Kingston Hyperx 3k 128gb or Samsung 830 128gb ssd?

[macmesser]

I want to pick up a 128GB as a scratch disk for a 5,1 system that boots from an Intel 520. The Kingston hyperx ssds are on sale for $69, the Samsung 830 is $89. The hyper are priced compellingly but deals on both seem very good. Any reason not to go with the Kingston hyperx? The $20 difference is not much for one but if I might pick up two. Any opinions?

 

[ActionableMango]

Samsung controllers are generally regarded better than the Sandforce controller in the Kingston.

Physically, the Samsung is 7mm high so you could theoretically plop it into laptops, netbooks, or ultrabooks that only have 7mm high 2.5" drive slots. The Kingston is 9mm I believe.

Also the Samsung, I think, uses memory that is rated for longer endurance (more read/write cycles). I'm not too sure about this last one.

I've seen the same deals you have and picked up Sammy 830 128GB yesterday from Newegg for $79 shipped.

 

[macmesser]

Samsung controllers are generally regarded better than the Sandforce controller in the Kingston.

Physically, the Samsung is 7mm high so you could theoretically plop it into laptops, netbooks, or ultrabooks that only have 7mm high 2.5" drive slots. The Kingston is 9mm I believe.

Also the Samsung, I think, uses memory that is rated for longer endurance (more read/write cycles). I'm not too sure about this last one.

I've seen the same deals you have and picked up Sammy 830 128GB yesterday from Newegg for $79 shipped.

Sweet deal. I think I'll go with the Samsung. I've read nothing but excellent reviews. Missed Newegg, which was a little better deal. There's another lowball entry I just saw. Runcore 120GB SATA III, also Sandforce based. About same price as the Kingston Hyperx. Probably both made in the same (or nearby) Chinese factory. All at Tiger Direct. Found good reviews about the Hyperx but nothing on the Runcore. According to the Hyperx reviewer (some technopundit, I forget the link) even a really busy SSD is not subjected to enough cycles to burn out a Hyperx in a four or five year time horizon by which time more durable drives of the same age will have become obsolete.

 

[Neodym]

Found good reviews about the Hyperx but nothing on the Runcore.

I remember Runcore as the guys who offered replacement SSD's for the 1st gen of MacBook Airs - and iirc they did not have the best reputation as those SSD's were likely to be defective after a couple of months. However, SSD technology has been in its infancy back then, so maybe today they are more reliable...

 

[paul-n]

I would recommend the Samsung 830, it is fast and reliable. You think about buying two, if you want create a RAID 0 I would recommend buying a hassle free 256 GB drive, instead of a RAID
Newegg Samsung 830 256G
If you need the drives for multiple pcs just go with the 128 GB version.