SATA 3 SSD drives for SB

So once again I've been looking around into the various forums for information about what is the best SATA 3 SSD to choose for the Vaio SB (though I'm sure it would apply to any laptop really). I've had some good replies in the SB owner's forum but it quickly got lost in the 85+ pages of goodness. I'm hoping this thread can solve that by gathering everything in one place.

The only drives I've really heard much about are the Intel 510 and the vertex 3. Intel 510 is overpriced, and the Vertex 2 reliability was terrible from what I've gathered. Intel 320 isn't 6gbps (how much difference does this make in the real world). Ideally I'd want something $2/gb.

Thoughts people?

 

So get a C300, its the same controller as the C400 and the intel 510.

Aside that I really wouldnt believe that you would notice the difference in performance from going to a Sata III SSD instead of the usual Sata II

The intel 320 is currently with a great price. I would grab the 160g in a heartbeat (120g is too little for me)

Dont get a sandforce controlled drive.

 

Would the new sandforce controller potentially solve a lot of the issues? Early reviews of the vertex 3 are very good. Some benchmarks showed it being quite a bit faster than the c300 for what it's worth

 

Again you are not going to notice, they have around the same speed to open programs and all that. File transfer is a +, if you have 2 ssds, if you a have ssd+HDD combo you are limited to the speed of the latter.

The higher speeds are only for bragging rights.

Now all the sandforce controlled drives had great reviews, ALL of them. It doesnt mean that they are that great. Get whats reliable and all that.

BTW there is no future proofing here.

 

I am in the same boat, I am looking to order a Intel 320 300Gig ssd. I should of ordered Friday mourning, by mid day when I arrived home Newegg was out of stock again!

The reasons for my choice of Intel vs Ocz is reliability and you know what type of NAND you are getting. OCZ has many different suppliers so its up to random chance of what you get. Also Intel has the most reliability on their previous drives. The old controller is a bummer but I will live with it.

 

the problem is not the brand of the nand, there are so few suppliers in the market and all of them are reliable. The cry was because they used 25nm nand, without coming forth and without lowering the prices.

Intel is using 25nm in all of its drives from the new gen.

The ruckus done in the 25nm is because it theoretically you are more limited to the amount of write that your SSD can do. So in here we might have a little difference, intel rates its nand to the same levels as of the 34nm, while everyone else rates it lower.

 

Good to see this thread. Yes it got lost somewhere in that 85 pages and i went back and forth trying to find any information. I got a doubt.
Can i simply remove the existing hdd and replace it with an SSD and it will automatically allot the 6gbps sata controller to it? Or is there any other cable i need to plug in? I am waiting for my 120gb 510 series.

appreciate ur help.
thnx

 

you just plug the SSD in, thats all

 

any tips/links on how to clone the HDD over to the SSD so one would not have to reinstall everything?

 

thanks Mr. MM.

 

oh yes, just install it all over. dont clone it.

 

What to do about adobe and the sony drivers then? I assume I could find all the necessary Sony drivers (ie keyboard) on the Sony support page?

 

you could, and there is always something called recovery disk so that you can just pop that in and be ready to go.

 

Thanks Mr MM, I guess that's all I have to ask for now until I get my SB. Still on the fence on whether to get the Intel 320. + rep

 

I would go for it.

There is some post showing how to retain functionality of the speed/stamina button, on the owners thread, its several firmware/programs, aside that the process to install

gpu drivers
extract the drivers and go to windows for a install (using device manager)

the other important feature is the sound software

 

for a 1/4 difference in price on the 120Gb range and a 1/8 on the 250Gb range i'm thinking it doesn't really matter much to go with the old models instead of the new ones since its not a big enough difference...

plus i gotta have SATA3, so what is your advice for my case?

 

The advice is the same, its in the margin that the profits lay.

 

i'm very tempted to give the Vertex3 a try.. its the same price as the Intel 320 160Gb and the Intel 510 120Gb... like i said i need something that uses SATA3 and not just SATA2...

 

needs and wants are different.

the time that they take to open programs is pretty much equal.

the transfer rate is different, but you are only going to use that when you transfer something from a SSD to a SSD, so no the speed there is not going to be noticed

Get a C300, or a C400, or a intel 510 (all SATA III, with great speed anda good controller, no irkkks and quirks) avoid headaches. Get what is reliable.

I have a sandforce controlled drive and I wont sell it, and cant return it, it has too many issues, that led me to not believe in that company.

