SPCR

Thanks for the new article, Mike: and thanks in advance too, for the best which is yet to be!

Thanks for the review,

Imo for the average user the MX100 > any ssd atm due to price/performance, the average user will be more than happy with it.

I'm building my next HTPC, and want it to be very silent; my current one has a small, older-generation SSD as its system drive, and a big ol' 3TB (or 4TB, can't remember) drive for data.

But the hard drive is too loud for my tastes, so the new HTPC will be all SSDs.

System drive in the new system is a Samsung 850 Pro 1TB ; if I could afford it, I'd buy 4 more 1TB drives for storage, but at $650 each that would break the bank. For now I'll use the system drive for storage, and when SSDs start coming down further in price, I'll get some more. That MX100 might be just the ticket.

- Tim

For most consumer uses, the 850 Pro is overkill. You won't see a significant benefit over the CX100 or Samsung's more economical model, the 840 EVO. The Pro could provide benefit in a workstation that gets hammered with heavy use (like a video editor, etc). I like the Samsung Magician tool set. Easy to set up overprovisioning, encyryption, etc.

tbessie --

Wow, that's a lot of expense for a relatively undemanding role for a PC these days. Aside from fast bootup, an SSD really doesn't provide any improvement in HTPC performance (at least for me). I'm surprised you find the HDD noise so bothersome. What are your environmental conditions? ie -- where is the HTPC, where do you sit, ambient noise, etc. I have a PVR from Telus (phone/internet/TV) that sits under the TV, and it sets the noise floor of my TV room. Its HDD & fan are considerably louder than any noise my HTPC makes beside it, but both are 7-8' away so with the TV on w/ any program, the noise is completely masked. Mind you, the only time I am in that room is to watch something on the TV.

A WD 4TB Red is pretty much inaudible esp. if you control the vibration transfer into the cabinet the PC sits in. (Soft rubber feet, whatever.) I have a 120gb mSATA SSD + 1TB 2.5" 5400 HDD in mine (a NUC), but 99% of the program material is in a home server downstairs, accessed w/o issues over gigabit LAN in XBMC/win7.

Unfortunately there isn't a 1 TB MX100. The 1 TB alternative by Crucial is the M550 1 TB (the Micron M600 is OEM-only).

The 1 TB Samsung 840 EVO is probably the go-to drive in its class, since there's no MX100 alternative. All 840 EVOs offer the RAPID mode (albeit one that cannot use as much RAM as the newer 850 Pro), and it seems the recent issues (poor performance reading older data) have been fully addressed with the latest firmware. The TLC NAND's lesser endurance is of no concern to client users, according to Anandtech's calculations.

The interesting thing with this comparison is that the 512GB MX100 seems to have more parallel channels available to it, making the performance more on a par than if the 2 drives were equal in capacity. Even without V-NAND, there are major benefits to having more capacity in the first place: performance, longevity and general future-proofing. The MX100 also has capacitors for partial protection in case of power loss, which Samsung reserves for enterprise drives. I agree that the MX100 is a very clear winner at this price point, though the 840 EVO remains a worthy alternative.

Cheers.

Seems like some people have problems with the Crucial MX not booting. I was almost decided to buy this but I think I'll hold out unless they provide a firmware update.

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Crucial-SSD ... d-p/158815

CA_Steve wrote:For most consumer uses, the 850 Pro is overkill. You won't see a significant benefit over the CX100 or Samsung's more economical model, the 840 EVO. The Pro could provide benefit in a workstation that gets hammered with heavy use (like a video editor, etc). I like the Samsung Magician tool set. Easy to set up overprovisioning, encyryption, etc.

Yeah, I like the Samsung tools; prior to that, I used mostly Intel SSDs, which are also great.

But yes, it is overkill - I like the longer lifespan of the 850 Pro (given their warrantee), though it's not really necessary for the simple storage uses I'm putting them to. I think I just went crazy - I'm using a Z97 motherboard and a 2nd-generation Haswell processor with overclocking, and maxed out memory to 32gb. No real reason to do any of that, but I enjoyed being able to use the latest hardware for this thing. It's likely better specced than my main workhorse machine, which has the 1st generation Haswell on a Z96 board and smaller SSDs.

But at least I'm satisfied with the build.

- Tim

MikeC wrote:tbessie --Wow, that's a lot of expense for a relatively undemanding role for a PC these days. Aside from fast bootup, an SSD really doesn't provide any improvement in HTPC performance (at least for me). I'm surprised you find the HDD noise so bothersome. What are your environmental conditions? ie -- where is the HTPC, where do you sit, ambient noise, etc. I have a PVR from Telus (phone/internet/TV) that sits under the TV, and it sets the noise floor of my TV room. Its HDD & fan are considerably louder than any noise my HTPC makes beside it, but both are 7-8' away so with the TV on w/ any program, the noise is completely masked. Mind you, the only time I am in that room is to watch something on the TV.

A WD 4TB Red is pretty much inaudible esp. if you control the vibration transfer into the cabinet the PC sits in. (Soft rubber feet, whatever.) I have a 120gb mSATA SSD + 1TB 2.5" 5400 HDD in mine (a NUC), but 99% of the program material is in a home server downstairs, accessed w/o issues over gigabit LAN in XBMC/win7.

I have very little space in my apartment for a home entertainment area, so I have a vertical equipment cabinet with the TV on top, integrated amp below that, and HTPC below that. I've positioned two medium-sized speakers on pedestals behind that. All very cramped, but works.

My couch is RIGHT next to this, so my head is about 8 feet from the cabinet/TV while watching. Ambient noise is pretty minimal, except for the refrigerator motor turning on in the kitchen, or someone having a party next door.

With nothing else on, I used to very clearly hear the noise from my previous HTPC build. A lot of it was the smaller fans in it (rear exhaust were 60mm - pretty tiny and noisy, despite my having put in the quietest fans I could find. The CPU cooler was also a bit louder than it should be, and I could also hear the hard drive spinning (WD Green 3TB model, I think).

The new setup has a lot of 120mm fans running in it - probably more than I need. I can't hear it on the couch, though, and when I put my head near it, it produces a low-pitched whooshing. I could probably disable 2 of the fans and make it quieter.

But yeah, this was overkill - as mentioned elsewhere, I'm using a Z97 board with 32gb and an overclockable 2nd generation Haswell i5. Much much more than I need, but at least I know that this computer should last me many years and handle any upgrades in software that may be thrown at it. I could have still run the old one (which had an i3 in it and 16gb of ram), but it's oh-so-fun to upgrade sometimes. Like a kid in a candy store.

Sadly, there is no other place I can put offline storage, except perhaps in a storage room off the kitchen, but that's already too filled with stuff (and would have to be accessed via wifi). I often leave the HTPC on at night as it hosts my audio streaming server. I used to walk in during the night and hear it humming along; now I can't hear anything when I come into the room, and I like that.

Even so, the integrated amp I'm using has a couple of 60mm fans in it that are pretty loud, so any sound reduction I've got in the PC is canceled out by that; though it's only on when I'm watching a program or listening to music, so I don't hear it then.

- Tim