SSD or fast HDD?

By CG-88
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Grand Master

Noir Angel

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SSD's use 4K sectors whereas some older hard drives may not, which will cause problems with partition alignment which will reduce performance. For that reason I would advise you to perform a fresh install rather than cloning your old drive.

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CG-88

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BTW don't forget to put the motherboard in AHCI mode after the SSD is installed and before installing the OS on it.

 

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/Why-do-i-need-AHCI-with-a-SSD-Drive-Guide-Here-Crucial-AHCI-vs/td-p/57078

 

I had actually read something on that, thanks

 

SSD's use 4K sectors whereas some older hard drives may not, which will cause problems with partition alignment which will reduce performance. For that reason I would advise you to perform a fresh install rather than cloning your old drive.

 

definitely going to do that. Its a lot easire just reinstalling everything, especially on w8.1 as office etc automatically setup once i reinstall them. just games/mods etc but thats not an issue.

 

Were there even any horror stories when SSD's first got released?

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Grand Master

Aergan

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Thanks for all your replies! Normally when you see threads asking about specific hardware there are some negative comments thrown in/bad experiences etc but with this it has all been positive. Amazing. :)

 

So I just made a purchase:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-159-SA&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=2394

 

I went for this one because I have used up 125gb of my HDD with pretty much no actual documents saved, there is maybe 4-5gb of game mods, 1gb documents so I decided to go for a larger SSD to be safe.

 

Thanks for all your help!

 

I recently went to throw out a Samsung 840 series box and I found 2x "Samsung SSD activated" badge stickers inside that I had no idea existed. Thought I would pass that information on if you care about such things.

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Grand Master

spaceelf

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Were there even any horror stories when SSD's first got released?

Maybe, maybe not but there are plenty of dead first and second gen drives from most manufacturers.  The new stuff seems a lot more durable.

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Grand Master

Mindovermaster Moderator

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Maybe, maybe not but there are plenty of dead first and second gen drives from most manufacturers.  The new stuff seems a lot more durable.

 

That's why people say OCZ drives are junk. Because they have been in the SSD business almost since the start.

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Grand Master

Noir Angel

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Definitely going to do that. Its a lot easire just reinstalling everything, especially on w8.1 as office etc automatically setup once i reinstall them. just games/mods etc but thats not an issue.

 

Were there even any horror stories when SSD's first got released?

 

There was an unusually high failure rate on drives with Sandforce controllers but that's been fixed now, their failure rate is by and large the same as with normal hard drives.

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Community Regular

raid0

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SSD in and you will never look back. I bought a new 480GB ssd on my actual pc and put my old 120GB to my laptop (core i3, 4gb ram and Intel HD400) and that laptop is much faster than ever before.

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Grand Master

LaP

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That's why people say OCZ drives are junk. Because they have been in the SSD business almost since the start.

 

I know there's been a lot of problem with OCZ drives and maybe i was just lucky but i'm still rocking a Vertex 2 240GB and a Vertex 3 120GB. I got both of them heavily reduced because of all the problems with those drives. I think the vertex 2 must be close to 3 years old and the vertex 3 two years old. I updated the firmwares at every release of a new firmware maybe it did help dunno. If the vertex 2 would be dead tomorrow after 3 years i would consider it would have served its purpose and would have been worth the price i paid for it.

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Grand Master

mrp04

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I'm interested in the same thing. I have a 2009 iMac, I was thinking about removing the CD slot and putting an SSD in it. Would it be recommended?

 

Most definitely. SSDs are amazing, if you haven't used a computer with one you don't know what you're missing out. It's an immediate and hugely noticeable improvement in speed.

 

I remember replacing one person's SSD in their laptop when they were a little hesitant. Upon using the laptop they ordered a second SSD to put into their desktop within 30 minutes. 

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Grand Master

Krome

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Yeah... good to hear you go with SSD.  From your OP, I would give you one negative thoughts.  I know you state the exceptional remark people had but let me give you one negative one.  Using a 1TB drive to install OS AND as a storage was the no-no.  When you build a PC, never have OS store the OS with the non-OS related data.  I mean like pictures, music, videos, etc...  From here on I know you will see the real boost considering you were on the wrong side of the coin.

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Grand Master

Mindovermaster Moderator

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I know there's been a lot of problem with OCZ drives and maybe i was just lucky but i'm still rocking a Vertex 2 240GB and a Vertex 3 120GB. I got both of them heavily reduced because of all the problems with those drives. I think the vertex 2 must be close to 3 years old and the vertex 3 two years old. I updated the firmwares at every release of a new firmware maybe it did help dunno. If the vertex 2 would be dead tomorrow after 3 years i would consider it would have served its purpose and would have been worth the price i paid for it.

 

Yeah. My Vertex is in my father's PC. Still kicking after ~3 years.

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Tobias Brown

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SSD all the way! 

 

You will gain much quicker write speeds, bootup and general performance :)

 

If your already using a 1TB HDD i wouldn't worry about the size, and just buy a decent model such as the Corsair M500?

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Grand Master

+LogicalApex MVC

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Prices are way down, I wouldn't see the point of buying less than 240 anymore.

For the same reason, I wouldn't put an SSD in my rig smaller than 512GB in size.

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Grand Master

Obi-Wan Kenobi

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I smell a SSD for my laptop in my near future. The thing's fast enough for me, but sometimes there's that wait, and I want to be able to instantly boot/instantly whatever. Great purchase, I'm sure you won't be let down! Congrats! Let us know how it goes!

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Experienced

CG-88

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It arrived........the boot speed.....wow

 

I got it sent to work so I wouldn't miss the post and this was the longest day ever. Im sure I felt my work computer slowing down as the day went on lol

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