SSD HardDrive

[Dinger]

I wanted to update my hard drive to a ssd drive... I have heard that Samsung is the best?? and that the pro is the version to go with Samsung but I have read a lot of reviews that have said the evo by Samsung is a good ssd also?? Any advise on which one I should get or any other Brands and models?

 

Also I have a standard 1tb hard drive now can I go to a 500 gig or 256 and convert over fairly easy or does it need to be the same size?

[Rangi]

Samsung evo is a great drive. Unless you have a laptop you can keep your 1Tb drive for storage and just use the ssd for Windows and DCS, that's what I did and it works great.

[cichlidfan]

I have not kept up with the latest test reports but I have about half a dozen Samsung EVOs in use at the moment and have been very happy with the performance.

[agrasyuk]

One of the SSD drives I have is EVO, nothing bad to say so far. Size does not have to match, as long as you have enough room on your new drive to house the OS and needed program data ( obviously).

 

I would like to extend the original question though since its on topic of ssds - is there observable a benefit to have OS and DCS loaded on separate drives?

[Gladman]

Also running an EVO and have had 0 problems with it.

[cichlidfan]

If you are planning on cloning your current drive, the new drive just needs to be large enough to hold the cloned data set.

[zaelu]

Cloning a HDD to a SSD is not very good idea especially if there is and Operating System on it.

[Sporg]

For Samsung SSDs, be sure to get the 850 series and forward, 850 Pro or Evo.

 

The reason is that for that series they developed a memory chip that is much faster and more durable than the earlier models.

(I think they call it 3D storage, there are articles about it.)

 

Since they made the 850 Evo, I think that the most you get out of the Pro is longer warranty.

[Exorcet]

My main drive is Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB. DCS 2.0 loads nearly instantly, boot up is also very fast. I can't give a completely fair comparison to my old mechanical drive as the computer it's on has more (unnecessary) software and only ran pre 2.0 DCS. Loading OS and other games are faster though.

[Grundar]

And of all things, never ever defrag your SSD!

 

I'm still running an Intel SSD, one of the earlier models so it's only 120GB but man does it load things fast. As was said earlier in the thread if you are attempting to clone the drive over then it'll need to be the same size as the HDD (which can get mighty expensive with an SSD). Why not just clean install the SSD with the OS then copy over from the HDD set up in a slave position (non-boot)? That way you get a clean OS install and then you can cherry pick what you want to transfer onto the more limited space of the SSD.

 

I'm not sure if it's the same with the newer SSD's, but with older ones you didn't want to fill them up, you left roughly 10+% or so free space.

[Dinger]

thanks for all the responses..

[Ktulu2]

No need to have the same size of ssd than hdd if you clone. Just enough space for windows and games. All the stuff in users like myDocs and music and download I didn't move to my ssd, and every new program is installed on the hdd, so without dcs, it only takes 40Gb all included on my 120Gb

This being said, a clean install is optimal, but it wasn't an option for me...

[dburne]

I have been running 2 ea Samsung 850 Pro Series 256 gb SSD's for a couple of years now, excellent results.

 

I use one for my OS and programs, and the other for my games. I have a couple of large platter drives I use for data storage - music, pictures, etc...

[Sporg]

I'm not sure if it's the same with the newer SSD's, but with older ones you didn't want to fill them up, you left roughly 10+% or so free space.

 

It is the same.

 

The Samsung Magician software that came with my SSD recommends to let it set aside a 10% allocation to keep it in better shape.

[Necroscope]

Just for info.

I've read and worried a lot about Cells Degradation on SSDs before I got mine.

My Corsair with Win7 on it is 5 year old already, 12231 hours (1y, 4m, 24d) work time, 3500 on\off cycles and still in excellent shape (99% reported).

Estimated lifetime at the moment - 8,5 years.

[tamer]

Agreed with the Samsung evo, heard lots of good reviews of it

[tamer]

http://pc4u.org/best-ssd/

[Gunnergolly]

Is the mounting plate included with the Samsung evo SSD ?.

 

It would be easier if i could "clone" the SSD externally before installing it in my PC, i'm guessing that a suitable USB 3 docking cable would have to be purchased separately ?.

 

Thanks

Edited December 13, 2015 by Gunnergolly

[El Hadji]

Cloning a HDD to a SSD is not very good idea especially if there is and Operating System on it.

 

Agree!

 

Also, make sure you have a free port on your motherboard that supports SATA 6 Gb/s or otherwise it is a bit of a waste of money.

 

Is the mounting plate included with the Samsung evo SSD ?.

 

If you want to mount a 2.5" SSD in a 3.5" slot you need a mounting plate. I don't think the Samsung EVO comes with one.

Edited December 13, 2015 by El Hadji

[zxarkov]

Samsung SSDs FTW! This sure comes up alot.. There are a lot of reasons why it is a good upgrade, you can mount it internally and clonezilla it.

 

Samsung has a tech advantage with its 3-d V-NAND, giving them much longer lifespans and performance.

[PoleCat]

Of course now it is time to consider m.2 PCI-E SSD's.

As a nice side effect of this new technology hitting the market, the previous generation of SSD's like the Samsung EVO's are declining in price rapidly as the notable performance improvements of m.2 PCI-E come into sharper focus. This means that the larger capacity 2.5" SSD's should become much more affordable over the coming months. It's almost time to kiss the mechanical hard drive goodbye once and for all and I for one can't wait!

 

Out

[cichlidfan]

It's almost time to kiss the mechanical hard drive goodbye once and for all and I for one can't wait!

 

Out

 

Agreed. After my next update cycle, the only mechanical drives I will have left are in NAS boxes. I will be ecstatic when I can convert those 4 TB drives to SSD.

[agrasyuk]

Aside of compact form factor I don't see to much of advantage to m.2 at this point. Same speed, same price. If one builds itx box then its great, and I suspect at some point it will overtake sata. Otherwise any mid tower will have plenty of bays empty.

[mondaysoff]

I have just built my first ever PC, it is only for gaming. I wanted a powerful rig with plenty of air space inside to keep things as cool as possible, I chose a case with no optical or HDD drive bays (see spec below) and went for M.2 storage for Windows and 500gb Samsung 850 evo SSD for game files, it is lightning fast.

 

I have in the past only been used to DCS on an iMac with 512mb VRAM, although I did take the Mac apart and installed a 256gb Samsung 840 pro SSD for both OS X and Windows.

[PoleCat]

Aside of compact form factor I don't see to much of advantage to m.2 at this point. Same speed, same price. If one builds itx box then its great, and I suspect at some point it will overtake sata. Otherwise any mid tower will have plenty of bays empty.

 

Incorrect. The current generation of m.2 NVMe PCI-E X4 SSD's are much faster then the older form factor 2.5" SSD's and the previous AHCI m.2 SSD's to which I believe you are referring.

 

Out