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Could someone please tell me whose SSDs are most RELIABLE?
- Thread starter Leek
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One good guideline for the reliability would be to look for the models with the longer warranties.
Generally this is true, but SandForce based drives are notorious for failures regardless of the warranty provided.
As others have said, Samsung, Crucial and Intel seem to have the best reliability. OWC and OCZ Sandforce drives are not recommended.
I would be quite interested to see a justification of those claims.
While I agree early SSDs had teething problems, if they were as bad as you suggest, the companies would have gone out of business.
While I agree early SSDs had teething problems, if they were as bad as you suggest, the companies would have gone out of business.
All Sandforce? Intel Sandforce? C'mon, this is old firmware issues. Times change. What about now? I have had a few die yes. It does exist but updates have fixed most issues as I understand it. But I just went Intel and not looked back.
Intel Sandforce seem to be ok, but it's perhaps a bit early to tell.
There's a thread in this forum on how unreliable OWC drives are that gets bumped to the top every week or two... Sandforce drives from OWC at least, are failing rapidly and regularly... still.
Apple uses Samsung 830. That has to mean something.
I personally also chose two Samsung 830 128GB, they run perfectly fine. I can only recommend them.
I personally also chose two Samsung 830 128GB, they run perfectly fine. I can only recommend them.
I've had an OCZ Vertex 2 performing flawlessly for over a year and a new Vertex 4 that, so far, is also doing great. Both perform at or above advertised speeds. How often does that happen with darn near anything? Speeds on the 4 are just plain nuts...really, really fast and that's through a USB 3.0 card!
Crucial and Samsung takes the lead in this thread at least:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?271063-SSD-Write-Endurance-25nm-Vs-34nm/page208
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?271063-SSD-Write-Endurance-25nm-Vs-34nm/page208
Take a look at the in-depth reviews below. My results mirror theirs. Overall, the 256 GB and up GB Vertex 4 put up some strong numbers compared to many other SSD's.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6074/ocz-vertex-4-review-128gb/3
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/Vertex_4_256_GB/10.html
Plextor with the M5 is a dark horse when it comes to SSDs. The usual Samsung/Intel + Crucial fare has already been mentioned.
When I buy an SSD, I chose the top of the line within the brand that I've selected. I've had several since I always have several laptops, desktops etc.
All of my computers see well above average usage, and get pushed hard because of the resource intense work I do.
The best of the 12 brands I've tested and used for months, before evaluating them are:
1) Samsung
2) OCZ
3) Corsair
4) Intel
5) Crucial
All of my computers see well above average usage, and get pushed hard because of the resource intense work I do.
The best of the 12 brands I've tested and used for months, before evaluating them are:
1) Samsung
2) OCZ
3) Corsair
4) Intel
5) Crucial
My first OCZ Vertex2 120Gb OSX boot drive is over two years old now and running beautifully. My second OCZ Vertex2 240Gb is my Win7 drive and has a year under its belt without issue.
My two cents are to backup regardless of how reliable you think your SSD or HDD are.
I've had plenty of drive failures in my life, including so-called "enterprise" and "server class" drives.
I've had plenty of drive failures in my life, including so-called "enterprise" and "server class" drives.
The OCZ vertex seems to be good, very low power and large capacities, once you get over infant mortality. Of the 10 I've used, two failed within a month, the rest have been abused for more than a year. OCZ enables the sandforce controller write data throttling at a certain level, like your smart phone data plans throttle data 
I've had better reliability luck with Intel and Kingston, except that they seem to be power hungry and warm up quite a bit under use.
What you can get today is a lot different than two years ago.
I've had better reliability luck with Intel and Kingston, except that they seem to be power hungry and warm up quite a bit under use.
What you can get today is a lot different than two years ago.
The older Vertex2 uses first-gen Sandforce which was much less problematic than the 2xxx series used in the Vertex3. The Vertex4 actually uses a Marvell controller (branded as an Indilinx) that should prove very reliable. So when I said OCZ was unreliable, I should have been specific to the Vertex3... although as some have pointed out, you may get lucky and be problem free with any drive.
To be fair, if this thread is about reliability then it should contain discussion about drives that have proven themselves to be reliable. IMO, this wouldn't include any OCZ drives regardless of how it -should- turn out.
VR, I'm not directing this at you. Your post was just a good jumping off point. I think all the "my XYZ drive has been AWESOME" posts are just way inappropriate for this thread.
Yes, the speed is great for the Vertex 4 but Anandtech doesn't do any reliability tests as thorough as Anvil and co. has done on the extremehardware-site. The link I provided is purely a stress-test for longevity measurements where Crucial and Samsung are "brilliant"
