SSD Reliability

[mojoman0]

Originally Posted by cmsmith

Samsung has the best SSD's when it comes to reliability which isn't suprising as they don't use Sandforce. Unfortunately, due to historically poor performance of Samsung nobody really paid any attention to them. That has changed recently with the introduction of their 830 series of SSD's. Due to their combination of speed and reliability, these series of SSDs maybe the best overall drives on the market at this point in time.

Intel has been working with Sandforce creators to iron out some wrinkles in their controller. Apparently, there was/is a particularly bad problem with Sandforce that can lead to a BSOD under certain circumstances. There was an article on this website 2 or 3 days ago about this as a matter of fact. Anyway, Intel will get an updated Sandforce Controller chip exclusive to them for a fairly long period of time; the reliability of their drives should be really great using this updated Sandforce controller.

I'm hoping SSD prices will drop midway through this year. When Windows 8 comes out, I'd like to purchase that OS and pick up a 120 GB or so Samsung 830 series drive to go along with the OS purchase for a great pickup in system speed.

intel was using a Marvell controller, not sandforce in their drives. thats why they were more reliable but a little slower. the 520 series which just came out uses the sandforce controller and intel proprietary firmware to dodge ocz's spotty job

[cmsmith]

Originally Posted by Hogrider

Newegg has the Samsung 830 series 128GB SSD on sale now for $184.99 and free shipping using code EMCNHJN24
Is it a pretty fast drive and worth the money? I've never had an SSD but I'd like to get one.

Samsung historically has had the best drives when it came to reliability. Unfortunately, their SSD units always lacked in the performance department. In some cases, badly.

That has changed with their 830 series units. According to all the reviews, the units are still slightly slower than their Sandforce counterparts but not enough for a typical user to notice. The reliability is still there.

To answer your question, they are fast drives and worth the money. Every penny of it.

I'm going to get an SSD drive, 120 GB or so, later this year once the prices drop a bit. It will be my OS drive. I'll decide what I ultimately want then but the Samsung 830 unit is my #1 choice as of now. I'll kick around getting an Intel 520 unit as well based on Intel's work to make those reliable. However, that will be the only Sandforce drive I look at; the other manufacturers are just having problems with their stuff now. In the end, I'll choose between these two drives and only these two drives.

I've been researching this quite a bit. The Samsung 830 series and the Intel 520's are really the only way to go right now.