Storage Solutions Budget SSD - To buy or not?

Crazy_Eddy said:
IMHO, the cheapest decent SSD you can buy right now is the Crucial BX100. MLC NAND + good SM2246 controller. 250GB is 5.6k on onlyssd.

There's a flood of budget SSDs on the market, so be very careful what you get.
Most budget SSDs are using 2D TLC or rubbish controllers or both. Also avoid the new crop of DRAM-less controllers on the market.
Samsung's 750 Evo has vanilla 2D TLC NAND. The same type used in the 840/840 Evo which has its limitations. Granted the newer gen controllers come with LDPC to avoid some of these pitfalls, but if you must have TLC, you're safer sticking to 3D TLC.
The Zotac has MLC NAND but uses a Phison controller, and Phison has a history of making very mediocre controllers.
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Wrong boss.

The Phison PS3110-S10 controller, or S10 controller as we will refer to it going forward, is a controller that we have seen a few times in the past. First, we saw it implemented on the Corsair Neutron XT. Next came Kingston's HyperX Savage. Shortly after, we saw this potent controller make an appearance on the Patriot Ignite, and lastly we got a taste of the S10 powered OCZ TRION 100. The Neutron XT features the S10 and Toshiba A19nm flash in BGA packages. The HyperX Savage features the S10 and A19nm Toshiba MLC flash in TSOP packages. The Ignite features the S10 and 16nm Micron asynchronous MLC flash in BGA packages. The TRION 100 features the S10 and A19nm Toshiba TLC flash in BGA packages. The Ignite performs well, the TRION 100 just the opposite, the Neutron XT and HyperX Savage both deliver top-level performance. The exceptional performance of the Neutron XT and HyperX Savage opened our eyes to the potential of the Phison S10 controller.
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Read more: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7418/zotac-premium-edition-240gb-sata-iii-ssd-review/index.html

7418_22_zotac-premium-240gb-sata-iii-ssd-review.png



These speeds are as good as the Samsung 850Evo drives. I have both.

And price is 4425 now on Primeabgb for 240gb
 
Just checked the Tomshardware review, and they state that the premium edition is performing just on the heals of Samsung 850 EVO. But when I look at the price it is almost double of what this Zotac we can get for.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/zotac-premium-edition-ssd,4397-5.html

Also tomshardware review explains that it is good for gaming rather than other purposes, so it will definitely fulfill my needs. I'm digging still deeper. Thank you all for your inputs and discussion. @Party Monger , @vyral_143


Edit:
Just saw tweaktown review and they are also recommending it.
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7418/zotac-premium-edition-240gb-sata-iii-ssd-review/index11.html


Looks like we have found the People's Champion:D
 
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I've already seen the reviews and I even know that Anandtech's SSD buying guide has a Phison controller based SSD among their budget picks.
But there is more to an SSD than just good reviews/benchmarks. Reviews cannot account for long term reliability.

I repeat - Phison has a history of making mediocre controllers.
Do check how the 120GB variant of this same Zotac drive performs - it is Phison based with no DRAM cache. Tweaktown reviewed a Patriot drive based on the same design, and this is what they said :-
"While still an SSD, the Patriot Blaze doesn't really deliver the same performance as many of the SSDs we've talked about for years. Looking in at generations of SATA and controllers, this is one of the slowest SATA III SSDs ever released"

Do you remember the number of reviews that praised Sandforce drives? Where is Sandforce now?
Would Anandtech have given the 840 Evo a 'Recommended' award if they could have foreseen the long-term performance issues?
Has Phison made a good controller before? Even Samsung went through a couple of generations before they had success with the 830 series.

You're already paying a huge premium for an SSD. It is baffling that you would look to cut corners by choosing a cheap controller. If this is a temporary drive, then go ahead. I bought my Samsung 830 5 years ago, have found no need to change it and it is still rock solid. If you expect to use your drive as long, then use common sense and choose wisely. I was hesitant to recommend the 840 series and I am similarly cautious with these Phison drives - you may not end up like the 840 debacle, but hey, its your money to gamble with :)
 
120gb is not included in the Premium Edition.
In Premium Edition only 240 and 480gb are included.
And what you say may be the reason it is not in the Premium Edition series.

And what you are saying may be right but I don't think it's only the controller which matters.
I believe the firmware also matters and it is the combination of both which gives the best performance.
Hopefully if zotac releases a newer firmware may be we can find some improvements.

Also if benchmarks show that it touches 850 evo, then in real world scenario even if it is performing lesser, it will be better then 750 evo, I guess.
And even a 750evo @5k costs more then this 4.4k ssd.
 
