I have a voucher for a rival site that I won't mention, and I was thinking that finally getting an SSD could be a nice boost for my system. I thought 128GB would be a good size and my budget is £100, but I don't mind going about £20 either side of that.
From looking around the web and this forum (e.g. there are lots of posts like this one), it seems that my options are:
Crucial M4
Samsung 830
Samsung 840
Samsung 840 Pro
The M4 seems like a very good deal and from what I've heard it's a reliable drive. But it is older. I don't know how much of an issue that is.
The pricing for the 830 seems to be all over the place. Some places have it much cheaper. I don't understand why it's more expensive than the newer drive, but from reading around the web people seem to recommend going for established SSDs rather than newer ones, and I think stock is getting low for them.
The 840 is well priced but I could stretch to the Pro if I thought it was worth it. On the other hand, instead of doing that I could pay a little more and get double the capacity on a cheaper drive.
My questions are:
1) I was originally planning on using it as a games drive but from what I've heard I'd see the most improvement from using it as my OS drive. Would I be better off using it as an OS drive, and if so, is it worth getting a 256GB one and putting my games on it as well, or won't I see much benefit in games?
The non-pro 840 or M4 would be about £130 to £140, which I could stretch to if I knew I was getting double the capacity. The 840 Pro 256GB would be too expensive for me.
2) Is it OK to put the drive at the bottom of my case? They don't vibrate, right? So I'm assuming it doesn't need to be mounted in the drive bays.
3) Am I likely to see much difference between any of these drives? Bearing in mind that I want a noticeable boost but I don't need it to be the absolute fastest possible, which SSD would you recommend?
From looking around the web and this forum (e.g. there are lots of posts like this one), it seems that my options are:
Crucial M4
Samsung 830
Samsung 840
Samsung 840 Pro
The M4 seems like a very good deal and from what I've heard it's a reliable drive. But it is older. I don't know how much of an issue that is.
The pricing for the 830 seems to be all over the place. Some places have it much cheaper. I don't understand why it's more expensive than the newer drive, but from reading around the web people seem to recommend going for established SSDs rather than newer ones, and I think stock is getting low for them.
The 840 is well priced but I could stretch to the Pro if I thought it was worth it. On the other hand, instead of doing that I could pay a little more and get double the capacity on a cheaper drive.
My questions are:
1) I was originally planning on using it as a games drive but from what I've heard I'd see the most improvement from using it as my OS drive. Would I be better off using it as an OS drive, and if so, is it worth getting a 256GB one and putting my games on it as well, or won't I see much benefit in games?
The non-pro 840 or M4 would be about £130 to £140, which I could stretch to if I knew I was getting double the capacity. The 840 Pro 256GB would be too expensive for me.
2) Is it OK to put the drive at the bottom of my case? They don't vibrate, right? So I'm assuming it doesn't need to be mounted in the drive bays.
3) Am I likely to see much difference between any of these drives? Bearing in mind that I want a noticeable boost but I don't need it to be the absolute fastest possible, which SSD would you recommend?
