Solid State Hard Drive

[Kyrillian]

So I wanted to upgrade my main HD because it's only 150gb and I'm getting to the point where I can't install anything without deleting something. My only other storage is a USB external HD, and transferring big files is annoying.

So I was initially just going to get an internal 2nd HD and install games and stuff there, but as I was reading more I thought maybe I should just get a SSD and replace my main HD (turning my main HD into the slave).

Anyone know about these drives? I was looking around and saw they sold pure SSD drives and SSD-Hybrids, is there a huge difference? I imagine there is because the hybrids are significantly cheaper.

I was looking at this one: http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-2-5-In...=25FI2EIL8GQAT

It's not as big a brand name as Samsung or some of the other ones I'm seeing, but it is at least $40 cheaper than the next closest one I can find. I tried to check around for any after xmas sales but didn't see any deals.

Let me know any thoughts on Solid State Drives.

[Jomama]

150gb? lol

Never heard/read anything about a hybrid.

I've been running a Corsair 64gb SSD for my OS drive for almost a year. Stable and fast. A little disappointed in the predicted longevity tho (run a little widget that gives you feedback about the SSD state, TRIM stuff, etc). According to the widget its lifespan is < 3 years.

IMO that one you linked really isn't a "deal"... A deal on a SSD should be in the realm of about $1 per gig, and I've seen those deals every few weeks from a variety of sources.. These guys track deals and I've seen a quite a few show up in the $1/gb range. http://dealzon.com/
Kingston has had some particularly good deals on the larger capacity drives over the last few month.

Then I have three 1tb in RAID5 for my main storage, games and a external for backup.

[Klaus]

Crucial is good shit. I have a OCZ SSD (120GB) that is SATA III. I love it. However, check your motherboard before you purchase one. Mine is about 1.5 years old and it only supports SATA II (3 Gb/sec) and not SATA III (6 Gb/sec). I have a controller card on order to be able to run at SATA III speed (since my SSD can).

Newegg had a ton of SSD on sale last week (20% off) so I would keep looking and you can see the price differences is always due to the speed it can run and what controller it has onboard.

SSD Deals

I picked my 120GB SATA III drive up for $120 after rebate so Joe is correct $1 per GB.

[Jomama]

Corsair 120gb for $129 (after MIR) from newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...bles-_-na-_-na


You could get 3 of these and run them in a RAID for the price of that Amazon one..

[Kyrillian]

I saw this one off that site you linked: http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-Technology...=25FI2EIL8GQAT

I am not really familiar with RAID so I don't know if I'd do that thing you said. I heard RAID increases the chance of an HD fail too, but I heard that a while ago, not sure if it's been resolved.

[Klaus]

Get the Agility 3 (same price)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227727



Or Vertex 2

Link

[Kyrillian]

I think I am going to get that agility 3 one, but what is the difference between agility, vertex, the numbers?

[Klaus]

Good question...... Actually I think they have come out with a few different "controllers" that run the SSD and each one is faster. From a google search...

OCZ Vertex 3 uses Samsung flash, like all other Indilinx drives.

OCZ Agility 3 uses either Intel 50nm chips or Toshiba 40nm flash

Vertex 3 is slightly faster

[Kyrillian]

Well I went ahead and got the Vertex 3 they had on sale yesterday. Paid 319.99 for a 240gb one, there is also a $30 mail in rebate that I will forget to file I'm sure.

[Eric]

We started rolling out 120gb SSD's at work on our laptops and the boot times alone for W7 were incredibly reduced (down to less than 2 minutes from a cold boot). I'm buying one for my home PC to put Windows 7 and all my apps/games on it and leave my SATA terabyte drive as my data drive...hopefully this cuts my boot/load times down. Watching Newegg...