i believe it's 8x 4 times. nevermind my main point is that we must plan the setup accordingly so that we can use them optimally.

man that's bad. i think you should also get power surge protectors to provide additional protections if it's frequent.

samsung models that have msata version is 840/850 evo. i think you can find that at garage sales (ronaldjoe maybe?)

you can try out transcend ssd 370. there might be something worth while in garage sales also.

oh ok. yes 840 evo has phased out and the new one is samsung 850 evo.

i think there are other options like crucial and plextor. however i am not sure if they are still available.

haha.. the 'numbers' of crucial drives are not among the finest, but they are ok actually

as for release dates, i usually just use google or refer to manufacturer's website. i am not sure if there is a website with such functions lol

ssd's sata support usually are backward compatible. i checked the mobo specs, its sata ports support sata2 (3Gb/s). the sata3 ssd will run at half of their full speed in this case. it's totally fine for general use, still much faster than hdd.

i will say don't worry about the quality of these drives. they are adopted by more users than other retail brands due to the same pricing reasons. so far we heard no one is complaining about them.

of the three, i will pick intel because of its mlc nand flash and the longer 5-year warranty. it's not the fastest compared to samsung 840 evo with rapid mode turned on. (in your case, speed means nothing because there is a hardware limitation already) the balance point (between performance, pricing, warranty period, etc.) is really up to one's expectation and preference.

as for sata speed vs. boot time/software load time, imo it's not a big deal (sata2 is slightly slower than sata3. i can live with that). anyway 20 seconds is still better than 2 minutes (w7 on hdd) hehe

edit: you asked if there were feedback about transcend ssd's, yes we have users of transcend ssd here, and the ssd's work fine for them. tbh the terms 'good' and 'cheap' don't really associate well with each others in terms of ssd. 'you get what you pay for' is more appropriate.

This post has been edited by horns: Jan 25 2015, 12:38 AM

i was referring to plextor m.2 ssd that were in your previous posts. in that case, yes it's better to use 2x sata ssd raid0. (and is still cost-effective)

for xp941, which is the current best pcie ssd, its speed is similar to or better than 2x sata ssd raid0. the problem is that it's expensive and rare. (oem only)

for the upcoming pcie ssd like sm951 with nvme technology (again it's for oem only), you will need 4x sata ssd raid0 to match with the speed of 1x m.2 ssd. again, price and availability are likely the main concerns. there are products from other brands that are between xp941 (read speed about 1.1GB/s) and sm951 (read speed slightly over 2GB/s), with price list unknown yet. it's better to wait for them to be released first.

for samsung sm951 nvme type (512GB, pcie 3.0 x4), yes.

pcie 2.0 will definitely be the bottleneck. still it's like 1.5GB/s.

please note that everything is still very early to get something like sm951. all the discussions surrounding it was about awareness of nvme, and maybe it can be included as part of the wish list when people plan their new purchases of laptops. (especially ultra slim laptops) i have read that there are 2 types of sm951, the ahci and nvme type. (they have different part numbers) the ahci type is relatively slower but cheaper. it was said that the upcoming lenovo x1 carbon has this. i'm also not sure sm951 can be used in bare m.2 form. (the previous xp941 is confirmed hot. some laptop vendors that use xp941 do provide an adapter that also acts as heat spreader to overcome this)

about kingston v300, i really don't wanna suggest it because of the incident that they swapped stuff in this model. (http://www.anandtech.com/show/7763/an-update-to-kingston-ssdnow-v300-a-switch-to-slower-micron-nand)

why don't you check out the garage sales? hikari85 is one good seller that comes into my mind that is near your area (well maybe relatively). maybe she has something better to offer also.

wow. maybe it's just a transition period before 850 evo starts to populate the market.

i suspect that oem drives might reassign essential parameters for crystal diskinfo to work properly.

the drive seems fine to me.

ok good luck

for laptops, msata slot is still a common option. it's gradually replaced by m.2 slots. (because m.2 ssd is not cheap) depending on models and brands, there are 2 types of m.2 slots: sata and pcie. be sure to check out the specs properly before purchase.

no i really mean it literally, wishing you luck for getting the drive you want

i have confidence on samsung ssds because i use quite a lot of them at home and for work, and there is no glitches whatsoever that i know of. (840 evo bug was confirmed fixed. it's not an issue anymore) note that this doesn't mean other brands are bad. i use other brands, like intel, plextor, and crucial too (including their oem ssds) and to me they are also good (depending on use cases).

i don't believe that i am this lucky.

no i don't mean that. i just refer to that particular model. i have other preferred options, this is why i never used a kingston drive before. for hyperx fury ssd, you have a better chance to find out from other review sites/reviews/comments about it. there's no report about it here afaik.

Something like that. In short, oem stuff are those that come with a prebuilt system. Unlike retail stuff, the warranty of oem parts are tied to the prebuilt system, and is honored by the manufacturer of that system. You cannot claim warranty separately. (e.g. Your asus laptop has a stock ssd made by samsung, and asus tells you that the laptop has a 2-year warranty. When the ssd failed, you claim its replacement from asus, not samsung. This also means the stock ssd has 2 years of warranty, because it is tied to your laptop)

wow. then i take back what i said lol

tlc drives really need some work-outs :/ i just tested my evo drives. the speed for both sata and msata 512GB were fine. i seldom use this laptop these days and i leave it in my bag for more than a few weeks already.

840 evo, 512gb, sata:


840 evo, 512gb, msata:


something is not right.

hm.. same here. let's see what happen after 3 months from now.

it's one of the possibilities.

for kingston v300, it's a pity. actually it's one of the few models that has the lowest return rates as of 6 november 2014. (source: hardware.fr)

for general use i also think it's a good drive. it's old, to me it's still fine.

intel 530 is a ssd released in 2013, while transcend 370 is a new drive released in 2014. so on paper, transcend looks better because it should be based on newer technologies. however for general use, you will not feel significant differences.

both have appropriate disk management software for you to manage and monitor the ssd. the most significant advantage for intel 530 is its 2-year-longer warranty.

oh don't mention it haha

i will pick intel 530. i suggest you take 240gb if possible. that userbenchmark.com use incompressible data for testing, sandforce controller will look bad. however for general use, it doesn't matter. oi mai blame me if it doesn't work nicely for you ya.

are you looking for performance only or overall value? i pick overall value if for general use lol

wait patiently. i think it will come soon.

much higher iops than 120gb; and more space for you . if you are going to use it for more than 3 years, that is.

ok but i think you will upgrade within that period of time. a little bit of future proofing is nice don't you think?

lol cheap is one factor to consider but i think value for money is more practical. for now intel 530 has most of the values that you can get from a typical ssd.