SSD upgrade advice

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jonathan18

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#192049 25-Feb-2016 12:32

I'm wanting to speed up my aging Dell laptop (a three-year-old 15R, which is slow despite having an i7 processor), and figure the choke point is the hard drive, so intend to replace this with an SSD. Looking for one 480-500 GB in size, given it's replacing a 1TB drive that's less than half full (no ability to add a second drive).

I have re-read the thread on Sandisk SSDs on sale at Amazon; they still seem an ok price; are there any other drives I should look at, or places I should look at buying from, that would offer better value for money? Are these current prices historically ok? (They seem more expensive than the best prices in that thread, but those are given in NZ$, so difference may be due to currency changes?).

I'm not needing anything flash, but just a good solid drive (pun intended).

Possible options on Amazon currently:

Adata USA Premier SP550 $120 US

Sandisk Ultra II: $121 US (works out at $198.55 NZ including shipping - cheapest I've seen in NZ is $245 for this model)

Sandisk SSD Plus: $130 US

Crucial BX200: $130 US

While postage to NZ is cheap (about $5-6 US), the savings compared to buying them in NZ isn't huge (as shown in PriceSpy) - am I best to wait for a decent special from an NZ store or a better price from Amazon or another o/s retailer, or trust that these prices are pretty good?

Thanks for any advice!

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#1499088 25-Feb-2016 12:41

PB have a sale on Trion 100 SSDs today:

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=m&p=HDDOCZ4483_HDDOCZ4960_&v=g&utm_source=OverstockSale24thFeb&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Retail&utm_content=EDM_Overstock-Hero_14&qr=ec_EDM_Overstock-Hero_14

Jaxson

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#1499094 25-Feb-2016 12:46

Will be following this.

I picked up a new SanDisk SSD recently for my desktop, to replace a smaller SSD I put in there a few years ago.

Am wondering that's the best way to go about migrating everything across...

Can't really remember how I did it last time!

ludez

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#1499096 25-Feb-2016 12:48

Those ocz drives are very solid and cheap too!

pinkydot

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#1499100 25-Feb-2016 12:52

Jaxson:

Will be following this.

I picked up a new SanDisk SSD recently for my desktop, to replace a smaller SSD I put in there a few years ago.

Am wondering that's the best way to go about migrating everything across...

Can't really remember how I did it last time!

The last time I use Macrium Reflect Free Edition to migrate everything.

jonathan18

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#1499104 25-Feb-2016 12:55

Thanks for the heads up on that sale.

The typical review of this model seems to be good value and heaps faster than a standard drive, but at the slower end of SSDs. But does that matter for everyday use?

Brumfondl

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#1499122 25-Feb-2016 13:16

jonathan18: Thanks for the heads up on that sale.

The typical review of this model seems to be good value and heaps faster than a standard drive, but at the slower end of SSDs. But does that matter for everyday use?

I'm betting you won't notice the difference at all.

davidcole

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#1499155 25-Feb-2016 13:48

Brumfondl:

PB have a sale on Trion 100 SSDs today:

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=m&p=HDDOCZ4483_HDDOCZ4960_&v=g&utm_source=OverstockSale24thFeb&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Retail&utm_content=EDM_Overstock-Hero_14&qr=ec_EDM_Overstock-Hero_14

I didn't see those (or the crucial bx100) review well. Talking about quite slow compared to things like the samsung 850 evo.

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Jase2985

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#1499170 25-Feb-2016 14:21

Brumfondl:

jonathan18: Thanks for the heads up on that sale.

The typical review of this model seems to be good value and heaps faster than a standard drive, but at the slower end of SSDs. But does that matter for everyday use?

I'm betting you won't notice the difference at all.

this, unless you are constantly moving files between drives (not applicable in your situation) or over a network, which again shouldn't clog up most of the slower SSD's I doubt you would notice it

I put a Sandisk extreme 240gb SSD into my 8 year old Asus F80S laptop. Got it off one of the amazon sales and ended up being about $50 cheaper than you could get it for in NZ. It is many many times faster than it used to be. like a whole different beast.