I have a soft spot for the Crucial brand, just because it was my first SSD purchase around 8 years ago (a 128 GB model M225), and it just happens it went kaput a couple of days ago after these 8+ years of regular but not heavy usage. I have another Crucial M225 64GB one (again around 8 yrs old) and a 256GB Crucial RealSSD C300 (maybe 5-6 yrs old)... both still going strong :)[DOUBLEPOST=1473387933][/DOUBLEPOST]And I'm also thinking about getting the BX100 either 120GB or 250GB model off onlyssd.com
 
aKp1 said:
120gb is not included in the Premium Edition.
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My mistake. Some of the other manufacturers have brought the 120GB model under the same lineup.

Yes, when talking about the controller, it includes the firmware aspect as well. The firmware in this case is also done by Phison. The SSD is most likely made by Toshiba. Zotac's contribution to this SSD is the packaging. There are numerous OEMs similarly re-branding this Phison/Toshiba platform for their budget SSDs, because it's a cost effective way for them to get started in the SSD market.

I'm not saying you need to wait for better firmware from Phison. I'm saying if this is the first competent platform by Phison, we need to wait for enough time to pass to declare it a solid platform. With the kind of SSD goof ups lately and the quality of SSDs dropping, it is all the more important to pick something with a good track record.

In any case, I'm sure your mind is made, so - congrats on your new Zotac SSD :)

koolcoolkg said:
http://www.ebay.in/itm/ADATA-Premie...698341?hash=item4b0775a7a5:g:y4cAAOSwFV9Xx7TZ

Anyone has any idea about this.
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SM2256 controller which isn't as good as the SM2246 and TLC NAND. Though it's M.2 it uses the SATA interface not NVMe. Does not seem like a good buy.
 
Crazy_Eddy said:
I've already seen the reviews and I even know that Anandtech's SSD buying guide has a Phison controller based SSD among their budget picks.
But there is more to an SSD than just good reviews/benchmarks. Reviews cannot account for long term reliability.

I repeat - Phison has a history of making mediocre controllers.
Do check how the 120GB variant of this same Zotac drive performs - it is Phison based with no DRAM cache. Tweaktown reviewed a Patriot drive based on the same design, and this is what they said :-
"While still an SSD, the Patriot Blaze doesn't really deliver the same performance as many of the SSDs we've talked about for years. Looking in at generations of SATA and controllers, this is one of the slowest SATA III SSDs ever released"

Do you remember the number of reviews that praised Sandforce drives? Where is Sandforce now?
Would Anandtech have given the 840 Evo a 'Recommended' award if they could have foreseen the long-term performance issues?
Has Phison made a good controller before? Even Samsung went through a couple of generations before they had success with the 830 series.

You're already paying a huge premium for an SSD. It is baffling that you would look to cut corners by choosing a cheap controller. If this is a temporary drive, then go ahead. I bought my Samsung 830 5 years ago, have found no need to change it and it is still rock solid. If you expect to use your drive as long, then use common sense and choose wisely. I was hesitant to recommend the 840 series and I am similarly cautious with these Phison drives - you may not end up like the 840 debacle, but hey, its your money to gamble with :)
Click to expand...

What you're saying makes sense in a way, but the price per GB is extremely low, reviews are awesome, speeds are awesome and its backed by a 3yr warranty. Plus its MLC.

Competing 750 drives are costly by 1k atleast, are TLC with very limited life already mentioned and limited/less warranty. Plus the performance is lower.
 
There is a onlyssd seller selling Samsung 850 EVO new drives at Rs 6450/- only. Not sure if it is the OnlySSD that we know outside of ebay because on the onlyssd website the prices are higher.
 
Can anyone suggest a 480gb + SSD similar to the ones at 240gb+ discussed above?

I am going to UK soon, so options with international warranty could also be looked at.
I already have a 256 GB Crucial MX 400 which I had bought in the US - went kaput once during warranty period, took me 6 months to get it rma'd and get it back to India.
Would like to avoid that this time :) .
 
fistea said:
Can anyone suggest a 480gb + SSD similar to the ones at 240gb+ discussed above?

I am going to UK soon, so options with international warranty could also be looked at.
I already have a 256 GB Crucial MX 400 which I had bought in the US - went kaput once during warranty period, took me 6 months to get it rma'd and get it back to India.
Would like to avoid that this time :) .
Click to expand...
Kingston UV400 480GB SSD @ 12k
 
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