Upgrading from HDD to SDD

mmmbaileys

Hi, I'm thinking about buying a new SDD to replace my current HDD for performance reasons. I'll probably put the OS and a game or so on the SDD, leaving everything to be stored on the HDD. Below are my current specs-

HDD - Samsung HD322HJ, 320GB, 16MB
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-790XT-USB3

I know this motherboard has 6 SATA 3Gb/s connections.

I have 2 questions-

1)Will I notice much difference performance-wise (loading OS + games etc) using something like a Samsung 830 or OCZ agility 3 compared to the HDD above? Not really sure how good/bad my HDD is compared to others these days...

2)As my mobo only support up to 3Gb/s, is it overkill getting one of the above SSD's, as they support up to 6Gb/s? Should I be looking for an SSD with a max transfer speed of 3Gb/s?


Cheers!

gooch2k9

Yeah, I got one a few weeks ago, notice the difference hugely. Applications on the SSD load up immediately, windows loads in seconds. Definitely recommend getting one.

There is no problem getting a Sata 3 drive as they are backwards compatible, so you will have the Sata 3 drive if you ever upgrade your motherboard to one with Sata 3 ports. Samsung 830 seems the most recommended here, mine is the Corsair Force GT, got it cheap in the US.

ShadowHearth

There are great ssd's sata 2 in bargain alerts. You could get 2 of those and run them in raid.

You will notice faster OS boots and games will load a lot faster, then they would on hdd. Drop all your media players and browsers on ssd too.

mmmbaileys

Cheers guys!

Just after going with the OCZ Vertex 60GB, came to £39 including delivery..

I know some people say 60GB isn't enough for OS and apps/games, but I run a very minimal set-up so I'm sure it'll be fine. I'll still use my HDD for storage.

Thanks again

ShadowHearth

mmmbaileys wrote: »

Cheers guys!

Just after going with the OCZ Vertex 60GB, came to £39 including delivery..

I know some people say 60GB isn't enough for OS and apps/games, but I run a very minimal set-up so I'm sure it'll be fine. I'll still use my HDD for storage.

Thanks again

I have 60gb one for my OS drive myself. I got windows, browsers, media players, bf3 on it and still 15gb free? It's grand if you don't have steam games, bug even then you can use that transfer tool.

U_Fig

To simply put do it... Gives a massive speed difference to the overall system.. I wouldn't advise going for an older SATA 2 SSD. With each generation of SSD's they are becoming more reliable and have better controllers and you'll still notice (all be it minimal because of the bottleneck of sata 2) a slight performance difference of the newer vs the older drives

If you get one remember to enable AHCI mode in the bios before installing windows on it and to save space you can turn off the hibernation file and page file each saving you about the size of your ram see SSD optimisation guide for mode details

Sitamoia

mmmbaileys wrote: »

Cheers guys!

Just after going with the OCZ Vertex 60GB, came to £39 including delivery..

I know some people say 60GB isn't enough for OS and apps/games, but I run a very minimal set-up so I'm sure it'll be fine. I'll still use my HDD for storage.

Thanks again

Hi, any chance you can send me the link to that, was thinking about getting one. Thanks

weisses

Sitamoia wrote: »

Hi, any chance you can send me the link to that, was thinking about getting one. Thanks

zom wrote: »

Even better here:
OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive £29.99 GB inc. vat + delivery.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-047-OC

According to users, two of this in RAID0 (120GB) can get 421MB/S Read - 471MB/S Write

you mean this one ?

mmmbaileys

Sitamoia wrote: »

Hi, any chance you can send me the link to that, was thinking about getting one. Thanks

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-047-OC

U_Fig wrote: »

To simply put do it... Gives a massive speed difference to the overall system.. I wouldn't advise going for an older SATA 2 SSD. With each generation of SSD's they are becoming more reliable and have better controllers and you'll still notice (all be it minimal because of the bottleneck of sata 2) a slight performance difference of the newer vs the older drives

If you get one remember to enable AHCI mode in the bios before installing windows on it and to save space you can turn off the hibernation file and page file each saving you about the size of your ram see SSD optimisation guide for mode details

Thanks, will definitely look in to the guide!

sink

I'm about to upgrade a office desktop to a OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD. It currently has a 250GB HDD with only about 40GB used. What's the best imaging software to use to transfer the entire disk, Norton Ghost?

Sitamoia

Cheers, all I want it for is OS and one or two games.

Eboggles

sink wrote: »

I'm about to upgrade a office desktop to a OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD. It currently has a 250GB HDD with only about 40GB used. What's the best imaging software to use to transfer the entire disk, Norton Ghost?

Don't image the drive, back up what you need and do a fresh reinstall. Otherwise you wont get the full performance boost of the SSD.

Monotype

There's was a vertex plus 120GB for £40 + delivery (~€15) on scan.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120gb-ocz-technology-vertex-plus-25-ssd-sata-ii-3gb-s-read-250mb-s-write-160mb-s-64mb-cache-12000-io


Bear in mind that none of these drives match up to the reliability of Samsung and Crucial with lots of reports of quick deaths, so I certainly wouldn't be trusting any essential data on them.

mmmbaileys

Monotype wrote: »

There's was a vertex plus 120GB for £40 + delivery (~€15) on scan.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120gb-ocz-technology-vertex-plus-25-ssd-sata-ii-3gb-s-read-250mb-s-write-160mb-s-64mb-cache-12000-io


Bear in mind that none of these drives match up to the reliability of Samsung and Crucial with lots of reports of quick deaths, so I certainly wouldn't be trusting any essential data on them.

That's my one concern. Some sites give great reviews, on the other hand there are also a lot of complaints about them dying pretty quick....

Thinking I should have shelled out a bit more and gone for a Samsung

morgana

I am upgrading a friends' PC with an SSD drive.
(MSi P35 Neo-F MoBo, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 Ghz) - I understand that the Sata connectors on this board are Sata 2 only, however, the SAta 2 drives currently available seem to be mainly OCZ. As there are mixed reports re their reliabilty, is it worth shelling out more for the current Sata3 drives or just hope for the best?
TIA.

mmmbaileys

morgana wrote: »

I am upgrading a friends' PC with an SSD drive.
(MSi P35 Neo-F MoBo, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 Ghz) - I understand that the Sata connectors on this board are Sata 2 only, however, the SAta 2 drives currently available seem to be mainly OCZ. As there are mixed reports re their reliabilty, is it worth shelling out more for the current Sata3 drives or just hope for the best?
TIA.

I ended going for a Samsung, going to return the OCZ, they dont sound reliable..

Better off paying a bit more for the SATA 3 imo...

Monotype

It's not to do with it being SATA II or SATA 3 (AKA SATA 6Gbps). That's only referring to speeds and a few standards. It's the internals of the drive that are the biggest factor. Getting the SATA 6Gbps drive will be backwards compatible with the older standard, although it will run a bit slower - not very noticeably.

I'd get one if I just wanted something to speed up an old system or one that I didn't care about too much. An SSD is still an SSD and the speed gains are great over HDD. That said, if it was for my primary system, I'd get a good quality one. For additional storage, maybe I wouldn't be as pushed with worrying about quality.