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[Mr ChriZ]

I'm looking to purchase an SSD for my laptop around the 160GB sort of size.
Any recommendations on what to avoid?

I'm looking at one of these currently:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-X25-M-Mainstream-Solid-State/dp/B002IGT7IU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1303813907&sr=1-3

Thanks,
Chris

[glynor]

Get the Crucial C300, or wait for the next-gen devices to come down in price.  Here's a review of the new Intel mid-range SSDs from TR, which includes a nice overview of performance of all of the recent drives.

I'd probably avoid the current-gen OCZ drives, as they've had a higher-than-normal failure rate.  I'm also a bit leery of the "black magic" being done by the Sandforce controllers.  If you know the details they're willing to give out about how it works, it seems like it is held together with a bit of magic and bailing wire.  The old Intel X25-M drives were fantastic for their time, but they're VERY long in the tooth now, and there are much better performing drives available for less money.

I'd look at the Crucial C300.  Seriously.  It is awesome, and there are good prices now that the successor has been released.

[Matt]

I'm on an OCZ Vertex 3 at work and it screams.

At home I have an older Sandforce-based drive and it's great too.

Anandtech has good information on SSDs, so you might read a bit there.

I think we're at the point that all (good) SSDs are so fast compared to rotating drives that it's splitting hairs worrying about which one to get.  You'll love whatever you get.

[Mr ChriZ]

Thanks for the infos.

I think I could really do with the extra GB's over the extra performance.
The machine is a portable desktop basically my dev machine plus all the other crap I throw at it.   I've currently got a 160GB spinning disk, and it's fairly full, although there is stuff that for sure could be pulled off of it.

As the machine is getting old it's not going to gain anything from a 6gb/s connection and as Matt's said having looked at those graphs I think real world the major jump is going from spinning to solid and anything else is a bonus.

So it kind of comes down to the Intels as they seem to offer the right size vs price bracket.
It seems I can get a 320 for £237
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-160GB-Solid-State-Drive-SSDSA2CW160G310/dp/B004ULVCCA/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1303856016&sr=1-2

The thing that might push me towards the 320 is the Encryption.
I currently use Truecrypt and have an encrypted partition for my data, but am not certain if things would be simpler using full disk encryption or if the truecrypt partition could harm performance because of things like trim?  All new areas to me!

[glynor]

I think we're at the point that all (good) SSDs are so fast compared to rotating drives that it's splitting hairs worrying about which one to get.  You'll love whatever you get.

I certainly agree here (and if you read the TR article above on the new mid-range Intel SSD, they make exactly that point).

My concerns on the SandForce controllers is certainly based entirely on speculation, and is magnified by my uneasiness with the way the company has communicated in the past, NOT on any technical issue that I've ever seen reported in reviews or anything.  The on-the-fly black-box compression and internal RAID-like scheme just makes me uneasy since it is all not very well documented and reviewed by the wider community.  But that's me, and even with me, it probably wouldn't stop me from buying one if it was a great deal for some reason.  That's usually not the case, though.  They're usually more expensive than competing drives, and always better performing, but see Matt's point above... Who cares?  I don't know... My misgivings aren't evidence-based, so ignore them.

As far as the reliability thing... I can basically agree with Matt here a bit too.  I, also, personally have an OCZ drive (an Indilinx one, which was fiddly at first, but fine now on Windows 7), and it is great.  However, according to all of the stats and evidence I've seen, the OCZ SSDs do seem have the highest failure rate of the major SSD manufacturers.  Plus (and these numbers may somewhat mask the officially reported "failure" rate), I constantly see the OCZ drives on Newegg as price-reduced "open box" or "reconditioned" items.  That's a clue to me... Still, the overall failure rates for SSDs are all pretty close to each other (other than Intels, which never fail), and are all generally much lower than those of their magnetic spinning disk cousins.

