SSD for new build

[mr moose]

I will be using it as a boot drive/program drive for some games and applications like browsers and Microsoft Office. Based on this, will I purely be reading from the drive most of the time, or will write speeds matter as well?

It depends how much you are writing, large files will be noticeable but sub 100Mb files would be inconsequential I would have thought.  Most office documents with embedded images don't usually get bigger than 20Meg and game saves aren't that big or often.

[danthe1man1989]

I will be using it as a boot drive/program drive for some games and applications like browsers and Microsoft Office. Based on this, will I purely be reading from the drive most of the time, or will write speeds matter as well?

Yes that is correct the only time you might notice the write speeds is when installing games but that is not a big deal. Most of the time as MR Moose said you will be reading or writing smaller files that you wouldn't notice the difference on

[Cs342]

Yes that is correct the only time you might notice the write speeds is when installing games but that is not a big deal. Most of the time as MR Moose said you will be reading or writing smaller files that you wouldn't notice the difference on

Thanks for the info :) So why do people care so much about write speeds if they aren't even going to be writing to the drive that much?

[RandomNOOB]

Thanks for the info :) So why do people care so much about write speeds if they aren't even going to be writing to the drive that much?

That I dont know, Im still rocking the old Intel x-25m 80GB. : 3

[mr moose]

Thanks for the info :) So why do people care so much about write speeds if they aren't even going to be writing to the drive that much?

Probably just because when people invest or recommend parts we want to get the best we can for our dollars.  It's like that for every part, cases especially, we pay extra for tooless hdd bays when in reality once the system is built how many times do we remove the hdds?

[Cs342]

Probably just because when people invest or recommend parts we want to get the best we can for our dollars.  It's like that for every part, cases especially, we pay extra for tooless hdd bays when in reality once the system is built how many times do we remove the hdds?

The thing is the 840 non-pro is the least expensive 250GB SSD that I can find so I'm just trying to save some money

[mr moose]

The thing is the 840 non-pro is the least expensive 250GB SSD that I can find so I'm just trying to save some money

 

 

but in the future that maybe an issue or it may not, but the whole process of researching the best component is about all the details.  for you it's purely the cost, but we don't always know that so we recommend based on performance and possible requirements.

[Cs342]

but in the future that maybe an issue or it may not, but the whole process of researching the best component is about all the details.  for you it's purely the cost, but we don't always know that so we recommend based on performance and possible requirements.

So if you were only looking for a drive to install Windows and programs while other data is on  an HDD, which one would you choose?

[mr moose]

So if you were only looking for a drive to install Windows and programs while other data is on  an HDD, which one would you choose?

I'd still go the Samsung,  I have just put an 840 in my wife's  netbook and the performance difference was huge. It used to take a good 15 sec to open IE now it is about 2 sec. Boot time is less than 40sec where previously it took about 1 and 1/2 minutes.  for the OS and few select games I would go the 120G.

 

In my pc I have a 120G OCZ vertex 3 and a 2TB Seagate for storage and general program installation.  For me this is the perfect setup.

[Cs342]

I'd still go the Samsung,  I have just put an 840 in my wife's  netbook and the performance difference was huge. It used to take a good 15 sec to open IE now it is about 2 sec. Boot time is less than 40sec where previously it took about 1 and 1/2 minutes.  for the OS and few select games I would go the 120G.

 

In my pc I have a 120G OCZ vertex 3 and a 2TB Seagate for storage and general program installation.  For me this is the perfect setup.

Should I go with the 120GB 840 pro or the 240GB non pro?

[danthe1man1989]

Should I go with the 120GB 840 pro or the 240GB non pro?

To be honest for your use model the size is probable more important than the write speeds i would go 240GB, the other thing with SSD's is they are still changing quite quickly. Later this year there is a new release called M.2 which is storage that works off M-PCIe and this may become where we run OS from in the future. For now it would be the 240GB for me

[mr moose]

Should I go with the 120GB 840 pro or the 240GB non pro?

I would go non pro either way, 120 has been fine for me with a 2Tb storage drive but if you don't have one then the 240 is a better bet.

 

To be honest for your use model the size is probable more important than the write speeds i would go 240GB, the other thing with SSD's is they are still changing quite quickly. Later this year there is a new release called M.2 which is storage that works off M-PCIe and this may become where we run OS from in the future. For now it would be the 240GB for me

 

You can already get PCIe drives.  OCZ make the revodrive. Quite a good unit but In my opinion the performance speed is not enough to justify the cost.

