Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

[Sirken]

Hello TT, I am really confused on which SSD to buy right now. I am mainly looking for a 120g-128g SSD, and it is going to be used as a boot drive with maybe one or two game (WoW/BF3) Many people on the net are telling me to get the 840 pro but at the same time many are telling me to buy the 840 non pro. I don't know anymore and would like to hear from the awesome people at TT.

Currently the Samsung 840 pro 128g is listed at $139.99 and the 840 120g non-pro is listed at $100.99. Is the 840 pro even worth the extra $39 (Considering that this drive will only e used to for boot and one or two games)? Will I notice a significant difference in boot times between the 840 pro and the non-pro? These numbers that are listed on the specs are just confusing for me. Is the 840 non pro a fast drive? The Samsung 840 non pro has really low write speeds compared to the 840 pro and its IOPS are a bit low. Will that affect system boot times?

I am open to any suggestions since this is my very first SSD purchase. I am really looking for the best SSD for the money that performs well and is reliable.

Thanks for dropping by!
-Sirken

[profJim]

Re: Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

Welcome to the forum.

Go with the 840 Pro model.
Tweaktown and HardOCP reviewers have compared both drives and the standard 840 model will lag at times and this can be aggravating.
The Pro model is definitely worth the higher price.
Check Newegg, Amazon, and other sites as both models have reduced sale prices at times.

I'm happy with my Samsung 128GB 830 model which has 120GiB.
Right now my drive is partitioned with 80Gib for the O/S and 40Gib unpartitioned reserved space for 33% over provisioning.
My P35 system is limited to sata2 speeds but it's still a dynamite upgrade for my system.

[wazza300]

Re: Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

theres some Samsung cashback deals on the 250gb non pro models in the uk,not sure if you have it in the us but makes it a good deal

[profJim]

Re: Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

wazza no speak with forked tounge.
Today's Newegg deal: SAMSUNG 840 Series MZ-7TD250BW 2.5" 250GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Newegg.com for $159 with a promo code.

promo code is valid until 05/22/2013, unless it sells out.

[Sirken]

Re: Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

Hey Jim thanks for the quick response, but I thought you said that the regular 840 had lag. Makes me want to turn away from those and look for another brand or save up some more money and just wait for the 256g 840 pro. Newegg just sent me the latest deals with the 840 non pro (pretty tempting), but now that I have read reviews on the 840 non pro with lag issues, it makes me think its not worth the buy :(.

[Sirken]

Re: Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

theres some Samsung cashback deals on the 250gb non pro models in the uk,not sure if you have it in the us but makes it a good deal

Don't think there are some here right now in the US, thanks for suggesting that though.

[profJim]

Re: Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

Sorry, I should have said that the 120GB Samsung 840 standard model was subject to occasional lag, but the 250GB 840 standard model had much less lag. Their PRO models have very little lag. This is one reason why you need to read some SSD reviews from good review sites. Don't get hung up on all the benchmark scores in each review, it will give you a major headache. A well written review will have a clearly written conclusion where they explain the good, the bad and the ugly and how the reviewed model compares with similar models.

The most important results are with small 4K file size read and write performance and how well they do with "steady state" performance when the SSD is filled with 25% to 75% of capacity. Very high sequential read and write scores with large file sizes have very little effect with a consumer's O/S boot drive. A good reviewer will describe why in each review that they do.

I'm going to bite the bullet and buy a 256GB PRO model when I buy a new Haswell system later this year.
There are several other brands that offer similar performance, such as the OCZ Vector and Corsair's Neutron GTX series.
In most cases the larger GB models will have better performance than the smaller models.

I bought two lower end OCZ Agility2 60GB ssd's a little over two years ago. One was great in my daily use system and the other one failed recently in my backup system that is seldom used. That was the last time that I'll buy a lower end model, but even the high end models can fail. Needless to say having a good backup strategy is a no brainer, whether you're running ssd's or HDD's.

[Sirken]

Re: Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

Welcome to the forum.

Go with the 840 Pro model.
Tweaktown and HardOCP reviewers have compared both drives and the standard 840 model will lag at times and this can be aggravating.
The Pro model is definitely worth the higher price.
Check Newegg, Amazon, and other sites as both models have reduced sale prices at times.

I'm happy with my Samsung 128GB 830 model which has 120GiB.
Right now my drive is partitioned with 80Gib for the O/S and 40Gib unpartitioned reserved space for 33% over provisioning.
My P35 system is limited to sata2 speeds but it's still a dynamite upgrade for my system.

Hey Jim thanks again for the quick reply, is the lag going to be noticeable? Or does it only show that it has lag when it comes to benchmarking? Kind of makes me turn away from the 840 non pro, but it really has great ratings from people who have bought it though and there seems to be no mention of this 'lag' from any of them.

[Sirken]

Re: Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

wazza no speak with forked tounge.
Today's Newegg deal: SAMSUNG 840 Series MZ-7TD250BW 2.5" 250GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Newegg.com for $159 with a promo code.

promo code is valid until 05/22/2013, unless it sells out.

Yeah as tempting as that sounds like, I really would like to buy an SSD off amazon since I am a prime member (two day shipping) and I have a $10 discount on any purchase I make over there. Ugh.. the pro is so good though, but I guess you get what you pay for when it comes to SSD's. Amazon's stock of the 840 pro 128g just got depleted.

I guess I have to think about the warranties too. The 840 pro comes with a 5 year warranty while the 840 non pro comes with 3 years. So I guess I am paying more for the pro's higher performance and extra 2 year warranty when compared to the non pro.

[profJim]

Re: Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

You're welcome.
My Samsung 830 has some lag but I don't notice it any more. Lag is more of an issue when you're doing a lot of writing to the drive, doing a lot of reading from the drive doesn't cause lagging to increase.
Some other brands and models have fantastic performance, but only when they're less than half full, then they go into a noticeably slower mode.

My bottom line advice is to save up some money and buy a higher end 256GB model.
There isn't one best model.
I like the idea of buying a larger, higher end model that comes with a 5 year warranty.

[profJim]

Re: Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

Samsung 840 Pro 512GB SSD Review :: TweakTown
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD Review :: TweakTown
Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD Review :: TweakTown

HARDOCP - Introduction - Samsung 840 120GB SSD Review
HARDOCP - Samsung 840 Series TLC 250GB SSD - Samsung 840 Series TLC 250GB SSD Review
HARDOCP - Introduction - Samsung 840 Pro SSD Review

[Sirken]

Re: Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

You're welcome.
My Samsung 830 has some lag but I don't notice it any more. Lag is more of an issue when you're doing a lot of writing to the drive, doing a lot of reading from the drive doesn't cause lagging to increase.
Some other brands and models have fantastic performance, but only when they're less than half full, then they go into a noticeably slower mode.

My bottom line advice is to save up some money and buy a higher end 256GB model.
There isn't one best model.
I like the idea of buying a larger, higher end model that comes with a 5 year warranty.

Alright I think I will wait and save up for the 256g 840 pro model, I will read those reviews that you have linked. Thank you Jim.

[profJim]

Re: Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

Don't thank me just yet, I'll have an essay test for in two days where you will need give a rating to each model and explain which one is the best buy.

[profJim]

Re: Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

Here is a nice coincidence, check out the review link in this thread:
http://forums.tweaktown.com/publicat...der-200-a.html

[wazza300]

Re: Lookin to buy my very first SSD (budget)

forked tongue's??


the 250gb non pro isn't bad at all,in 3 years time it will be obsolete so don't worry too much on warranties