# best SSD drive for under 250USD?



## remixedcat (Jul 30, 2011)

I finally have a budget and I want to get an SSD drive that would cost under 250USD.

it can be an SLC or an MLC.

would like at least 40GB

this is going to be for the OS only mostly and mabye a few programs.... not gonna store regular files on it.


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Jul 30, 2011)

$250 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706

$215 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442


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## Imhoteps (Jul 30, 2011)

Crucial m4 128 GB is about USD 230. Note 256 Gb version shows 260 Mbps write performance (175 Mbps for 128Gb version). Read performance is the same tho for both Crucials.

If you can spend approx USD 300, then OCZ Vertex 2 180 is "must have"-thing.


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## MRCL (Jul 30, 2011)

The 180gb OCZ Vertex 2 really is a nice investion, I have one myself for games.

As for the OS drive, I use an OCZ Vertex 2 64gb, Should also be in your budget.


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## remixedcat (Jul 30, 2011)

the ocz has soem shaky reviews....hmmmmmm but thanks very much guys! that's pretty good for the price.


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Jul 30, 2011)

OCZ has the fastest SSDs. The trade off is a higher failure rate. Up to you whether or not it's worth the risk on an OS drive. I just got an M4 256 for $352 since newegg had a discount code for people who shop there a lot.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jul 30, 2011)

look for the Corsair Force series they take on OCZ in speed and they cost less

Corsair Performance 3 Series CSSD-P3128GB2-BRKT 2....
up to 450mb/s read 210mb/s write  $229

Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F120GBGT-BK 2.5" 120G...
up to 555mb/s read  515mb/s write $259


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## RejZoR (Jul 30, 2011)

For $290 you can get Corsair Force 3 120GB. Fast and cheap drive. You could get smaller versions for even less.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jul 30, 2011)

he can get a Force GT 3m thats just as fast as anything OCZ has for $259 as i linked above ^


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## remixedcat (Jul 30, 2011)

I'm seeing a lot of BSODs with the corsair drives have any of you had those? also some of the reviews were also saying the BIOS boot was messed up as well.


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Jul 30, 2011)

When looking at complaints on SSDs try to see if they're talking about laptops or desktops. There seems to be a lot of issues that pertain to certain laptop brands but not the desktop.


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## kid41212003 (Jul 30, 2011)

If you want reliability, you should pick Intel 510 SSD.

I'm using one atm, and I didn't even have to reinstall my OS because Intel has a utility called Intel SSD Toolbox which helps you move your OS from your old drive and optimizes your SSD (TRIM).


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## remixedcat (Jul 30, 2011)

I got AMD CPU and nvidia chipset on an M2N-SLI also if that helps anyone.....


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Jul 31, 2011)

I don't think Intel is quite as reliable as it was last gen. Most likely due to the third party controller.


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## kid41212003 (Jul 31, 2011)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> I don't think Intel is quite as reliable as it was last gen. Most likely due to the third party controller.



Your claim is baseless. 

The controller in which Intel WAS having problem with is the 320 series, and those chips were actually Intel's ironically.


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## xenocide (Jul 31, 2011)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> When looking at complaints on SSDs try to see if they're talking about laptops or desktops. There seems to be a lot of issues that pertain to certain laptop brands but not the desktop.



I find even more of the complaints center on PCI-express SSD cards, but those probably wouldn't pop up if he were searching for exact models.  I second CrazyEye's recomendation, although that Intel app I've heard about for ghosting a whole OS setup sounds pretty damn handy.


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Jul 31, 2011)

kid41212003 said:


> Your claim is baseless.
> 
> The controller in which Intel WAS having problem with is the 320 series, and those chips were actually Intel's ironically.



What 320 problem? I was speaking generally. The new sata III Intel drives generally have 4 egg reviews. The old sata IIs have 5 egg reviews.


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## xenocide (Jul 31, 2011)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> What 320 problem? I was speaking generally. The new sata III Intel drives generally have 4 egg reviews. The old sata IIs have 5 egg reviews.



