The SSD Megathread - Don't buy OCZ/Toshiba, Kingston, or Crucial drives, read the OP

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The SSD Megathread - Don't buy OCZ/Toshiba, Kingston, or Crucial drives, read the OP

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BlackMK4: Aug 23, 2006; wat.; Megamarm

Ah, I haven't run a Windows system in the past 10 years, didn't even think about that.

# ? Jan 9, 2012 03:42

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 18:04

Bob Morales: Aug 18, 2006; ~~Just wear the fucking mask, Bob~~

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

BlackMK4 posted:

CF card + ide/sata converter?

A fast 32GB CF card isn't cheap, probably the same price as that Onyx drive. You still may have to tweak the BIOS of your system (disabling DMA modes etc) as well. I've had success using them with FreeBSD and old Pentium 4 systems but always seem to get errors with Linux and newer hardware. Plus they're slow.

# ? Jan 9, 2012 03:45

FISHMANPET: Mar 3, 2007; Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams

I'm not particularly concerned about speed, as long as it's not terrible compared to a spindle drive. The HTPC will be running XBMC, but the media will all be on a NAS, and the media database lives on a MySQL server as well. So overall I'm not concerned with it being the fastest SSD.

Since the HTPC I'm replacing was a hacked together piece of junk, so I'm hoping to do better with the replacement. I'm interested in the noise, heat, and power usage of the SSD more than the speed. Because this should be able to handle 1080p media, I won't be replacing it for a while, and because this is going to be just an appliance, I want something that will be easy and reliable.

So mostly I'm looking to find out what to avoid outright. It sounds like OCZ sometimes has trouble, and the Onyx didn't live very long, so I won't be going that way. The next level up in price on Newegg is an OCX Vertex, and then a Kingston drive, and then an Adata. Is there anything there I should avoid as well?

E: This is going be running Windows. I'm looking at this barebones system, or something equivalent.

# ? Jan 9, 2012 04:58

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

Kingston V+100? Those ought to be cheap and reliable.

# ? Jan 9, 2012 05:02

FISHMANPET: Mar 3, 2007; Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams

Dogen posted:

Kingston V+100? Those ought to be cheap and reliable.

How about this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139914
Only $5 more.

# ? Jan 9, 2012 05:05

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

No, the V+ model... Looks like those are mostly gone. I would stay away from OCZ Vertex... hmm.

Spring a bit more for a Corsair Force 3 or Intel 320?

# ? Jan 9, 2012 05:12

unpronounceable: Apr 4, 2010; You mean we still have another game to go through?!; Fallen Rib

Has anyone seen a review or benchmarks for the new Kingston V200 drives? I remember they came out a while ago, but didn't see any of the major sites reviewing them.

# ? Jan 9, 2012 06:49

HalloKitty: Sep 30, 2005; Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

Zhentar posted:

Not really a very good idea generally. Windows will refuse to install to most CF cards, if that's what you're going to use, and they tend to be pretty slow with firmware that's not optimized for good random access.

For what it's worth, last time I installed onto a CF card was using Windows Server 2003, and it worked fine. I think it was 8GB or something. Just used for me personally as a tiny server.
It was even pretty quick to boot.

# ? Jan 9, 2012 09:40

Bob Morales: Aug 18, 2006; ~~Just wear the fucking mask, Bob~~

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

FISHMANPET posted:

I'm not particularly concerned about speed, as long as it's not terrible compared to a spindle drive. The HTPC will be running XBMC, but the media will all be on a NAS, and the media database lives on a MySQL server as well. So overall I'm not concerned with it being the fastest SSD.

Since the HTPC I'm replacing was a hacked together piece of junk, so I'm hoping to do better with the replacement. I'm interested in the noise, heat, and power usage of the SSD more than the speed. Because this should be able to handle 1080p media, I won't be replacing it for a while, and because this is going to be just an appliance, I want something that will be easy and reliable.

So mostly I'm looking to find out what to avoid outright. It sounds like OCZ sometimes has trouble, and the Onyx didn't live very long, so I won't be going that way. The next level up in price on Newegg is an OCX Vertex, and then a Kingston drive, and then an Adata. Is there anything there I should avoid as well?

E: This is going be running Windows. I'm looking at this barebones system, or something equivalent.

