Having had a HDD just die, I need something to replace it. Several months ago I remember seeing a lot of negative comments about the most recent SF drives. Anyone know if these bugs have been fixed? I realize most people recommend the M4s but they are expensive here. Some locally made SF2281s are cheaper. Also - what drive would you recommend for someone who wants fast but not premium. 120GB. SATA 3Gbps is OK. Might go for a last gen SF or Intel 320.
There are people who still comment constantly that SF2281 is crap, but IMO they are fine. I have 2 OCZ Vertex 3 (which use SF2281) in RAID 0 and have absolutely no issues with it. In fact, in RAID 0 I am getting transfers of slightly over 1G (according to ATTO), with no fails in 2 months of 24/7 usage. Also, if you use RAID, SF drives gave garbage collection that will still work. That won't be an issue with later versions of IRT, but at the moment I believe SF are the only controllers that have GC in RAID.
Well I'm not intending on RAIDing, unless two 60Gs are on offer for a better price, but I doubt it. Thanks for the info.
Whilst the chances of having problems are now extreme low (other than laptops where the manufacturer hasn't followed the intel spec)... ...assuming you're using an intel board then, to help further minimise the chance of issues on an P67/Z68/etc intel mobo, ideally you want at least the 10.6 intel orom... ...though the later the better. Certainly for at least the Asus P67 boards (i've not checked the other chipsets - but i believe Asus' Z68 boards all have at least 10.6) then, as the official bioses are still on 10.5, it's worth looking on the Asus forum for the mobo as many of them have modded bioses with this (& other things) updated... Well, for my board then the latest mod uses the 11.0.0.1339 orom (4-5+ versions later than the last one Asus officially put into a bios) & was the version released alongside the latest WHQL 11.0.0.1032 irst drivers. Oh, & it's also worth updating to the lastest 9.3.0.1020 chipset drivers as well. Tbh though, this is understood to also help reduce the chances of issues with other SSDs as well so it'd be worth looking no matter which one you buy...
As far as >10.5 inf is concerned, I asked this ages ago: the software guys have asked for it but Intel seems slow in releasing it to us initially. I think it was just unfortunate events as normally we have a fast working relationship with Intel. I haven't had an update recently actually so I will inquire the situation later.
Sorry - it wasn't meant to be read as a direct complaint... ...i was simply saying that it's worth checking the Asus forum for your board in case there's a modded version as it'll help to reduce the (tiny) chance of there being issues. Well, i gave the same advice to someone else a day or two back... ...& as i'm guessing you might be using an Asus board then... (though as Asus' tech support did send me an internal bios release with the version of the 11.x orom that was current at the time on the 31st of August last year, then i'm not quite sure that it's entirely fair to point fingers at intel over this)
Yeah, i did appreciate that - hence my assumption that it'd be an Asus mobo of course - but that didn't necessarily mean that there'd be any knowledge about modded f/ws on the Asus forum... it's also that, when providing info, i try to broaden it out somewhat where necessary so that other people who might happen to read it know what's being talked about... ...that's why i apologised as soon as i saw the follow up as i didn't mean it to be read as a complaint.
