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Help me choose my first SSD

zCypher

zCypher

Diamond Member
Hello,

I've been helping various people with their builds, many thanks to the helpful members here on that. Tonight I'll be picking up my GTX 460 and additional WD Black 1TB/64M. I want to make the best of my current system, so I can ward off the upgrade bug until I do my next real upgrade. I've been so tempted by the i5-2500k!

So, my current specs are:

Cooler Master CM II 690, Antec Earthwatts 650w
E5200 2.5GHz/2MB, MSI G31 based board
4GB Corsair DDR2-800
EVGA GTX 460 SE Fermi 1GB
1TB WD Black/32MB, 1TB WD Black/64MB

I was looking at all kinds of CPU, RAM, MB replacements but the amount of money it will cost doesn't make sense to me given how fast the system already is. At this juncture I'd prefer to make it much "snappier" for loading times and such with an SSD and buy a second monitor, rather than upgrade cpu/ram/MB.

I have a couple of monitors in mind, but for SSDs, I'm really quite lost.
I've seen the Vertex 2 suggested time again around here. I'd probably get at least 120GB.

How have your SSD experiences been? What do I need to know? Is it really necessary to leave other HDDs unplugged while installing Windows on SSD?

If I get an SSD, are there some settings in Windows that are critical to adjust?
For example, are there settings about defragmentation that need to be changed to avoid problems?

Any tips, tricks, advice, suggestions about SSDs will be much appreciated! Thanks
 
I just installed my new OCZ Vertex 2 120gb and it does make a big difference. There are some things that doesn't seem to affect that much. For example, I figured loading times in BFBC2 would be quicker but they are not. Also, boot up time is not really affected that much either.

About leaving the second drive unplugged, it is always a good idea to leave the second drive unplugged while installing Windows no matter what kind of drive you are installing it on. I learned this the hard way.

Yes there are some settings that can be adjusted. Disk Defrag should be turned off as I heard it can do more damage than good. You could also either turn off system restore or reduce the size of it.

One thing to make sure is you need to have AHCI enabled in the bios. I believe this is required for TRIM support.
 
128GB SSD's are more than double the cost of a 64. If I were you I'd just get a 64 and upgrade to a faster cpu (or overclock if your board supports that). Picking up a used cpu shouldn't cost all that much and extend the life of your system for a good year or so.
 
Thanks for all the great input so far.
mclaren777 have you used one of those Samsungs? I've been very pleased with all the Samsung products I've had so far.

On shopbot I can find the Vertex 2 60GB at $121.60 and the 120GB at $214.79, significantly less than double the price.

My main worry about the size is that I'll run out quickly. I'm sure that like previous versions of Windows, 7 will expand over time. I'd like to have some head room for that expansion and the use of a few programs.
 
zCypher said:
Thanks for all the great input so far.
mclaren777 have you used one of those Samsungs? I've been very pleased with all the Samsung products I've had so far.

On shopbot I can find the Vertex 2 60GB at $121.60 and the 120GB at $214.79, significantly less than double the price.

My main worry about the size is that I'll run out quickly. I'm sure that like previous versions of Windows, 7 will expand over time. I'd like to have some head room for that expansion and the use of a few programs.
Click to expand...

Yea but if you watch the Hot Deals forum you can get a 64GB SF-1222 controller SSD for less than $100. I paid $95 shipped for mine from Amazon.
 
The best-kept secret in SSD Land is the Samsung 470 Series...
Click to expand...
Never heard of them TBH. What controller are they using? Sandforce? Or a custom Samsung one?

Thanks for all the great input so far.
mclaren777 have you used one of those Samsungs? I've been very pleased with all the Samsung products I've had so far.

On shopbot I can find the Vertex 2 60GB at $121.60 and the 120GB at $214.79, significantly less than double the price.

My main worry about the size is that I'll run out quickly. I'm sure that like previous versions of Windows, 7 will expand over time. I'd like to have some head room for that expansion and the use of a few programs.
Click to expand...
Space-wise, I'm perfectly happy with my 60GB Vertex II. Performance-wise, not so impressed. Granted, I had just come from a fresh reformat anyway so it was pretty fast already, but I haven't really noticed that much of an improvement - maybe a few seconds off a few apps, nothing major. Install times for programs is reduced, but it's not a big improvement. Things do feel a bit smoother, but again, nothing life-changing.
 
Mr. Pedantic said:
Never heard of them TBH. What controller are they using? Sandforce? Or a custom Samsung one?
Click to expand...
Samsung makes both the NAND and the controller. They are incredibly stable and I haven't heard of anyone experiencing boot issues with the new 1155 motherboards. Plus, there's a new firmware update that further improves performance over the initial review results. The only downside is that Newegg just increased the prices yesterday ($30 more for the 64GB compared to Friday).

Old firmware: 235/142 (read/write)
New firmware: 267/190 (read/write)
 
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