Storage Solutions Suggestions required for a dual SSD setup

[mithun]

Hello friends,
At long last I've finally managed a partial upgrade replacing my almost 7 year old C2D rig with a FX8350 and Asus 990FX motherboard. It goes without saying that my Hard Drives are proving to be a bottleneck to my new system, hence I'm looking to upgrade to SSDs pronto.

The dilemma is my STEAM folder, which is currently tad over 180 gigabytes and growing. Add to that a couple of u-play/origin titles. So, buying a single 256gb SSD as a OS+Basic apps+Games drive wont suffice.

I'm therefore contemplating buying 2 separate SSDs, a 64GB(OS+Apps) SSD and a 256GB SSD for games.Currently, looking at an OCZ Vertex 4 (64GB) for the Boot Drive and a Samsung 840 256GB(non pro) for my games.

Now the queries :
1. There are several much cheaper (Sandforce based) options in the 64 GB arena. ADATA/Corsair Force drives are what I'm pointing at. The Vertex costs more than 5.5k, only tad cheaper than the Sammy 120GB SSD. Are current generation Sandforce controllers trouble free? Any cheaper alternatives for the boot drive?
2. Is the TLC Based Samsung 840 a bad investment with respect to longevity. I seldom use my PC more than 2-3 hours in weekdays and 7-8 hours during weekends/holidays.
3. The Kolkata PC market is currently flooded with Kingston SSDs. No other brands are available it seems. How does the HyperX SSDs fare?
4. Tirupati had only 2 SSDs with them!! A Vertex and a GSkill. Raises suspicions about RMA turnaround time when there is no stock even with the national distributor.
5. What's with the Neutrons? I would love to own two Corsairs but for the price.

 

[memnom]

First off, congrats on your upgrade.

The Dual SSD strategy is very valid provided that you absolutely need a SSD for your games. A 2 x WD Black in RAID will give u the most optimum gaming experience while not costing u more than 10k AND they provide fault tolerance in-case one of your HDDs conk off. So that u don't have to re-download all the 180GB of precious games. IMHO this setup is much more logical than a single SSD.

 

[sasikanth8]

Samsung 840 ssd are reliable and gives good performance too.

I suggest to get a 256gb ssd for now and get another one after it fills up. Place the games you are currently playing on ssd.

 

[cranky]

I use a 256GB Vertex4 for OS, and 2x WD Black 750GBs in RAID. These are really old AAKS series drives, but the final results offer a very healthy result. 2x 1Tb black drives and a small SSD for the OS should provide a good balance between speed and capacity, as memnon states.

I would stay away from Sandforce drives, really. Same with Kingston. SSDs are small enough to be shipped in from anywhere in the country, as long as you get the warranty.

In day-to-day usage, the only place where a good drive shows its colours is shutdown time. There is no perceptible difference (though it may be measurable) between booting from a 32GB SATA1 SSD, a Corsair Force2, an Agility3 and a Vertex4 (I have one of each). Neither do applications show any major speed differences. The improvement over mechanical drives is immense, so much so that minor drive differences get eclipsed.

However mech drives are still better for large sequential file transfers, and for large data volumes they do make sense over SSDs even today. Also they do not have the wear problem that all SSDs suffer from (and is exacerbated with data volumes>60%). I prefer to keep all my drives less than 70% full if I can help it.

If you have the cash though, 2x256GB SSDs is probably the way to go. Your motherboard will not be able to fully utilise the bandwidth on offer, but the disks should be a good investment.

 

[memnom]

^^This.If anything get a OCZ Vertex 4 for the boot drive and then a couple of WD Blacks in WD and you are all set to frag through hordes of NPCs with the IQ of 4 year olds without any hiccups.

 

[mithun]

@memnom , @cranky
Done!
Ordered the Vertex 4 for OS.
Are the WD Blacks available in lower capacities? I do not need 1 TB of space at the moment. Already have 4 other drives for storage. Can I make do with 2 x 500gb Barracudas or WD Blue drives instead?