There's a Canadian goon selling a Intel SSD for $80 (I think) in SA-Mart

# ? Jan 9, 2012 14:57

Funky Bunkbed: Jul 27, 2007; You are now.

I have a question that I hope there's an easy answer to. I am awaiting my first-ever SSD - should be here Thursday. I am attempting to get everything in order beforehand so the transition is smooth. I know everyone recommends Clonezilla to migrate a current OS install to an SSD. Is there a really basic tutorial for how to do this? I'll still need to use e.g. Diskpart in Win7 to set up partitions to maintain alignment, correct? I think I'm good to go on that part, it's the actual use of Clonezilla that's tripping me up. I apologize if this has been covered in-depth elsewhere. Thanks!

# ? Jan 9, 2012 23:46

DrBouvenstein: Feb 28, 2007; I think I'm a doctor, but that doesn't make me a doctor. This fancy avatar does.

I'm about to do a fresh and clean install of Win 7 on my current Vista machine...I'm not doing any kind of file-transfer/disk-clone stuff and then upgrading, just plan on buying a new SSD and installing Win 7 on that, then wiping the old hard drive to use for the storage I'll desperately need.

I've already backed up any files I deemed important onto another drive (documents, pictures, videos (porn), and figured I'll just re-download/install any programs I'll need, since it's not that many. I'm not even currently playing any games right now, so I don't even have to worry about trying to transfer saved game data over!

So it looks like all I'll have to do to have a happy SSD experience is enable ACHI? ACHI is something I set through the BIOS, then? (Though the OP also says it can be done after installation...is it better to do it before?) I've got the drivers installed on a flash drive, so let's hope my mobo and/or Win 7 let me install drivers from it, because I have no floppy drive.

Is the Corsair Force 3-series still the recommended drive? I have an older motherboard, it was purchased in October of 07, so it doesn't have SATA600...I'm guessing...Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6.

# ? Jan 10, 2012 00:27

HalloKitty: Sep 30, 2005; Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

If you're doing a clean install, definitely make sure AHCI is enabled first.

It'll probably be under your SATA controller mode somewhere in the BIOS. Bad options are probably something like "combined" "compatible" "IDE". Good things to see are: "Native" "Enhanced" "AHCI".

I'm sure something like that will show up in whatever BIOS you have.

# ? Jan 10, 2012 00:31

spasticColon: Sep 22, 2004; In loving memory of Donald Pleasance

I'm all but certain it was my bios settings that was causing my issues because when I set them to what MSI's website and forums suggested my problems went away. I ran the CrystalDiskMark at the 4000MB/9 Runs settings a dozen times and my system didn't even flinch. I have been using my computer normally and no issues have popped up except that 120GB doesn't go very far for games. For Steam games, is there a way I can install some of them on the SSD then install the rest on my HDD?

# ? Jan 10, 2012 13:42

Factory Factory: Mar 19, 2010; This is what
Arcane Velocity was like.

spasticColon posted:

I'm all but certain it was my bios settings that was causing my issues because when I set them to what MSI's website and forums suggested my problems went away. I ran the CrystalDiskMark at the 4000MB/9 Runs settings a dozen times and my system didn't even flinch. I have been using my computer normally and no issues have popped up except that 120GB doesn't go very far for games. For Steam games, is there a way I can install some of them on the SSD then install the rest on my HDD?

SteamMover (bottom of the OP). If you have Steam on the SSD now, then games download to the SSD, and you use SteamMover to shuffle them off to the hard drive.

# ? Jan 10, 2012 14:10

Reith: Jul 23, 2007

Been reading this thread and doing research for a while, and I think I'm finally about ready to get a SSD. I'm about to pull the trigger on this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233211

Any thoughts? Should I get a Force Series 3 instead? It's only $20 cheaper so I don't mind too much.

# ? Jan 10, 2012 20:16

fletcher: Jun 27, 2003; ken park is my favorite movie; Cybernetic Crumb

Reith posted:

Been reading this thread and doing research for a while, and I think I'm finally about ready to get a SSD. I'm about to pull the trigger on this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233211

Any thoughts? Should I get a Force Series 3 instead? It's only $20 cheaper so I don't mind too much.

I got a 120GB Force GT and it has been nothing short of amazing so far. What kind of motherboard do you have?

# ? Jan 10, 2012 20:47

Reith: Jul 23, 2007

It's a P67 MSI motherboard that I bought about a year ago (I think) when I upgraded to Sandy Bridge.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130582

I think this is it. If not, it's something similar.

