heyy guys, any reccomendations on a 128GB SSD ? Budgets of about £180 ? And also a good hardrive for general storage? Many Thanks, Luke?
This was a run through that i did ~3 1/2 weeks ago that should cover your question... ...well you've not given any info as to what your machine is so a specific SSD can't be accurately recommended. Otherwise, what capacity HDD? Lots of us use 1TB Samsung F3s as they're pretty quick, but for more storage then perhaps the 2TB F4s?
sorry man, it will be a 2600k on an asus maximus extreme, with 2 asus hd6950 2gb's and 16Gb corsair vengence. that any help? and ill have a read through that now and yes i thought someone would reccomend the F3
Well, then it's the first option - "if you have either a SB or 850 & it was trim enabled - budget - Crucial M4 expensive - intel 510 (better nand than the M4) or (even better) Vertex 3 Max iops/Patriot Wildfire/etc" Though you need to remember that there is a very slim chance of freezing issues with the M4 & 510, & bsod issues with the SFs... ...not helped d.t. Asus not yet having added in a post 10.5 intel orom to their P67 board bioses. You 'could' try emailing Asus' tech support though as, simply as a test for a different thread on here a few weeks back, i managed to get an internal build for my P8P67 Deluxe which has the 11.5 orom - & it's as stable (have had no issues) as the 1850 one that's currently available.
Just bought myself a 128GB Crucial M4. My budget was less than £200 and it cost me £143.99 (cheaper on scan but was out of stock). Really impressed, flashed new FW straight away. Was under the impression that you set it to IDE mode and install @ sata 2, then switch over to sata 3 & ahci, doing this gave me blue screens, so i reinstalled with ahci and sata 3 and its been perfect.
With the M4 you should only use IDE mode when flashing the firmware, otherwise switch to AHCI mode. If you install windows on IDE mode it won't install the AHCI drivers, so you'll get problems if you switch modes (there are workarounds but it's best to use AHCI from the start). I've just switched from a Vertex 3 to a Crucial M4 as the pc was blue-screening every few days and it seemed to be caused by the Vertex 3. I've had no such issues with the M4 (at least not yet). I know the bsod issue is rare but I'd hesitate before recommending OCZ ssds to anyone just now. The Intel 510 is supposed to be very reliable, but I'm not sure it's worth the price difference between the M4 (particularly with the M4s recent firmware update).
My Kingston SandForce drive (basically the same as the OCZ Vertex 3) gives a BSOD every few days, I've reinstalled Windows 7 from scratch (after a secure erase) and it still happens. I never saw a BSOD at all before using it. My Crucial M4 (latest fw) has never given any issue at all, and was a lot cheaper too. I expect the SF problems are completely fixable either via controller firmware updates or BIOS updates, but until it is resolved I wouldn't generally recommend them, as rv88uk said. Even if it's a minority, too many people have the BSOD problem, and the M4 with its latest firmware update performs exceptionally well.
As said, the issues are there with all 6Gb/s SSDs on the P67 chipset... ...whilst it was important to mention them - (a) certainly with the SF's it's a tiny fraction of a percentage of those sold - & i assume that the intel/crucial drives are the same. (b) the problem is that literally the same SSD (of whichever brand) will work perfectly on one setup but have issues on another identical one so, other than the later oroms being *much* less likely to have problems, one person's experience does not tell you what yours will be on your machine (either +ve or -ve).
I'm loving the Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120GB. And its on super speical on Aria atm for £160 The deluxe handles incompressible data better than the non deluxe from what I've been reading. http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...A-III+Solid+State+Hard+Drive+?productId=45279
I know you're very pro-SandForce pocketdemon, but there is no doubt that the SF drives have a major problem here; it's reported everywhere, affecting every manufacturer using the controller. That's not to say that most people have these BSOD issues, but it's still enough to put many people off. People have had problems with the M4 (mostly with earlier firmware releases), but far, far fewer. Additionally the problems aren't necessarily just related to P67 and Z68. When I tried to install a SF drive into my Macbook Pro it would do the BSOD equivalent and crash during the installation at a random time, reporting a hardware failure. With the M4 in the same laptop, it worked perfectly. This obviously may be a separate issue, but it's the same kind of experience I've had with my Z68 PC (and this was a different SF drive). Here's a summary of my own experience: Corsair Force 3 (SandForce): in Macbook Pro, hardware failure crashes, in PC occasional BSODs (I returned this drive). Kingston HyperX (SandForce): not test in Mac, in PC occasional BSODs. Crucial M4: no issues experienced at all with Mac or PC.
