Jumping on the SSD bandwagon...

[the86d]

I just checked S.M.A.R.T status of my main HDD on my BUOR (Beat up old rig) and it appears I have some bad (relocated?) sectors.

Time to speed this thing up, and milk it until I build an i7... I'll probably reuse the drive as it supports SATAIII on the new rig when it's built.

I bought 2 Sandisk Ultra II's (one for testing and maybe as a Christmas gift for my son), as they don't appear much slower than the 840 Pros, and a Transcend 32GB for the lady's notebook (after I test read/write speeds on some notebooks I have at my disposal, of course)...

If the 44 pin works well, I might buy a few more when finances allow for it(, maybe after Christmas).

(I returned a Class 10 MicroSD to Sandisk this year and they sent me out a brand new Class 4! Oh well.)

Has anyone had any, or know anyone that had recent-tech SSD's die?

[Cactus_Tim]

Though reliable and fast, be sure you have a good backup strategy for your data. We have a large system in the data center using flash drives. When they fail, they fail hard and fast and are usually not recoverable.

[pterrell]

I have bought an SSD from Fry's a few months ago when they were having a sale. Works flawlessly and my computer boots in about 7 seconds from seeing the first Windows logo. I'm sure it can be made faster but I'm quite satisfied. They are more prone to fail than disk drives, but really, any storage device that you keep records or pictures that absolutely can't be replaced should be backed up in a RAID so you have redundancy to protect against complete loss in the event of a failure.

[Mute]

You should always back up your data. Anyway, my oldest SSD has been running for about 5 years now without a glitch. I only use HDD for data now. Any drives that runs an OS gets installed on an SSD. This will probably be one of the best upgrades you can make.

[Peter.Steele]

Yep - Samsung 840's here, both in my laptop and desktop. I keep my OS and important software on there, and most of my data files on a platter drive. I still keep the working data files for some of the programs - my CAD stuff, mostly - on the SSD, because they're constantly being accessed.

[the86d]

I bought two more cheapie-SSD for testing (1 mSATA), and I got IDE for the lady, thinking the lady's notebook was older than it was... SATA is it... (I am not giving her a 240GB Sandisk Extreme II for a notebook she hardly uses...

[jwilson.redding]

I had a couple 50GB Vertex 2s, they lasted about 3 years, one died so I replaced with with 240Gb Crucial M500 i got on sale for about $130, I am really happy with it, I store all files on a physical spinning disk and keep my OS and games on the SSD.
I have to say Windows 8.1 boots in sub 10 seconds from power off, i love it.

[meaty-btz]

I got a middle performance tier Intel. Been a champion. Love the speed. The only thing it needs to be is LARGER. I went with this series of intels because we used them in production servers and they were the most reliable of the sata drives we used.

When it comes to SSDs not all all equal and there are significant differences between model lines. Just because it has the same name does not mean it is in the same series. Premium SSDs still cost premium money. They are faster and more reliable and use higher quality components.

[stilly]

I just checked S.M.A.R.T status of my main HDD on my BUOR (Beat up old rig) and it appears I have some bad (relocated?) sectors.

Time to speed this thing up, and milk it until I build an i7... I'll probably reuse the drive as it supports SATAIII on the new rig when it's built.

I bought 2 Sandisk Ultra II's (one for testing and maybe as a Christmas gift for my son), as they don't appear much slower than the 840 Pros, and a Transcend 32GB for the lady's notebook (after I test read/write speeds on some notebooks I have at my disposal, of course)...

If the 44 pin works well, I might buy a few more when finances allow for it(, maybe after Christmas).

(I returned a Class 10 MicroSD to Sandisk this year and they sent me out a brand new Class 4! Oh well.)

Has anyone had any, or know anyone that had recent-tech SSD's die?

I heard chatter about Kingston changing out their controllers in their SSDs and making them run WAY slower and pissing a lot of folks off. I THINK it was kingston anyways. But sandisk is still good as far as I know.

[John Galt]

I would go with Samsung or Crucial. Both own their own fabs and there is a lot of downgraded flash making it into SSD's these days.

[thbat]

Samsung 840 is decent. They use their own controller and qc is good.
Intel is also good. I think they use the SandForce controllers and qc the heck out of it.
For the best $, I say Kingston. They also use the old SandForce controllers like Intel. Last I checked, it was around $50 for a 120gGb drive.

[the86d]

One thing I am noticing is that when I click on something there isn't a bunch of lag, for no reason at all, even on a BUOR like I have here in the rack.

This will at least let me milk it until I drop some coin on a new rig, starting with a new rack-mount case, after Christmas. I should be able to get a Samsung 840 Pro by then... and the prices would have dropped, or at least I can check some of the Cyber Monday deals.