New Box

[TinCow]

Alright techies... it's been 10 years since I did a complete rig build. Here's my initial proposal, let me know what you think:
http://www.mobiusgamers.org/threads/...new-build.189/

[Husar]

Just my personal opinion, but I'm not sure I'd go with Samsung SSDs. They're cheap and fast but they don't quite have the same life expectancy as other drives. The OCZ Vector 150 and the Crucial M500 or M550 may be good alternatives depending on the amount of extras you need (in the latter case I'm not sure whether it even includes a mounting help for 3.5" slots). Samsung uses TLC chips which will probably live long, but certainly shorter than decent MLC chips. There always seems to be some hidden life-shortening stuff with Samsung devices so yes, I'm a bit biased against them.

Otherwise it seems alright to me.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Could be the EVO moniker, but the Samsung 830 Pro for instance is well respected and the 840 is of the same line of controllers & memory chips. Much like the old Intel X-M's were. On the other hand, as I understand it OCZ has a bit of a reputation for trouble...

[Husar]

Could be the EVO moniker, but the Samsung 830 Pro for instance is well respected and the 840 is of the same line of controllers & memory chips. Much like the old Intel X-M's were. On the other hand, as I understand it OCZ has a bit of a reputation for trouble...

That's interesting, OCZ even gives a 5 year warranty instead of 3. And technically the TLC chips should be subject to more writes because they save 3 bytes per chip instead of two, thus reducing their maximum lifetime. SLC is ideal of course, but only available in really expensive SSDs.

[Tellos Athenaios]

That's interesting, OCZ even gives a 5 year warranty instead of 3. And technically the TLC chips should be subject to more writes because they save 3 bytes per chip instead of two, thus reducing their maximum lifetime. SLC is ideal of course, but only available in really expensive SSDs.

Ah yep, that was it. Looked it up, seems the 840 Pro uses the MLC (2 bit per cell) flash but the 'other' 840 uses TLC (3 bit per cell). Presumably that 'other' designation applies to the 840 'EVO' parts TinCow specced as well. Incidentally, you also get a 5 year warranty with all the 840 (it's the same warranty for 840 Pro, EVO or plain '840' ) ...

[Husar]

Ah yep, that was it. Looked it up, seems the 840 Pro uses the MLC (2 bit per cell) flash but the 'other' 840 uses TLC (3 bit per cell). Presumably that 'other' designation applies to the 840 'EVO' parts TinCow specced as well. Incidentally, you also get a 5 year warranty with all the 840 (it's the same warranty for 840 Pro, EVO or plain '840' ) ...

Sure about the warranty?

A. Warranty Policy
SAMSUNG warrants to the original end user customer or purchaser of this Product ("You") that the Product is free from material defects and workmanship, subject to the conditions stated herein, for the shorter of: (i) a period of five (5) years for the 840 PRO Series and three (3) years for the 840 Series and 840 EVO Series

http://www.samsung.com/global/busine.../warranty.html

I don't think TLC chips are bad per se but the money you save is offset by a shorter lifetime even if the drive doesn't fail for other reasons.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Well, clearly not. Good call on that.

[TinCow]

Do you think the warranty is really a significant issue? The 500gb equivalent of the OCZ Vector is much, much more expensive than the Samsung EVO, and even the 120gb equivalent costs 20% more. Frankly, the 500gb OCZ Vector is out of the price range I want to spend on SSD for this build. Even the current 500gb SSD I've got in there was a splurge, and I couldn't justify spending $400 USD on a single SSD, let alone $500 USD for the two of them. Honestly, the only way this would even matter is if the drive died somewhere in years 4 or 5. Outside that, there's no difference in warranty. While inside that range it might make a bit of a difference, I'd think in 4 or 5 years the prices on SSDs will have dropped so much that I'd likely just want to replace the thing anyway.

[Husar]

Then it's probably not a big issue for you. As you may know, the lifetime otherwise mostly depends on how often you write stuff onto it, so if you just install games on it and let them be there mostly, it may well live far longer than 5 years anyway.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Do you think the warranty is really a significant issue? The 500gb equivalent of the OCZ Vector is much, much more expensive than the Samsung EVO, and even the 120gb equivalent costs 20% more. Frankly, the 500gb OCZ Vector is out of the price range I want to spend on SSD for this build. Even the current 500gb SSD I've got in there was a splurge, and I couldn't justify spending $400 USD on a single SSD, let alone $500 USD for the two of them. Honestly, the only way this would even matter is if the drive died somewhere in years 4 or 5. Outside that, there's no difference in warranty. While inside that range it might make a bit of a difference, I'd think in 4 or 5 years the prices on SSDs will have dropped so much that I'd likely just want to replace the thing anyway.

That's a good point, really. You used to get 3 year warranties with spinning platter drives and assuming you don't run them 24x7 they would most often last rather longer than this anyway. Of course there were the notable exceptions (Seagate ... ) but those often didn't last the 3 years either.

[TinCow]

That's a good point, really. You used to get 3 year warranties with spinning platter drives and assuming you don't run them 24x7 they would most often last rather longer than this anyway. Of course there were the notable exceptions (Seagate ... ) but those often didn't last the 3 years either.

HDDs certainly have a problematic history, I've had more of those things fail than any other device I've ever owned. That said, I've also used the things much, much longer than most of the other parts and HDDs continued to get moved from box to box, while everything else got tossed into the recycling bin. (I'll give some credit to the WD Caviar drives though... have several of those and never had any of them fail, including two I put into DVRs that have run 24/7 for about 5 and 3 years, respectively.)

However, SSDs seem to me to be the main area for significant price drops over the next 5 years. Today, HDD remains the top storage medium of choice for home PCs, but I would be very surprised if SSD was not king 5 years from now. I have a feeling I've already probably bought my last HDD.