its a good SSD nonetheless, but if youre the kind who requires SSD for work related softwares where you need to frequently write data then i say no. under light usage, AnandTech estimated 7 years of lifespan. if under heavy... cant say for sure but its lesser. MLCs can last longer even under heavy loads. bear in mind SSDs are not rated on years of lifespan but more on the amount of read and write cycles, so my previous analogy can be irrelevant

other choices (all MLCs)
Crucial M500 240GB RM569
Plextor M5S 256GB RM574
Kingston HyperX 3K 256GB RM599

The only heavy work will PC will ever do is gaming. I'm planning to use the SSD as a base for all my programs while I store files like songs, movies and files in my HDD. So I'm not sure if that qualifies as heavy usage of read and write times. Hmmm.

Not so sure on the Crucial or Plextor M5S though. But I was also considering the Kingston as well. Of all the fours models here, which would you recommend for my kind of usage?

well, read this to boost your knowledge on SSDs
http://www.thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/opt...dows-8-edition/

not sure about Kingston but i have a friend with Crucial M500, he said so far pretty decently fast and no failures yet. as for Plextor, i have yet to see many LYN Plextor users complaining as well

Thanks for the website. It was very informative, and I'll probably use the step by step guide when I get my hands on a SSD

As for the Models itself, I think at this price range it's all more of the same, so I'll just stick with the EVO 840. I got two Friends using Kingston HyperX, one with a single 120Gb, another with a twin 240GB in RAID 0. Both are happy users so far.

Thanks so much for the advice man.

This post has been edited by Chew Yongxian: Jan 20 2014, 12:29 AM

like marfccy pointed out, if you use the computer for work purposes (typing ms.word documents, creating ms.excel don't count. i am using it to create, maintain, and run vm's), to me i rather get a mlc-chip ssd than tlc, even if samsung 840 evo has good speed, and has good estimated shelf life.

i have crucial drives, too. the 2x 960gb m500 is a recent purchase (i picked them up because of mlc-vs-tlc theory). for that laptop, i use 1x 512gb samsung sm841 as boot drive. the 2 crucial drives house my apps, vm's, and games.

for crucial drives, they are relatively slower than sm841. still they are much faster than hdd.

on the side note: there was a firmware upgrade for plextor m5pro (version 1.06). one thing about that upgrade is that now m5pro supports devslp. it might be useful for anyone who need to save some battery life (previously for plextor drives this devslp feature only appears in msata version). there was also an update for m5m (version 1.05) but i didn't read the release notes.

Guys,

do SSD need to do defrag?

no, ssd doesn't need defragmentation. however, it needs TRIM. in w8/8.1 the 'optimize drives' will change to issuing the TRIM command instead of defrag if they detect that the media type is ssd.

I checked in windows 7 that the TRIM is enabled , so do i need to do anything ?

first sorry i forgot how w7 treats ssd dy. maybe someone who have w7 can help you with this one. however, if the TRIM is enabled, it should be fine. in general TRIM will be issued following any file/folder deletion by the OS.

Thanks for all the info guys. Already got a deal for the Samsung EVO 840 250GB, collecting this Thursday.

However, reading up on the EVO 840 online, has anyone here tried it's RAPID tech before? Is it detrimental to it's life cycle, and during regular usage like gaming we will never breach it's 3GB buffer right? Just wanna ask. Thanks.

This post has been edited by Chew Yongxian: Jan 21 2014, 02:18 AM

For first time buyers, here's something i have to say.

SSD has come a long way since i bought the intel 160 GB. And it hasnt caused me any issue.

Just download their software (whichever brand) and it will tell you option needed to change certain settings like disabling defrag and TRIM.

There may be other features in there on SSD now that you probably wont even notice unless you like to squeeze every drop of power it has.

As for space, for me a general rule is to keep it as small as i can afford. Because let's face it, your TB of hdd space is filled with 50% junk.

SSD filled with junk is a waste of money, because it is not for storage. I actively delete junk programs and games i do not play anymore. Since installation is fast, i'd just reinstall on a later date if i feel like playing.

Samsung Evo 840 vs. Intel 530 vs. Plextor M5S: which one best?

If you read the previous post, EVO/840 can enable RAPID mode (RAM caching) to double the performance, it's consider as winner already.

Sorry noobe here, how 2 enable rapid.tqtq

yeah i did that on my 840 pro. this ram caching setup will theoretically further reduce write/erase cycles, so it's good for ssd's.

this is a good insight from a user's perspective with regards to common usage.

i would like to add that not all ssd's provide such software to help optimize the system. (for instance, samsung and intel do; but plextor, crucial, ocz, etc. don't). in general, the optimization guide from thessdreview.com is what you need (they cover almost all the basics, except for things like overprovisioning, which is kind of dependent on personal preference)

about the general rule to get the smallest drive, that's one way, but i suggest to get a ssd based on how much space that you wanna use for OS, apps, and current games, and on top of that, add some buffers for near future requirements. too small the drive, you will need to perform more frequent uninstallation of apps/games, because you will find drive space is insufficient for new apps/games all the times. i think it's not good to ssd.

my point is, plan your purchase based on practical needs, and find that minimum that also helps to take care of the proper usage of ssd.

install and run samsung magician software, iirc it's the last option. currently you can only enable it for one drive.

You need to install the software http://www.samsung.com/global/business/sem.../downloads.html
It's called Samsung Magician, the double performance wont work with very OS you've installed on your SSD unless you enabled the optimization on every OSes.

yeap OCZ has very good products

But a lot of local distros don't have the Vector anymore, and only some have bought in 120GB versions of the new Vector 150. Still a lot of Vertex series around though.

Thanks again for the great advice. RAPID sounds really good. Guess I'll have to tinker and play around with the Magician software, as well as using the ten step SSD Optimization.

But for space, I think 250GB is enough for OS and several games. Gonna keep the other stuff like songs and movies in my 3TB Drive. But I will try not to breach 210GB as a space usage limit on the SSD.

im a vertex supporter