SSD hard drives

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wod

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After the carry on with updating my tablet that you've maybe seen in my other thread.

I've noticed my PC running a bit slow.

My PC hard drive I think is on its way out, sounds like it's consistently reading something, it's not doing the clicking noise which is usually a sign of it dying.

So time for a replacement, I've got my docs and other stuff saved on separate drives.

This is the operating system drive so I'm thinking of buying an SSD something around 250gb.

PC is a core 2 duo 3ghz, 4gb ddr3 ram with Windows 7 on it.

I just use it for Internet browsing and watching downloads so hoping a new drive will speed it up.

Reading about these SSD drives do they really boot up in like 10 seconds?

Are there makes to buy and ones to avoid?

I've looked at drives made by Samsung, crucial, corsair and not sure what to buy.
 
My Dell Vostro is nearly the same spec as your PC, apart from mine has Windows 10 on it. I tried a cheapo Kingspec 60GB SSD off ebay for just over £20 and my PC boots from post checks to usable in about under 15 seconds compared with just over a minute from a normal HDD.

I only use the SSD for the Operating system, everything else runs off a normal Western Digital 1TB HDD. I have also made a disk image of the SSD backed up every 7 days and stored it on the 1TB drive so if it does go tits up i can recover the PC quite quickly without losing everything.

I have since purchased some Kingston SSD Now 60GB SSDs. Stuck one in my HP core 2 duo 2.2Ghz and its made it indefinitely better. The other one is going in my old HP DX5150 AMD Athlon X2 based PC which has been pretty much redundant for ages.
 
The only factor in swapping out the HDD for an SSD is the SATA interface format, some of the older laptops and desk tops have an SATA 1, 2 or 3 interface, the newer SSD drives come with an SATA 6 interface, the drive will work (on most) but will under perform speed wise as it's looking at a lower tech interface.

I tried one in my old laptop running XP, it booted in 15 seconds, I tried a second laptop running Vista and it booted in about 8 seconds, the lappy running XP has a SATA 1 interface, the lappy with vista has an SATA3 interface.

If the SATA interface was 6 on both you may have a warp speed boot time, I have found some PCI to SATA 6 interface boards for a desktop but have not been able to get the desktop to boot from them, I guess a BIOS change would help but that desktop is way out of date.
 
imo, any modern ssd will do the job, just get the biggest size at the best price. The speed is quite amazing when coming from hd.

Fresh install of os and programs always recommended, or if keeping the old, Macrium Reflect does perfect job of making backups (image) of old hd content to restore on new. Then Minitool Partition Wizard to fix and adjust things (make partions, allocate unused space etc). Good luck.
 
Go for it - I put ssd's in some of the oldest network computers at work & boot went from 5 minutes to 1 minutes.

My 10 yr old Dell 5150 boots in 30 seconds & shuts down in 5 now its got a ssd in it
 
Indeed.
My new Win 10 device has a 32Gb SSD and boots up in four seconds to the log in screen and not much more than that again to full function.

It even beats my Android Tablet.
 
I have a 960GB SanDisk SSD in my 1st gen. i5 laptop, it sped that thing up immensely, programs don't take so long to load, boot times are reduced, and waking from Standby is instant, well worth getting SSDs... :)

Also have 2x SSDs in my desktop, a Mushkin Chronos 120GB for the boot & programs, and another SanDisk 960GB (a screwup with my order meant I ended up with two thanks to a yodel muppet) for storage and game files, that system, despite being a Core2Duo E8600 with 4GB RAM, flies along. And lastly I have a 480GB SanDisk in my PS4, improved startup, loading and map-loading times nicely, I'd say the mechanical HDD's days are pretty much numbered thanks to the improvements in SSD technology... :)
 
Yes it is a great improvement for any computer and OS. Price is coming down as well !
 
Is the lifetime of an SSD now considered OK? I remember reading when they first came out that they where not as reliable as traditional hard disks due to the memory wearing out when constantly being read/written to. I'm about to buy a new laptop and am planning to get an SSD for the operating system so hoping it's going to last a good few years.
 
Yes, they have rapidly become mainstream robust devices with surprisingly good longevity.

And with oodles of RAM, cutting down the number of writes to the SSD, all bases are covered.
 
timo_w2s said:
Is the lifetime of an SSD now considered OK? I remember reading when they first came out that they where not as reliable as traditional hard disks due to the memory wearing out when constantly being read/written to.
Click to expand...

OSes these days tend to have SSD optimisation, so they don't read & write unnecessarily to an SSD thus shortening its life, and they also turn off defragmenting which is also quite bad for an SSD, and with better memory technology advances, the SSDs just last longer anyway, in theory outliving an average HDD by several years... :)
 
2cvbloke said:
I have a 960GB SanDisk SSD in my 1st gen. i5 laptop, it sped that thing up immensely, programs don't take so long to load, boot times are reduced, and waking from Standby is instant, well worth getting SSDs... :)

Also have 2x SSDs in my desktop, a Mushkin Chronos 120GB for the boot & programs, and another SanDisk 960GB (a screwup with my order meant I ended up with two thanks to a yodel muppet) for storage and game files, that system, despite being a Core2Duo E8600 with 4GB RAM, flies along. And lastly I have a 480GB SanDisk in my PS4, improved startup, loading and map-loading times nicely, I'd say the mechanical HDD's days are pretty much numbered thanks to the improvements in SSD technology... :)
Click to expand...


What did you do rob a bank? I have been saving up for a drive for months now you seem to have at least £600 worth?
 
Topper said:
What did you do rob a bank? I have been saving up for a drive for months now you seem to have at least £600 worth?
Click to expand...

Mushkin was bought a couple of years ago for about £50, the 960GB was £155, the 2nd 960GB was "lost" by yodel and turned up a couple of weeks after the replacement (first one) had turned up so yodel paid for that one, and the 480GB was £89.99 off ebay... :)

You must remember, I'm northern, therefore a cheapskate and will root out a bargain... :D
 
Can only agree with everyone else, I installed SSDs in both of my desktops and the performance measurably improved, particularly the boot time, have got one for my laptop as well, just got to get around to installing it.:)
 
Aren't you losing most of the benefits of an SSD by using in a desktop? i.e. less battery consumption, lighter, smaller and less prone to shocks from dropping etc
 
DeadHorse800 said:
Aren't you losing most of the benefits of an SSD by using in a desktop? i.e. less battery consumption, lighter, smaller and less prone to shocks from dropping etc
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The benefits of an SSD is faster data access times, no mechanical parts to wear out, less heat generated, and a smaller footprint, perfect for overworked, under-cooled, underpowered desktops... :)

In a laptop the power use compared to a standard 5400RPM drive is about the same, if anything there's a slight power use increase if your laptop (like mine) had a performance 7200RPM drive, such as a Western Digital Black series, fitted, but the shock issue from vibration, knocks and drops is true, my laptop's been "thoroughly tested" in that respect... :-rofl2
 

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Just keep a good back up regime for anything critical as if they do fail it will probably be sudden with little to no warning
 
Analoguesat said:
Just keep a good back up regime for anything critical as if they do fail it will probably be sudden with little to no warning
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Agree. hd can fail abruptely too, but there's a chance of some warning in the form of noises etc, with a time window to get stuff off it before the end.

Whatever ssd or hd, Macrium Reflect here, regular backups (images) of everything to external media. Not only for tech reasons, backups can save one from user error, os problems, virus.
 
SATA SSD is old hat now. It's all about PCIe SSD these days. They realistically achieve speeds of over 1500Mbytes/sec . 'spensive though...
 
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