Upgrading to SSD (another SSD topic)

N

Neo

New member
So, after getting my copy of Windows 8.1 I've decided this might be a good time to bite the bullet and get a SSD for my PC. It seems like the reliability of these drives have been improved quite a lot, and that was the major factor that kept me from getting one in the past.

I'm currently running two Western Digital Raptors in Raid0. Although fast for their time, I don't think they can even begin to compare with SSD - my Battlefield 4 loading times are proof of that.

So, with a budget of about R2000 max, what SSD would you guys recommend?
 
Samsung Evo and Samsung Pro range. I would recommend the Intel drives because they are incredible but they are incredibly over priced.
Oh and you have mail bud.
 
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB was R 2200 at wootware last time I checked, little over budget but probably worth it, if the budget doesn't allow then the Crucial M500 240GB can be had for around R 1850. Consensus on the web is that the Samsung is better but the Crucial isn't bad at all. I'm also in the market for a 250GB unit so interested to see what you go for
 
KrustyThePirate said:
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB was R 2200 at wootware last time I checked, little over budget but probably worth it, if the budget doesn't allow then the Crucial M500 240GB can be had for around R 1850. Consensus on the web is that the Samsung is better but the Crucial isn't bad at all. I'm also in the market for a 250GB unit so interested to see what you go for
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I've done a lot of reading now and I've come to the same conclusion. The Samsung Evo 840 is a fantastic SSD at the moment. I've decided to go for it :) This will most likely be the last purchase I make for my PC this year. I need to calm down with the spending a bit.

I ordered the SSD from Rebeltech. I know they're about R200 more expensive than other places but I prefer support friends and their business. I just hope I manage to get it before the end of they day. I've never bought anything from Rebeltech, so I hope it goes well. First time impressions last with me.

Update: so far the guys from Rebel Tech have been very helpful. I even have The Joker breathing down their necks for my order, and I have to say they are trying. But I think I'm expecting a little too much at this short notice. Being a reseller myself (my company is dormant for personal reasons), I know how PC suppliers can take their sweet time.

Either way, I'm looking forward to my SSD with Windows 8.1 very much. I can't wait to see the reduction in load times on BF4. Plus, I get to experience the fabled lightning fast "boot up" times on a SSD. :)

Update:

The guys from Rebeltech pulled through and managed to get me the SSD today (Win!!).

My Marvel 9128 6gb controller is apparently worse than donkey balls, and as such, I don't get the full benefit that the drive has to offer me. However, compared to my raptors in Raid0, I get nearly the same write performance (a little better than the raptors), but more than double the read performance. That's where the real difference comes in...Reading times.
 
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In all honesty, to the guys who has SSD's, its one of the single most overrated things on pc upgrades once the fad has settled down. Been through 3, upgrading every time,

Best money spent is on cpu, ram and a great gpu! I could care less about loading times UNLESS YOU A BENCHMARK AND ONLINE GAMING JUNKY!
 
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Nikkel said:
In all honesty, to the guys who has SSD's, its one of the single most overrated things on pc upgrades once the fad has settled down. Been through 3, upgrading every time,

Best money spent is on cpu, ram and a great gpu! I could care less about loading times UNLESS YOU A BENCHMARK AND ONLINE GAMING JUNKY!
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WTF....
Well I guess if you don't mind your pc taking a few minutes to boot into windows, stick with hdd. Personally I will be sticking to ssd (since the year 2010), cold boot to Windows desktop in 30 seconds, thanks for playing.
 
reactor_sa said:
WTF....
Well I guess if you don't mind your pc taking a few minutes to boot into windows, stick with hdd. Personally I will be sticking to ssd (since the year 2010), cold boot to Windows desktop in 30 seconds, thanks for playing.
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I completely agree. Saying that SSD is overrated in the same sentence that you reference faster CPU/RAM/GPU is completely contradictory. I can't take the comment seriously. You know you have people that manage to say that "one" thing that completely discredits them.
 
I got the 128gb Samsung EVO and it's the best upgrade I have ever purchased. My PC boots from cold to login screen in +- 10 seconds with most of this time being consumed by bios checks.
My only regret is not getting the 250gb model.
 
