Which SSD for me?

claypigeon101

claypigeon101

claypigeon101

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Hi guys, my ageing Win7 PC always performed lovely and now it's a little stuttery. Still plays my games fine and new games pretty okay.

I'd like to coax a few extra mph out of it and don't have cash for a lot of upgrades, plus I want to do a full format and reinstall of Windows so I figured now is the best time to get myself an SSD.

My question is, which should I get?

Currently I run all programs plus store files, edited music and media, everything, on my C: 640GB and all my games files are stored on 500GB D:. Steam and Steam game files are also on D:.
I'm thinking replace my OS drive with an SSD and solely install system files and core programs on that. Then any large storage, music, media can be saved on my old 640GB and my games can be installed on my 500GB which is newer and faster.

Cheapest option could well be the best here, I don't need to pay £100 extra for the difference in 40MB/s read speed etc. But what size do I need... 100GB minimum? Anything of any bulk will get dumped straight onto 640GB drive.

What do you reckon?
Appreciate the advice.

Ben
 
The Samsungs are very fast and reliable.

You'll be fine with a 120/128GB drive, it's just better to get the biggest you can afford IMO :)
 
Then go with a 120 Sammy, shall be ideal. I run my laptop on a 128GB M4 and a 500GB HDD, it's ideal. I upgraded to a 250GB in my desktop though as it was getting fairly full from games!
 
I am waiting for the Samsung Evo 128GB to be dellieved. GOing to put it in my macbook pro. IMO, if you don't need it for gaming, then 128GB is more than enough, but obviously it also depends if you have any other media files.
 
I've had a 60GB SSD in my HTPC and never struggled with space. Ok there's not a huge amount installed on it, but I've never touched it, cleaned it out or anything.

ssd.PNG


Games are the real killer on space!
 
I'm flirting with the idea of fitting a SSD into my new build but only as a boot drive (Win 7). Main storage will be the 1TB HDD I was previously going to use for everything.

What I'm not sure about is the best SSD size to go for and also how to set it up eg. is it a good idea to put Programs on a separate partition from the OS?

I'm lost as regards most of the spec descriptions. Minor read/write speed difference which many reviews seem to focus on are almost irrelevant to me. I'm more interested in something reliable around the £50 mark, preferably less which is going to give me a significant speed advantage over a HDD.

SanDisk and Crucial 64GB - 128GB range SSDs are the ones that I've been drawn to as regards pricing but, as said, I've no real idea what I should be looking for from the many choices there are even from just these two makers let alone others.

Help appreciated.
 
buy the biggest you can afford when it comes to ssd's,you can never have enough fast storage space

unless you plan on caching,then 64gb is fine

os on ssd,large mechanical storage drive or second ssd for everything else

can use any free space up on os ssd for any most played games ect,upto you
 
Sorry its not clear: are you recommending putting Programs on a separate partition to the OS but on the HDD not the SSD? Perhaps I've misunderstood but surely having Programs etc installed on the SSD, separate partition or not, rather than the HDD is what you need to ensure maximum speed benefit from using the SSD.

The idea I had in my mind was a single separate partition from the OS containing Programs, Games and a Test/Trial Programs folders on then SSD. All data would be on the HDD.

But the more I've read I was wondering if partitioning off Programs etc from the main OS partition has much raison d'etre. The point being made that if the OS has to reinstalled it might not see the Programs if they're on another partition and you'd have to reinstall them anyway.

Obviously regular backup images of the entire drive would resolve that sort of reinstall problem but if there's no particular advantage to putting Programs etc on a separate SSD partition there's no point in doing is there?
 
I don't partition as its more hassle,just install windows and the programs that take long to loadup on your ssd

its all fine on a whole drive,use the hdd for additional storage

what I mean is just install as you normally would onto the ssd along with the os,less important (speed wise) programs install on the hdd
 
If its an aging win7 laptop as you said, then you're only likely to have sata2 controllers, so maybe look around for the biggest sata2 SSD as they should be cheap now. The newer Samsung 840 Evo are brilliant, i use them, but they are sata3, so you'll certainly not realise its potential. You may well be paying for speed you cannot attain.
 
On the other hand the prices are not that different so i would suggest to buy a sata3 one and you can take it off the laptop and use it in the future in a different laptop/desktop. As it looks the sata3 will be going for at least another year if not more (samsung evo 850 pro is sata 3 just came out and will last at least 2 years). Plus i think the IOPS are a lot better in newer devices than old sata2 SSD drives had years ago.
 
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