 

[cranky]

Don't bother with slower drives, they'll bog you down specially when loading game levels. 1TB is the minimum size now for Blacks, the older 500/640/750 drives are all phased out and really old. You're looking at at least a 1TB single drive (slower, cheaper) or 2TB RAID array (quicker, pricier).

 

[mithun]

One more twist! Just got informed by Tirupati that I need to wait atleast 15 days for the Vertex 4. They are suggesting a 128GB Plextor M5S for 6.7k odd instead. Can do with the lower write speeds (over 200 and I'm calling that low). Should I buy the Plextor?

Thanks for all the help.

edit : received the M5S 128GB SSD! Will get dual 1TB black drives for my games.

 

[migel]

I have been using sandforce based Corsair Force 2, which is worth the price I had paid for the quality of performance I am enjoying. I do not understand why would someone would want to stay away from a quality controller.

 

[rdst_1]

One more twist! Just got informed by Tirupati that I need to wait atleast 15 days for the Vertex 4. They are suggesting a 128GB Plextor M5S for 6.7k odd instead. Can do with the lower write speeds (over 200 and I'm calling that low). Should I buy the Plextor?

Thanks for all the help.

edit : received the M5S 128GB SSD! Will get dual 1TB black drives for my games.

Should have asked for the M5M. They are one of the top SSDs when it comes to performance.

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

^ You mean the M5P. The M5M is mSATA. I'm guessing his budget was ~6k and at that point the M5S is good value. The M5P is 8.7k and for that price you could just get the Samsung 840 Pro instead.

I have been using sandforce based Corsair Force 2, which is worth the price I had paid for the quality of performance I am enjoying. I do not understand why would someone would want to stay away from a quality controller.

Sandforce controllers had/have BSOD problems. Took them a long time to fix the firmware. Doesn't look good for reliability, hence the recommendation to stay away when there are better options.

 

[migel]

^ You mean the M5P. The M5M is mSATA. I'm guessing his budget was ~6k and at that point the M5S is good value. The M5P is 8.7k and for that price you could just get the Samsung 840 Pro instead.


Sandforce controllers had/have BSOD problems. Took them a long time to fix the firmware. Doesn't look good for reliability, hence the recommendation to stay away when there are better options.

Which SSD are you using?? Well, it is already well known that many SSDs have had reliability issues earlier on, but off late have recovered well. The same stands good for sandforce controller which I have been using for quite some time now with least botheration.

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

Which SSD are you using?? Well, it is already well known that many SSDs have had reliability issues earlier on, but off late have recovered well. The same stands good for sandforce controller which I have been using for quite some time now with least botheration.

Well why didn't you just say you are a Sandforce PR troll? Quite a few SSDs have had reliability issues, but everyone else were quick to fix any issues either before launch or as soon as they were spotted. Sandforce literally took a year and couldn't even sort it out by itself. Why do you think Intel spent a whole year testing its 520 drive and delaying its launch? Even after all this there were goof ups like the 5.0.2 firmware which did not have working TRIM.

 

[cranky]

Which SSD are you using?? Well, it is already well known that many SSDs have had reliability issues earlier on, but off late have recovered well. The same stands good for sandforce controller which I have been using for quite some time now with least botheration.

Please name one new SSD released in 2012 or later, with a Sandforce controller. There is a reason that no manufacturer is using them, not even the bottom-of-the barrel Kingston.

Two of my three SSDs are Sandforce. Two Agility3 drives, y OCZ

They all suck. No second opinion.

I had a Corsair Force 2 till last week, and though it didn't BSOD or cause system freezing like the OCZ, the performance was quite poor and degraded rapidly as the drive filled.

You could argue that they were pioneers and that has its own issues, such as being overtaken by later improvements in technology. However today there are simply far better options, and more modern ones with better performance.

The only other argument is that for those using a mechanical drive and moving to their first SSD will experience a massive improvement in system responsiveness and speed. This does not mean that it is the best SSD, just that SSDs are better than mechanical drives.

Personal experience is not universal truth. That applies to everyone, including you. Sandforce issues are well-documented, and that is why they are being dropped rapidly in all new drives.