# ? Jan 10, 2012 21:11

unpronounceable: Apr 4, 2010; You mean we still have another game to go through?!; Fallen Rib

Reith posted:

Been reading this thread and doing research for a while, and I think I'm finally about ready to get a SSD. I'm about to pull the trigger on this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233211

Any thoughts? Should I get a Force Series 3 instead? It's only $20 cheaper so I don't mind too much.

Given how much faster an SSD is compared to a traditional HDD, I highly doubt you'll notice any performance difference between the two. I'd go with whichever's cheaper, so the Force 3.

# ? Jan 10, 2012 22:33

spasticColon: Sep 22, 2004; In loving memory of Donald Pleasance

Factory Factory posted:

SteamMover (bottom of the OP). If you have Steam on the SSD now, then games download to the SSD, and you use SteamMover to shuffle them off to the hard drive.

Thanks for this. I must have missed it when I skimmed the OP.

# ? Jan 11, 2012 03:04

Venkmanologist: Jun 21, 2007; Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together -- mass hysteria.

Not really sure where to put this so its going in the SSD thread and the Mac Hardware thread.

I have a mid-2009 Macbook Pro with an Intel 320 series 80GB SSD installed. I was running Snow Leopard but then ran into a problem today. When I start up the machine now, I get the gray screen with the flashing folder + question mark. I've tried several methods to fix the startup folder problem but nothing is working.

1. I inserted the snow leopard install disk, hoping to run Disk Utility from the DVD to repair the installation. However the SSD doesn't show up in the drive menu as a installation destination. In the Disk Repair menu, the Intel drive shows up, but it only has an 8MB capacity (?????)

2. I tried connecting to the laptop through my Mac mini via target disk mode. When the connection is made, an error pops up on the Mac mini saying that the drive is not recognized.

3. I've tried removing the SSD from the laptop and connecting to it via USB. This also yields the error of "drive cannot be recognized."

I have no idea what to do and am really afraid this thing is shot. I blew $180 on this thing, I don't want to junk it already.

Help?

# ? Jan 11, 2012 03:22

BlackMK4: Aug 23, 2006; wat.; Megamarm

Sup fellow 80gb Intel 320 failed in their MBP buddy.

Your drive failed with the 8mb bug.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18363

I think you can secure erase it in a PC then flash that firmware to prevent it from happening again (supposedly). Or just RMA it.

BlackMK4 fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Jan 11, 2012

# ? Jan 11, 2012 03:30

redeyes: Sep 14, 2002; by Fluffdaddy

BlackMK4 posted:

Sup fellow 80gb Intel 320 failed in their MBP buddy.

Your drive failed with the 8mb bug.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18363

I think you can secure erase it in a PC then flash that firmware to prevent it from happening again (supposedly). Or just RMA it.

I would just RMA it. Intel rocks the RMAs so you get a nice new drive instead of a working used one you had to spend time to fix.

# ? Jan 11, 2012 03:59

Venkmanologist: Jun 21, 2007; Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together -- mass hysteria.

redeyes posted:

I would just RMA it. Intel rocks the RMAs so you get a nice new drive instead of a working used one you had to spend time to fix.

This is what I'm gonna do. Thanks for the help everyone. Sucks I lose the data (going go start utilizing Time Machine now) but I don't mind getting a new drive out of the deal.

# ? Jan 11, 2012 04:21

BlackMK4: Aug 23, 2006; wat.; Megamarm

Good, TimeMachine is seriously the poo poo.

. Nothing like hitting restore from time machine in Lion recovery and having a machine that looks like nothing happened to it - down to the same programs and tabs open - twenty minutes later (my time machine was in my optibay and I have a ssd).

# ? Jan 11, 2012 05:10

Cicero: Dec 17, 2003; Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

Alereon posted:

Crucial is acknowledging a firmware defect with their M4 SSDs that kicks in after 5000 hours of active use, causing systems to bluescreen every hour or so. The firmware update to fix this should be available the week of January 16th. I kind of wish we'd see companies put more effort into firmware QA.

I got a Crucial m4 at the end of April and started getting consistent bluescreens starting yesterday that appeared unrelated to more 'normal' gpu/cpu performance issues, as they happened regardless of load (in fact, I just came into this thread looking to see if it could be a problem with my SSD). 5000 hours is 208 days, and I leave my computer on pretty much all the time, so it sounds about right. This is welcome news. Guess I'll be using the old laptop for a bit.