PS.  Both the Boy Wonder (Anand) and TR have some of the best coverage of SSDs out there.  PC Perspective also covers lots of SSDs, and has some good stuff, but their testing methods and findings often aren't always the most scientifically rigorous things I've ever read (even from a non-PhD enthusiast point of view).  There's just a bit too much fanboyism over there for me to completely trust them.

[glynor]

The thing that might push me towards the 320 is the Encryption.
I currently use Truecrypt and have an encrypted partition for my data, but am not certain if things would be simpler using full disk encryption or if the truecrypt partition could harm performance because of things like trim?  All new areas to me!

SSDs and TrueCrypt are mostly fine.  There are some theoretical, potential issues but these haven't amounted to much in the real world.  The one thing I would do if I was doing full-drive encryption on an SSD would be to leave 5% or so of the drive unpartitioned and blank to increase the available space for wear leveling.

The hardware encryption in the new Intel drives is very interesting.  I don't know... Hardware encryption has always made me leery, in some ways (hardware implementations are difficult to peer review for possible backdoors).  Do I trust Intel's encryption to not allow random thief to access my data?  Of course.  But do I trust them not to let the FBI have access to a backdoor that they could use to violate my civil liberties?  No, I don't.  Of course, I don't encrypt my full drives anyway!  I just use TrueCrypt containers for my "really important" stuff, so I don't know if that concern is directly relevant.  And I'd be immensely boring for the FBI to look at anyway, unless they're really into nerd-stuff and MC.

If I bought an Intel drive, I'd certainly turn it on.  Especially in a laptop.  Costs you essentially nothing and provides great protection.

[DarkPenguin]

I like my 120GB Ocz Agility 2.  No idea what tech it uses.

[Mr ChriZ]

I ended up getting an Intel X25-M back in June.

Overall it's been a major improvement over the hard disk.
One thing surprises me about it however - and that's how hot it gets!
The area of the laptop it sits in gets hot enough to suggest that if I were holding it now I'd be burning my hands.

Considering it has no moving parts I think it gets much hotter than the old 2.5" HDD did.
It's in a laptop so breathing space is minimal.  I do wonder if they ever burn out?

Regular Backups ahoy!

[Mr ChriZ]

Upgraded to a Samsung 830 Series 256GB SSD last week on account of running out of space.
This drive doesn't get hot like the intel one did.

However it does make really irritating high frequency noises.  The old one made some noise, but this one definitely more so.
It would be interesting to know if anyone records how much noise each SSD makes when reviewing them.

[InflatableMouse]

Upgraded to a Samsung 830 Series 256GB SSD last week on account of running out of space.
This drive doesn't get hot like the intel one did.

However it does make really irritating high frequency noises.  The old one made some noise, but this one definitely more so.
It would be interesting to know if anyone records how much noise each SSD makes when reviewing them.

They should make zero noise, nothing whatsoever.

I've heard about this whining or squeeling noise from other components as well like memory sticks or videocards. Luckily I've never had it myself. From I gather it has to do with certain frequencies causing vibration in chips.

I think this issue is very uncommon and it would be highly unlikely that you get 2 different brands with the same issue. Maybe it somehow has to do with other components like your power supply?

Can you try another PSU or try the SSD in another PC?

[Mr ChriZ]

They should make zero noise, nothing whatsoever.

I've heard about this whining or squeeling noise from other components as well like memory sticks or videocards. Luckily I've never had it myself. From I gather it has to do with certain frequencies causing vibration in chips.

I think this issue is very uncommon and it would be highly unlikely that you get 2 different brands with the same issue. Maybe it somehow has to do with other components like your power supply?

Can you try another PSU or try the SSD in another PC?

They're in two different fairly quiet laptop machines at the moment.  Pretty certain it's the the drives.  I've moved the Intel one between other machines in the past.  Noise seems to follow the drive.

There are other people who seem to hear them as well if you Google it. 

I work on my own in a small office so any noises are quite easy to pick up.

I'd love to see an scientific report into what noise they do make.