Brumfondl

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#1499171 25-Feb-2016 14:22

Review here:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/ocz_trion_100_240_and_480_gb_ssd_review,20.html

Fast reads, can get a little slow writing large amounts of data. I still bet it would be fine and dandy for what the OP is doing.

jonathan18

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#1499491 25-Feb-2016 23:49

Thanks for the link to that review; it was useful to make me check out whether my laptop actually supports SATA 3 - it's not clear on the purchase documentation, and there's a lot of different information on the net as to whether my specific model supports it.

I've run Sisoft Sandra (one that was recommended on a few sites for this purpose), which showed the following:

Am I interpreting this correctly, in that the motherboard will support SATA 3 ("Maximum SATA Mode"), with what's under "Port" being the currently installed items, which support only SATA 2 (assuming this is my current HDD) and SATA 1 (DVD drive)?

Or is it indeed possible that I'll be limited to the slower speed provided by SATA 2? And, if that is the case (and experience the nearly halving in speed - 500 to 270 MB/sec - quoted in that review), I'm assuming that will still be a good amount faster than the slow-as HDD I've got at the moment?

Thanks again for everyone's input.

lNomNoml

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#1499496 26-Feb-2016 00:38

Just after reading your first line, I remembered that these exist if you want another option, I personally recommend moving the hard drive you have to where your DVD-ROM is and then put the SSD in where your current hard drive is, you can of course put the SSD in where the DVD-ROM is but there is a chance that that SATA port is not SATA III, this is however if you don't mind not having a DVD-ROM or would be open to using an external one at the odd time you need it.

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=ENCOEM0001&name=Universal-9.5mm-SATA-2nd-HDDSSD-Hard-Drive-Caddy-F

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=ENCOEM0002&name=Universal-12.7mm-SATA-2nd-HDDSSD-Hard-Drive-Caddy-

I haven't read the thread as it's late and I just want to give a thought, don't worry about SATA I / SATA II and SATA III, it's highly unlikely your laptop will have SATA I to the point I would put money on it that it doesn't, if you have a SATA II port on your laptop for the hard drive then the SSD will be limited to 250MB/s this however is not a problem as it will be a huge difference in speed regardless from your hard drive.

Jase2985

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#1499500 26-Feb-2016 05:27

pretty sure mine was sata2 and its still a lot faster than the old HDD

jonathan18

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#1499585 26-Feb-2016 09:44

Thanks for the further comments; good to know I don't need to get worried about SATA versions etc, as I'm looking forward to anything faster than I have currently!

Good idea re switching the HDD to the DVD slot - I don't use this very much, so it may be feasible. Would mean I don't need as large a SSD either.

I didn't push "buy" on the PB Tech item as the Co-Minister of Finance is away at the moment, but their sales are becoming a bit like Briscoes, so bet they'll have another one in a week or so!

In regards to buying SSDs off Amazon or other o/s site - is any international warranty offered with them, or does one need to just take the risk of them not self-combusting?

timmmay

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#1499603 26-Feb-2016 10:01

Samsung 850 evo or even better the pro are great SSDs, proved by the SSD Endurance Test (Google it).

Jaxson

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#1499698 26-Feb-2016 11:33

jonathan18:

Good idea re switching the HDD to the DVD slot - I don't use this very much, so it may be feasible. Would mean I don't need as large a SSD either.

That's exactly what I did with my desktop PC.

Originally went with 80GB but this has since maxed out.

Was hard up for cash so went with the 120Gb option, which on a Windows 7 PC is fine.

As above, I'd recommend dropping the optical drive also, in favour of 1x SSD for the OS and the larger drive for your data.

1 giant SSD is easier, but realistically you're often paying for storage of content that doesn't really matter if it's slow or not.

Depends if power consumption of the laptop battery is important or not also I guess, where 1 drive is most likely better than multiple drives, of older slow and SSD tech.

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