Any tips for an SSD hard drive

[jt256]

Howdi. Bought a core i7 system in March. Got the 2.6ghz chip ramped up to 3.4ghz no problem, with an 'overdrive' or something setting on the mobo to pump it up to 21x so 3.6ghz and it seems to work just fine, topping out at 69deg during video rendering.

I'd like to get a solid state drive for my system files / OS. I'm in windows 7 pro, and have just done an image backup of my c drive using win 7's backup utility (a bit like what acronis does I guess) so I'm hoping I should be able to just transfer that image onto the new SSd drive and hope that i'll work OK and I won't have to do any windows reinstalling. Does this sound feasible?

My c drive is currently at 36gb, so probably a 64gig drive would do the job. Any tips for a fast cheap one? I don't have much experience about installing, or telling the bios to use the new drive as the c drive, but I'm normally pretty handy so should be able to figure it out with your help.

So if anyone's got any advice on whether I can transfer the drive image easily, and what drive to get, I'd be grateful. Ta

[Ben @ Scan]

Hi

If you created a system image as well as backed up your files you should be able to image the new SSD drive when you get one...we havent tested the re-imaging of a Win 7 image as yet but will try and get around to this sometime this week

These are a good price at the minute and Fast

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/64GB-...-Write-200MB-s

Regards

Ben

[jt256]

Cheers Ben. I just took a couple of pics of my case to check that there's enough sockets etc. I dunno if this drive would just plug into one socket, or whether it needs sata and separate power or whatever.

The mobo's an ex58-ud4 and there's only one hard drive installed at present.

Oh hang on, this forum won't let me attach images. Hmm. How about...

sites.google.com/site/jt133875732/IMG_7055.JPG?attredirects=0&d=1[/IMG]
sites.google.com/site/jt133875732/IMG_7054.JPG?attredirects=0&d=1[/IMG]
sites.google.com/site/jt133875732/IMG_7053.JPG?attredirects=0&d=1[/IMG]

If you can double check that the product you linked to will work just fine with my system then I'm happy to place an order. Cheers

[jt256]

ps, just one thing, the drive you linked to is advertised as Read 220MB/s, Write 200MB/s but I checked online and the 64gb version is throttled to write 120MB/s

The product overview says Read Speed of 220MB/s Write Speed of 120MB/s but the technical specs say 200 MB/s

You might want to get this clarified as it could potentially mislead. Thanks again

[dangel]

Tips for SSD buying:

1. ignore sequential write speed it's irrelevant for OS drives
2. take a much larger note of random small writes (the stuff they don't advertise)
3. ask about TRIM support - if the drive doesn't have it, when will it? You DO want this.

[Pazza]

Any recommendations going now? is the new 40gb kingston drive the one to go for (as a boot drive) ? I am also wanting a SSD drive for my laptop and home PC - I have other drives to store large data on so 40gb is plently for most people I think.

[dangel]

The new kingston drive is actual an intel drive and so has the same benefits when it comes to random reads/writes. I'm thinking of picking one up for the media center and maybe one other machine. The 80gb intel drive I have now is excellent (or at least was until intel's firmware update *possibly* killed it)

[Perfectionist]

What about Corsair Extreme Series X256 ? (256GB) It's what Scan are using on Jellyfish, tho not sure how much better it is than cheaper ones (I'd be interested in hearing too as I'm looking at SSDs now also)

Can't find a page on Scan for buying it, only as part of a system

I found this which is kinda worrying: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=138534

I would say they're definitely not something to advise a normal user to install/use... seems like there's a lot of specifics with regard to partition offsets, wear levelling, and many other SSD attributes that could end up reducing performance or causing undue stress in the end.

[jt256]

Some interesting tips here. I just realised there was a lot of crap on my (freshly installed) OS drive for Win 7. Infuriatingly micrsoft make it so difficult to visualise how much space each folder takes up, so I used treesize to see which folders were sucking up disk space. I've now got my c drive down to 26gb, but have another couple of large apps to install, so I reckon 40gb would be Ok, though mabye 64 safer, and would give me a bit more spare room for faster video rendering etc.

[dangel]

Some interesting tips here. I just realised there was a lot of crap on my (freshly installed) OS drive for Win 7. Infuriatingly micrsoft make it so difficult to visualise how much space each folder takes up, so I used treesize to see which folders were sucking up disk space. I've now got my c drive down to 26gb, but have another couple of large apps to install, so I reckon 40gb would be Ok, though mabye 64 safer, and would give me a bit more spare room for faster video rendering etc.

Can I suggest the excellent spacemonger? http://www.sixty-five.cc/sm/

[jt256]

If anyone can check out the pics of my motherboard to confirm what interface SSD I need to get that'd be really helpful. I'm not very experienced in installing new drives etc, but if I know what spec I need to get that would be really useful.

Thanks in advance.

http://sites.google.com/site/jt133875732/IMG_7053.JPG
http://sites.google.com/site/jt133875732/IMG_7054.JPG
http://sites.google.com/site/jt133875732/IMG_7055.JPG

[jt256]

Reckon I'm being a bit dumb. I've got 4 spare SATA ports. Was looking in the wrong place. I guess one of those will do the job.

But I dunno if I'll need to hook up an SSD to the power supply? Not quite sure how to do that

[GheeTsar]

Yes, you will need to power it. You will need a SATA power connector, which look a bit like this:



If your power supply does not have one, then you can buy adaptors quite cheaply;

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Perip...productId=7683

[jt256]

Thanks. Sounds like just now might not be the best time to make a purchase, given that stock is really low, and more models likely to appear soon. I'm using Windows 7 so TRIM would be good

[pauleden]

I think that's wise, jt. The time isn't here just yet for the average user to plump for an SSD.
The thing is, the Intel, or the rebadged Kingston is the ones to go for. Yes, they are expensive, but this is a drive we're talking about, not a mouse or soundcard. They are central to the system and need to last, so buying top range is a good move.
I'm not convinced that the Kingston 40GB is right for me. Just the OS and program files takes much of that. An office suite, couple of recent games and one or two big applications and 40 GB is gone.

[Perfectionist]

I compared some SSD benchmarks over at: http://forums.hexus.net/shopping-ret...ml#post1807614
However they are only a rough guide and not totally accurate as different reviewers have different settings when benchmarking, and I couldn't find one site that had done them all (it would be really cool if Hexus did some).

and the post below that

At this point in time the choice is realistically Indilinx based drive, cheapest you can get one the better, or an Intel and no matter what you get you'll be very hard pressed to tell the difference once in your system under any normal home use and most other ways to use hard drives frankly.

The intel only really shines in very specific area's and not many that people frequently use in any circumstances.