It may already come with the latest firmware, otherwise you just download a writable CD file from Crucial, switch the drive to IDE in the BIOS settings, flash, then switch it back to AHCI. There's a document on their support page that explains it in detail.
Good choice buddy, you wont regret it ! I love mine =). Just make some you have some tiny screws, same thread as optical drives but small if you want to mount it in a case/to a bracket. If you dont have any really small screws let me know and il pop some in the post, literally just installed mine into my 800D hotswap bay as ive just fitted the sata 3 hotswap panel to my case.
i'm not randomly pro-Sandforce - whilst they can have advantages, in the link given to my earlier post, i recommended both SF & Marvell controller SSDs depending upon your budget, what you're putting on them & how you're connecting them... [NB (i) prior to the 0009 update the C300 was a better SSD than the M4 for an OS/apps drive in a trim enabled environment, so the SFs were a much better buy - the 0009 f/w changed things so i altered my opinion/recommendations to suit. (ii) if i randomly had ~£330-340 spare & owned no SSDs, i'd personally buy a 120GB V3 max iops for OS/apps/etc (with some heavy under-partitioning as i don't need that much space for that purpose) & a 128GB M4 for games - forgetting the speed increase for the V3 max iops, the M4s are not robust enough in non-trim for me to contemplate them in raid & the nand in V3 max iops (as with the 510) is much better for heavier use... ...but it would be the best use of the money if it were all i could afford.] & i'm not suggesting that the problems with any of the 6Gb/s SSDs are entirely limited to the P67/Z68 chipsets (although they predominantly are) - simply that the OP is using a P67 chipset & i know that the latest released bios for their board only has the 10.5 intel orom - whereas the 10.6 & 11.5 oroms are known to be far more stable with all SSDs. Now, post the 0009 f/w on the M4, as i was looking for specific data on the 64GB for another thread, in searching there were significant no's of people reporting that they were still having both cold boot & freezing issues having updated to it. So, there is also no doubt that the M4s also have a major problem here - & it is believed that, on the P67/Z68/etc boards that this is primarily down to the orom & its associated drivers, & that it the same issue that causes this which also causes the issues with the 510 & SFs. [NB because intel haven't sorted out the orom issue entirely and, most importantly, mobo manufacturers still generally haven't implemented the later oroms, this is why, in the latest OCZ f/w release for the SFs, the timings have been changed to the same as the intel 510. Obviously you didn't buy OCZ so would have to wait for the other manufacturers to release their version of the same.] This in mind (& d.t. the fact that the same issues with the M4 have been seen on the intel 510), neither the SFs or Marvell based 6Gb/s SSDs can be arbitarily be seen as being stable until they have been tested on the specific machine - & neither you nor i could guaranty to the OP that they will not have either of these problems with a M4 with their kit. Back to the first sentence though, rather than being pro-SF, i am generally (other than the foolishness with the way the change in nand was handled with the V2s at the beginning of the year) pro-OCZ if someone is proposing to be a reasonably early adopter of a SF based SSD; as they tend to get new f/ws out more promptly than the competition & their forum contains specific advice about how to work around any problems that may be found. Well, this is where i first came across the detail about the orom issue (though was then backed up by other sources testing other SSDs)... ...whereas this info wasn't first provided by the other SF or non-SF manufacturers.
I know, I wasn't suggesting that you were. My Z68 board has a 10.6 orom, and I've had huge issues with two different SandForce SSDs, but none with the M4. However, I don't even load the orom (since I am not using RAID at all) so I don't know if this would have any relevance in this case. I have occasionally seen some people mentioning issues with the M4, but these are often referring to earlier firmware releases. I don't agree that the problems are comparable -- I see huge numbers of complaints about BSODs with SF drives on different sites, but hardly anything at all with the M4.
