Hey Guys, I'm new to Hardware Heaven, but I've been coming here for reviews for a few months now. I currently have a 250 GB Seagate HDD in my computer and it appears to be dying. So I decided I want to get an SSD. I'm looking for a 60-128 GB with a price range below $250 and a w/r speed of 200/100. I did a little reading about some SSDs, such as some have Samsung chips or Intel chips in them, but I don't know what is better, could someone please help me choose a good SSD? BTW, I live in Canada and Boxing day is just around the corner. I'm hoping to find some good deals. --Thanks
I was looking around at SSDs, and I found a boxing day sale list: Corsair Force 60GB - $80 OCZ Vertex II 60 GB - $90 OCZ Vertex II 120 GB - $180 All three of them have w/r speed of 285/275.. I think thats pretty good... I might get the OCZ Vertex II 120 GB...any thought? Is this a good SSD?
It's a good option and being bigger also means that in practice the write speeds will be a bit better. If you want an SSD and need a 120GB sized one then I'd say go for it. Personally I'm fine with a 60GB drive (happens to be the Force 60GB btw) for OS and programs, but a bit more space can always be useful. Both Corsair force and OCZ Vertex 2 uses the Sandforce-1200 controller and are virtually identical products. That controller has had its problems but drives sold today should have the latest firmware which has been problem free for me. Another great drive around the same price point is the Crucial C300 series. Let the price decide.
I personally use a Sandforce GSkill Phoenix Pro 60GB...never had any issues with it, good customer support. OCZ drives have a reputation for being very fast, but also dying relatively quicker than others. Of the above listed, my vote would be for the Corsair Force drive.
I picked up an OCZ Vertex 2 90GB 3.5" drive at Newegg.com for $150 after rebate. It's now at about $185. Great drive.
Since you're in Canada (although they do sell in the US too) look on NCIX's site tomorrow after 4PM PST/7PM EST as they start their Boxing Week Sale. You can bet that a ton of SSDs will be on sale (among other things). My personal choice would be the OCZ Vertex 2 Extended 120GB drive which on sale was sitting at $229-249 or so before the rebate (but I'm sure it will be cheaper tomorrow).
OCZ generally release the firmware updates for their drives faster than other manufacturers, if that is important to you.
i'm still deliberating on the SSD side for my own systems.. Price vs performance/failure rate/additional issues. I think i was to get one now though i would be leaning towards an intel SSD.... but that's just me
If you're looking to replace your HDD with an SSD, as oppose to adding an SSD in, you might want to look at a cheap HDD for the rest of your data too (unless of course you use less than 100GB atm).
There you go. NCIX has the OCZ Vertex II Extended 120GB drive on sale for $219 before rebate ($189 after rebate).
Thanks, I want to the store today to buy an OCZ Vertex II 120GB, it was $179.99 at Canada Computers, but it was sold out... So I ended up getting a Corsair F60 for $79.99 (After rebate). I rebuilt my computer and tweaked windows a bit. Now I have the F60 to boot and everything else on a WD 1 TB HDD.
That was a good deal. It should come with firmware v2.0 already on it, but if you want to check you can do so with a free little program called CrystalDiskInfo. Corsair Force drives (and other Sandforce-1200 based drives) with older firmware had problems with systems that were up and running for more than a day at a time. Don't be scared by the temperature reading though, it's always way off. (these drives draw very little power anyway)
