Upgrading from HDD to SSD

So I'm new to computers and I just got my alienware. My boot up is reallllly slow so after researching a couple of minutes on how to make this faster is by upgrading the Hard Drive to SDD

My questions is :

1) Whats the differences between Hard Drive and SDD
2) If i upgraded to OCZ Agility 2 100GB, does that mean I only have 100 GB hard drive space for storage?

Thanks,
Eric

 

1) traditional hard drives use a motorized spinning disc. solid state drives utilize memory chips. faster response time, no need to defrag, and silent operation.

2) no. after windows installation prob around 60-70gb i think.

 

only fault with ssd is limited life compared to platter drive.

 

SSD's are really worth the upgrade, i have been running my first SSD (Intel x25M) for more then a year now without any issues, my boottimes skyrocketed! all other things also are much faster, one thing to know is: The SSD is as fast as the system behind it, what i mean by this is: my same SSD (i got two the same Intel SSD's installed in my M11 and M17) renders different boot times and user times compared. so my M17, obviously, can cope with much bigger data streams then my M11 resulting in a faster system.

About SSD lifetimes, Intels SSD toolbox still gives me 100% after intesive use of more the a year now. when you would look in MTBF's of SSD's you will see SSD's live long anough for your system to become so old it has to be upgraded to a new system...

 

I definitely recommend the Intel X-25M SSD as well. Fast, reliable and you will find regular HDDs very sluggish after you've become accustomed to a speed little SSD.

Just be aware that for larger capacity drives, the prices are still much higher than similar sized HDDs. I find that 120GB is sufficient for me, as long as I only install the games that I am playing at that time.

 

How about the Corsair 120GB Force 3 SSD 2.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Read = 550MB/s, Write = 510MB/s?

 

Hi eric

I've recently fitted a OCZ Agility III 120gb drive to my R1, moving from the 500gb 7200RPM Seagate.

The difference is like night and day in the general responsiveness of the machine, and the bootup/shutdown times.

Amazon have the Agility III for a very good price in the UK at the moment, and it seems perfectly backwards capatitable with SATA II.

After a clean windows 7 ultimate install (fully updated and patched), Microsoft office, and other bits and bobs, I currently have 98GB remaining.

I should have got one nearly 18 months ago when I got my first R1. I won't go back to spinny discs on a laptop again.

Oops. Edited to add.

1).The Agility III is cheaper than the series II OCZ models on Amazon at the moment. I know I dont get full SATA III speeds.
2).Considerable increase to battery life. 10 hours now on powersaving mode, screen dimmed, and intel graphics. Up from 6 and a bit before.
3). No drive noise, no drive heat, no drive vibration.

BUY ONE,

FIT

???

Profit.

As they say!

 

SSD bonuses: very fast speed, low power draw, vibration and shock resistant.
SSD Minuses: extremely high price, less total space, shorter working lifespan.

HDD bonuses: longer lifespan, cheaper, more storage space
HDD minuses: not very shock or vibration resistant, much slower, needs regular defragmentation, higher power drain.

Things to keep in mind: hard drives are only for storage. Once a game is loaded into your ram it will run exactly the same from one drive type as it would from the other. Faster hard drives do not improve graphics capability.

As the guy in indiana jones would say: you must choose, but choose wisely.

Basically pick the type that you think will work best for what you want to do. It sounds like there is some other issue there if your bootup takes that long. I have a normal hard drive (not an ssd) and it boots up from a power-off state in roughly 30-40 seconds. Shut down time is also fairly speedy, it is a bit faster - but not much. I am running the new i7 version with 8gb of ram though. Perhaps it is due to the processor.

One other thing, if your HDD is vibrating there is something wrong. The platters are perfectly balanced at the factory and should never vibrate on their own while spinning. In fact you should probably not even be able to hear them during operation. At least I never hear mine..

One other thing, the prices are getting a bit more competitive due to the current HDD shortage. You may or may not have heard, but western digital and seagate plants were flooded in thailand which cut world HDD manufacturing by around 30%. Prices (in some cases) have more than doubled in the last couple months due to the current shortage for HDD's. So now may be a good time to sell your old one if you are looking to invest in something else.

 

I beg to differ.
The slowest, by orders of magnitude, piece of hardware from a computer is the HDD.
Everything you run/access/open/save/whatever will involve operations with the above mentioned slowest piece of hardware.
And there is at least a game genre that benefits fully from a SSD - MMOs

Indeed, a ssd will not give you better fps, but it will give you a much, much better day-to-day operation.
You may or may not notice a difference between 30 and 35 fps in a game, but you will notice for sure that starting that game takes 10s instead of 30s and so on.

Edit:
As everyone else said, once you get used with a SSD you won't want to use a hdd ever again.

The main cons to use a SSD is their reliability and the fact that you (usually) cannot recover data form them in case they bricks.
I have to admit that since i started to run a SSD I DO perform regular BACKUPS (which i never did before)

 

oooo i got you to beg You begger you!
(just having fun, no worries!)

Obviously ssd's are the better option If you have the cash to handle them. I'm a poor student however and could not afford the extra 400$ for an ssd =/

But really I don't mind the slower speeds , I upgraded from a pentium 4 to my current M11x R3 i7. So to me this thing is really speedy! even with the 'slow' standard hard drive.

 

This is a myth commonly spread by people who dont understand SSDs because they are a relatively new and unfamiliar technology.

The source of this myth is that the NAND flash chips used in SSDs have a limited number of write cycles before they revert into a read-only mode. This sounds scary to people, like how monsters in the closet sound scary.

If you actuallu do the math, you coyld write 20GB per day every day for 5 straight years before this even becomes close to a problem. In reality, you will not write 20
GB per day. You will not keep your SSD for 5 years (you will likely replace it before then due to capacity or performance reasons, just like a mechanical HDD). Just like how in reality, monsters in your closet don't exist.

Intel X-25M is a good SSD, but I would not recommend it for someone buying a new SSD these days. It is an older generation SSD by modern standards.

For new SSD shoppers, the models to look for are Intel 310, Crucial C4, or Samsung 830. Stay away from anything made by OCZ, due to their reputation of low reliability and poor customer service.

Check out the videos in my signature for examples of what an SSD can do.

To answer your questions:

1) everyone else already answered this

2) Yes, 100gb model of SSD means you only have 100GB of useable storage. The way to manage this low storage capacity is to keep only the things with load times on your SSD (OS, apps, games).

The stuff that really eats up space is bulk media storage (movies, photos, music). And that stuff should go on cheap bulk mechanical storage, like an external USB hard drive. Because a movie or MP3 will play back well, regardless of how fast the underlying storage is.

And don't buy OCZ branded drives. They have a poor reputation for reliability and support

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for all your responses,
I think imma go on budget of 200 dollars.

I'm still thinking of the OCZ or the Agility. Those are the more affordable one for me

any advice on cheaper one with 120 gb?

@kent1146 I really like your video about SSD vs HDD it help me understand some more. Thank you for your reply but the SSD you gave me seems really expensive, I don't look for like 20 sec bootup I'm looking for like 30-40 sec bootup because my current speed for bootup is 1min 30sec..

 

Crucial M4 or Mushkin Chronos are the best sub $200 drives at the moment

 

i've seen some really nice prices on Samsung 830
Especially the 256GB flavor. Way better than 240GB Sandforce drives.

*drooling*

 

+1 - Crucial M4