Ultimate Windows Tweaker, a TweakUI for Windows 7 & Vista

The tabs of the program are on the left side, make sure you hit apply before moving on to a new tab or your new setting won't take affect. Under the performance tab there are three sliders. You want all three all the way to the left.

Also look up "Black viper windows 7 registry tweaks"

This is what I am getting on a Mk3 and a Mk4 right now.

TOUGHBOOK: CF-74 Mk3

OS: WINDOWS 7 PRO 32 bit

DISK: INTEL x25 40 GB

WINDOWS 7 EXPERIENCE SCORE: 5.9

CRYSTAL DISK MARK 3.0.2.2012:

SEQ: 180.1 READ / 42.08 WRITE
512K: 153.9 READ / 42.54 WRITE
4K: 18.28 READ / 31.80 WRITE
4K QD32: 112.8 READ / 40.84 WRITE

START UP SPEED:12 seconds to log on / 19 seconds to desktop

TOUGHBOOK: CF-74 Mk4

OS: WINDOWS 7 PRO 32bit

DISK: INTEL x25 80 GB

WINDOWS 7 EXPERIENCE SCORE: 7.2

CRYSTAL DISK MARK 3.0.2.2012:

SEQ: 139.8 READ / 72.76 WRITE
512K: 127.4 READ / 47.55 WRITE
4K: 18.13 READ / 21.73 WRITE
4K QD32: 97.67 READ / 42.55 WRITE

START UP SPEED:17 seconds to log on / 26 seconds to desktop

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/725310-toughbook-ssd-thread.html

( I went back and re-read your original thread to double check your model number) (After you get this unit 100% how you want, since you use it for special software I would do a image back up and I would find a second cheap unit off ebay. That way if anything ever happened all you had to do is pull your battery and hard drive to have your PC back for that "just in-case" to stop any down time.)

Another program that helps a lot is Ccleaner. It has a great start up menu tweaker so you can turn off unwanted stuff.

Go to your mouse settings in control panel, In the second or third tab turn your mouse speed all the way up.

Go to your sound settings and turn off the start up sound and log on/log off sounds. The start up sound is a check box, the other two you will have to select from a drop down box no sound and then apply. This speeds you up some because windows now doesn't have to look for a sound file to play when logging on or shutting down.

Off to the safety meeting, I will dig you up more later.