Newegg reviews are terrible for judging stuff like that.  People will give a product a 1/5 review because UPS took a week to get it to them, or it's missing a feature that it never claimed to have.  I have seen some of the most ridiculous stuff listed in the Con's section on there.  Also, almost every motherboard has a 4-Egg review for some odd reason.  I would go so far as to say 4\5 Egg are basically the same damn thing.  As long as it's more than 2 you're fine.


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Jul 31, 2011)

Having actually read the one egg reviews I'd have to say that's not the case. I don't get people that can't utilize newegg reviews. Yes some suck, so use your brain and adapt your analysis of the data to compensate. It's still very useful for looking at the overall quality of the product. I really wouldn't recommend buying a product that hits as low as 3 eggs on newegg unless there's only a few reviews.

Anyways why are we even discussing reliability on an OS drive? Just get something fast and don't worry about it. I think even at it's worst OCZ's failure rate is 3%. Just buy whatever is fastest.


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## remixedcat (Jul 31, 2011)

soooo...


OCZ or Corsair??? or Intel.... hmmmmmm...... I have a few months to decide (getting it and a new GPU for skyrim)


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jul 31, 2011)

id take corsair just for the ease of RMA,

all the MTBF and specs they have on these things are just educated guesses, so ill take the easy replacment with the 3 year warranty of the Corsair unit.


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## remixedcat (Jul 31, 2011)

This'll be my first SSD so I want it to be a good first impression. Thanks all. I may go with Corsair for the RMA process.


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## TheOne (Aug 1, 2011)

remixedcat said:


> This'll be my first SSD so I want it to be a good first impression. Thanks all. I may go with Corsair for the RMA process.



If you dont want to take a chance on the drive working stick with Marvell based drives as SandForces current controllers are very buggy and is the reason why OCZ's Solid 3, Agility 3 and Vertex 3 are having so much trouble, as well as Corsair's Force 3 and Force GT.  Corsair is working with SandForce to try and find a solution, and OCZ is releasing new F/W trying to increase the stability. It should also be mentioned that Marvell SATA controllers as well as Intel SATA controllers have the most trouble with the drives and that AMD boards seem to be more stable, but can still have problems.  Marvell based drives are also slower than SandForce drives.

As for Corsair's RMA process, from my experience, avoid it, others may have had a good experience, but mine so far has been terrible.


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## freaksavior (Aug 1, 2011)

I have an 80gb intel 320 Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW080G310 2.5" 80GB SATA II... and it's fast. real fast but there are others. I vote crucial m4


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## Hotobu (Aug 1, 2011)

Don't know why no one mentioned this one.  ADATA S511 Series AS511S3-120GM-C 2.5" 120GB SATA ...

I simply don't trust the OCZ and Corsair drives.


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## Rock N Roll Rebel (Aug 2, 2011)

i just got my first ssd and its a ocz vertex 2 120 gb it had a lot of bad reviews but so far its running real good and fast knock on wood. my system boots in 5 seconds


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## crazyeyesreaper (Aug 2, 2011)

as far as im aware corsair fixed there problems long ago, and id still take the Corsair drive its in the top 3 for fastest SSDs, and comes in at a lower price then any other drive in its performance category, and ive had nothing but good experiences from corsair, in terms of RMA and support.


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## TheOne (Aug 2, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> as far as im aware corsair fixed there problems long ago, and id still take the Corsair drive its in the top 3 for fastest SSDs, and comes in at a lower price then any other drive in its performance category, and ive had nothing but good experiences from corsair, in terms of RMA and support.



That is a common mistake, the Recall on the Force 3 120GB was for what Corsair claims 2 reasons, hardware defects and F/W change, the original drives did have F/W 1.0, whereas all replacement and current Force 3 and Force GT have 1.2, sadly this only helped some users.

