Solid State Drives

[PedroDaGr8]

Oddly enough, in spite of my tech love. I just finally got around to upgrading my OWN laptop to a solid state drive. I can't count the number of systems that I have installed SSDs in for people, while neglecting my own. I got the Samsung Evo 850. At $150 for a 500GB drive, there is NO reason anymore to not use an SSD in your system. Additionally, if you have a Windows 8 or newer PC, Microsoft makes it super easy to reinstall windows. You just need a USB thumbdrive and microsofts media creation tool. It will handle creating the USB installation drive. Then with installation, there is no key to enter in, it pulls the key from the BIOS. Surprisingly easy, I must say. Anyways, I have to reiterate that an SSD is BY FAR the best upgrade you can make in a computer right now. With this SSD, my computer boots in a matter of maybe 10 seconds to the desktop. What is funny is the old HDD in this laptop was such a piece of dogdoo that the computer felt pathetically slow (it is a cheap laptop, so that isn't saying much). With the SSD, it is super fast! So if your computer is feeling rather sluggish and you haven't made this jump, you owe it to yourself.

[CitizenBBN]

Right there with you. About 18 months ago I bought my current laptop and I love it. Got it 2nd hand (do that with all my systems these days), but it screams, and a huge part is the SSD drive. Mine is only 256Gb, but I don't store a lot of big data on it really, but it is feeling a tad cramped b/c I'm being lazy about getting rid of some image files.

Anyway, it screams. Now I also have 16GB of ram and it's an i7 chip. The Windows experience rates my hd at the full 7.9, but graphics are a tad slower on this system at 7.1. Still a screaming system, but it starts with the SSD.

I got one with RAID for my auction manager, it goes pretty quick, but still would do better with SSD.

I rarely wait for anything with this laptop, including Visual Studio, which is a hog. Takes no more than 10 seconds to start the whole environment from scratch.

[PedroDaGr8]

The biggest reason I was waiting was I was waiting for 500GB drives to come down in price. I do EVERYTHING with my laptop, so I wanted something that I knew was reliable but also had the storage space for everything I do. Most 250gb drives just didn't have enough room after OS is installed. So I knew that I needed a 500GB size drive. I agree on it screaming, my is a core i5, cheapie Asus. Nothing special about it but I would put it up against brand new top of the line computers with standard HDD.

[CitizenBBN]

I had to compromise some to go with 256GB, but the good thing is that SSD still performs fine with a higher percentage used. I could use some more space, but I can get by.

[PedroDaGr8]

For those that need it:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RQA6L50/


Amazon has a 1TB Crucial SSD on sale for $269.99.

[dan_bgblue]

Now priced at $319.99. That was a short sale. ;-)

[PedroDaGr8]

Now priced at $319.99. That was a short sale. ;-)

Yeah, they usually have a limited number at certain prices. So the better the deal the faster they go.

[KSRBEvans]

I was hoping to catch a 1 TB drive on a Black Friday sale next month, but $269 is a pretty good price. Sorry it's off sale. I'll keep an eye peeled in case it drops again.

Pedro, I see that Crucial drive comes with Acronis True Image, which I assume you use to put the old drive image on the new drive. Any thoughts on Acronis vs. Super Duper (I have a 2012 MacBook Pro)?

[PedroDaGr8]

I was hoping to catch a 1 TB drive on a Black Friday sale next month, but $269 is a pretty good price. Sorry it's off sale. I'll keep an eye peeled in case it drops again.

Pedro, I see that Crucial drive comes with Acronis True Image, which I assume you use to put the old drive image on the new drive. Any thoughts on Acronis vs. Super Duper (I have a 2012 MacBook Pro)?

I have not used SuperDuper before, I have used Acronis for transferring an install between standard HDDs, it worked very very well. With Windows, it is not advised (if you can help it) to do an image between HDD and SSD. This is because there is a lot of optimization that goes on "underneath the hood" for SSDs. As a result a transfer across doesn't work quite as well between the two HDD types, it isn't anything critical. Just a fresh install is a bit faster. I am not sure if OSX does the same level of optimizations and enhancements that Windows does. That being said, for a lot of people, not having to reinstall anything far outweighs any boost in speed.

