Which brand SSD to get

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BTR

1522 posts

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# 185204 13-Nov-2015 17:03

HI, I am looking to add an SSD as a boot drive into my computer however I don't know which brands I should be looking at and which I should stay away from.

It would be nice to know some opinions from other GZ users.

Thanks in advance!

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# 1427683 13-Nov-2015 17:08

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I think SSDs are inherently way more reliable than spinning rust, so IMO any of the big brands should be fine. I've used a number of samsung, ocz and crucial SSDs and haven't had issues with any of them.

Dynamic

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# 1427684 13-Nov-2015 17:10

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My 'go to' brands are Kingston and Intel.

Kingston did have come controversy for swapping out internal chipsets some time ago, but bang-for-buck-with-reliability I'm very happy. We've deployed maybe 100 Kingston 240Gb SSDs in the last 18 months with no failures.

Everyone here will have their own pet brands of course.

If reliability is of utmost important, the Intel DC S3510 is an example of an SSD with built in capacitors which have enough stored power to let the SSD finish any write transactions in the event of a power failure, vastly reducing the chance of corruption.

If you've got more money than sense and a relatively new motherboard, look at the Intel 750 series. Just do your homework first or you might not be able to boot from it.

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hio77

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Spark

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# 1427687 13-Nov-2015 17:13

Intels were pick of the crop last i was seriously looking at SSDs, that was my first SSD back when breaking 500MB/s was only in the upper grade SSDs.

Now (2 years in my case), picking up the cheaper ones aren't all the much difference - I cant notice the difference between my Main Intel 520 Series and my secondary Kingston V300 series.

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

Sideface

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# 1427689 13-Nov-2015 17:18

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I use a random collection of 2.5" SSD drives, including: Toshiba, OCZ, Corsair, Intel, & Kingston.

No problems with any of them, and no significant difference in performance.

All are hugely superior to conventional HDDs [EDIT: ... except for capacity]

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nakedmolerat

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# 1427690 13-Nov-2015 17:20

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I would go for the cheapest - known brand.

networkn

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# 1427695 13-Nov-2015 17:38

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Seems amazing to me Samsung hasn't rated :)

I'd say pretty much any decent brand (well represented) SSD is a good choice.

Dynamike

156 posts

Master Geek

# 1427697 13-Nov-2015 17:41

Samsung 850 EVO. It also has an optional feature called "Rapid Mode", which is basically a RAM disk which it can create if you have enough RAM. I find it makes a noticeable increase in performance.

MadEngineer

1928 posts

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# 1427700 13-Nov-2015 17:44

Or if you don't care for the brand ...

http://www.banggood.com/KingFast-F9-128GB-2_5-Inch-SATAIII-SSD-Solid-State-Drive-p-973890.html

(Not endorsing)

richms

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# 1427707 13-Nov-2015 17:54

I have had very early failures with seagate and crucial. All my samsung and intel ones are still going fine, including the intel on my torrenting machine that gets a hell of a lot of writing done to it as things download and are then moved off it.

Richard rich.ms

HowickDota

408 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 1427710 13-Nov-2015 18:22

If you are buying new I would go for the cheapest $ per gig between Crucial/Intel/Samsung/KingstonSandisk. A good way to get a rough idea of the failure rate is probably amazon reviews, 1/2 star reviews generally indicate a dead drive.

Jase2985

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# 1427711 13-Nov-2015 18:22

Dynamike: Samsung 850 EVO. It also has an optional feature called "Rapid Mode", which is basically a RAM disk which it can create if you have enough RAM. I find it makes a noticeable increase in performance.

sandisk has something similar called ready cache
critical has something similar called Momentum Cache

TBH pretty much every SSD out is worth a look.

GregM

44 posts

Geek

# 1427712 13-Nov-2015 18:23

My Intel has been going strong for a few years, however my Kingston has died and was only 2 years old.

lNomNoml

1400 posts

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# 1427714 13-Nov-2015 18:37

We only use Samsung, I personally have Samsung and Transcend ones.

JoshWright

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# 1427757 13-Nov-2015 20:26

I had a Samsung 840 fail on me, was replaced with an 840 Evo which has been rock solid ever since. Also have a Kingston SSD in an iMac which has been running fine for a few years now.

macuser

2120 posts

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# 1427766 13-Nov-2015 20:54

My go to brand is Crucial because we have two 512GB M4s going strong, have had failure with an intel SSD, and have had unreliability with a Samsung 830 so that might have been up to the sata controller in pc, that said its working fine now in a different pc.

I'd buy Crucial, latest SSD I purchased was the 256GB BX100 a few weeks ago, working great and only $150

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