# ? Jan 11, 2012 09:20

Airbone Operation: Dec 22, 2007; Tosser

I read the op, or at least most of it, earlier today. Then my daughter stuck popsicle sticks in my PS3 and broke it so that ruined whatever I was thinking about up to that point. Anyways, I saw an OCZ 60gb ssd for sale on one of those deal websites listed as new for 75 bucks shipped. It got some gears turning but everyone says OCZ is poo poo so I started looking for similarly priced 60gb drives and found a few that are ~250mb/s read/write which is about half the rate of other ones. Examples are Corsair Nova and the Patriot Torqx 2 along with some intel drives that are ~200mb.s read and ~50mb/s write.

Now if I purchased one of these drives would it be a waste of time and money for little gain or is the read speed still pretty good just not the best? I will install windows 7 on the drive and pretty much thats about it. Music/movies will all be on a regular drive, the only game I really play is bf3 so I guess that can go on the ssd. 60gb should be enough to cover windows and 1 or 2 games right?

# ? Jan 11, 2012 22:01

Bob Morales: Aug 18, 2006; ~~Just wear the fucking mask, Bob~~

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

Airbone Operation posted:

Now if I purchased one of these drives would it be a waste of time and money for little gain or is the read speed still pretty good just not the best? I will install windows 7 on the drive and pretty much thats about it. Music/movies will all be on a regular drive, the only game I really play is bf3 so I guess that can go on the ssd. 60gb should be enough to cover windows and 1 or 2 games right?

That's a perfectly fine way to use a smaller SSD. No reason for media files to not be on platter drives.

# ? Jan 11, 2012 22:44

Alereon: Feb 6, 2004; Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed; College Slice

Anandtech is reporting that Crucial will be launching the Adrenaline cache drive, a 50GB SSD with 64GB of NAND and including caching software, probably the Dataplex software. It's good to see caching options from companies other than OCZ.

Airbone Operation posted:

Cheap 60GB SSD stuff

60GB is REALLY not very much capacity at all, especially with the size of modern games. I'd strongly recommend something in the 120GB range at least, like the Corsair Force 3 120Gb for $169.99 recommended in the OP. My Windows 7 directory alone is nearly 30GB, which doesn't leave much room, even if you disable Hibernation and shrink the page file.

# ? Jan 12, 2012 03:16

fletcher: Jun 27, 2003; ken park is my favorite movie; Cybernetic Crumb

Alereon posted:

My Windows 7 directory alone is nearly 30GB, which doesn't leave much room, even if you disable Hibernation and shrink the page file.

Why is your Windows 7 directory 30GB?? Mine is 13GB.

Seconding the 120GB recommendation, 64GB is pretty much impossible to get by with if you are going to install a game or two on it.

# ? Jan 12, 2012 03:20

Alereon: Feb 6, 2004; Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed; College Slice

fletcher posted:

Why is your Windows 7 directory 30GB?? Mine is 13GB.

I have nearly 13GB in my winsxs folder, which is the Windows Side-by-Side Assembly Store. This folder holds different versions of libraries, so that each program gets access to the version it wants, preventing "DLL hell." The downside is the folder grows in size as you install Windows Updates and new applications (and doesn't shrink when programs are uninstalled).

Edit: Though I just ran the cleanup command I found here and cut the folder size by more than 5GB.

Alereon fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Jan 12, 2012

# ? Jan 12, 2012 04:00

real_scud: Sep 5, 2002; One of these days these elbows are gonna walk all over you

Alereon posted:

I have nearly 13GB in my winsxs folder, which is the Windows Side-by-Side Assembly Store. This folder holds different versions of libraries, so that each program gets access to the version it wants, preventing "DLL hell." The downside is the folder grows in size as you install Windows Updates and new applications (and doesn't shrink when programs are uninstalled).

Edit: Though I just ran the cleanup command I found here and cut the folder size by more than 5GB.

Holy poo poo, just ran it as well and it got rid of about 4GB worth of stuff, think this should be added to the OP so more people know to run it once you get all the windows updates.

