Gonna buy an SSD for my c drive - which one?

Discussion in 'hardware' started by AaLF, Dec 9, 2013.

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  1. AaLF

    AaLF Registered Member

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    Gentlemen, I'm gonna buy a couple of SSDs for wife & I's desktop PCs.

    Most likely will go with Samsung. BUT....... they have two... EVO250Gb & PRO256Gb. The EVO sells for up to $40-$50 less. Is the pricing a marketing choice or is the PRO256Gb a stronger performer?

    AaLF
     
  2. whitedragon551

    whitedragon551 Registered Member

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    Both are solid performers. I use the 120Gb Evo in my laptop.

    The Pro is slightly better than the Evo in terms of read/write speeds, mean time before failure is higher for the Pro, 6Gbs more space.

    I think you get an extra 2 year warranty out of the Evo Non-Pro version. I would go with the standard Evo. The faster read/write speeds of the Pro version wont be noticeable in real world day to day usage and the extra 2 year warranty would be beneficial just in case. Plus you save $50.
     
  3. philby

    philby Registered Member

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    Using same as whitedragon551, based on same logic. Very pleased with it.
     
  4. Rainwalker

    Rainwalker Registered Member

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    Hello AaLF....you might want to take a look at reviews on amazon.
     
  5. CrusherW9

    CrusherW9 Registered Member

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    I was in the same predicament just last week. From my research, the PRO is faster and in some benchmarks, significantly faster. That said, real world difference might be negligible. The PRO also lasts quite a bit longer. The EVO is supposed to last 15 years I believe is what the spec says. The PRO is like 45. So again, in real world terms, probably not much of a difference. I ended up deciding on the EVO but ended up buying the Pro because I got it for the same price. This will be my first ssd so I can't comment on how much of an effect the speed difference will have.
     
  6. DOSawaits

    DOSawaits Registered Member

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    I'm pleased with the 250GB Evo, windows startup goes way faster, other stuff like starting up Firefox take the same amount as before, but overall the best improvement I could have made to my old laptop.
     
  7. agoretsky

    agoretsky Eset Staff Account

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    Hello,

    I have systems with both a 256GB 840 PRO and a 512GB 840 EVO in them. I have not noticed much real-world difference in performance between the two.

    Regards,

    Aryeh Goretsky
     
  8. whitedragon551

    whitedragon551 Registered Member

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    The Evo and Pro series both have a MTBF of 1.5 million hours according to Samsung Data sheets. Thats equivalent to 171 years if you used it 24/7 365.

    Perhaps you should check out the following sheets to see specific hardware and firmware information:

    http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/uk/download/Samsung_SSD_840_EVO_Data_Sheet_rev_1_1.pdf

    http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/uk/download/Samsung_SSD_840_PRO_Series_Data_Sheet_rev_1_2.pdf
     
  9. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    The MTBF of a HD is 1.2 million hours. But we know they don't last that long.

    What is the MTBF of a 25 year old human? It is 800 years.

    Be careful when interpreting MTBF.

    http://www.qualityandproducts.com/2010/07/06/the-real-meaning-of-mtbf/

    http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~ganger/ece546.spring02/readings/mtbf.description

     
  10. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    I have to admit, I've been taken in by those published MTBF ratings for SSDs myself. I certainly do not expect these devices to last 100+ years, but I do expect them to last a decent length of time - certainly longer than electro-mechanical devices which are subject to wear by friction between moving parts. Sadly, MTBF figures have been misused by many manufacturers and what convinced me drive makers were running a scam was when I noted some hard drives have a MTBF rate of 1.5 Million hours (171 years!) which is 50% more than many SSDs! How can an electro-mechanical device be expected to last so much longer than a purely electrical device? It can't. :(

    Still if budget allows, I would sure recommend the use of SSDs over HDs any day of the week, at least for the OS and applications. Data files, especially large ones like videos, photos and tunes, may go on a spinner to save some budget money, but I would still expect a mechanical device subject to wear from friction to fail before a purely electrical device with no moving parts. And in any event, the user still needs to perform regular backups of their critical data.

    @AaLF - See Toms Hardware Best SSD for the Money: October 2013.
     
  11. treehouse786

    treehouse786 Registered Member

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  12. whitedragon551

    whitedragon551 Registered Member

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    Sure the MTBF doesnt mean it will last 170 years, but it does mean that you can expect a significant life out of it if its an average or better drive. Within 4-5 years it should be replaced. Any time after 4-5 years you will see a significant drop in performance, reliability, and new technology and faster drives will be out. This is especially important if you store important information or dont have a backup plan in place.
     
  13. Carver

    Carver Registered Member

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    I have 2 Crucial M500 960GB 2.5-inch Internal SSD with a life of 1.2 Million hours, the drive will slow down with age. Faster drives with better encryption features will be on the market in 4 years or less probably cheaper too.
     
  14. Big_Al_C

    Big_Al_C Registered Member

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    Just My 2 Cents Worth:

    If you're going to do a fresh install of Windows, I'd advise pre-partitioning the

    SSD, so you get no hidden "System Partition".

    My C, D and E partitions are on a 120 GB NTFS SSD set as MBR.

    If you ever want to clone the C, you'll have fewer problems.

    I've done this to all of my computers since 1998.

    Good luck.
     
  15. Noob

    Noob Registered Member

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    I've heard that Intel ones are pretty much bullet proof and perform very well.
     
  16. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    Why? The System Reserve partition is used by Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) (for system repairs), holds the Boot Manager code and the Boot Configuration Database and it is required to use BitLocker.

    What are the advantages to deleting or preventing the creation of this tiny, hidden partition?

    What are the disadvantages to having it?

    If this tiny (typically smaller than 350Mb - 100Mb on W7) partition created problems, then I can understand blocking its creation. But it does not cause problems and most of the time, users never know it is there.

    Understand if you remove or prevent creation of the System Reserve partition and later down the road decide you want to use BitLocker data encryption, you will be forced to re-partition and reformat the drive - losing all your data. And in W8 (perhaps W7 too), without that partition, you will not have the advanced boot option to "Repair your computer".

    I advise to just leave it. It causes no harm and serves good purposes.
     
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