Mister 44 said:
I got the 128gb Samsung EVO and it's the best upgrade I have ever purchased. My PC boots from cold to login screen in +- 10 seconds with most of this time being consumed by bios checks.
My only regret is not getting the 250gb model.
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Are you running it on full SATA3 6Gb/s speeds? I'm so miffed. Due to my stupid marvell controller I'm getting half the speed that this Evo drive offers me. Still, even at 50% performance, it's still 3 times faster than my WD Raptors in Raid0. So yeah, SSD for the win.

Have you installed the Samsung Magician software that came with the disk? That application is very, very impressive.
 
Neo said:
Are you running it on full SATA3 6Gb/s speeds? I'm so miffed. Due to my stupid marvell controller I'm getting half the speed that this Evo drive offers me. Still, even at 50% performance, it's still 3 times faster than my WD Raptors in Raid0. So yeah, SSD for the win.

Have you installed the Samsung Magician software that came with the disk? That application is very, very impressive.
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Yeah, it's running at full speed and the bench speeds are very close to the advertised speeds.
And yes, I did install Magician. Before I got SSD I read somewhere that Magician basically does all necessary optimizations (not that you need a lot of optimization in Win 8/8.1).

Just a tip: In older versions of Windows, part of the optimization for an SSD was disabling defrag. In 8.1 (maybe 8 as well, I'm not sure) you must leave it on because defrag doesn't actually defrag an SSD, it runs trim to optimize the drive.

Here's the source with a quote from technet:

http://www.tweakhound.com/2013/11/02/windows-8-1-ssd-settings-etc/
 
Neo said:
Are you running it on full SATA3 6Gb/s speeds? I'm so miffed. Due to my stupid marvell controller I'm getting half the speed that this Evo drive offers me. Still, even at 50% performance, it's still 3 times faster than my WD Raptors in Raid0. So yeah, SSD for the win.

Have you installed the Samsung Magician software that came with the disk? That application is very, very impressive.
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What motherboard you using? You sure it doesn't have an Intel 6gbps controller too?
 
reactor_sa said:
What motherboard you using? You sure it doesn't have an Intel 6gbps controller too?
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It's an Asus Rampage 3 Extreme. At the time, it was the best X58 motherboard money could buy. To be fair, it's still a fantastic motherboard and hasn't given me a day's hassles. However, the X58 chipsets came with 3rd party SATA 3 controllers because Intel didn't have their own ready yet.

Unfortunately, at the time, no one really understood the drawbacks to the Marvell 9128 controller and overlooked the fact that it connects to the PCI-E bus...effectively dropping speeds to 5Gb/s and not the normal 6Gb/s. At the end of the day, this was a major drawback to motherboards of the time.

Shortly after that, Intel finally woke up and brought their own 6Gb/s SATA 3 controllers to the market. Those work fine and were incorporated to later X58 motherboards.

Short story: when buying a motherboard; scrutinize the living daylight out of every little detail about that board and never buy a board that has 3rd party controllers built into it.
 
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PsychoFish said:
Amen to that
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Ja - lesson learned. But damn, do they really expect consumers to know that some Sata 3 controllers are different than other Sata 3 controllers and when they say it's 6Gb/s it's not really that fast because x, y and z? I'm getting a dislike in Asus as a brand. Gigabyte used to pull the same stunts in the past. False advertising is a staple with them.
 
Neo said:
Short story: when buying a motherboard; scrutinize the living daylight out of every little detail about that board and never buy a board that has 3rd party controllers built into it.
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That will considerably narrow your range of board choices, just so you know. Marvell controllers are perfectly serviceable these days, I just wouldn't use them for RAID 0 SSD arrays because chances are it'll parse the TRIM command but there's a small chance it send them through properly.

I'm getting a Crucial M500 240GB in a couple of days, Takealot's pricing was far too tempting.

Neo said:
Shortly after that, Intel finally woke up and brought their own 6Gb/s SATA 3 controllers to the market. Those work fine and were incorporated to later X58 motherboards.
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Are you sure you're not confusing this with the introduction of native 6GB/s ports in the Z68 and X79 chipsets? X58/ICH10 never received native SATA 6 capability. It was always through a third-party controller, just like USB 3.0, which was also only natively included in Z77 onwards.
 
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