# ? Jan 12, 2012 04:29

other people: Jun 27, 2004; Associate Christ

I too am looking to buy the cheapest SSD I can find that will last (lol). I need it for an external enclosure to load virtual machines off of. Space is not an issue.

Corsair Nova Series, Kingston V100, OCZ, etc almost all have more 1 star reviews than anything else on newegg/amazon. Are things really that bad??

I must be crazy, because I have a "terrible" OCZ Agility drive in my main machine that has been ticking away just fine for almost a year now.

# ? Jan 12, 2012 04:42

madsushi: Apr 19, 2009; Baller.
#essereFerrari

fletcher posted:

Why is your Windows 7 directory 30GB?? Mine is 13GB.

Seconding the 120GB recommendation, 64GB is pretty much impossible to get by with if you are going to install a game or two on it.

64-bit vs 32-bit has a lot to do with it, a 64-bit install is much larger than a 32-bit install.

e: Also, wow, that command is awesome.

madsushi fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Jan 12, 2012

# ? Jan 12, 2012 05:00

Treytor: Feb 8, 2003; Enjoy, uh... refreshing time!

CCleaner takes care of that command, plus a bunch of other stuff. It's a staple in my windows arsenal - https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

vVv: Wasn't aware of that. The command did nothing for me (probably because I installed SP1 slipstreamed), but I assumed that maybe it was because ccleaner took care of it already. In any case, use CCleaner.

Treytor fucked around with this message at 06:37 on Jan 12, 2012

# ? Jan 12, 2012 05:41

Alereon: Feb 6, 2004; Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed; College Slice

Treytor posted:

CCleaner takes care of that command, plus a bunch of other stuff. It's a staple in my windows arsenal - https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

It actually doesn't touch the winsxs folder, it will take care of hotfix/service pack uninstallers but not the files they leave behind in winsxs. I posted a suggestion on their forum to add support, the last time it was suggested no one about that command or a good way to tell what files were old and could be removed.

# ? Jan 12, 2012 05:46

fletcher: Jun 27, 2003; ken park is my favorite movie; Cybernetic Crumb

madsushi posted:

64-bit vs 32-bit has a lot to do with it, a 64-bit install is much larger than a 32-bit install.

e: Also, wow, that command is awesome.

My 64-bit install went from 17.2GB to 13.2GB, sweet!

It had some Error 87 on my 13GB 32-bit install at work, not sure why. I'll google it tomorrow.

# ? Jan 12, 2012 06:48

Dmoz: Dec 3, 2005; Ad Hominem

Another vote of confidence for "that command" - I run a 64-bit install of Win7 Pro and it got rid of 3.3gb of stuff from the windows folder - and I run CCleaner regularly.

# ? Jan 12, 2012 11:44

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Alereon posted:

I have nearly 13GB in my winsxs folder, which is the Windows Side-by-Side Assembly Store. This folder holds different versions of libraries, so that each program gets access to the version it wants, preventing "DLL hell." The downside is the folder grows in size as you install Windows Updates and new applications (and doesn't shrink when programs are uninstalled).

Edit: Though I just ran the cleanup command I found here and cut the folder size by more than 5GB.

Won't run for me. I have a 16 gig winsxs folder

code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.1.7600.16385

Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385

Service Pack Cleanup can't proceed: No service pack backup files were found.
The operation completed successfully.

C:\Windows\system32>

The comments on that page suggest that it means I'm not running Sp1.

Chris Stinson posted:

Version: 6.1.7600.xxxxx is the RTM build of Windows 7. This trick works with Windows 7 SP1 which should be version: 6.1.7601.xxxxx.

Well, uh, I am

and in fact you can see that by looking at the top of the cmd window, where it says 6.1.7601.

Is there anything I can do?

# ? Jan 12, 2012 12:16

HalloKitty: Sep 30, 2005; Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

Worked for me, here on my work PC.

Went from 3.36GB free to 6.68GB free. Good stuff!

# ? Jan 12, 2012 12:25

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 18:04

univbee: Jun 3, 2004

Fuschia tude posted:

and in fact you can see that by looking at the top of the cmd window, where it says 6.1.7601.

Is there anything I can do?

The tool stays at that version, that's normal. It's possible you did a clean install with SP1 already there, or already ran the tool somehow.

# ? Jan 12, 2012 15:23

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The SSD Megathread - Don't buy OCZ/Toshiba, Kingston, or Crucial drives, read the OP

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