As an aside, I am going to make a post about a black friday TRICK that you can use if you have a Discover Card.

[KSRBEvans]

Here's another sale on SSDs--not familiar with the OCZ brand, but $140 for a 480 GB drive:

http://deals.kinja.com/choose-your-c...=1447862902793

[PedroDaGr8]

Here's another sale on SSDs--not familiar with the OCZ brand, but $140 for a 480 GB drive:

http://deals.kinja.com/choose-your-c...=1447862902793

OCZ was an independent computer peripherals company until a couple years ago. They released a couple of bad series of drives and declared bankruptcy. Their name and IP was purchased by Toshiba a few years back and they are now the public facing wing of Toshiba's storage division (which was a huge manufacturer for OEM stuff but had essentially no consumer focused gear).

[CitizenBBN]

Ah Toshiba. I had the first laptop with a hard drive, it was a Toshiba. 10 meg drive. used so much power it had to be plugged in to AC, no battery. Orange plasma screen.

Got me through college though, thing was a tank and could crank on Lotus 1-2-3 and the stats DOS apps. Remote in with procomm to the VAX and I could rock, running the vax simulations for operations class and then cutting and pasting results into Lotus. Just had to bring my own cables and know which ports were active in the business building.

[KSRBEvans]

More today--Sandisk 960 GB drive, $219.99:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M8ABHVQ/...-20&ascsubtag=[t|link[p|1743484238[a|B00M8ABHVQ[au|5727177402741770316

Transcend 512 GB drive, $131.99:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VX82PA6/...-20&ascsubtag=[t|link[p|1743484238[a|B00VX82PA6[au|5727177402741770316

I'm looking really hard at the Sandisk because I hate running out of disk space, but I've only used about 300 gb on our 500 gb drive, so maybe a 500 will be enough.

[PedroDaGr8]

More today--Sandisk 960 GB drive, $219.99:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M8ABHVQ/...-20&ascsubtag=[t|link[p|1743484238[a|B00M8ABHVQ[au|5727177402741770316

Transcend 512 GB drive, $131.99:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VX82PA6/...-20&ascsubtag=[t|link[p|1743484238[a|B00VX82PA6[au|5727177402741770316

I'm looking really hard at the Sandisk because I hate running out of disk space, but I've only used about 300 gb on our 500 gb drive, so maybe a 500 will be enough.

If it helps you make up your mind, that Sandisk drive is significantly higher quality than the Transcend drive.

Sent from my LG-ls990 using Tapatalk

[KSRBEvans]

If it helps you make up your mind, that Sandisk drive is significantly higher quality than the Transcend drive.

Sent from my LG-ls990 using Tapatalk

:finger hovering above the mouse on the "Place Your Order" button:

[PedroDaGr8]

:finger hovering above the mouse on the "Place Your Order" button:

Just do it. Peer pressure.....peeeerrr presssuree......peeeeeeeeeerrrrrr prresssssuurrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Just kidding, if you are thinking about making the upgrade from a standard drive to an SSD, this is a great drive to do it with. Thanks for the link by the way, I sent it to my mom to order for a couple of computers at the office.

[KSRBEvans]

SanDisk 240GB, $54.99:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...kinjasocial-20

[PedroDaGr8]

SanDisk 240GB, $54.99:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...kinjasocial-20

Damn good deal for those that want to upgrade the basic computer. Many of us barely use a 512GB drive, let alone 1TB

[KSRBEvans]

At Newegg, Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB $76, 500 GB $140:

http://9to5toys.com/

[KSRBEvans]

If you're still looking (like me, unfortunately), SanDisk 480 GB $119:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M8ABFX6/...77402741770316

[PedroDaGr8]

one thing I should mention, the Samsung software for migrating a drive over worked flawlessly. Keep your normal drive in the pc, hookup the ssd drive via a USB to SATA adapter (about $10 from amazon) and run the software. The software spots the Samsung SSD and mirrors your internal drive over in about 2-4hrs time (depending on drive size and amount of data stored). When done, just replace the standard drive in the laptop with the SSD and you are good to go.

