Help Choosing First SSD

[RAYTTK]

Hi, Im going to start buying SSD's so I was going to get the G2 Intel 80GB and buy another in a few months , Then a Controller card and so on as and when money permits, The only problem is I am not 100% sure the Intel drive is the best choice for me.
I would really apprieciate some advice from you guy's who already have experience with SSD's.
I Film weddings and local bands plus take pictures so I would be using a couple of Caviar Black 500GB's in raid O for my storage and then calling the films up on the SSD for editing (CS4) lots of duplication (Nero) Some DivX conversions etc,
So SSD would have O/S plus programs and a couple of games.
I was thinking Intel 80gb or Corsair xtreme 64gb. any advice gratefully recieived before I buy

[Ao1]

If I were you I'd get an Intel G2. You may well find you don't need another drive or hard raid card for added performance, these drives are plenty fast enough on their own. Some might say that the sequential write speeds of the indilinx ssd's would be a better choice for your use, but I'd take the G2 any day.

[One_Hertz]

If you are going to do mainly media editing then do NOT get the Intel. You need more sequential writes.

Look at the photoshop benchmark:

http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631&p=25

This is what your SSD has to be fast in.

For games/most apps the G2 is the best, but for any media editing it is horrible.

raid O for my storage

What? Don't do that...

[Ao1]

What is horrible According to that benchmark I should see a big difference between an Intel E and Intel M drive, but in reality I don't. Then again I only have CS3 and I only play with it occasionally, I don't earn a living from it.

I think those sequential speeds soon drop off with indilinx drives, but I don't have one so I can't compare. (Rhys?)

RAYTTK - bottom line is you are going to do ok with either drive.

[RAYTTK]

If you are going to do mainly media editing then do NOT get the Intel

I have read the article and plenty more, Your reply is exactly what I was thinking
I don't know why but I still really want to buy the Intel 80GB.

What? Don't do that...

LOL. I know its a little risky but I like the speed.

I think those sequential speeds soon drop off with indilinx drives

yes this is another thing, If I buy the Corsair and it slows down after a time then I will wish I had the G2 Intel with trim suppport

RAYTTK - bottom line is you are going to do ok with either drive

Yeah I think your right Boot ups, Gaming, surfing and little office apps will all be a lot faster and the films will probably be about the same if I go with Intel.

[Rhys]

What is horrible According to that benchmark I should see a big difference between an Intel E and Intel M drive, but in reality I don't. Then again I only have CS3 and I only play with it occasionally, I don't earn a living from it.

I think those sequential speeds soon drop off with indilinx drives, but I don't have one so I can't compare. (Rhys?)

RAYTTK - bottom line is you are going to do ok with either drive.

(depending on FW used) Yes they soon drop off from comparing my 30gb vertex's - With the very last beta the Vertex improved it's sustained write/File Copy allot which helps in photoshop.

The good thing is when using photoshop though, is that even though the sustained write speed does slow towards the end of VERY large files (ie not much faster than M), but........ when only writing (scratch disk/saving) a couple of gig the vertex's write extremely fast Perhaps it's the cache.

Raid0 helps out here to but you got to be working with hi-res images and lot's of history states to see a noticeable benefit.
I use 1000 history sts.

I think One_Hurtz recomendation is about spot on. He should pick the drive that suits his requirements best. Waiting for files to save or the scratch disk can spoil your train of thought which is the last thing you want if your trying to be a little creative.

[Rhys]

I have read the article and plenty more, Your reply is exactly what I was thinking
I don't know why but I still really want to buy the Intel 80GB.

LOL. I know its a little risky but I like the speed.

yes this is another thing, If I buy the Corsair and it slows down after a time then I will wish I had the G2 Intel with trim suppport

Yeah I think your right Boot ups, Gaming, surfing and little office apps will all be a lot faster and the films will probably be about the same if I go with Intel.

I wouldn't get a samsung personally.

"Yeah I think your right Boot ups, Gaming, surfing and little office apps will all be a lot faster and the films will probably be about the same if I go with Intel."

Wrong Don't worry this is a common misconception.

If I was you, just get the G2 as I suspect your buying decision is based on a slightly e rational emotion anyway so if you did get an indilinx drive you would then have wished you got the G2.

[Telperion]

OCZ's wiper program is essentially manual TRIM and resets the drive to factory fresh performance, no need to worry about that. An Indilinx drive is a better buy for you than Intel, so go with the cheapest drive that offers you a "wiper" -- I don't know if OCZ is the only one offering it right now or not.

[RAYTTK]

I wouldn't get a samsung personally

Corsair/Samsung choice was because of RMA precedure with my local shop. I just take it back to them, OCZ rma to Netherlands takes at least two weeks.

Wrong Don't worry this is a common misconception

Please enlighten me.

If I was you, just get the G2 as I suspect your buying decision is based on a slightly e rational emotion anyway so if you did get an indilinx drive you would then have wished you got the G2

Yep. I would probably go buy an Intel next just to compare LOL, Always doing things the hard way me.

a couple of gig the vertex's write extremely fast Perhaps it's the cache

I noticed that the Corsair P64 has 128mb cache would that help me any over the 64mb cache of the extreme?
Thanks for reply's Guy's, My brain is defo overloaded with SSD information.

[RAYTTK]

so go with the cheapest drive that offers you a "wiper"

Corsair has- hardware Self-Healing feature probably similar to wiper.
As for cheap the P64•Maximum sequential read speed 220MB/s
•Maximum sequential write speed 180MB/s
•Samsung controller and MLC NAND flash for compatibility and consistent performance
•128MB DRAM cache and NCQ support for stutter-free performance

is £32 cheaper than Intel G2 and virtually the same performance as the more expensive Extreme 64

[RAYTTK]

After another night reading I am now leaning towards the Crucial 128GB M225 its a indilinx controller, UK based company with 5 year warranty and some good reviews, Reading the Crucial forum apart from a recent firmware problem regarding trim and windows 7 there are very few gripes about this drive.

[lowfat]

RAID0 has zero affect w/ photoshop. At least w/ X25-M's. A single drive, 2 drives, and 4 drives take exactly the same time to open and write to a file (tried a 2GB and 60mb file as tests).

[RAYTTK]

Thanks Lowfat, I think spending more now and Going for 1 higher density drive with fast seq writes is prob best for me.

[ChaosAD]

So where would 2xssd Raid0 benefit more instead of 1xssd? In which tasks/programs? I dont really care for benchmarks, only for real everyday computing.

[Rhys]

Please enlighten me.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/sho...px?i=3631&p=20

To me real-world performance is the only important benchmark. I must fess up, I just ordered a g2 80gb for my OS as you just can't beat the G2's value right now (@scan.co.uk)
I will then continue to use my vertex raid 0 array for photoshop & file creation etc.

[RAYTTK]

Thanks Rhys, I think I got swamped a bit reading the anandtech stuff, I kinda missed the point.
I have bought a M225 128gb direct from Crucial, Its virtually the same as the OCZ,Vertex's but I get much better(quicker) RMA support plus 5 year warranty. Anyway If I dont like it I can send it back within 30 days.
I would have bought my G2 from Scan as Im not far from them and yes it is a good price, Please let me know your thoughts on the drive when you have had a chance to test it.

[antiacid]

So basically, one could recommend:

intel x25-m g2 for the friend who plays games and multitask a bit but doesn't really edit videos/music.
ocz vertex for the friend who is more into movie making and sound producing.
ocz agility for the friend who owns a laptop (maybe even a mac) and wants to get some great upgrade but doesn't really do anything else than browse/listen to music

Right? Right?