2010 Value SSD (~$100) Roundup: Kingston and OCZ take on Intel

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• cknobman - Thursday, June 3, 2010 - link

  Your reviews always show a breakdown of how a drive performs before and after TRIM. How are you issuing the TRIM command? I thought by default Windows 7 always issued the TRIM command on every operation as long as your drive supported it.

• gaspard - Sunday, June 6, 2010 - link

  well you can disable it via Windows' fsutil command: fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify NO TRIM: fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 1 TRIM ON: fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0

• GullLars - Thursday, June 3, 2010 - link

  I've been waiting for an article like this for a few months now, and you did a good job Anand, as always ;)
  
  I have a couple of questions:
  Why not include OCZ Agility 30GB? ($119 @ newegg)
  
  Why only test random write and not read at QD 32?
  There is little difference in random writes, but random reads double for the x25-V, and i'd guess increase a bit for the Onyx too.
  A full Barefoot drive can do 60MB/s random read @ QD 5.
  x25-V can do about 70MB/s @ QD 4, and about 100MB/s @ QD 8 for random reads.
  
  Why not include PCmark Vantage HDD subscores?
  They are made to showcase the strong and weak points of storage performance, and are relevant to what drive to pick. The total HDD score can be the same for two drives with completely different strenghts.

• Dylock - Thursday, June 3, 2010 - link

  The OCZ Agility 60GB is on sale at Amazon.com for 144$, as of today. That's $2.4 per GB.
  An Indilix controller to boot. The lower grade memory comes into play for performance , but not by much.

• Movieman420 - Thursday, June 3, 2010 - link

  Currently a 30gb Vertex is $109 ($99 after rebate)! Instead the Onyx was used which uses 'half' of an Idilinx controller (Indilinx Amigo). I know you had an Onyx handy cuz of recent testing but really. Even tho the Vertex is 'old gear', it woulda blew the doors off the other drives in your testing.

• u.of.ipod - Thursday, June 3, 2010 - link

  I want a SSD for my HTPC. Hopefully it can be shutdown and booted up more quickly, be more responsive in Windows Media Center 7 and finally to provide space for a second 3.5" storage drive. Is one of these value drives for me? Should I just choose a 2.5" mechanical drive instead?

• kmmatney - Friday, June 4, 2010 - link

  The Intel 40 GB SSD works fine on Windows XP without TRIM. Just install the Intel SSD Toolbox, and it will perform a "TRIM" or garbage collection routine automatically, once a week.

• kmmatney - Friday, June 4, 2010 - link

  Whoops - was supposed to be a new comment, and not a "reply"...

• gaspard - Sunday, June 6, 2010 - link

  whichever one you like, and NO... those are the answers respectively

• mrmike_49 - Saturday, June 5, 2010 - link

  I'd like to see tests of loading times for various games, start-up as well as level loads. Games are an ideal use for SSDs, many many Reads, very few Writes. A $100 SSD that could triple my load speed (or more) would be nice.
  
  How about redoing this review, concentrating on actual load start-up times and level loads of popular games??!!