SSD for Win7?

Hey guys,

So yesterday night I went over to my buddies place. I noticed that his Windows 7 was running fast. Really. Fast. He then went on to explain how he installed an SSD drive, and is only running the OS on it.

Now, I'm relatively new to this whole "SSD" thing, so naturally I have a few questions.

1. How much would getting and SSD drive cost?

2. Should I get a higher end drive? Is there a big difference in performance/price?

3. How would I go about installing the drive? Does it require its own fan/cooling device?

4. From basic research I have found that SSDs wear down over time, and become slower. So, are these drives what they're cracked up to be?

I appreciate any help/suggestions. Thanks guys! :)

SSD's are like any other drive, they are just as easy to install.

But they do cost a lot for the price as they have no moving parts.

Get as small as you can, and just put the OS on it, im not sure if they still make those 12GB's.

I can't say how much they improve, but if you really hate loading times, or got some extra cash, then go right ahead.

1. 250GB SSD's are over £600, 32GB ones are around £100.

2. There are differences between both manufacturers and budget, but low end drives are still a fair amount faster than your average 7,200 rpm disk drive and possible better than budget SCSI drives.

3. All you need is a 2.5" bracket, SSD are not available in standard 3.5", you don't need any additional cooling.

4. Life expectancy of SSD is much higher than standard disk drives. No moving parts means no physical wear and tear, expect it to last as long as your RAM.

There was something else I was going to say, but I forgot =/

Intel 40gb drive should be just what you need!!!

Intel 40gb drive should be just what you need!!!

Idontremember

SSDs are a waste if you just want a faster OS.

[QUOTE="Idontremember"]

Intel 40gb drive should be just what you need!!!

JayneDee

I say go for it. My next build will have a dedicated OS SSD.

SSDs are a waste if you just want a faster OS.yukilla

Heck yeah, I would love one if I had the money for SSD booter.

Go for it, just get a 32gb something cheap.

I did notice that the games he played loaded ridiculously fast, as well as the internet and the boot time. What would be my best choice for under 200$ CAD?chrisrooR

Not sure what the prices are like over there, but a Corsair Extreme X32 would probably work well, it's about £110~, it's a 32GB (so smaller than a lot of the budget companies) but boasts better performance than anything else around the same size / price. At the end of the day though, it's preference really; they will all be faster than standard disk drive.

[QUOTE="JayneDee"]

[QUOTE="Idontremember"]

Intel 40gb drive should be just what you need!!!

chrisrooR

for 200, you surely will have an ssd of 60/64 Gb, but wich model exactly, i,m not sure thought...

a corsair reastor shoud be right at 200CDN, 60.

NCIX.com - Buy Corsair Storage Solutions Reactor Series 60GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD - CSSD-R60GB2-BRKT In Canada.

f you want to go at 150, Kingston SSD VSeries GenII at 64 gb should be a better bang for the buck (without the Deskop bundle wich adds a little 20$

NCIX.com - Buy Kingston SSDNow V Series Gen II 64GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive - SNV425-S2/64GB In Canada.

If your willing to go at a bit higher than 200

an intel X25M 80gb should be a good choice for around 260.

NCIX.com - Buy Intel X25-M 80GB 34NM Postville 2.5IN SSD SATA Solid State Disk Flash Drive - SSDSA2MH080G2C1 In Canada.

Any of the ssd above will be better than a regular Hard Drive

SSDs are a waste if you just want a faster OS.

yukilla

[QUOTE="chrisrooR"][QUOTE="JayneDee"] That really depends on what he needs it for. Bear in mind SSD's speed up game / application load times as well as the general OS boot time. I also just had a quick look and 512GB's are now avaliable for £1100 =/ I've heard the Corsair Extreme series are very good performance wise and not that much more expensive, around £120 for 32GB.

Idontremember

for 200, you surely will have an ssd of 60/64 Gb, but wich model exactly, i,m not sure thought...

a corsair reastor shoud be right at 200CDN, 60.

NCIX.com - Buy Corsair Storage Solutions Reactor Series 60GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD - CSSD-R60GB2-BRKT In Canada.

f you want to go at 150, Kingston SSD VSeries GenII at 64 gb should be a better bang for the buck (without the Deskop bundle wich adds a little 20$

NCIX.com - Buy Kingston SSDNow V Series Gen II 64GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive - SNV425-S2/64GB In Canada.

