Recommendations please :-)

mikeym · 29 Jun 2018 at 21:45

Looking for recommendations from the wise people at OcUK as to what I should do with my hard drives and what to buy. I could probably just use what I've got but have the itch to get a nice new shiny SSD and minimise the number of drives.

I am contemplating an MX500 1TB SSD to replace the M4 128GB SSD (boot drive + main progs / games). M4 will take place of the OCZ Vertex 2E and might use the Vertex in another laptop / pc.

I am also contemplating getting a larger HDD storage drive. Originally I was thinking of matching the WD Caviar Black 3TB but this is no longer available, so logical choice would be the newer WD Black 4TB. However, I then thought maybe just a cheaper WD Blue as a back up drive / storage for blu-ray rips. This would then allow me to get rid of the Samsung 500GB drives. Not sure what to do with the Samsung 1TB...

Current overview

Crucial M4 128GB SSD (30GB free) - boot drive + main progs/games
OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB SATA-II (49GB free) - overflow of main games
WD Black 3TB (1.6TB free) - other games and general files+pictures+video that are backed up via Dropbox
Samsung HD501LJ 500GB (1) (74GB free) - Blu-ray rips that I haven't used in ages but tempted to sort out rest of my Blu-Ray collection and have them available to stream on home network
Samsung HD501LJ 500GB (2) (81GB free) - in the process of moving files off this drive due to CrystalDiskInfo Health Status 'Caution' - see below
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB (clean) - recently consolidated files over to WD Black

Thanks in advance for any help offered!

mikeym · 30 Jun 2018 at 17:21

Journey said:
NAND flash prices are going down daily...

tamzzy said:
Yeah. Deffo a 1tb ssd

Thanks Journey and tamzzy. I think the 1TB SSD is definitely on the cards. Will keep an eye on prices.

Might hold off on a decision regarding new large storage drive, have a bit of a tidy up and think if I would prefer to spend the money on something else :-)

mikeym · 1 Jul 2018 at 01:47

4K8KW10 said:
Well, I would buy these, if you have an M.2 slot:

Unfortunately no M.2 slot with my ageing Z77 mobo.

I don't feel I'm losing out though, reading reviews and forum comments it seems unlikely I'd notice much improvement for quite a difference in cost.

I had looked at maybe upgrading mobo, cpu and ram but again, doesn't seem worth it for the bump in performance / features from my Z77 / 3770K when compared to cost. Maybe I'll look to upgrade in the future and jump on M.2 bandwagon at same point in lifecycle of that technology...

mikeym · 1 Jul 2018 at 14:43

4 seconds faster to boot though :eek:

mikeym · 20 Jul 2018 at 17:29

As an update, I got a Crucial MX500 1tb whilst on sale for very good price.

It's just been delivered and now I'm in two minds - whether to leave existing m4 128GB SSD as boot (now has 46GB free) and have MX500 1TB for games and programmes...

I should probably stop being lazy and get to work re-installing Windows using new MX500 1TB!

mikeym · 21 Jul 2018 at 16:07

Bit of a shortcut but ended up using Macrium Reflect to clone disk across and MiniTool Partition Wizard to extend the volume as Windows Disk Management kept giving an error (not enough space!). Have a backup image of my old boot SSD using Macrium Reflect and have wiped the old SSD ready to be re-used :-D