Samsung 830 vs Vertex 3?!

[Hyper-X]

- It's still OCZ's responsibility to choose a controller that works, and if it has issues, that's as much their responsibility as it is SandForce's. It makes for a bad experience for the user regardless of who made it.

OCZ can't forecast all the issues it will have. They have done more than an adequate job with trying to keep up with the various firmware updates and they're consistently one of the fastest to provide such updates. They've provided some of the best NANDs in the industry and even though they seem to have their share of problems, a lot of people still swear by them.

In addition, there is the distasteful architecture shift a couple of years ago, which I think is the reason for a lot of people's reservations about OCZ.
I certainly don't trust them.

It's not so much of a shift as it is a larger variety to choose from. Indilux controllers are making a comeback, Marvell still makes controllers, Intel's still doing the same and OCZ's Vertex 4 has stopped using Sandforce controllers.

 

[JTToft]

It's not so much of a shift as it is a larger variety to choose from. Indilux controllers are making a comeback, Marvell still makes controllers, Intel's still doing the same and OCZ's Vertex 4 has stopped using Sandforce controllers.

- I was talking about when they changed from 34nm NAND to 25nm NAND without letting anyone know.

 

[jcpb]

OCZ can't forecast all the issues it will have. They have done more than an adequate job with trying to keep up with the various firmware updates and they're consistently one of the fastest to provide such updates. They've provided some of the best NANDs in the industry and even though they seem to have their share of problems, a lot of people still swear by them.

- I was talking about when they changed from 34nm NAND to 25nm NAND without letting anyone know.

"...some of the best NANDs in the industry..."

When we took the cover off of this third, direct from OCZ SSD, we found a ‘S’ stamped over Micron logo on all the flash devices (see the image to the left). This indicates the device is “off spec” product because it failed some parameter of Micron’s full performance and/or quality specification testing. “Off spec” memory is typically used in low-level applications such as toys, offering considerable cost savings over Tier 1 level to an SSD manufacturer.

source

user reviews of OCZ's Petrol 128GB (OCZ's in-house controller, not SandForce) @ ncix

Hrmm, some of the best NANDs? That doesn't look too good now, does it.

 

[bolen]

Voted for the 830. Simply because it has fewer limitations, the main limitation of the Sandforce being the slow handling of incompressible data.

A very good article the differences can be found on Anandtech, their latest Macbook Air review:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6063/macbook-air-13inch-mid-2012-review/4

If you use FileVault or plan on working with a ton of already compressed data, you'll want to pick a 256GB or 512GB drive to end up with Samsung's controller rather than the SandForce driven Toshiba solution.

Where the Samsung is the PM830 controller and the Toshiba is the SF-2200 controller.

 

[Hyper-X]

"...some of the best NANDs in the industry..."

source

user reviews of OCZ's Petrol 128GB (OCZ's in-house controller, not SandForce) @ ncix

Hrmm, some of the best NANDs? That doesn't look too good now, does it.

Not necessarily, we don't know what the S spec actually means other than it didn't meet some expectation. It's not clear as to what factors are responsible for the "S" rating from Micron and whether that has any effect as a NAND for SSD's. If it didn't have the "S" rating, would it matter?

Not really, I own an OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6 SSD 240G and it's given me nothing but problems. It's fast when it works but what good is it if it's unreliable? After 2 replacements I switched and currently support the Samsung 830. I could be wrong but it leads me to believe that there's something wrong with the Sandforce controllers and/or their firmware.

 

[Urban Spaceman]

- It's still OCZ's responsibility to choose a controller that works, and if it has issues, that's as much their responsibility as it is SandForce's. It makes for a bad experience for the user regardless of who made it.

+1

OCZ can't forecast all the issues it will have. They have done more than an adequate job with trying to keep up with the various firmware updates and they're consistently one of the fastest to provide such updates.

With all respect, it is entirely OCZ's responsibility to perform adequate validation on their products. It's their exhaustive testing and validation procedures that make Intel SSDs (even the Sandforce based ones) considerably more reliable than those from the likes of OCZ.

Rapidly dumping untested FW on their users is no sign of competency; quite the opposite. The likes of Intel generally provide only a couple of FW updates during the life-span of a product, and those updates take quite a long time to work their way through validation procedures to ensure no other bugs or regressions are introduced.

 

[Ifti]

Ok I'm going to go with you guys on this one - I guess the poll speaks for itself! Lol

Just placed my order for a Samsung 830 Notebook kit 256GB.
Unfortunately it's out of stock at a lot of places. The places where it is in stock are charging £15-20 extra!
Finally purchased from Scan.co.uk for £143 - although need to wait until the 25th for stock, which is only a week so I can wait I guess, but thought it was a pretty good price considering!

New MacBook Pro has arrived today, although its still in its box! Haven't had a chance to unbox it even. Guess it gives me a week to get my settings migrated across and everything set up before the SSD arrives!

Wow that was lucky!!
Purchased yesterday for £143 - not in stock until next week though - but the price on the site has gone up to £160 today! How lucky was that!