[jaydogz]

Im after a 128gb SSD drive, it will be my primary drive for OS and important progs etc.
After browsing around there are so many out there.
Ive rounded it down to these two, but are there others of a better spec/price?

Budget of around £80

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/128gb...-s-new-version

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/128gb...320mb-s-pc-mac

This is a link to my Mobo, its sata2 so i know i wont get the full speed benefit, but anythings got to be better than my current hd.

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/Produc...U=en-us0000346

Thanks

[flagpole]

I would say that they are all much more similar than they are different when compared to HDD.

The best performance advantage IMHO will come from getting the biggest one you can. Thus allowing you to put more apps and app data on it.

[jaydogz]

Originally Posted by flagpole

I would say that they are all much more similar than they are different when compared to HDD.

The best performance advantage IMHO will come from getting the biggest one you can. Thus allowing you to put more apps and app data on it.

TBH flagpole, 128gb will be ideal, as i said it will hold the os and a few important progs, my current 1tb hd will be used as storage and lesser important progs.

[whoever,hey]

I would recommend the M4 product line personally.

[jaydogz]

Originally Posted by whoever,hey

I would recommend the M4 product line personally.

Have the firmware issues been sorted?

[Igotyoubabe]

I just installed one.

Here is the thread I started

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1741067

It was this one I ended up getting.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Stora...roductId=47341

Seems to be running fine, no problems and I did some quick research first. There were so many positives and negatives about them all, you can end up looking and looking. Seemed a decent compromise between size/price

[whoever,hey]

Originally Posted by jaydogz

Have the firmware issues been sorted?

Every ssd has firmware issues. My fav ocz vertex 2 did a year ago.

[Smudged]

Go with the Samsung. Very good drive.

[Orbitalzone]

I'd go for the Samsung 830, in fact I did!

[jaydogz]

Originally Posted by Smudged

Go with the Samsung. Very good drive.

Originally Posted by Orbitalzone

I'd go for the Samsung 830, in fact I did!

Samsung orderd , it was my fave choice tbh, and after reading lots of reviews it does seem a good drive.
Thanks all for you help.

[smcbeath]

I bought the 128gb samsung 830. Think it was £82 with brackets, amazon.

My set up was-

i7 860
6gb ram
500gb western hdd
dell sata 2 mobo

It took me 2 mins 30 secs, on average, to boot up pc and launch internet explorer and bbc sport web page. Loading the web page could easily take 30 secs, just soooo slooow.

With the mighty sammy ssd installed the same process takes 38 secs. What a difference

[Gormond]

Another vote for the Samsung 830.

Great drive and the 256GB is only £116.99 at amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007BBQQ04/

[noise747]

Originally Posted by whoever,hey

Every ssd has firmware issues. My fav ocz vertex 2 did a year ago.

Yep, my Corsair did. twice. sorted now and running lovely

[noise747]

Originally Posted by Gormond

Another vote for the Samsung 830.

Great drive and the 256GB is only £116.99 at amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007BBQQ04/

Wow, i paid more than that for my 120GB corsair last year.

[neo_wales]

Originally Posted by Gormond

Another vote for the Samsung 830.

Great drive and the 256GB is only £116.99 at amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007BBQQ04/

Check again, its £147.19p you SAVE £116.99 on RRP.

Its £159 at novatech but you get Norton Ghost and a 2.5" installation kit with it.

[Gormond]

Originally Posted by neo_wales

Check again, its £147.19p you SAVE £116.99 on RRP.

Its £159 at novatech but you get Norton Ghost and a 2.5" installation kit with it.

I'm not lying mate, yesterday when i posted this it was £116.99, here is the hot deal page to prove it http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/sams...-co-uk-1330406

No doubt they got loads of orders and the price went back up.

[smcbeath]

Think i read on hotukdeals that the sammy 840 is due out any time now, so the 830 will probably continue to drop to clear stock. The 840 only seems to be more energy efficient.

Specifications

• Capacity: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
• Sequential Read: 540MB/sec
• Sequential Write: 450MB/sec
• Random Read: 100,000 IOPS
• Random Write: 87,000 IOPS
• Active Power Use: 0.068W (down from 0.24W for 830 Series)
• Idle Power Use: 0.042W (down from 0.14W for 830 Series

http://pcper.com/reviews/Storage/Sam...msung-Ups-Ante

[Gormond]

Originally Posted by smcbeath

Think i read on hotukdeals that the sammy 840 is due out any time now, so the 830 will probably continue to drop to clear stock. The 840 only seems to be more energy efficient.

Specifications

• Capacity: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
• Sequential Read: 540MB/sec
• Sequential Write: 450MB/sec
• Random Read: 100,000 IOPS
• Random Write: 87,000 IOPS
• Active Power Use: 0.068W (down from 0.24W for 830 Series)
• Idle Power Use: 0.042W (down from 0.14W for 830 Series

http://pcper.com/reviews/Storage/Sam...msung-Ups-Ante

Not according to Anandtech benchmarks http://www.anandtech.com/show/6337/s...0-250gb-review

4KB Random Read
830 - 67.2 MB/s
840 - 84.8 MB/s
840 Pro - 101.4 MB/s

4KB Random Write
830 - 167.5 MB/s
840 - 252.5 MB/s
840 Pro - 364.2 MB/s

[Loobster]

Originally Posted by jaydogz

Have the firmware issues been sorted?

What firmware issues?

The only significant firmware issues were with models with the Sandforce controller (all OCZ third gen models).

The M4s have been superb since release and are still not really topped by anything that's been released since.

[noise747]

Originally Posted by neo_wales

Check again, its £147.19p you SAVE £116.99 on RRP.

Its £159 at novatech but you get Norton Ghost and a 2.5" installation kit with it.

Still cheaper than what I paid for my 120GB corsair.

[Smudged]

Originally Posted by Loobster

What firmware issues?

The only significant firmware issues were with models with the Sandforce controller (all OCZ third gen models).

The M4s have been superb since release and are still not really topped by anything that's been released since.

There were a few issues with the M4 but fixed with firmware updates. The Samsung 830 offers the same, if not slightly better performance and no problems at all (so far), which is why it often gets recommended now.

[Paddy C]

I got a 256GB one from Crucial and it works perfectly. It was £120 but I'm sure the 128GB version is more around your price range.

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/ssd.aspx

[jaydogz]

Installed and wow, what a difference, boot up was just over a minute and now 26 seconds.
Os install went fine and got all my important progs up and running.
Ran Samsung Magician and disabled defrag, index etc.
BUT.....
There is a warning about AHCI not enabled.
I read up about this before installing the drive but the only reference to AHCI in my bios is this option... IDE->AHCI .
I have also read that changing to AHCI (if the option above is the correct one) AFTER Windows has been installed can cause the OS to crash and also BSOD.

The bios recognises the drive and all is working fine, so do i really need to enable AHCI?(if i can).

Great drive though, well worth the money and such a noticable difference.

[anniebrion]

You can enable AHCI without reinstalling the OS, IIRC it is a registry tweak that forces the correct drivers to be loaded.

If you are running in IDE mode then your not be getting the full speed of your drive.

[jaydogz]

Ive found the registry tweak, but my issue is with the only option in my bios which is IDE->AHCI
Would that one and only option enable AHCI?