SSD Hard Drive.

FlashDrive (Poppy) · #1 01-10-2011, 09:16 PM

Replaced my WD 600GB Velociraptor 10,000rpm ( c: drive ) with a 120GB SSD ( read 285MB/s ... write 275MB/s ) and what a difference it makes.
Installation of programs just " screams " through in no time at all.
This is not the fastest SSD around ... ( somewhere in the middle ) but what a difference.
Opening of programs is super quick ... boot time and shutdown are " snappy "
The Velociraptor is now a secondary drive ... and I thought it was fast.
And the SSD doesn't need defragging like normal drives ....

Flash ...

originaltrilogy (Petr) · #2 02-10-2011, 06:08 AM

Yes my computer is feeling faster than a new one with a 60GB SSD now for booting.
I like to use it now more than the work one which is twice as fast processor and RAM. My old one feels faster to use with SSD. It is the best upgrade I have bought.

Nortilus (Josh) · #3 02-10-2011, 07:54 PM

im thinking of putting a ssd in my laptop as they use far less power too...which would equate to longer battery life.

FlashDrive (Poppy) · #4 02-10-2011, 08:39 PM

Josh ... Do it .. you won't regret doing it.

Flash .

Jules76 (Julian) · #5 02-10-2011, 09:40 PM

I've got two 60GB SSD's in RAID 0. Now that screams!

Windows boots in no time, games and applications load without much delay. The way it's suppose to be.

No way I'm going back to mechanical drives for anything but storage.

FlashDrive (Poppy) · #6 02-10-2011, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jules76

I've got two 60GB SSD's in RAID 0. Now that screams!

Windows boots in no time, games and applications load without much delay. The way it's suppose to be.

No way I'm going back to mechanical drives for anything but storage.

Nothing like it ...eh...! Jules .. way to go

bartman (Bart) · #7 02-10-2011, 11:44 PM

Thanks Colin ( and return posters) for posting this.
The more people that are aware of the fantastic little device the better....ie prices will drop, capacities will increase, work flow will be faster and stress levels will reduce.
Colin, maybe a quick tutorial on how you migrated the old to the new?
I'm this [-----] close to buying one myself, but unsure of the whole windows verification thingy....
Once again
Cheers
Bartman

Tiotion (Jack) · #8 03-10-2011, 10:35 AM

Yep, i love my SSD. I bought a 128GB Crucial M4 as it, and Intel have the best reputation for reliability. I was initially going to get just 64 GB but windoze takes up close to 20GB, which doesn't leave much for anything else...i've already used up 46GB (you want to leave 10-15% of the drive free...don't fill it to the brim). There are faster SSD's out there, cheaper too, but once you're down from 5hrs to 20 seconds off-to-completely-ready-to-use, i really can't see the advantage of even faster drives, at the sake of reliability (ok, Solitaire will load in 0.33 seconds, rather than 0.5 seconds).

Installation is pretty easy, although i installed mine before windows. i.e. the laptop was brand new, out of the box. Just a matter of undoing all the screws to get to the HDD bays, pulling the HDD out of its caddy, popping the SSD in its place, and fitting the HDD to the secondary bay.
If you don't have a second HDD bay, either get as big an SSD you can afford, and use a portable/external HDD drive, or you can find caddies that fit in the optical drive bay, and put a secondary HDD in there (it may be tricky to find one that perfectly fits your laptop).

But before i installed the drive, i downloaded and burnt to an ISO, firmware update for my M4. Updated the firmware for the SSD first, then installed windoze.

In regards to migration, i used Acronis True Image to make an image of my old laptop HDD onto a USB3 HDD, and then copied what ever i needed. You could also find a sata to usb cable, and drag over whatever you need from your old HDD that is connected to the laptop with a usb.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean about Windows verification bart. After putting in the CD key and installing, select register over the phone (or words to that effect) chose Australia, and call the number. You punch in the numbers you're given on screen into the phone and punch in those that you're given back into the laptop. Fully automated, no personal details or anything.
Or...avoid installing one of the updates (wish i remembered which), that gives you the 'Genuine Advantage' lol....or get linux....

SkyViking (Rolf) · #9 03-10-2011, 10:58 AM

I love my SSD drive too! I installed it about a year ago as my system drive and it's been rock solid and lightning fast all the time, I'm definitely never looking back

Win7 boots in 15-20s, from power on to showing the desktop. And it's not getting slower over time, which was otherwise a notorious 'feature' of any other Win installation I've had. Word/Excel etc starts in literally a flash, it simply instantly pops up. it's just fantastic.

supernova1965 (Warren) · #10 03-10-2011, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bartman

Thanks Colin ( and return posters) for posting this.
The more people that are aware of the fantastic little device the better....ie prices will drop, capacities will increase, work flow will be faster and stress levels will reduce.
Colin, maybe a quick tutorial on how you migrated the old to the new?
I'm this [-----] close to buying one myself, but unsure of the whole windows verification thingy....
Once again
Cheers
Bartman

If you use software like ghost you can take an image of the entire existing HDD and simply ghost it to the new SSD and windows can't tell the difference and you don't need to worry about reactivation problems.

