[Brian]

StorageReview has posted our list of key brands to consider when buying a consumer SSD.

Buying an SSD - The Top 10 Brands That Matter

[JackNaylorPE]

You have the Patriot and OWC Brands listed but with the Mushkin Chronos Deluxe using the same toshiba premium toggle mode flash as the premium lines from those two vendors, and putting it out there at a cost per GB we are just starting to dee others begin to match, kinda curious as to why this is not considered to "matter".

240 GB Mushkin Chronos Deluxe - $170
240 GB Patriot Wildfire - $400
240 GB Vertex 3 Max IOPS - $190
256 GB Samsung 830- $170

Mushkin's the one putting the price pressure on everyone else at this performance range and I kinda thought that as significant.

[Kevin OBrien]

If we were just looking at price and raw components, you would quickly add most companies onto the list. We are interested in the full package, from sales to hardware to IP to support. Mushkin just doesn't fill all those spots. At the end of the day if we have trouble working with certain SSD vendors getting support, whats the experience going to be like for a customer?

[continuum]

Is Patriot to the volume of some of the other brands on the list?

[Valleyforge]

You've got OCZ on the list. That fact alone makes the list totally useless. If you're recommending that junk, why should anyone listen to any of your other recommendations?

I wouldn't wish an OCZ SSD on my worst enemy. Junk hardware, worse firmware, and support who either call you a liar, or get the users to alpha and beta test their firmwares.

[Beenthere]

JackNaylorPE, on 17 October 2012 - 01:12 PM, said:

You have the Patriot and OWC Brands listed but with the Mushkin Chronos Deluxe using the same toshiba premium toggle mode flash as the premium lines from those two vendors, and putting it out there at a cost per GB we are just starting to dee others begin to match, kinda curious as to why this is not considered to "matter".

240 GB Mushkin Chronos Deluxe - $170
240 GB Patriot Wildfire - $400
240 GB Vertex 3 Max IOPS - $190
256 GB Samsung 830- $170

Mushkin's the one putting the price pressure on everyone else at this performance range and I kinda thought that as significant.

FWIW - I use and recommend Muskin RAM as it has proven to be very high quality over many years.

Recently when checking out SSDs at Newegg I was shocked to see the number of issues with Mushkin Chronos drives in the various iterations. I do not know if they have some bad firmware, hardware or what the problem is but the failure rate appears from what I see online to be unusually high. I was unable to get any response from Mushkin regarding the documented failures.

BTW - I believe that Muskin's SSDs are produced by some other company and this may be the real issue?

[Beenthere]

Ir regards to the Top 10 list of SSDs that matter, I'd suggest people who don't want major PC headaches, lost data, constant firmware updates, RMAs, etc. do their homework before jumping in as these issues are still the norm and not the exception with many SSDs.

As far as OCZ is concerned, their products have been questionable for a long time IMO. There recent CEO shake-up and company management chaos in addition to their SSD's checkered past, would remove them from any SSD consideration list of mine.

[Brian]

Not sure it's fair for us to axe the brand based on the CEO's behaviors, but it's certainly a valid point when you look at it from a consumer trust point of view. OCZ still has significant IP and while everything hasn't been perfect, their newer products that are not SF-based have been good. We'll see how it continues to play out.

[Kdawgca]

Beenthere, on 22 October 2012 - 08:32 AM, said:

Ir regards to the Top 10 list of SSDs that matter, I'd suggest people who don't want major PC headaches, lost data, constant firmware updates, RMAs, etc. do their homework before jumping in as these issues are still the norm and not the exception with many SSDs.

As far as OCZ is concerned, their products have been questionable for a long time IMO. There recent CEO shake-up and company management chaos in addition to their SSD's checkered past, would remove them from any SSD consideration list of mine.

If they do their research well, they should realize that most people are perfectly happy with their SSDs, have easily written hundreds of Terebytes on their SSD, and that on forums/message board, people are more likely to complain than praise a product. If they don't realize that, then that is one less person I have to worry when a good deals comes up on a SSD.

Headaches, lost data, constant updates are a problem industry wide with technology. Heck even with laptops they still can't get build quality, heat,fan noise, or screen quality right.

In 2011, I would have avoided OCZ. Now with better firmware and even the option for different controllers, OCZ is still a contender. IMO OCZ made SSDs accessible to a lot of people. They offered a variety of solution from PCIe/hybrids, caching, enterprise, msata, and even a 3.5in drive that are cheaper anywhere from $30 to a couple of hundred. Samsung may make a good SSD, but for example with the 512GB 830 SSD, there is no way it is worth $200 dollars more than compared to an OCZ agility lineup especially for consumers and the ease of backing up data. $30 dollar difference on the other hand...

FYI, comparing OCZ 120GB lineup(just Agility 3 and Vertex 3) with Samsungs 830 128GB, there are almost 1000 more review on Newegg alone. Even with the fact that most people don't review their products, it still gives an idea on the numbers they sell.

Quote

We'll see how it continues to play out.

It will be very interesting to see. Though it will likely be like Apple and most companies where CEO changes result it little but a fluff piece or two for marketing.

[Brian]

Note that our list has just been updated, removing Patriot Memory as they have more or less vacated the SSD market.