INTEL 730 Series SSD

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Just upgraded my crucial m4 128 to a 240gb intel 730 series.

its a 7mm ssd vs 9 for the crucial m4

I expected it to be faster but its not class leading fast. The 480GB model is quite abit faster on sequential writes for example.

As are many samsungs and other brand models.

I like the 5 year warranty and the fact that it uses intel's own enterprise ssd controller chip.

They are on sale right now for 109$
but if you use newegg's mobile app with google wallet checkout you get an extra 15$ off

so my final price was 95$~~

quick benchmarks

Old crucial m4 128GB
as-ssd-bench%20M4-CT128M4SSD2%2011.25.2014%203-04-09%20PM.png


New INTEL 730 240GB
as-ssd-bench%20INTEL%20SSDSC2BP24%2011.25.2014%203-47-36%20PM.png


NOTE: the M4 was about 55% full

That makes the new intel about 32% full after cloning.

Other options I considered were a sandisk ultra II 240(?) for 78$
crucial MX100 256 for 110$

Crucial m500 240 for 97$

Samsung 840evo 240@119$

In the end the intel had the right mix of reliability and speed.

I'm still not over my mental scars of having 6 OCZ brand sandforce drives die on me. So they were not considered.

Additional thought: This is not really a portable drive it uses 2-3x as much power as some SSD's which makes it not well suited for on battery use.
 
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Pictures arent loading... But bummer I missed that deal. Just bouht a samsung 840 evo 250GB to do a swap in my wife's MBP that has a 5400 RPM HDD... $119 OTD.
 
Well, at least you're getting full speed out of it. I installed the same drive in my old desktop which does not support SATA III, so I'm only maxing out at around 280 MB/s. Still, that's about 3x faster than what I was getting on my old HDD.

EDIT: sorry, just checked and mine is the older 530 model.


ssd530_raid.png
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Pictures arent loading... But bummer I missed that deal. Just bouht a samsung 840 evo 250GB to do a swap in my wife's MBP that has a 5400 RPM HDD... $119 OTD.


just updated the thread the evo is a better drive for notebooks.. this drive is really best suited for desktop use.

Are the pics not loading for anyone else? maybe because its a HTTPS link from dropbox?
 
Can anyone recommend a decent notebook form factor SSD around 250meg that doesn't have to be the fastest but is in the middle of the pack?
 
crucial mx100 256GB 110$ from newegg/amazon

samsung 840 evo 120$
 
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We're very lucky with SSDs. You will have a very hard time telling the difference between SATA SSDs in real-life and over the course of your ownership, even if you did notice a difference, you probably won't care.

Price per GB, then warranty appear to be the main decision factors. The only caveat with the Intel 730 is usage in a laptop. It is a power hog and tends to waste it at idle as heat.

The future performance wise is PCIe/M.2 NVMe SSDs.
 
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When I first read about the Intel 730 I thought it was great, except for the power consumption that made it unsuitable for laptops.

The Samsung EVO is a popular and decent product. But apparently TLC uses significantly more power for writes.
Obviously this doesn't matter for most consumers who don't write large amounts of data.

I am looking forward to SSDs matching platter disk price per GB at 480+ GB sizes for mobile 2.5" or mSATA or M.2 formats.
Then they will rule in this small form factor so platter disks can go extinct for mobile applications.
 
I have the Samsung 840 PRO (not evo)in my T520.
Pretty "solid" so far, and pretty fast.
(This pic was with default settings and NO performance optimization done with Magician I did it later; Rapid Mode still NOT enabled, either - i don't see any need for it yet... but might be interesting to see how the numbers would change with all that stuff on...

...needs to run a perf. BM again sometime)

BM.jpg
 
I have been happy with my samsung 830 (yes 830) in my lenovo t520.

and a small update. The first benchmarking was immediately after cloning.. It appears that some time for garbage collection/trim has improved it slightly.
as-ssd-bench%20INTEL%20SSDSC2BP24%2011.25.2014%2010-27-17%20PM.png
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Can anyone recommend a decent notebook form factor SSD around 250meg that doesn't have to be the fastest but is in the middle of the pack?

SanDisk ultra plus. I love mine in my laptop!
 
Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Can anyone recommend a decent notebook form factor SSD around 250meg that doesn't have to be the fastest but is in the middle of the pack?

SanDisk ultra plus. I love mine in my laptop!


do you have a source for these cheap I'm showing 177$.. not very competitive.

maybe a sandisk ultra II which go for ~~100$ would be a better Value.
 
Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
Not sure where you are seeing it for $177, but the 256 GB is on amazon for $122. Back when I bought my 128GB, it was about $109.

The Ultra II is a very good deal, and I am sure that is a good SSD as well.


Thats an excellent deal, The EGGcelent deal was 177(newegg).

The reviews are good on amazon, but not inspiring on newegg(3 star tons of doa/died early)but if you get a good one its apparently quite good.
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Pictures arent loading... But bummer I missed that deal. Just bouht a samsung 840 evo 250GB to do a swap in my wife's MBP that has a 5400 RPM HDD... $119 OTD.


just updated the thread the evo is a better drive for notebooks.. this drive is really best suited for desktop use.

Are the pics not loading for anyone else? maybe because its a HTTPS link from dropbox?


Pics are loading now.

Did the install in my wife's MBP tonight. Took less than 20 minutes. Had to enable trim by coding. Working like a charm now!
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Make sure you upgrade that EVO firmware to address that read performance bug.


can you update it from mac? I know many require windows to update.
 
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