1st SSD

[rogue426]

I'm going to buy my first one.
This is the one I'm looking at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 20-147-134
I don't need anything larger, my 2 main computers have 49 and 65 GB out of 640 GB and 1 TB used.
Samsung seems to be the ones to beat now from whats on the interwebs , any other suggestions?
I could probably drop down to the 64 GB model ,but with a couple of games coming out soon , 128 GB seems better.

[Compton]

I'm going to buy my first one.
This is the one I'm looking at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 20-147-134
I don't need anything larger, my 2 main computers have 49 and 65 GB out of 640 GB and 1 TB used.
Samsung seems to be the ones to beat now from whats on the interwebs , any other suggestions?
I could probably drop down to the 64 GB model ,but with a couple of games coming out soon , 128 GB seems better.

I think there is a coupon for the 128GB 830 which may make it cheaper. Now everything mainstream in the 128GB size is around the same price, so you have lots of options. But you won't find many people who regret going with the 830. I have several, an I find them to be fantastic. The Plextor M3P is stellar, but much more expensive.

[JustAnEngineer]

That looks like an excellent choice to me, Rogue. Be sure to check out the combination deals available with that drive.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCo ... =50&Page=1

[UberGerbil]

That's what I picked for the system drive in my recent build. No problems with it whatsoever, and performance is pretty much as advertised.

Couple of points: first, make sure you have the latest firmware installed. The included "Magician" software can do that, or you can do it the old-fashioned by booting from a USB stick with the software on Samsung's (now Seagate's) site. Either way, there's one oddity I noticed: the version number on the firmware won't change until you do a full reboot, so initially it'll look like the update didn't take.

The other thing I did was size the active partition a little smaller than the full size of the drive, leaving some empty blocks for the controller to use for wear levelling. The "Magician" software makes this easy as well (and it suggests about 10% slack, which seems about right). Unlike updating the firmware, this isn't absolutely necessary (unless your usage involves an incredibly high number of writes, particularly for system/program drive, the drive will probably be replaced by something bigger and cheaper before it reaches the end of its useful life) but I'm just cautious like that. (Since I'm not installing games, I still have ~50% free space, so it's not like I miss the capacity)

[flip-mode]

I'd recommend saving $45 and going with a Crucial M4 128 GB SATA 6G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820148442

The Samsung 830 may be a little faster, but the M4 is still very, very much SSD-fast.

[irvinenomore]

Wish we could get those Newegg.ca, have just bought Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240GB for $236 with tax
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=62972&promoid=1382.
It uses toggle nand and is roughly equivalent to the OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOP.

[Chrispy_]

I'm with Flip-mode on this. For a desktop, there are no bad SSD's mad anymore (maybe sandforce have a vocal group of haters but the statistics aren't much worse than mechanical disk failures)

If you can save $45, you're really not going to notice the difference in speed. It's the difference between walking to work and driving to work; you don't have to buy a sports car to appreciate the difference, and just as a sports car is limited by traffic and speed limits, there are few opporunities for the best SSD's to outperform cheaper ones.

[integer]

I'd recommend saving $45 and going with a Crucial M4 128 GB SATA 6G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820148442

The Samsung 830 may be a little faster, but the M4 is still very, very much SSD-fast.

The Crucial m4 is $99 (+ free shipping) at Buy.com.

[flip-mode]

I'd recommend saving $45 and going with a Crucial M4 128 GB SATA 6G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820148442

The Samsung 830 may be a little faster, but the M4 is still very, very much SSD-fast.

The Crucial m4 is $99 (+ free shipping) at Buy.com.

That's amazing.

[rogue426]

Looks like I missed it, no longer available.
Out of stock at egg too.
That one looks like it may be the new choice.

[flip-mode]

For what it's worth, I've sampled several SSDs in my machine at work: 80 GB X-25 M G2, 80 & 120 GB Vertex 2, 80 GB Agility 2, and 120 GB Crucial M4. They all feel the same speed. I'm sure I could benchmark them and there could be a bunch of difference between them on paper, but in the computer they all feel the same. And they feel good.

Strangely, I'm not at all bothered by keeping to a 1 TB mechanical drive at home. If an SSD fell into my lap I'd kick out the mechanical drive in an instant, but I can't seem to be bothered to actually buy one.

[Firestarter]

I'm with Flip-mode on this. For a desktop, there are no bad SSD's mad anymore (maybe sandforce have a vocal group of haters but the statistics aren't much worse than mechanical disk failures)

Very much false I'd say. There are enough SSDs on the market that are a total unknown for factors like reliability and compatibility. Others still are known to be faulty but can still be bought, for example the Kingston SSDnow V200.

The SSDs we usually discuss are the bigger, more well known names of which we've more or less established that they work. The Crucial M4 is a known quantity in that sense, and a very good choice.