Buyer Beware: OCZ SSD's

VidmanII · Post by **VidmanII** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:03 am

Transition to 25nm from 34nm nand not such a hot deal for consumers.

http://www.guru3d.com/news/ocz-vertex-2 ... ed-slower/

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2142163

Bottom line: SSD's are still pretty pricey so do your due dilligence before diving in.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:31 am

I'm still holding out. Ultimately, I'm not feeling the need just yet. Especially after reading reviews that say the difference isn't what they expected.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:45 am

If you want to place safe, the best drives out there are Intel's, for overall performance and reliability. Not the cheapest, but you can rely on them. The best bang for the buck is the Intel X25-M drives. I've got an 80Gb X25-M as my boot drive.

PCPer.com has the most concise SSD comparison chart. I would strongly recommend looking at that first before buying anything:
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=736

VidmanII · Post by **VidmanII** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:35 pm

dunno about Intel being the "best bang for the buck. I usually associate anything Intel as being at the top of the price range. They've had reliability problems recently too as seen with the buggy chipsets.

http://newsroom.intel.com/community/int ... g-solution

GuardianAsher · Post by **GuardianAsher** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:25 am

I don't think that chipset issue has any bearing on this thread. SSD and chipsets are two totally different things, and while i'll agree that most Intel products tend to be a bit pricey, FP is right: their SSDs are absolutely top notch in both price vs performance and reiability standards.

Hate on Intel all you want, but you have to give them credit where it is due. The X25-M SSDs rock. And this is coming from an AMD user.

VidmanII · Post by **VidmanII** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:01 am

Actually the thread was a cautionary note regarding OCZ's dubious marketing practices. Not a "which SSD to buy" thread.

Now that the Intel X25-M had been brought into the discussion, Is this the unit you're speaking of?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820167031
If so, the write speeds look pretty lame. Especially with a current price taq of $180
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/788/11/

I just got a Kingston 128GB for $115, albeit $75 MIR, that gets more than double the write speeds and the same read speeds. Even before the rebate it's a better value than the Intel. So where's the Intel value and performance? Lastly, my point about the Sandy Bridge chipset was that even Intel has it's issues on occasion.

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:26 am

I ended up getting the same SSD that FP has and while I can definitely see a difference in performance, I expected to see faster load times in my game. haha The load times have decreased a little bit, but really expected them to be almost instant with the amount of power this rig is throwing down..

eGo

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:48 am

I assume that's the SSDNow V series? Nice drive and that's a 2nd Gen drive (Kingston's 1st Gen drives used Intel's controller, now they're using Toshiba). Keep in mind, however, that there is a lot more going on with SSDs than just simple read and write speeds. There's also TRIM efficiency, cell patterns and the controller itself makes a huge difference.

Yes, on PCper's chart the Kingston SSDNow V does have better write speeds (180 versus 70) but that doesn't tell the whole story. Look at this more real-world test result:

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=87 ... pert&pid=3

Again, it's a tradeoff on price versus features and the features are MUCH more complicated than on a standard HDD.

I went with Intel on the workstation because of long term reliability and stability - I can't afford down time or degradation over the long run.

I went with a cheaper OCZ drive that was on sale for the laptop for nearly half the price. Does a nice job and I have no complaints, but I'm less concerned about the performance and stability of the drive over time on the lappy.

VidmanII · Post by **VidmanII** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:11 pm

That's a good article and if you look at all the benchmarks, you'll see that the different drives perform better in different areas. I think the SSD technology still has room to grow, especially when it comes to the controllers. With the Kingston, I was just looking to get a mid range drive at a good/great price. Never said it was the best. That said I'm thrilled with it so far.

I think it's important to remember too that PCs are your job while to me they're just a hobby. I respect that and factor that in when you speak of components you choose and endorse. I'm not inclined to label anything "the best". There are many ways to skin a cat. If said drive is "the best" for your application(s), it may not be for someone else and whatever they're trying to do. Especially when it comes to price points.

If you read the conclusion, on the Kingston at the end of the article in which the benchmark you referenced was in, it says the following....

c/p
Pricing

Normally we put the pricing after the pros and cons, but here we find it's worth pushing it up front. I've already had readers write in saying they've found the 64 GB model for cheaper than $150, and the 128GB for lower than $250. With most other drives pushing close to $3/GB, here we have a non-stuttery, decent performer for right around $2/GB.

PROS:

* Great performance improvement for budget arena SSD's (as compared to previous JMicron)
* Consistent performance over time with negligible long-term fragmentation effects (even without TRIM)
* *Very* low cost/GB!

CONS:

* Performance falls short of other (admittedly more expensive) SSD's.

Final Thoughts

This bundle has proven itself to have plenty of bang for the buck!

After a few iterations and revisions to their SSDNow V Series brand, Kingston have finally settled on a product that is true to the (V)alue portion of that name. Combining <b>JMicron's new JMF618 controller tech</b> with Toshiba's fabrication and flash memory has rapidly brought prices of solid state storage down to less than $2/GB. While the new drives can't keep up with the more expensive solutions out there, they leave previous budget offerings far behind.

end c/p

So if it's a value at $2/GB what is it at less than $1/GB? That's all I'm saying. We're starting to see better value packages and I'm all for it.

All in all, I think I can speak for both us in saying I'm happy as heck that SSDs are here !! HDDs have been the bottleneck in systems for years. Find one you like and enjoy !!

Cheers,
Todd

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:49 pm

Agreed. My choice of the world "best" was intended as maybe "safe" or "most reliable".

I think in 2 years SSDs will be so mature that the only real difference will be between normal and enterprise class products.