Not completely accurate most computer systems can use and see a 3TB HD just fine and dandy. However not many can boot from a 3TB due the legacy BIOS limitations, I think you will finally start seeing a shift away from BIOS to UEFI
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Once you’ve experienced the performance SSD’s yield you would understand why they are great. You can away have a additional HD for larger apps that you don’t want installed on the SSD.
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You can use SATA III drives on a SATA II controller, they just run at SATA II speeds. Best SSD’s right now are Corsair Force, OCZ Vertex 2, Mercury Extreme (via other world computing) and Crucial C300.
And as muckman just said the Crucial C400’s are going to be out soon they will be the top tier then.
^-- That’s what i’m waiting for… I may just go with a larger single drive…
it’s going to be weird as i’ve been running raid on every single box i’ve owned since 98 (seagate cheetah 4lp 10k rpm ultra scsi… damn those drives were beasts… the spin-up sounded like a nice small turbo)
i’ve got 2 ocz vertex 2’s in raid 0 in my desktop, 60gig drives. started out around 250MB/s read/write last july when i got them, now there down to around 215MB/s read/write. plenty fast for me still, but some of the higher end drives can do 300MB/s+ as a single drive.
I have a single OCZ Vertex 2 SSD in my MBP, and it does 250MB/s write, 260+ Read, consistently. Its been full dozens of times, to the point where it was at 0b available. No TRIM support in OS X, no issues at all. Its about a year old now…
Might want to get a better SATA controller / RAID card if you are hitting 250 read/write in RAID 0… Im sure its slowing down both drives IOPS like RAID0 usually does especially with a crappy built in controller.
I’m using the onboard raid on an evga 750i ftw mobo… more or less highly outdated. Just ran HDtune and go an average of 145MB/s with a peak of 300MB/s and a low of 113MB/s. very intermittent graph as well. i’m looking at upgrading around october of this year as i’ve had my current system since 2008.
There is no point to running RAID 0 on fast SSD’s unless you are using a very high performance RAID card, which generally cost $500-1500… It will only degrade performance, and double the chances of a failure.
And while a OK SSD will still be quick, I don’t see any reason to not buy the best when they’re all comparably priced.
prices for these are already showing a noticeable decrease. I haven’t purchased one yet and i’m even more inspired now to hold off maybe until the fall
I would opt for a OCZ Vertex 3 when they’re easily available…
The 120’s are essentially 2x the cost of the 60s, and the 240s are generally 4x the cost of the 60s. Just get what you think you can get away with. Honestly, 60GB is MORE than enough for a boot drive and a few games. Mass storage for media can go on a 2TB internal if its a desktop. If its a notebook? Id swing for a 120 and call it a day.
Better have a SATA 3 Interface available, it actually needs it.
Don’t just pick any SSD. Lots of them are JUNK compared to the top end ones, and aren’t very fast at all. Get a fast one or don’t bother.
Id stick to the Vertex 3, or any of the new Intels.
If you only have a SATA II interface, it wont really make a big difference between the new drives and the current gens. The Vertex 3 Is a little better at random IOPS compared to the Vertex 2. Not very significantly, but they’re going to be about the same cost, and SHOULD be out very soon.
At the very least, the current gen drives should be cheaper soon enough. I would wait and see where the prices head. If its not that significant, just swing for the Vertex 3 since it WILL be a bit faster.
anything vista or later shouldn’t have a problem as long as you set it up as gpt instead of mbr. gpt is also supported in xp 64 bit.
I have had 2 60 gig ocz vertex drives for about two years now. they both failed once and needed to be rma’d. if i could do it again i would have gone with a single intel drive.