The SandForce controller being used for top end SSD's right now is buggy, OCZ is trying to resolve this with F/W changes, and Corsair is working with SandForce on a solution, it has problems with all SATA controllers, though Intel's is more common, the number of AMD users with problems is actually increasing on Corsairs forums. The Marvell based drives are supposed to be stable, but in return you give up the high speed of the SandForce controller.  As for their RMA, I have had nothing but trouble trying to work things out with them, the main issue is getting them to respond, though every users experience will vary.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Aug 2, 2011)

well ive had nothing but good experiences with corsair,

from ram i overclocked to death to sending me a new PSU, before i even sent my old one in, using a hold on a credit card, i got a new unit and the old one got shipped back everytime ive had issues corsair went above and beyond and got me a replacement asap but as you said it differs between ppl,

that said id still take the Corsair Force GT at 120gb 500+ read writes and only $260 id take my chances, and if ordering off newegg, well if the drive is buggy and has issues it will most likely be readily noticeable, and since newegg has that nice 30 day window yea. id take my chances if its a bunk SSD, id just call newegg get a ups label ship it back and get another.  

even tho a vertex 3 can be had for $5 less and more so with rebate, ill stick take corsair, at least when ive rma'ed parts ive gotten new retail items back where with OCZ ive been given refurbished units that dont work lolz when it comes to ram and customers PSU's


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## remixedcat (Aug 2, 2011)

so it comes down to corsair vs ocz huh???? hrrrmmmmmm


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## Hotobu (Aug 2, 2011)

I wonder if it's a problem with the SF 2200 driver. Both the Corsair and Vertex 3 use it.


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## TheOne (Aug 2, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> well ive had nothing but good experiences with corsair,
> 
> from ram i overclocked to death to sending me a new PSU, before i even sent my old one in, using a hold on a credit card, i got a new unit and the old one got shipped back everytime ive had issues corsair went above and beyond and got me a replacement asap but as you said it differs between ppl,
> 
> ...



Keep in mind Newegg's SSD policy is 30-day replacement, no refunds if the drive is open, normally.

As for me I'm trying to get a refund for my Force 3 120GB, they originally wanted me to wait about a month for the refund, 1 week for the drive to get to them and 2 to 3 weeks for the refund, this is after 2 weeks of trying to get the refund started, after talking to them they made it only 3 weeks and their supposed to be sending it UPS, they already have the drive and claim they will not be able to send out the check until Friday, so I have about another 2 weeks until I'm supposed to get the refund, and that is only part of the trouble I've had with them, this was completely unexpected by me given Corsair's reputation.


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## Maban (Aug 2, 2011)

People, keep in mind the board she has. A SATA 6Gb/s drive would be relatively useless. A 60-120GB Vertex 2 or similar drive would be ideal.

Also, TheOne, I'm surprised. I've never heard you speak ill of Corsair before.


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## TheOne (Aug 2, 2011)

Maban said:


> People, keep in mind the board she has. A SATA 6Gb/s drive would be relatively useless. A 60-120GB Vertex 2 or similar drive would be ideal.
> 
> Also, TheOne, I'm surprised. I've never heard you speak ill of Corsair before.



That is very true, unless you plan to upgrade to a newer MB with SATAIII soon, a SATAII SSD will be the better choice, also keep in mind that the newer SATAIII drives use a 25nm NAND which has less of a life span than the 34nm NAND used by most SATAII drives.

As for Corsair, I have always enjoyed their PSU's and RAM, and have never had to deal with their customer service before, I'm surprised by how much trouble I'm having getting in contact with them.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Aug 2, 2011)

hmm guess im just lucky then ive had 0 issues,

only companies ive really had issues with 

are OCZ, with ram and psu,  and  Foxconn years ago with some of there motherboards


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## Hotobu (Aug 3, 2011)

Don't know why the ADATA is getting overlooked. I just put in an order for it.


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## happita (Aug 3, 2011)

I don't know why you guys are raving so much about Sandforce this, Sandforce that. Big freakin deal if it had 500+ read and write. They obviously have their problems. Just do yourself a favor and get the Crucial M4. 415read and 175 write. You will NOT notice the difference going from 415 to 500 I promise you. It will still be blazing fast.


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## Hotobu (Aug 3, 2011)

happita said:


> I don't know why you guys are raving so much about Sandforce this, Sandforce that.



Most of the discussion here isn't about performance. It's about reliability. Something tells me that two of the drives that have the most BSOD and other random issues (Corsair and OCZ) using the Sandforce 2200 driver isn't a coincidence.


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