Maximum PC

I'm trying to compare the Corsair Performance Pro SSD and the Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSD.

Here are the links.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820233227

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820167086

Does anyone know how the Corsair Performance Pro stacks up against the Intel 520 in terms of reliability?

I did some internet searching a while ago since my OCZ just went kaput after doing a secure erase... Anyway, I picked up that Intel and Samsung are usually the go to for reliability. Samsung I would actually agree with, considering work gave me a laptop with a Samsung on Windows XP (which is a pretty bad idea because Windows XP doesn't observe things like TRIM and whatnot). It's still going even after three years.

Anyway, that's deviating. I noticed the Corsair is using a Marvell controller, Intel is using SandForce. I would do some snooping on them.

Try the OCZ Vertex 4. I'm not 100% sure why you want 256GB SSD but either way the Vertex 4 is about $100 cheaper than the two you selected. Also, the OCZ Vertex 4 is using the Indilinx controller which is what Intel started using when it got its reputation of being the most reliable drives. Get this one instead......I got a Intel 520 and i love it to death but if i would of done better research i would of gotten this one instead.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227792

I'm trying to compare the Corsair Performance Pro SSD and the Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSD.

If you want to spend $100 more on a inferior product than what i suggested i guess i can't stop you....go for the Intel since it has a 5 year warranty.

If you're going to say something like this, back it up.

There is no question the Vertex 4 has very good performance. However, from the reviews I've read on the earlier Vertex series I think the jury is still out on reliability - which is the factor on which I am interested in comparisions between the Corsair Performance Pro and the Intel 520 SSD.

Did you not read my post. Vertex 4 is built on the same controller that Intel used to get the good reliability reviews. People booed now that Intel went Sandforce because its not as reliable. Proof is in the pudding as they say. Also, I've never heard Corsair SSDs marked as reliable so again, if you want an inferior product and pay $100 more than go Intel.

So I did some research because I was curious, and here's what I came up with...

• While Intel's latest uses SandForce, they use custom firmware. And in fact, since Intel has a rigorous QA process, they've actually fixed a good chunk of SandForce's software bugs. The only hump they came across was the 256-bit AES bug since it was a hardware level issue.
• OCZ's Vertex 4 actually uses a Marvell controller with Indilix's firmware. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5741/ocz- ... ed-silicon
• ... Still no word on if a Marvell based controller is good or not, but the Cosair Performance Series Pro does pretty well. It's probably not worth it at its price point though.

I should also point out that Intel's earlier SSDs did have an issue where after a certain point, the write performance would drop to sluggish levels and the only way to restore them was to do a complete wipe of the SSD.

Thanks for the helpful research. From what I've been able to find, the earlier Intel SSD problem of sluggish performance has not been an issue with the 520 series. Have you seen anything to the contrary?

Interesting about them just using the firmware.

Either way my suggestions still stand but if your stuck on Corsair Vs Intel then my original suggestion still stands as well about choosing Intel. I have the 64GB version of the Intel 520 Cherryville and below are my benchmarks with the free version of HDTune:

Transfer Rate Minimum : 232.3 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 379.6 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 341.8 MB/sec
Access Time : 0.1 ms
Burst Rate : 258.1 MB/sec

Your speeds will be faster as your getting the 256GB version but to give you realistic figures i figure i would post my speeds. Also, after loading Windows 7 ultimate 64bit, Office 2010, VMWare Workstation 8, All Windows updates, All plugins (adobe reader, flash, java, shockwave, silverlight, etc), All ASUS drivers and software i have 35GB free of the 64GB i started out with(considering i left 10GB unreserved space per Intels directions so really only 50-51 GB to start with including formatting as well).