SSD Compatibility

leeh14 · 7 Oct 2013 at 10:38

Hi People,

A while ago I bought this motherboard, from Overclockers:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2841#sp

it has been great but I am looking to make some improvements to my system one of which is to improve the storage. Will the following drive be compatible with my motherboard:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-167-SA

I beleive that my board has SATA2 and the drive using SATA2, but could someone confirm?

Thanks for your help.

Terrier_Jimlad · 7 Oct 2013 at 10:53

The disk will be fine with that board, there isn't really any compatibility issues as such, it's just a SATA disk at the end of the day. As you say, you will only get the SATA2 speeds unfortunately and won't benefit from the RAPID mode which is one of the big benefits of the Evo range. Just ensure you put SATA operation to AHCI in BIOS before installing your OS on the Evo if you're using it for Windows

leeh14 · 7 Oct 2013 at 11:06

Ok thanks that is good to know. Well If I benefit from some features would this drive maybe be better:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-161-SA

Or can you recommended another one, or would you say the EVO is pretty good?

Terrier_Jimlad · 7 Oct 2013 at 11:55

Not really, you're always going to be bottlenecked by SATA2, that's the crooks of it. The 840 Pro and Evo are very similar drives, the Evo has a few new features, but the Pro has extra 2 years warranty.

Either will suffice as they have amazing read/write speeds at SATA3 connectivity. A SATA2 drive might be a cheaper option, but if you ever upgrade your board in the future, you'll want a new SSD, so might be worth just getting a SATA3 one now for a bit of future proofing

leeh14 · 7 Oct 2013 at 12:05

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me.

I think I know what choice I am going to make now, but one last thing what is your opinion on the Samsung drives? would you recommended any other like OCZ, Crucial or Kingston. I know it is a big questions open to lots of different view points, but just wondering?

Terrier_Jimlad · 7 Oct 2013 at 12:41

If you started a thread asking which SSD to buy, I think about 90% of people would reply with the Samsung 840's (both Pro and Evo) ... they're extremely good drives, have good warranty and support, and proved time after time to be rock solid and fast.

Dervious · 7 Oct 2013 at 12:44

I'm currently purchasing Samsung EVOs at an alarming rate ! (Well, not alarming, but I`ve fitted a few).

So far they seem every bit as good as previous Samsung SSDs (830 and 840s).

I wouldn't worry too much about the lack of Sata 3, I`ve found the difference between HDD and SSD on Sata 2 is massive (it's a great upgrade). The difference between an SSD on Sata 2 & 3 is not as great as you might think.

leeh14 · 7 Oct 2013 at 13:08

Thanks for all the advise, I think I am going to go for the:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-167-SA

Thanks

leeh14 · 7 Oct 2013 at 13:40

One last thing actually do the Samsung drives support TRIM?

Dervious · 7 Oct 2013 at 14:19

Yes, I believe so.

I can strongly recommend Samsung SSDs, as I`ve bought and installed a fair few of them. No problems so far, and they make PCs/Laptops "rip".

I haven't heard of any serious problems, and if you read through this forum, you'll not hear about too many issues. The same could be said for other SSDs too, I think reliability has improved since SSDs first became "affordable".

I wouldn't mind betting that Samsung are the most popular, if not one of the most popular SSDs sold in the UK at the moment. The price/performance/reliability ratio seems good.