 

but then by your standards one should never buy an Acer i.e. because it just isn't reliable and its a "shady" company xD and let's not go into the Windows Vista or windows ME matter, because that way you'll say we shouldn't buy windows and linux is just to anti-lazy and Apple's OS makes me want to hunt Mr. Jobs down...

i don't know.. we need more competition in this market and more dropping on the prices! i mean old model SSDs sell for almost as much as a new one and outdated SSDs are just a bi bellow the old too.. who the hell buys an G1 now for a less than 25% difference to the models that were just released??? it should be a crime...

what we need is A LOT of SandForce 2xxx feedback which currently doesn't exist, so shall i volunteer? meh i come from a land that always had those who went where no one else would or could soo...

 

Sincerely, as I said to you on PM, I would buy an acer if it was the timelinex series, those are supposed to be the high end that they offer

As I wouldnt buy a HP pavillion, but an envy, certainly

As I wouldnt buy a lenovo G series or Z series, but I would buy some edge models and thinkpads for sure

I wouldnt buy a vaio C or E series or even F, but a S series and Z series definitely

I would never buy an AW, and that is for sure, although I considered the m14x, I wouldnt be able to be in a meeting with something red and with lights shooting up the sky

The sandforce for servers are great, but for consumers... With this problematic experience I will rest my judgement until we get some long term review (someone use it for some months and tell us how it went)

 

hmm i get it now..
i really rotfl at that AW part, its more than understandable XD

well in the Vertex3 favor the consumer version seems faster than the pro so maybe its a good sign?

 

speed and reliability arent correlated.

 

well that is quite a proven fact.. and even if they were related it would be +speed -reliability ....

but sometimes an (directly) *unrelated* factor hints to other factors..
like we could say that the SB screen res *hints* that the quality isn't premium but still also not basic..

i'm hoping that like many other companys after one huge fail, SandForce rises up to reliability standards most seek to make up for the 1xxx issues. And if they actually don't we may very well see a major decline on SF-based SSD sails, like Intel isn't making enough money.. saw the endgadget coment on that? i really think SF can't afford to make much more mistakes but who knows these days.. things never go as they should be, and consumer market is a mainly stupid one so anything goes.

 

I dont read engadget more often than I deem standard they are wrong, I also think that sandforce is quite well, basically they monopolized the performance market last year, until marvel came up with something.

And they are going to drag a lot of customers with those speeds, thats why intel launched so early the 510 and latter the c400 came into place.

The problem with last years controllers was that it was memory starved. And if I remember correctly this year they have lessen the amount of memory...

Anyway, Im not going to buy anything from them anytime soon, and I know a lot of people that wouldnt as well.

 

can you show me for a fact they have lessen the memory amount this round? i also remember reading somewhere about it but i'm not finding it...

 

The OCZ Vertex 2 Conspiracy: Lost Space, Lost Speed? : Is There A Problem Here, Sir?
when they switched to 25nm, some usable space was lost.

 

Sorry for double post, but please note that that was with the Vertex 2, not the Vertex 3. I guess the biggest issue for OCZ right now is there isn't very much info on the reliability of the Vertex 3, with it being so new, and the track record with the old sandforce controllers weren't so good.

 

Errr.... I wasnt talking about the nand, but the cache memory that the controller uses, here is a good read on the sandforce controller:
SandForce Announces Next-Gen SSDs, SF-2000 Capable of 500MB/s and 60K IOPS - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

and I still cant find where I saw that the cache is being lowered, when I find I post it

 

Hey guys, I got my Intel 320 300g, used the recovery disks and everything is running fast! As being a bit ocd I would like to run the drive in ahci mode, however the uefi 'bios' does not have the option. Is there no way to change this? If so it really is not a big deal to me but I just want to check.

PS: With the ssd this machine boots super fast, I really have not done any optimizations, loving it so far!

 

a good link for you

http://www.windows7news.com/2010/05/25/how-to-enable-ahci-in-windows-7/

 

yeah that's what we were talking about. so thanks for trying to help..

anyway MrMM i had already read all anand's articles on the latest SSDs and if memory does not fail me i think we both read that stuff about memory either there,well could be somewhere similar..
for what it counts, anand had no trouble with the Vertex3 120Gb he got to sample but like he warns there won't be any good feedback on reliability for months...

i like to buy the latest and greatest when i do spend money on something but its really important to have lots of people's experience out on the web so we can grasp just how greatest something is which is impossible when we're talking about the latest tech

 

Anand is a great site, very reliable.

Sincerely hope for the best with whatever drive you choose.

 

the choice is:

Vertex3 - fastest,got issues
Intel 510 - the more reliable,slower
Crucial M4 - around 100 less so a real bargain since it's quite reliable and quite fast (bang for buck material)... just beware of poor garbage collection. TRIM it as often as need or your in for a bad trip ahah


guess who wins the last funds on my bank account? yep 416€ 256Gb M4

that is if "anonymous" hackers don't steal'em first (sarcastically rotfl)