P256 Samsung SSD?

[MikhailT]

So far the Samsung has proven itself to be a very stable product. Although the firmware cannot be updated but that might change in the future. Instead, having to constantly update the FW only proves that the company did not come up with a rock solid product in the first place. Those comments I have read about the Samsung having errors, the drives were from a pre release batch,pulled from other Dell computers and not retail versions.

According to official specs, it loses to intel in terms of random speeds and to the OCZ for the sequential read. Still it has one of the largest size and the faster sequential write. That aside, it is a reputable drive known for stability and solid performance. So with the rising cost for Vertex, I would recommend it over the Vertex.

You're basing it on official specs instead of reviews and user experiences? Vertex has 250GB , so that's not a valid reason to get Samsung over Vertex (fact they both have same storage, 256GB/256GB, its just that Vertex marketing decided to show the usable size instead of all size, a few GB are reserved in case some of the NAND fails and some are used for wear leaving data). Faster Seq write isn't anything to write home about, it is almost the same. The random performance according to some users benches and reviews is lower than both Vertex and Intel together. It may get better over time with firmware updates, Summit and other SSDs based on Samsung's controller WILL have the ability to update firmware, just not Samsung OEM SSDs.

The only thing Samsung has going is what you said in the end, solid stable performance over all and reliability, Samsung makes good SSDs. It is in top three, I would place it at #3 next to #2 Vertex and #1 Intel. (all of them are excellent) but those "preproduction" SSDs are still everywhere. Remember you can't actually buy retail Samsung drives directly, they only source it to OEM which is why you can get it from Dell, Corsair instead.

Also, Samsung errors are possible results of pre-production firmware are my guesses as well but so far there are still people getting issues with both Samsung and Corsair. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/658571/


Once those "preproduction" ssds are out of the inventory and all freshly new stable SSDs are in stock, that's when people should buy them.


As for rising cost, that's the result of NAND prices going up, not OCZ's fault. It is still under 400$ everywhere in US for 120GB, which is what I bought it at. So nothing surprising here. Samsung P256 is however cheaper here. I would get it for 669$ over Vertex's 250GB for 950$. But I don't often need more than 60GB for system drive, thus for 120GB vertex is very nice.


I do want to mention even Vertex and Intels have their own problems. Right now Intels are the most stable with the latest firmware. Vertex still not the most stable for Macs but seem to be less problematic then the preproduction Samsungs.

 

[hehe299792458]

when would you expect the pre production stock to be depleted?

 

[bcaslis]

I see nothing in the thread posted that points to problems with a Corsair SSD with the exception of one person claiming they have a problem with it being very slow in a MBP but fast in a MB. Doesn't sound like an SSD problem. All the Samsung problems being posted that I see seem to be SSDs purchased from Dell since Samsung does not sell direct to customers. I've looked at the Dell page thinking of buying and if you look you can see that they say the drive has no warranty and no guarantee to work except in Dells. I know that's normal CYA, but don't you think the problems reported may be due to that?

Finally, I don't know why OCZ seems to be so highly regarded in this thread. Their previous drives were notorious for stuttering problems. The Vertex should fix this, but I've not seen everyone happy with the drive. I've looked at OCZ's support forum and the OCZ people I've seen there come across to me as extremely arrogant. I've see people there ask if bootcamp is supported and seem mods basically say that it's not tested so too bad if you buy a drive and it doesn't work. Doesn't sound like a company I'd like to deal with.

 

[MikhailT]

I see nothing in the thread posted that points to problems with a Corsair SSD with the exception of one person claiming they have a problem with it being very slow in a MBP but fast in a MB. Doesn't sound like an SSD problem. All the Samsung problems being posted that I see seem to be SSDs purchased from Dell since Samsung does not sell direct to customers. I've looked at the Dell page thinking of buying and if you look you can see that they say the drive has no warranty and no guarantee to work except in Dells. I know that's normal CYA, but don't you think the problems reported may be due to that?

Finally, I don't know why OCZ seems to be so highly regarded in this thread. Their previous drives were notorious for stuttering problems. The Vertex should fix this, but I've not seen everyone happy with the drive. I've looked at OCZ's support forum and the OCZ people I've seen there come across to me as extremely arrogant. I've see people there ask if bootcamp is supported and seem mods basically say that it's not tested so too bad if you buy a drive and it doesn't work. Doesn't sound like a company I'd like to deal with.

Look at Vertex reviews all over the internet, they are very good, even Anandtech was impressed with Vertex.

As for stuttering problems, every company who made SSD with jMicron controllers have the same problem. This is not just OCZ. The only reason OCZ name shows up is because OCZ was selling those drives at very good prices and they had a lot of sales and so they faced the worst hit of all.

Yea, go to any public forums, all you see will be complaints. that's just the nature of internet.

As for Vertex in Macs, it has great performance just some major issues regarding with OSX interfaction with sleep/hibernation and bootcamp. Remember the first several months, Intel had the same issue with bootcamp but was able to fix it via firmware update and newer model versions. OCZ has said that there should be a firmware update that'll fix the sleep/hibernation and bootcamp issue, just not sure when. They have to validate the results with Apple.

Dell's warranty on OEM parts are usually low, some 30 days, one year and some no warranty at all. Yes, people took a lot of risk buying those OEM Samsungs from Dell, but if Samsungs knew there was a problem with it, they shouldn't sent it to Dell and Dell wouldn't post it for sale.

Corsair drives are the exact same models of those drives, just with newer firmware. They shouldn't see any major issues, but I would wait a few more weeks for more reviews and performance reports from other people before buying one.

 

[MikhailT]

when would you expect the pre production stock to be depleted?

Just wait a few more weeks for more reports from reviewers and people's experiences with it. If there is no problems, go get one. Corsair P256 would be very nice for the price.

 

[picea]

hi i recently bought the P256 CMFSSD-256GBG2D and the performance on mac os x is really poor. i hope it is a driver or controller issue in the late 2008 macbook pro´s.

example: i tried to install xcode 3.1.2, at the same time i tried to open safari, the complete computer stuck for 30 seconds. i happens everytime if i do 2 things where one thing is a heavy file operation.

hope it will be better in future mac os releases.

the good thing:
on windows and linux this device is really fast

 

[hehe299792458]

hi i recently bought the P256 CMFSSD-256GBG2D and the performance on mac os x is really poor. i hope it is a driver or controller issue in the late 2008 macbook pro´s.

example: i tried to install xcode 3.1.2, at the same time i tried to open safari, the complete computer stuck for 30 seconds. i happens everytime if i do 2 things where one thing is a heavy file operation.

hope it will be better in future mac os releases.

the good thing:
on windows and linux this device is really fast

hmmmm I wonder why that is