[danthe1man1989]

I would go non pro either way, 120 has been fine for me with a 2Tb storage drive but if you don't have one then the 240 is a better bet.

 

 

You can already get PCIe drives.  OCZ make the revodrive. Quite a good unit but In my opinion the performance speed is not enough to justify the cost.

I think these are a bit different the one i am referring to is on some of the Z87 Asus Rog boards the use an M-Pcie combo that does their wifi and bluetooth that you can put a drive into for storage. They talked about here

, they talk about it at about 16 minutes in 

[mr moose]

I think these are a bit different the one i am referring to is on some of the Z87 Asus Rog boards the use an M-Pcie combo that does their wifi and bluetooth that you can put a drive into for storage. They talked about here

, they talk about it at about 16 minutes in 

Yes I have seen that before, the M-2 uses the PCIe bus so it has no real speed advantage over the revo drives which also use PCIe x4.  The only advantage to the M-2 on those boards will be space and that they don't occupy a PCIe slot which we might want for a second Gcard assuming space is limited of course.

[Cs342]

So basically I will not notice a reduction in performance by getting the 840 instead of the 840 pro, even though the regular 840 has only half the write speed of the 840 pro?

[Cs342]

PS. what do you guys think of this drive? It's priced similarly to the 840 non pro

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=69895&vpn=SDSSDX-240G-G25&manufacture=SANDISK

[danthe1man1989]

PS. what do you guys think of this drive? It's priced similarly to the 840 non pro

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=69895&vpn=SDSSDX-240G-G25&manufacture=SANDISK

If it is the same price as the samsung i would go with the san disk. The biggest difference between these two is the san disk has better write speeds but the samsung has better random read/writes

[danthe1man1989]

Yes I have seen that before, the M-2 uses the PCIe bus so it has no real speed advantage over the revo drives which also use PCIe x4.  The only advantage to the M-2 on those boards will be space and that they don't occupy a PCIe slot which we might want for a second Gcard assuming space is limited of course.

It will be interesting to see what the price of the drives are though

[mr moose]

@Cs342 for what you are looking at now, between drives, price and performance we are now splitting hairs.  You will not notice a difference in performance. 

 

I recommend Samsung because I have personal experience with them,  the sandisks could easily be just as good, but I doubt you will notice a difference.

 

 

It will be interesting to see what the price of the drives are though

REvo drives in Aus are $600 and $300 for a cut down version.

[Cs342]

But the Sandisk has nearly twice the write speeds of the Samsung if I'm not mistaken

[danthe1man1989]

But the Sandisk has nearly twice the write speeds of the Samsung if I'm not mistaken

Yeah i have got two sandisk extreme drives and they have been fine if that is the way you want to go. I bought them over the samsung because they where cheaper

[Gamebozzo]

840 is the best out of them all, o and the diffrence between it and the pro version is not noticiable and not worth the price jump

[mr moose]

But the Sandisk has nearly twice the write speeds of the Samsung if I'm not mistaken

 

Yep, so if it is cheaper then get it. 

 

In reality because your cpu, motherboard, ram, psu etc is not the same as the test bench PC you will get slightly different results.  A marvel controller might provide slightly better performance in your system than a sandforce or vice versa. 

 

As I said before you have narrowed it down to 2 disks, they will both perform adequately. We are just splitting hairs no about which one is best.

 

Get the cheaper one. you won't regret it. ;)

[Cs342]

Yep, so if it is cheaper then get it. 

 

In reality because your cpu, motherboard, ram, psu etc is not the same as the test bench PC you will get slightly different results.  A marvel controller might provide slightly better performance in your system than a sandforce or vice versa. 

 

As I said before you have narrowed it down to 2 disks, they will both perform adequately. We are just splitting hairs no about which one is best.

 

Get the cheaper one. you won't regret it. ;)

Thanks for the advice :) I just want to ask about the read/write speeds. My hard drive does about 150-190MB/S. So if the SSD is lets say 300 MB/S that means it is at most twice as fast as the hard drive?

[mr moose]

Thanks for the advice :) I just want to ask about the read/write speeds. My hard drive does about 150-190MB/S. So if the SSD is lets say 300 MB/S that means it is at most twice as fast as the hard drive?

 

 

Yes, read speeds will definitely be noticeable and could easily halve boot time/average load time.  However forget write speeds, you won't notice a difference anyway. the actual speeds you get will be slower than the advertised and in all likely hood any large files you write are probably going to be either downloaded thus limited to your net speed or from an optical drive, which again is much slower than the hard drive.