79 replies to this topic

[DOOVD]

I am considering getting an SSD drive to boot up my windows OS but I'm rather inexperienced when it comes to this, I already have my windows on my HDD will I need to completely reinstall windows on my SSD or is there a method of transferring it?

How much memory does windows OS actually take up, I also play my fair share of games but if possible could I chose to install them on my hardrive instead of the SSD.

[Blueclub]

From your question above, I highly recommend you get SSD and Windows installed by a professional. Windws 7 takes about 20GB when installed.

[Open Minded]

You can grab a 120 GB SSD off newegg for about 85-100 USD. There's also software that can clone the drive you have now to your new SSD, but I'd highly recommend a reinstall of Windows with AHCI on in the BIOS.

[The King of GnG]

My advice is: absolute performance IS NOT everything, you should spare your money on a fundamentally broken and unreliable technology like NAND Flash-based SSDs and go for a high-performance HDD: plenty of space, faster on newer hardware and operating systems and if/when the disk dies it should give you the time to backup/recover your data. You know what happens when an SSD dies? Your data disappears, instantly, and forever.

I'll wait for ReRAM or FeRAM-based SSDs to consider the chance to spend my money on this kind of storage device....

[still1]

Totally worth it... I have Intel 120Gb on my work PC with 16 Gb ram..

A fresh install is always better and should take about 20-25 Gb space.

[Astra.Xtreme]

The King of GnG, on 23 July 2012 - 14:06, said:

My advice is: absolute performance IS NOT everything, you should spare your money on a fundamentally broken and unreliable technology like NAND Flash-based SSDs and go for a high-performance HDD: plenty of space, faster on newer hardware and operating systems and if/when the disk dies it should give you the time to backup/recover your data. You know what happens when an SSD dies? Your data disappears, instantly, and forever.

I'll wait for ReRAM or FeRAM-based SSDs to consider the chance to spend my money on this kind of storage device....

You seem to know very little about NAND memory. It's actually much much more reliable than mechanical HDDs, so I'm not sure where you get your information from.

[The King of GnG]

Astra.Xtreme, on 23 July 2012 - 14:19, said:

You seem to know very little about NAND memory. It's actually much much more reliable than mechanical HDDs, so I'm not sure where you get your information from.

Sorry but the one who knows very little about NAND flash it's you: memory cells are a long-term nightmare for anyone caring for his or her data.

[+scumdogmillionaire]

I just recently got the Intel 330 180GB SSD for my new computer. It is fantastic. Worth every dime!

There is a utility with the Intel drives to transfer everything, and supposedly it works very well, though I didn't try it. I think you could pull it off just fine if you're not very expierienced.

[+Jdawg683]

The King of GnG, on 23 July 2012 - 14:06, said:

My advice is: absolute performance IS NOT everything, you should spare your money on a fundamentally broken and unreliable technology like NAND Flash-based SSDs and go for a high-performance HDD: plenty of space, faster on newer hardware and operating systems and if/when the disk dies it should give you the time to backup/recover your data. You know what happens when an SSD dies? Your data disappears, instantly, and forever.

I'll wait for ReRAM or FeRAM-based SSDs to consider the chance to spend my money on this kind of storage device....

mkay, well it's not broken and SSDs are the future so, it sounds like youve never actually owned or used an SSD...

also, SSDs are used in a wide variety of business applications. those in IT are using SSDs for their datacenters so there has to be a certain level of confidence in NAND technology. not only are companies like OCZ and Fusion-IO using them for massive storage solutions, but other companies are using them in SANs for long-term storage as well as caching.

if your hard drive suddenly dies, your data goes w/ it too... you dont always have time to backup your data. also, SMART works great on SSDs and can predict failures. i own 4 SSDs and none of them have died. Vertex 30GB, Vertex 2 60GB, Intel X-25M 160GB, Crucial M4 512GB.

DOOVD - pick up a 60GB SSD for Windows and essential applications. you'll want to do a fresh install, and as others have mentioned, enable AHCI in the BIOS before you install Windows. as for games, you'll still be able to get 1 or 2 sizable games on that SSD if you want; otherwise, just install them on your hard drive. Windows takes between 15-20GB, and a 60GB SSD should format around 54GB leaving you with about 34GB for games and applications.

[tsupersonic]

The King of GnG, on 23 July 2012 - 14:24, said:

Sorry but the one who knows very little about NAND flash it's you: memory cells are a long-term nightmare for anyone caring for his or her data.

That's terrible advice! Every drive is going to die, regardless if it's SSD based or a mechanical HDD. Bottom line, SSD's are completely worth it, and it turns your existing system into a new beast. Remember, your computer's slowest component is the mechanical HDD. Just make sure you backup your data, as always - you never know when your SSD or HDD is going to fail.

[Tony.]

SSDs with each generation are becoming more and more reliable. The first generate SSDs and even certain products from the newer generations have had problems, but this has mostly been down to dodgy firmware. An SSD in my opinion is likely to die like a HDD. I've had many hard drives die over the years.

[Charisma]

I just installed a SSD in my machine with a fresh install of Win7, and I LOVE it! The old drive is still in there for storage for most things, documents and images and whatnot, but having the OS and most-used programs on a SSD has made such a difference in performance. Boots, loads things, opens programs so quickly. I'll never go back

[SlimShady]

tsupersonic, on 23 July 2012 - 14:33, said:

That's terrible advice! Every drive is going to die, regardless if it's SSD based or a mechanical HDD. Bottom line, SSD's are completely worth it, and it turns your existing system into a new beast. Remember, your computer's slowest component is the mechanical HDD. Just make sure you backup your data, as always - you never know when your SSD or HDD is going to fail.

Exactly. Backing up your data will always be the number one advice when it comes to storage. It's a pre-caution measure and you'll be glad that your data is safe after a crash, power outage or a drive failure.

[Astra.Xtreme]

The King of GnG, on 23 July 2012 - 14:24, said:

Sorry but the one who knows very little about NAND flash it's you: memory cells are a long-term nightmare for anyone caring for his or her data.

Use some common sense...
Mechanical parts wear out. You can't overcome physics.
NAND has no moving parts and have decades worth of read/write cycles, which will only continue to get better.

What you are claiming has nothing to do with reliability. Yes when a SSD dies, your data is gone, but so what? The same usually happens when a HDD dies unless it shows symptoms beforehand. But again, that has nothing to do with reliability.

Please at least have some background knowledge of the subject before you ramble out nonsense...

[+articuno1au]

The King of GnG, on 23 July 2012 - 14:24, said:

Sorry but the one who knows very little about NAND flash it's you: memory cells are a long-term nightmare for anyone caring for his or her data.

Yeah, you're wrong. I'm particularly amused that no-one picked up on "faster on newer hardware" as that's just complete tosh.

Nand doesn't degrade when not in use where as magnetic mediums do; So for pure storage (i.e. plug in, copy, unplug), the only downside of SSDs is cost. Even on scratch disks the drives survive for longer than the lifetime of the computer and S.M.A.R.T. is more accurate in predicting its impending death.

For those of us that are interested in performance the SSDs are immeasurably better due to their extremely low latency. Whilst I agree that performance isn't everything, this is a worthwhile performance boost.

Tony., on 23 July 2012 - 14:36, said:

SSDs with each generation are becoming more and more reliable. The first generate SSDs and even certain products from the newer generations have had problems, but this has mostly been down to dodgy firmware. An SSD in my opinion is likely to die like a HDD. I've had many hard drives die over the years.

Technically untrue. As the SSDs shrink in die size, the NAND memory becomes less durable and slower.

I would however agree that the firmware is a million times better now than it was then.