SSD what you recommend for under £120?

marc512 · 9 Nov 2009 at 07:22

Im finally deciding on splashing my money out on a SSD. Iv got a WD 640gb 32mb cache hd atm and its takeing around 11 seconds to start up windows

, after hearing ssd cards can start up windows in around 6-7 seconds i might deciding on buying one. Iv only got £120 to spend, so what do you recommend? Size doesnt matter, i only want it to start my OS which i will somehow transfer onto it. I say bigger the better but in this case i just want speed.

Recommendations ?

i had this in mind Corsair Extreme X32 32GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive

Stelly · 9 Nov 2009 at 07:30

I would say save up because if you get a 32Gb SSD you going to be really annoyed when you notice how much space Windows 7 takes up and you have none left! save a little and get a 64Gb SSD... but I wouldnt bother with a 32Gb SSD

Stelly

UKDTweak · 9 Nov 2009 at 07:48

+1 for Vista or Windows 7, you need a minimum of 64gb SSD, unless you install Everything else on the old HDD, as 32gb will not be enough for either and your Programs...

weird_dave · 9 Nov 2009 at 09:51

I would suggest there are far better reasons to go SSD than saving 4 seconds on loading windows

Stelly · 9 Nov 2009 at 10:08

weird_dave said:
I would suggest there are far better reasons to go SSD than saving 4 seconds on loading windows

ok apart from the speed what other reasons are there??

Stelly

Toastor · 9 Nov 2009 at 11:22

Perhaps wait for OCUK to get the 40GB Kingston drives in (assuming they will?). Unlike the bigger capacity Kingston V- series drives, these are Intel based and offer very good speed for the money. The UK price will probably be around the £90 mark.

Details here: http://hothardware.com/News/Kingston-Announced-40GB-SSD-Desktop-Upgrade-Kit/

marc512 · 9 Nov 2009 at 17:18

after reading i think i might wait a while

i always thought 32gb would be enough just for an operating system (windows 7). I was planning on having a mega fast drive ( SSD ) to load my OS faster, and have maximum ammount of room in my old HD for all my games. My old pc had 2 160gig hard drives and i hated it. To much swapping around and it got noisey.

If im recommended to save ill save. My build is finished so my money is going to stack up for a couple of months. I might just go for a 128gb, When it comes to the time ill have a look then, might be abit cheaper and more variety in size.

Can anyone explain why SSDs are so expensive?

ejr22 · 9 Nov 2009 at 18:39

marc512 said:
i always thought 32gb would be enough just for an operating system (windows 7).

It is enough, by a long way. I think a Windows 7 install takes up about 14GB.

coldfused · 9 Nov 2009 at 22:22

Adding on to what Toastor said, a review of the Kingston SSD V 40GB drive for around £75
The review is here:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/11/09/review_storage_kingston_ssd_now_v_40gb/

weird_dave · 10 Nov 2009 at 08:03

Stelly said:
ok apart from the speed what other reasons are there??

Stelly

Seeks times for a start. Anyway, I did say boot times as the OP did, not just general speed.

david25 · 10 Nov 2009 at 11:38

coldfused said:
Adding on to what Toastor said, a review of the Kingston SSD V 40GB drive for around £75
The review is here:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/11/09/review_storage_kingston_ssd_now_v_40gb/

If you look around, they could be found for £65 (just the basic drive) there is also a more expensive kit, with software and cables.

david25 · 11 Nov 2009 at 20:14

Mine's just arrived, fitting at the weekend

dr4g0nf1y · 11 Nov 2009 at 20:24

I spend £120 on 3 F3's and get at max 368MB/sec with 1.368TB storage

SiriusB · 11 Nov 2009 at 20:31

Windows 7 takes up 12GB as a bare minimum. That leaves 20GB for applications, games, documents, Windows updates and etc.

OK true you could put everything on a standard SATA HDD, but why pay £100 or more when most of the stuff you use on your OS will be on a slow HDD anyway? Awesome your OS loads in 7 seconds and Notepad opens up a wormhole to a parallel dimension it loads so fast. Now load up your favourite application sat on your standard HDD and oops, still waiting as usual.

So if you're gonna blow over £100 quid on an SSD I would wait for at least 64 or 128GB.

Having said that, its just my thoughts on the matter since I would want almost all my apps on an SSD to make it worth having. Justing waiting for them to be cheap enough so my wallet doesn't protest!

InQ · 11 Nov 2009 at 21:10

Kingston V+ 64Gb can be got for around £130 inc delivery.

marscay · 11 Nov 2009 at 21:20

dr4g0nf1y said:
I spend £120 on 3 F3's and get at max 368MB/sec with 1.368TB storage

But still the same slow mechanical access times, no matter how many drives you throw into your raid it doesn't touch an SSD for a desktop drive.

You're 3p33n has now shrunk huh.

OP - Crucial M225 64GB even though they have gone up you might be able to find one ~£120 somewhere....very good drives.

DrBombcrater · 11 Nov 2009 at 21:30

SiriusB said:
Windows 7 takes up 12GB as a bare minimum.

I just installed a fresh copy of Win 7 x64 on the 40GB Kingston I got today and it's taking up 9GB.

david25 · 11 Nov 2009 at 21:33

DrBombcrater said:
I just installed a fresh copy of Win 7 x64 on the 40GB Kingston I got today and it's taking up 9GB.

What's the performance like?

explicit4u · 11 Nov 2009 at 23:52

i would wait for a bit, new SSD's are coming from OCZ and Gskill that are meant to be cheaper then current SSD's.

DrBombcrater · 11 Nov 2009 at 23:57

Performance is great. It's not quite as lightening quick as the 80GB X18-M in my desktop system, but still hugely fast compared to the 500GB HD that was in there before. Pleased as punch with it really, I'm actually debating whether to buy another one for my second desktop or squeeze out the extra cash for another X18-M.