250GB Samsung 840 Series 2.5" SATA III TLC Internal SSD $150 + FS

[missalaire]

Buy via eBay has 250GB Samsung 840 Series 2.5" SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive SSD (MZ-7TD250BW) for $149.99. Shipping is Free.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Samsung-840-Series-250GB-2-5-SATA-III-Solid-State-Drive-SSD/161024459464?customid=EvZFKLy2EeKrn-bHJGciMASIU8_u-mY3_IEN_0_0&pub=5574652453&afepn=5335869999&campid=5335869999&afepn=5335869999

[bazemk1979]

 Missy that's an awesome deal, really tempting and itching my pocket!!!!   

[StrykerX]

How much of a difference is the Pro vs this?

[Jocelyn]

How much of a difference is the Pro vs this?

Quite a bit, not to mention the Pro has MLC NAND whereas the non Pro has TLC NAND. I'm quite the Samsung w hore (Virtually everything I own is Samsung lol), but I prefer another brand when it comes to SSDs.

Edit - When I said quite a bit above, this isn't something the average PC user will be able to "feel". With the MLC vs. TLC, I wouldn't buy anything TLC if I planned to do a lot of writing to it.

[missalaire]

How much of a difference is the Pro vs this?

Quite a bit, not to mention the Pro has MLC NAND whereas the non Pro has TLC NAND. I'm quite the Samsung w hore (Virtually everything I own is Samsung lol), but I prefer another brand when it comes to SSDs.

My curiosity is piqued... what brand do you prefer for SSDs? If I had to wager a guess I'd say Intel.

[Turbo Slaab]

I've heard pretty good things about the Samsung ssds. Plus their 500gb is in my price range. Hmm.

[Jocelyn]

How much of a difference is the Pro vs this?

Quite a bit, not to mention the Pro has MLC NAND whereas the non Pro has TLC NAND. I'm quite the Samsung w hore (Virtually everything I own is Samsung lol), but I prefer another brand when it comes to SSDs.

My curiosity is piqued... what brand do you prefer for SSDs? If I had to wager a guess I'd say Intel.

lol someone on OCN made this awhile ago

I've heard pretty good things about the Samsung ssds. Plus their 500gb is in my price range. Hmm.

Samsung makes very good SSDs (non pro comes with 3 year warranty, while pro comes with 5 year warranty) plus the entire thing is made in house!
Part of the reason I prefer Plextor is because they use Toshiba flash NAND, who happen to be the only other producer of Toggle NAND. Intel/Micron and others use synchronous, which is inferior to Samsung and Toshiba's Toggle implementation imo. The other reason is that Plextor updates their firmware for products very often, and I'm referring to firmware updates that enhance performance and aren't released due to buggy things. The last reason, and it's probably the biggest one, is this...

[habitualapse]

wow. sold.

[mkawa]

these make great caches if you have an LSI-based raid board with their proprietary caching algorithm. huge cheap and fast as ****

[Lastpilot]

So many feels. Wants.

[TheProfosist]

I run a 840 Pro 256gb as my OS drive and a 840 500gb as my secondary in my ThinkPad T420 both are great drives. Plextor piqued my interest when they launched because they were the fastest drive for maybe a month till something else launched and topped it. Also because back in the day they very well know for their optical drives until they started just rebranding other peoples drives. Then the 840 Pro launched and its been on top for a while. I think samsung is basically the intel of this gen of ssds. From my understanding though plextor just basically threw together other companies parts, though dont quote me on this in been a while since i read one of those reviews.

[StrykerX]

How much of a difference is the Pro vs this?

Quite a bit, not to mention the Pro has MLC NAND whereas the non Pro has TLC NAND. I'm quite the Samsung w hore (Virtually everything I own is Samsung lol), but I prefer another brand when it comes to SSDs.

My curiosity is piqued... what brand do you prefer for SSDs? If I had to wager a guess I'd say Intel.

lol someone on OCN made this awhile ago

Show Image

I've heard pretty good things about the Samsung ssds. Plus their 500gb is in my price range. Hmm.

Samsung makes very good SSDs (non pro comes with 3 year warranty, while pro comes with 5 year warranty) plus the entire thing is made in house!
Part of the reason I prefer Plextor is because they use Toshiba flash NAND, who happen to be the only other producer of Toggle NAND. Intel/Micron and others use synchronous, which is inferior to Samsung and Toshiba's Toggle implementation imo. The other reason is that Plextor updates their firmware for products very often, and I'm referring to firmware updates that enhance performance and aren't released due to buggy things. The last reason, and it's probably the biggest one, is this...

Show Image

Okay, so what's the best Plextor SSD and how does it benchmark compared to Samsung's best SSD?

[alaricljs]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/665?vs=731

Note that it's a specific FW revision tested, and there is a more complete bench on a previous FW (use the dropdown).

[Jocelyn]

From my understanding though plextor just basically threw together other companies parts, though dont quote me on this in been a while since i read one of those reviews.

Every single manufacturer of SSDs that I'm aware of other than Samsung and Toshiba does the above; Marvell, SandForce, LAMD, etc.