[PedroDaGr8]

If you're still looking (like me, unfortunately), SanDisk 480 GB $119:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M8ABFX6/...77402741770316

It is ~$10 cheaper today.

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...49a6ee87b60INT

NewEgg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...0173012&cm_sp=

[CitizenBBN]

I have to pull the trigger at this point. Did the homework and my Dell M6600, which is a great machine, supports dual drives, I can pop this baby in as pure storage space and not even have to fiddle with moving my boot drive stuff around.

[PedroDaGr8]

I have to pull the trigger at this point. Did the homework and my Dell M6600, which is a great machine, supports dual drives, I can pop this baby in as pure storage space and not even have to fiddle with moving my boot drive stuff around.

Why would you do that? The biggest benefits of an SSD are in running the OS and all major programs off of it. If SanDisk is like Samsung, the software for migrating a drive over is actually quite robust and painless. WAY easier than it used to be. All you need is the software and a USB-SATA cable (which I am sure you have). It took about 4 hours of unattended work to migrate everything over.

Procedure:

1. Connect the USB-SATA to your new SSD and plug into the computer
2. Let the drivers install
3. Run the software, it will automatically recognize the HDD in the PC and the SSD attached to USB
4. Run the migration (it will take about 4 hours or so, but you don't need to be there for it. I let it run overnight.)
5. Once the migration is complete, power down and install the SSD as your main drive.
6. Power back up and you are done. You can then wipe or remove the boot info from the HDD and use it for storage.
7. Install the HDD in the secondary drive bay.

[CitizenBBN]

I might, I'm debating, but I left out a key fact: the primary drive is a 256GB SSD already.

This thing is balls fast. Not the fastest in the world, but for the money I won on this one. SSD, 16GB, i7 at 2.4Ghz. I know I can do better now, but this thing loads Visual STudio almost immediately

What I need is more space. 256GB is a bit cramped.

[CitizenBBN]

I am thinking about upgrading some of my older machines which would speed them up enough to put them into service for various things around the gallery.

[PedroDaGr8]

I might, I'm debating, but I left out a key fact: the primary drive is a 256GB SSD already.

This thing is balls fast. Not the fastest in the world, but for the money I won on this one. SSD, 16GB, i7 at 2.4Ghz. I know I can do better now, but this thing loads Visual STudio almost immediately

What I need is more space. 256GB is a bit cramped.

I knew there had to be a reason why you weren't outright upgrading. 1TB SSD drives have dropped below $200 as well if you need a LOT more space.

I am thinking about upgrading some of my older machines which would speed them up enough to put them into service for various things around the gallery.

Yeah, this is a GREAT way to upgrade laptops that otherwise feel way too slow. I did this for several of my parents computers and it made a night and day difference.

[CitizenBBN]

The laptop we use for inventory is dragging on the HD. I need to do some cleaning, but it doesn't need storage space, for $70 I can swap out the drive and it will be a huge boost, not a bad deal.

What I need to do is not be lazy, get the 500gb drive and upgrade, then use the one I have now in that other computer. Just need to do a bare metal backup I guess, then install it on there.

Does the drive come with migration software? I've got Acronis on this one, it does bare metal backup/restore, but if the migration software is better that's great.

[CitizenBBN]

And yes I have a USB/SATA cable around here somewhere.

[PedroDaGr8]

The laptop we use for inventory is dragging on the HD. I need to do some cleaning, but it doesn't need storage space, for $70 I can swap out the drive and it will be a huge boost, not a bad deal.

What I need to do is not be lazy, get the 500gb drive and upgrade, then use the one I have now in that other computer. Just need to do a bare metal backup I guess, then install it on there.

Does the drive come with migration software? I've got Acronis on this one, it does bare metal backup/restore, but if the migration software is better that's great.

If it is like the Samsung then it does, I have not used the SanDisk personally. The Samsung drive migration software worked remarkably well, about as easily as you can get. Connect your drive, it recognized the Samsung drive and click a couple buttons and the transfer starts. If it doesn't come with software (in searching I can't find anything definitive) then of course Acronis is a reasonable choice.