Hard drive or OCZ SSD Core?

What do you guys think about the new Core series of SSDs from OCZ? Not a bad price for 128gb but what about the longevity of the read/write cycles?

Has anyone gotten this particular drive? If so, what are your thoughts on the performance, battery savings, noise/heat etc?

Also, is the only difference between the 8660 and the 5796 the screen size (assuming the parts are configured the same)?

 

the core series do sound appealing thanks to the lower price, but i have to do some research... someone on nbr mentioned something about mlc/slc, ill look it up in wikipedia. apparently it stands for multiple somethin vs single somethin... and the slc is what most ssd manufacturers use. the drawback is that it doesn't allow for a lot of storage. slc is supposed to be faster and more reliable, but mlc allows for more storage. i'd wait until someone posts a review of the core series 128gb, it shouldn't be too long, maybe a week. that's what im planning

about the noise, heat, battery, etc, i'm assuming they will all improve over the older ocz ssds.

about the 8660 and 5796, you have the option of a 9800m gtx on the 5796, and the extreme processor. ram is the same, montevina, same... the only other difference would be that the firewire port on the 8660 is on the front, and the 5796 is on the side

good luck

 

I originally configured my pre-ordered 8660 with the 128 GB OCZ, but then did a lot of research regarding SSDs I changed my mind and grabbed the cheapest SATA-II HDD (320 GB, 5400 RPM offered on the basis of Chaz's story regarding Turbo Memory 2.0:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3625190

The OCZ is an AWESOME internal storage solution. Tom's Hardware recently evaluated a bunch of SSDs, and the OCZ Core series was on par with or faster than other drives, but it also kept the power consumption much lower than equally performing SSDs. You can check it out here (it's a good read):

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-hard-drive,1968.html

Even though it's "only" a 400 dollar premium over the other drives offered with the 8660 and 128 GB is enough for most people if you use external storage for media, etc., and this value is excellent compared to SSDs offered in the past (generally speaking), I think it's a sign that we're nearing the era of SSDs becoming mainstream.

By december, you will likely be able to get 256 GB SSDs with equal performance for the same price, and by Q2 next year and the approach of Calpella, SSD prices will drop significantly and performance will be better yet. I am not saying keep waiting for something better, and then knowing there is something better soon when you get to that point and to continue waiting and so forth... I am suggesting to get a cheap HDD now and wait just a little bit longer. Chaz's news about Turbo Memory 2.0 makes it sound promising to me and like a great temporary solution, where you have select applications/system files be much more responsive. This, combined with the fact that the rest of this machine is going to be blazing fast (unthinkably faster than my 4.5 year old PowerBook G4), should keep me more than happy until SSDs are more reachable.

Plus, then you'll have a nice "boost" in performance when you do finally toss in an even better valued and performing drive, and it will make you feel like your computer is brand new again and, perhaps, not so left-behind when Calpella begins to take over the market next summer/fall.

Good luck.

 

@metromike

i see what you're saying, in that case, since the 256gb ssd will be coming out later, i guess i could live with just a 64gb ssd for now from ocz core (configured on xoticpc), and then upgrade later. i mean there's a premium, but its extremely low compared to competing ssds.

and the mtfb is 1.5 million hours, so if i ever live that long, i could upgrade it then

but that's just what i'm gonna do, unless the 128gb drops 200 bucks in the next 2 months.

@ fire268

the read/write cycles for the preliminary benchmarks of the core series do seem weird for some reason (i saw them fluctuating wildly), but this is a benchmark from another source (WHICH I LOVED).

http://www.maxishine.com.au/documents/ocz_solid_state_drive.html

its up to you, if you want the ssd to hold all your data and can't wait any longer then the 128gb, or two of them, is for you. otherwise, i'd suggest either gettin a 64gb and upgradin when prices drop, or follow metromike's advice

GOOD LUCK

 

Thanks for the info guys. I'm seriously thinking about the 128gb ssd. I've been reading nothing but good reviews on this new unit. And it does have the cheaper SLC. Of course the only bad thing is the price. It's ONLY money right???

I do like the fact that the seeks times are under 1 ms. And the average read/write times are over 70 MB/s. That's still way better than my 5400 rpm SATA/150 drive.

 

yea well and also talking about space who needs that much anyway on the laptop. I always have external drives handy and it is easier storing things on there instead of my laptop. And as ssd cores are becoming more and more popular, prices is only going to constantly drop as time passes on.

 

You are exactly right. I only need about 100 gigs on a laptop drive since I have about 1 tb in external drives. Plus it has the added benefit of making you archive files and/or backing up more often.

I can't tell you how many times someone has told me that they got some virus/hard drive crash/corrupt registry etc and I would ask them if they had backups and they said no...

 

yea i just read chaz's post about robson turbo mem 2.0 and was wondering if i got the 2.0 turb mem. and 128gb ocz core series, would it make even more of a performance boost?

like:

for OS startup?
or application loading?

i initially was gonna get 64 gb but they dont offer it anymore on xotic and i don't wanna search places that sell it, but 128gb is certainly enough to store on your laptop, vista only takes 1/6 of that, and any backups it decides to create on its own take another 20gb (wild exaggeration), so you're left with roughly 80 gb for games, apps, virus software, and such, and anyone who puts their media on their internal drive (if they only have one internal drive) runs a great risk of a virus or massive bsod forcing you to format ur harddrive

 

Don't forget about having your laptop stolen! That's a real bummer.

 

yea i'll be sure to put a gps locater in case that happens hahaha, heck ill hire a body guard