Your spec wasn't listed so didn't know what controller you were using... Though, assuming the board either came or you've updated to a bios with 10.6 (which i assume is the case from what you've written), then that orom will be the one that's used whether you're in raid or ahci or ide. 10.6 did cure lots of people's issues with SSDs from all manufacturers, but intel are still working on it - hence the 11.5 orom being with the mobo manufacturers for testing/implementation (along with new controller drives being tested) & i'd be surprised if this was the last one... Then, maybe we just look in different places re issues with SSDs? it's also obviously magnified to some extent by OCZ's forum being the first step to get tech support - that they don't filter content & that people are most likely to comment when they have issues does give a misleading impression that everyone has problems of course. Oh, & maybe people put up with freezing issue that bit more than BSODs? & assuming the cause is identical & is, almost exclusively, down to intel, it's then not Marvell or SF who are at fault. Yeah, another way of phrasing my feelings about SF is that, whilst not randomly pro them, i'm also not happy with them being slated when it neither appears to be their fault & other SSDs can have issues for the same reasons - & that it's such a tiny fraction of a percentage of people that do have problems with any of the SSDs then it's not a justification for choosing one over the other imho. Otherwise, to try & help you with your issues, you 'could' try the procedure here (3rd post). & i believe that the 4th post was covered in the latest f/w release... ...though there is still some troubleshooting going on (not least as, again, not all SB boards have a 10.6 or (esp) 11.5 orom); but it appears that lots of the remaining issues (though not exclusively) are about people not having followed the procedure properly. Yeah, until the other manufacturers catch up with OCZ on f/w then that's something you can't test.
The Kingston firmware is the latest SF one I think. There aren't any downloads available to flash for it yet anyway. But I've tried doing a secure erase, resetting the BIOS, changing LPM, reinstalling Windows, etc. and the BSODs return, always seemingly randomly (the system can be totally idle, under load, playing a game, anything). For now I'm just putting up with it because it only happens every few days. (I suppose I should add a signature with my specs like everybody else)
There is a later one as OCZ had it out ~a week or so ago... ...whereas Kingston have to be working on the previous one - well, as they have no f/ws to download & it didn't exist when the drive was released then... So unfortunately you're a little stuck for the moment unless Kingston's tech support can give you something to reflash the same f/w - well, with the V3/A3s you can re-flash the same (or older) f/w again & again - but, as & when they do (or get lucky with their tech support), it's then worth trying the procedure that OCZ are recommending. You 'could' also try contacting your mobo manufacturer to see if they can let you have a bios with the 11.5 orom in... Well, i got an internal build from Asus (simply as a person asking for it rather than linking to any discussion on here or pretending that i was a system builder or network engineer or anything) a few weeks back so... Yeah, as there's always issues with new SSDs - there are with all of the 6Gb/s this year / there were with the SFs & C300 last year / in 2010, once the stability issues were sorted, it became apparent that trim & gc were needed (intel & (i think) Samsung were two of the few who didn't add it into their current models) / in 2009 there were the first of the AS-Clean type tools (though, afaik, they tended to be vendor specific)... - that affect some people, because of OCZ's relationship with SF & their 'dedication' (not the word i mean but the proper one has escaped my mind) to heavily focus on getting proper internal testing done asap, they tend to get f/ws based upon SF's latest one (as the vendors are allowed to mod them to some extent) out earlier, this is why i generally advise going for them. They (OCZ) also, incidentally, used a non-ref design for the 6Gb/s SFs which is why they didn't have to issue the recall, early on, that Corsair did. [NB i've had no stability issues at all with any of my SSDs though, obviously, i've had better things to spend my money on this year than any of the 6Gb/s ones - well my 4x V2 array is more than fast enough.] Once the SFs are stable though, it becomes immaterial (ie buy on price) unless there's some advantage - well, since the 2Xnm debacle with the V2s hit, i recommended people bought a Corsair Force if they were considering a 3Gb/s SF as the nand die size made a considerable difference... Well, whilst there's been a couple of minor f/w updates since, they had been gotten stable enough (primarily it was/is either laptops where the manufacturers hadn't followed the ichrm spec properly & didn't provide bios updates to correct or odd people with sleep issues), so...
