Kingston SSDNow V+100 96gb -> Good upgrade for M1710 SATA/150??

[investinwaffles]

Will this be a decent, reliable drive for a non-demanding application?
Just bought my girlfriend an M1710 and I want to pop in an SSD to lower heat, noise, increase speed, etc.

Will this be a good drive for the laptop? Mainly, will it be reliable for at least 3-4 years (probably hard to say I guess). I am unsure of the V+ 100 series of Kingston drives and if they have a good controller. I am pretty sure it does not support TRIM, is this a problem seeing as the drive has its own garbage collection?

$10 off coupon expires today (the 13th)!! Is this an OK deal or should I wait for a better one to come by? Im probably going to just get it and hope for the best if no one chimes in...
96gb for $120 = $1.25/gb

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1096970/

Quick laptop specs:
T2500 2.0ghz Dual Core
7900GTX GO
3GB RAM
Windows 7 Enterprise 32-Bit (Supports TRIM, but I dont think this drive supports trim)

 

[xanvincent]

Not a bad drive for the price, certainly most any SSD is a benefit over regular HDD (especially laptop ones). That drive uses a Toshiba controller and does not use TRIM, instead, it uses its own real-time garbage collection algorithm. Read all about it here.

 

[investinwaffles]

This is what has me worried:

The second issue is the overly aggressive garbage collection. Sequential performance on the V+100 just doesn't change regardless of how much fragmentation you throw at the drive. The drive is quick to clean and keeps performance high as long as it has the free space to do so. This is great for delivering consistent performance, however it doesn't come for free. I am curious to see how the aggressive garbage collection impacts drive lifespan. Kingston ships the V+100 with a 3-year warranty and to Kingston's credit I haven't had any other drives die as a result of wearing out the NAND. Even if the V+100 has higher effective write amplification than the competition, your usage model will determine whether or not you bump into it.

3 years is a decent warranty, but I am worried about it failing even inside the warranty. I will make sure to do backups religiously though (every time I boot the computer, easy with widows backup I guess).

Anyway, im gonna buy it around 5PM unless no one screams not to...

Thanks for the help!

 

[PiERiT]

Not a bad drive for the price, certainly most any SSD is a benefit over regular HDD (especially laptop ones). That drive uses a Toshiba controller and does not use TRIM, instead, it uses its own real-time garbage collection algorithm. Read all about it here.

Err, unless I'm mistaken, it does support TRIM. It just has its own garbage collection tool for OS' that don't have TRIM, such as XP.

To the OP, I bought this drive a couple weeks ago for $110 and I love it. $120 is still a great price.

 

[investinwaffles]

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback and insight!
I have not been able to confirm that it supports TRIM in any review, I am not sure why they dont mention it

Anyway, bought the drive. Should completely revitalize this M1710 and might even convince me not to upgrade the CPU (T2500 CoreDuo to T7600 Core2Duo).