Deciding factor to buy from Malibal

After having read so many positive reviews on Malibal and see how active and helpful they are on the forums, I was unsure whether to buy from XoticPC (where I bought my current laptop) or Malibal.

I just saw that they recently added the Crucial M4 to the HDD list for the P150EM and now I will be buying it from them

Everybody recommends buying the Crucial M4 for a gaming laptop and it was a hassle for me to order it separately and add it myself then reinstall the OS etc...

 

Sounds awesome, yes the M4 is one of the cheapest SSD's out there right now have fun with your new machine !

 

This is the same reason I'm leaning towards Malibal for my purchase.

How good are the Crucial ones compared to the other ones?

Any big issues with them?

 

Well... they are the cheapest on the market right now.. and they run on a SandForce controller, which is slightly unstable, it's one of the SSD's with the highest failure rate, but not to scare you off!
Backup and warranty should help out if something happens (which it most likely wont 1% chance or so)

enjoy

- oh and one of the most reliable SSD's out there is probably the Samsung 830

 

The Crucial M4 drives are not based on Sandforce controllers, but the C300/400 series controllers. There decent drives and if on a budget, worth looking at.

I have many sandforce drives, so far with out issue, but in light of recent events I would not be recommending them. I have had Vertex 2, I now have Vertex 3 and revo 3, all working flawlessly from day 1 to now. Also still run a old Agility as well.

Also Samsung 830 is a little new to be declaring it the most reliable drive, it is a good one, but its garbage collection is very poor, I would not run one in a RAID array. OCZ vertex 4 is a good contender as well, but little new to be sure. Intel has gone sandforce these days so your still in that camp.

Its all about your budget though, and remember even a M4 is light years ahead of a HD, so if it fits the budget you wont be disappointed. But steering clear of sandforce drives may be a little over dramatic, but I think good advice.

Lastly Anandtech is the only review site I am familiar with that tests GC, see if the drive your looking is tested there.

 

The only companies using SandForce are OCZ and intel... Not only that firmware dictates failure rates not the controllers themselves we've seen it on multiple surveys.