Tiotion (Jack) · #11 03-10-2011, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by supernova1965

If you use software like ghost you can take an image of the entire existing HDD and simply ghost it to the new SSD and windows can't tell the difference and you don't need to worry about reactivation problems.

But would you have driver problems? I first installed Win7 with BIOS set to IDE. Wouldn't boot after changing it to AHCI, so I had to reinstall...

The other thing I don't like about ghost is that it brings all the crap you don't want/need/is broken...So i would prefer a fresh installation.

RickS (Rick) · #12 03-10-2011, 11:39 AM

Interesting article on SSD reliability: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rate,2923.html

Cheers,
Rick.

supernova1965 (Warren) · #13 03-10-2011, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiotion

But would you have driver problems? I first installed Win7 with BIOS set to IDE. Wouldn't boot after changing it to AHCI, so I had to reinstall...

The other thing I don't like about ghost is that it brings all the crap you don't want/need/is broken...So i would prefer a fresh installation.

I could be wrong but I think Win7 will handle the transfer from Sata or IDE to SSD and I always keep all the crap off my machines if virus and malware security is good there shouldn't be any thing broken, and make sure when I make an image it is clean before hand. And it also brings all your programs with it so you don't have to spend time and effort getting your programs reinstalled and set up the way you like

g__day (Matthew) · #14 03-10-2011, 01:56 PM

In a perfect world I would have a low cost, RAID 5 / 6 solid state NAS on a 10 GB network and simply have diskless, remote IPL machines.

But we are far from a perfect world. You can go for combo PCI express / NAND devices that give you transfer rates around 700 MB/sec (e.g. http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/info/A...1RVDX220/1774/) - so that's crazy performance! My issue is that I don't want to install Win7 + all the software again, and haven't played with Ghost when you are trying to clone a mostly empty 2T HDD onto a 256GB SSD

supernova1965 (Warren) · #15 03-10-2011, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by g__day

In a perfect world I would have a low cost, RAID 5 / 6 solid state NAS on a 10 GB network and simply have diskless, remote IPL machines.

But we are far from a perfect world. You can go for combo PCI express / NAND devices that give you transfer rates around 700 MB/sec (e.g. http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/info/A...1RVDX220/1774/) - so that's crazy performance! My issue is that I don't want to install Win7 + all the software again, and haven't played with Ghost when you are trying to clone a mostly empty 2T HDD onto a 256GB SSD

I think that would work as when ghost restores the image it leaves the rest of the drive as free space and the drive doesn't have to be a specific size. I am almost positive it would work as long as the used space isn't more than the capacity of the new drive.

FlashDrive (Poppy) · #16 03-10-2011, 04:59 PM

Thanks for all the great comments and tip's.

BTW ...my Windows Experience Index went from 5.9 to 7.2 just because I installed the new SSD ... that's how good SSD's are.

My system is fairly average :

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 @ 2.66Ghz ( default ... not overclocked )
Patriot DDR2 4Gb 1066Mhz Ram
Nvidia Geforce GTX 460 1Gb DDR5
MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit SP1
OCZ Vertex 2 Sata II 3.5'' 120Gb SSD ( c drive )
WD Velociraptor 600Gb 10,000rpm ( secondary drive ).

Recently added a PCI USB3 Card to give me 4 x USB3 Ports.

Plays Crysis 2 very nicely ...

Love my FPS Games.

Flash ..

AdrianF (Adrian) · #17 03-10-2011, 07:20 PM

Was only looking at SSD's today and wishing I could afford one. 60gb $120 is a bit small for what I would need. I would want one for my laptop to replace the 750gb drive. I reckon in about a year or so the drives will come down in price. Somewhere in a packed box I have an advert for a 10 megabyte hard drive for around $10000 to fit an XT PC.

Adrian

supernova1965 (Warren) · #18 03-10-2011, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdrianF

Was only looking at SSD's today and wishing I could afford one. 60gb $120 is a bit small for what I would need. I would want one for my laptop to replace the 750gb drive. I reckon in about a year or so the drives will come down in price. Somewhere in a packed box I have an advert for a 10 megabyte hard drive for around $10000 to fit an XT PC.

Adrian

Hi Adrian,

Would you please scan that add and post if

HCR32 (Peter) · #19 03-10-2011, 07:24 PM

Get another one and raid 0 to see how fast is really fast!!!!!

AdrianF (Adrian) · #20 03-10-2011, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by supernova1965

Hi Adrian,

Would you please scan that add and post if

I am packing to move and is sealed inone of 7 boxes
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/127
Have a look at the ad

Adrian