SSD question and help

[marc512]

Iv now started looking at SSDs and i have a question. How do you install one of these? iv never looked into them before because of there low space and high price. But now i see one less than £100 ( a penny shy makes me wanna buy it )

Do they just slip into the normal HD bays? or do you need an adaptor of some sort? Do they need any drivers?
When i get the money i have a plan of putting a 30GB SSD into my system and install windows 7 on it then have like a 500gb or 1tb hd for my games. Would this make my main pc considerably faster? right now it just has 3 250gb hds 7200rpm. If it makes a huge difference i may just save up and get 2 128gb SDD for games and a normal HD for media and stuff instead of buying a high end graphics card. The one i have already 275gtx is amazing.

 

[ChileanLlama]

Yes you need a 2.5" to 3.5" adaptor - or some other method to secure it iin your case.

No different to adding a standard SATA hard disk. Windows has the standard drivers - though you might want to get updated drivers for the chipset/IDE/RAID/AHCI ports.

It will make a noticeable difference. I went from raptors in raid0 to a single drive and it's a nice step change. Huge difference? I wouldn't go that far for me.

I'd contemplate getting a bigger SSD for your OS, Apps and games and keep your 250gb HDs for data. The larger capacity drives tend to be faster than the small ones (128gb+). And the bigger ones are cheaper per gb. I.e. I went for a 256gb crucial because it was about £40 cheaper than 2x128gb.

 

[only1hammy]

You don't need any adapter of any sort. The drives have no moving parts and are not prone to heat issues. Keeping it on the bottom of the case will help dissipate what little heat there is, along with keeping it away from other hot components (ie. above/below a standard HD).

 

[marc512]

cheers chileanllama and only1hammy!

Ah i see now about the price. I think ill do what you say and go for the 256gb size! saving £40 is a lot and i didnt notice it! thanks!
All i want is less time on waiting for my pc to start up and log on. I dont normally run a million things all at the same time (maybe because im used to a slow loading pc) Right now takes around 2-3 minutes to start up. I hear for SDD drives it takes just less than a minute to start up on a full ssd. That to me is something i would save up for!

only1hammy are you meaning just connecting the drive up and leaving it sitting at the bottom of the case?

 

[only1hammy]

only1hammy are you meaning just connecting the drive up and leaving it sitting at the bottom of the case?

Yes. A lot of people do this (including me). It really depends on your budget, but there is no adverse effects from resting it on the bottom of the case (and arguably it is beneficial for the reasons I mentioned previously). If you want to be extravagant you could even tape it down securely

 

[Leeroy123]

Far too overpriced these SSD, yeah i know they are the new technology but for what your getting i wont be using my money on them, they dont bring anything new to the table for me.