If your willing to go at a bit higher than 200

an intel X25M 80gb should be a good choice for around 260.

NCIX.com - Buy Intel X25-M 80GB 34NM Postville 2.5IN SSD SATA Solid State Disk Flash Drive - SSDSA2MH080G2C1 In Canada.

Any of the ssd above will be better than a regular Hard Drive

They install just like any other drive.

They install just like any other drive.

musclesforcier

the only problem you might have is du to the fact that a regular destop hdd fits in a 3,5 inch slot, and an ssd is 2,5 inch, so might have to buy an adaptor to get the 3,5 inch slot to 2,5 inch, or you can always play around and get it to fit somehow.

Your choice

[QUOTE="musclesforcier"]

They install just like any other drive.

musclesforcier

Really 220$????

I want one too!!!!

[QUOTE="musclesforcier"][QUOTE="musclesforcier"]

They install just like any other drive.

Idontremember

Really 220$????

I want one too!!!!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167016

SSD's are like any other drive, they are just as easy to install.

But they do cost a lot for the price as they have no moving parts.

Get as small as you can, and just put the OS on it, im not sure if they still make those 12GB's.

I can't say how much they improve, but if you really hate loading times, or got some extra cash, then go right ahead.

[QUOTE="Amith12"]

SSD's are like any other drive, they are just as easy to install.

But they do cost a lot for the price as they have no moving parts.

Get as small as you can, and just put the OS on it, im not sure if they still make those 12GB's.

I can't say how much they improve, but if you really hate loading times, or got some extra cash, then go right ahead.

streetridaz

Sorry, but I have no clue what you are talking about.

I have an ssd in my laptop for win 7 and there is no difference whatsoever with a hard drive, excepting that it's faster...

[QUOTE="streetridaz"][QUOTE="Amith12"]

SSD's are like any other drive, they are just as easy to install.

But they do cost a lot for the price as they have no moving parts.

Get as small as you can, and just put the OS on it, im not sure if they still make those 12GB's.

I can't say how much they improve, but if you really hate loading times, or got some extra cash, then go right ahead.

Sorry, but I have no clue what you are talking about.

I have an ssd in my laptop for win 7 and there is no difference whatsoever with a hard drive, excepting that it's faster...

A few things I want to add to this thread for anyone who's thinking about getting an SSD:

- Bigger is better with SSDs. Not just because you get more storage, but read/write times noticeably improve as well. So if you can afford a larger SSD but don't need the space, it may still be worth it to go with the larger one just for the extra speed
- Do NOT RAID SSDs. While you do get a very nice performance boost if you do so you also lose TRIM or any other data erasing feature on the drives. This is a serious issue because without those features the drives get slower and slower. Most people who do RAID SSDs, in order to keep performance up, usually wind up imaging their OS every 2-4 weeks, breaking RAID, erasing everything on the SSDs, and then restoring RAID and the image.
- Do NOT defrag SSDs (they don't need it and it will just slow them down)
- If you get an SSD you'll probably need to get a 2.5" to 3.5" converter bracket for your HDD bay. These shouldn't set you back anymore than $15 max.|
- Intel is still the best manfacturer of SSDs out there. They're also the most expensive, but you get what you pay for. OCZ is also a very good brand.
- As far as Intel drives go you want a drive from their X-25M series. If you decide to go with OCZ then you want a drive from their Vertex series.

I had heard that you couldn't boot from a ssd yet without a hack. Maybe that is old news. lol sorry. Wish i had a ssd in my laptop. I bet my battery life would be way better. streetridaz

Well if that were the case, ASUS wouldn't have made all those EEEPC's 4 yrs ago now, with those dedicated for the linux/windows OS.

Also SSD's are kinda industrtuctable, I have seeneeepc used as a gps in a car, obviously with a modified OS. But they go off-roading were there are hills, bumps, whatever else, and since it has no moving parts, it hasn't been broken. Thats with the laptop shaking around in the car while its on.

That's not a really good example because if you have enough RAM, everything is loaded and HDD wouldn't spin until you start playing movies.magicalclick