Okay, so what's the best Plextor SSD and how does it benchmark compared to Samsung's best SSD?

I'm not very wrapped up in benchmarks for a variety of reasons. That being said, the M5P benched the best when I bought it in September (prior to 840 Pro release), but that award now goes to the 840 Pro. Missalaire asked what I go with, and I answered. Despite this, my partner's Macbook Pro and most of my families computers have Samsung SSDs in them and I am in no way trying to say anything whatsoever about Samsung, well other than the TLC NAND found in the non pro is inferior to MLC NAND. Anyway, me preferring Plextor has more do with the things I mentioned above; Toshiba Toggle NAND, reliability (equally matched by Samsung), incredible enterprise level testing before the product is sold (I know of no other company who does this), and the fact that Plextor does advanced exchange warranty replacements without any questions. I've never had to use this, but it's been confirmed elsewhere that they will overnight you a replacement without any kind of credit hold or too much of a hassle in diagnosing your current SSD. Again, just about everything I own is Samsung (Phone, laptop, TV, etc.,) and in my opinion there is no way an RMA turnaround could be as quick through them.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/665?vs=731

Note that it's a specific FW revision tested, and there is a more complete bench on a previous FW (use the dropdown).

I'm glad you posted this. Anand is a bad place for SSD reviews imo. They only just started using steady state testing in Nov/Dec, they have two different reviewers with two completely different systems; one has cstates/eist on, while the other has them off. If you want apples to apples kind of reviews, I'd suggest [H]ardOCP, storagereview.com, xbitlabs, or something else.

Also, I've already admitted the 840 Pro is a faster SSD in performance several times above. Who in their right mind wouldn't? My main concern in the beginning of this thread was with the 840 non pro, because it has inferior TLC NAND

[alaricljs]

He wanted a bench, I gave him a bench.  Most benches are pretty invalid either way unless you happen to know how well your use case matches the specific bench.  For consumer desktops this is all pointless.

For my desktop/laptop I didn't worry (much) about the benches, for my server I do.

[TheProfosist]

From my understanding though plextor just basically threw together other companies parts, though dont quote me on this in been a while since i read one of those reviews.

Every single manufacturer of SSDs that I'm aware of other than Samsung and Toshiba does the above; Marvell, SandForce, LAMD, etc.

yes most do though in a more controlled and open fashion than when SSD were first on the loose and that is why I suck with intel for the longest time but then the 510 and 520 came out an though I did buy them I was looking for a better option. intel is showing some hope though their new ish PCI-E ssd is getting great reviews but is missing 2 major things that competitors do have on device raid and booting from the drive. The thing is is that the chip thats controlling it could do it but they disable both the features. Also intel more recently launched the SD 3700 series SSDs which is a great step in catching up to their competitors once again but their also showing that they can improve on what their doing as well. the sad thing about both of those devices is that their both enterprise and intel has made no hit that they might bring even a portion of that tech to their consumer grade lineup.

[TheProfosist]

also I dont think TLC is bad in any way and there a reason its in their budget SSD

[StrykerX]

So the Samsung 840 Pro still benches the fastest?

Any faster SSD's on their way that people are excited about or is it more about these manufacturers trying to bring down price/storage at this point?

[TheProfosist]

So the Samsung 840 Pro still benches the fastest?

Any faster SSD's on their way that people are excited about or is it more about these manufacturers trying to bring down price/storage at this point?

aye aye sir its still the fastest and no there probably wont be as it it basically hit the SATAIII limit

[StrykerX]

Gotcha! That's great to know. Looking forward to price drops for top of the line SSD's over the next year or two.

I guess until SATA3 hits the market.

[JPG]

At work we have an intel 800g ssd (910 series) that blows mind (well for me). It's use for databases and is installed on pci-x8. That is REALLY fast

But it's not meant for a pc 

[bazemk1979]

Gotcha! That's great to know. Looking forward to price drops for top of the line SSD's over the next year or two.

I guess until SATA3 hits the market.

SATA 3 are already out.... OP's deal is SATA 3.... You mean you'll wait till SATA 4 hit the market so SATA 3 can be even more affordable?

[TheProfosist]

Gotcha! That's great to know. Looking forward to price drops for top of the line SSD's over the next year or two.

I guess until SATA3 hits the market.

SATA 3 are already out.... OP's deal is SATA 3.... You mean you'll wait till SATA 4 hit the market so SATA 3 can be even more affordable?

i believe the next spec will be sata express (or something like that) and it will be 12gbps. I think they recently defined its spec, no clue though as to when well actually be seeing it. It may be a while but im hopeing it makes it in time for haswell E/EP as its rumored to have DDR4 which as a standard isnt even specified yet. I believe SAS 12gbps is already in use as ive seen it listed in the specs on some 1TB and larger enterprise SSDs.

[TheProfosist]

At work we have an intel 800g ssd (910 series) that blows mind (well for me). It's use for databases and is installed on pci-x8. That is REALLY fast

But it's not meant for a pc 

well what if I wanted to put it in a PC

I think minimum it should at least be able to be configured as a single volume without the use of software raid in the OS.