Best SSD for ~$50: Boot Drive
| Kingston SSDNow S100 | 16 GB |
|---|---|
| Sequential Read | 230 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | 75 MB/s |
| Power Consumption (Active) | 2.26 W |
| Power Consumption (Idle) | 1.08 W |
- SSDNow SS100S2/16G 16...
Kingston's SSDNow S100 series is really intended for industrial use, and we're told that you'll find these drives in toll booths, Redbox machines, and ATMs. While this is not a performance-oriented SSD, it is a decent choice that can breathe new life into an aging machine. Most of us tend to write less data than we read. If you want a quick way to speed up your home rig, a budget SSD is all you need because drives like this one offer read speeds that outpace conventional disks.
However, you are forced to adopt a dual-drive configuration. With only 16 GB, you can only use this SSD as a Windows 7 32-bit boot drive (64-bit requires 20 GB). All of your programs and personal files need to be installed on a secondary hard drive. We've also had readers write in relaying bad experiences using drives that were too small for Windows to conduct its update operations. Be cautious if you use a drive this small for anything; capacity is sure to become a point of contention pretty quickly.
Best SSD for ~$70: Boot Drive
| OCZ Vertex Plus | 60 GB |
|---|---|
| Sequential Read | 185 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | 90 MB/s |
| Power Consumption (Active) | 1.5 W |
| Power Consumption (Idle) | 0.5 W |
- Vertex 30 GB Internal...
OCZ's Vertex Plus series is based on the Indilinx Barefoot controller with a slightly tweaked firmware. Even with the improved software, you should have realistic expectations of what Indilinx's older controller can do. The Vertex Plus achieves better performance than a hard drive, but it falls into the lower half of the SSD performance hierarchy. Note that sequential read performance is somewhat slower than the similarly-priced 30 GB Vertex. But, armed with two times the capacity and featuring a slightly better sequential write speed, it's a fair trade-off.
For those willing to accept the caveats of SandForce compression technology, Patriot's 32 GB Torqx 2 is also offered at a similar price. Though, we should point out that the company is overstating sequential write performance, because it provides a single specification for all capacities. Actual sequential writes speed will hover around 100 MB/s.
Best SSD for ~$90: Boot Drive
| OCZ Agility 3 | 60 GB |
|---|---|
| Sequential Read | 525 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | 475 MB/s |
| Power Consumption (Active) | 2.7 W |
| Power Consumption (Idle) | 1.5 W |
- OCZ Technology 60 GB...
At ~$100, your choice is limited to a slew of 60 GB first-gen SandForce drives, Intel's 40 GB SSD 320, and OCZ's 60 GB Agility 3. Even if you don't own a 6 Gb/s-enabled motherboard, we're still going to recommend the Agility 3 because of its ability to fully saturate a SATA 3Gb/s controller, whereas those other two options can't.
Furthermore, the Agility 3 uses asynchronous ONFi 1.0 NAND that can also be found in competing SSDs, such as Corsair's Force 3. To that end, if you see another 60 GB second-gen SandForce SSD at a cheaper price, go with the less expensive option. The difference in real-world performance is relatively small.
If you only have $100 to spend and you're eying a caching-based solution, skip over this MLC-based SSD and look to Intel's 20 GB SSD 311 instead. The small size doesn't matter, since the cache operates transparently; you should be more concerned with the fact that the 311 centers on SLC NAND flash, improving its performance relative to this larger alternative.
source:http://www.tomshardware.com
source:http://www.tomshardware.com
