Should I reinstall my OS on a faster SSD?

[CatMerc]

Back when I first built this PC, I used a bargain basement Sandisk SSD PLUS120GB.
I can now buy a 1TB 850 PRO. I was wondering, would reinstalling my OS on it have any noticeable effect?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Supposedly one can install an OS like Win10 on an 80GB HDD or SSD. 120GB is a bit more comfortable, and you might prefer more space than that for installing programs. A 1TB 850 Pro might even net you better spec performance in MB/sec throughput, but -- looking at the specs for Sandisk Plus 120GB -- no. It will only net you more capacity.

That's the minimal answer to your question. I can suggest many other things, but that's the answer to your question.

Personally, and just for starters, I'd prefer a 1TB boot-system disk to a 120GB. But a viable strategy might be adding another drive -- either SSD or HDD. You may already have another device installed -- for "data." But you could create "Program Files" directories on the second disk and install programs on the second drive. If it is a slow drive -- an HDD -- there are ways to speed it up. You could add more RAM and buy $30-worth of caching software. Or you might already have enough RAM to make that a viable option.

For instance, I have an NVME boot-disk and a 2TB HDD in my system with 32GB of RAM. I can easily allocate 16GB to RAM_caching of the HDD. The benchmarks would actually show the cached HDD to be 3x "faster" than the uncached NVME.

It also depends on what type of work you want to do, what file-sizes you work with, and other things.

 

[Elixer]

I would, and then use the old SSD as a data drive.
You should notice better response times, and faster bootups as well.

 

[VirtualLarry]

In the same vein, what about upgrading someone running Win7 64-bit on a Crucial M500 120GB? What would you suggest upgrading it to? I was thinking of something 480-512GB or so. There's a Team L5 Lite 3D for $139.99 + ship on Newegg's ebay store.

Or wait for a sale on a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB?

Want something that will perform better, not just more capacity. His ancient AM2+ board doesn't support M.2 PCI-E NVMe, although I do have a SATA6G dual-port AHCI (ASMedia, I think) card installed for the SSD. (Mobo SATA ports are SATA2, I think.)

Been trying to get him to do a platform upgrade for a while now, but his PC just keeps keepin' on.

 

[CatMerc]

I would, and then use the old SSD as a data drive.
You should notice better response times, and faster bootups as well.

Would response times actually be noticeable?
Boot already happens so damn quickly that's not a concern IMO.

 

[BFG10K]

Back when I first built this PC, I used a bargain basement Sandisk SSD PLUS120GB.
I can now buy a 1TB 850 PRO. I was wondering, would reinstalling my OS on it have any noticeable effect?

From a performance standpoint it won't make a lick of difference unless all you do is copy files all day, or unless you current SSD is somehow faulty (e.g. firmware performance issues, failing NAND, etc).

Actually in general there's basically no perceptible difference between the slowest SATA2 SSD and the fastest NVMe, unless all you do is copy files all day.

 

[Elixer]

Would response times actually be noticeable?
Boot already happens so damn quickly that's not a concern IMO.

Depends, on some things yes, on other things, you won't know the difference.
It might save of a sec or so on bigger programs as well, but, overall, should be "snappier".

 

[UsandThem]

Depends, on some things yes, on other things, you won't know the difference.
It might save of a sec or so on bigger programs as well, but, overall, should be "snappier".

Also Of note, most of time smaller capacity drives perform worse than their larger capacity peers. For example, the 250 GB 960 EVO is outperformed by some budget drives, and Tomshardware doesn't recommend it. But on 500 GB and larger versions it is a whole different story.

Each drive is different based on the controller used, the NAND type, SLC cache, etc.

 

[nk215]

I used x-25e (intel sata 2) and currently p3700 and many options in between. I cant tell any different in speed on everyday use.

I upgrade mostly because I can as hardwares become available from my ESXi hosts upgrades.

 

[Shmee]

What is the rest of your setup? It may not be the SSD that is the issue. Could be wrong bios settings, or wrong SATA port used. What OS? All this would be good to know.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Perhaps Catmerc should research the spec lifespan in TBW for the Sandisk Plus he has, and then use an SSD utility to discover how many TB he's written to it so far. It would probably be better to follow Elixer's suggestion, and swap it out for a 500 GB unit. Or? A TB unit if he wants to spend the money. But a half TB would be totally and comfortably adequate if he's going to use a second drive for data even/especially for many large files.

I use Samsung, Crucial and ADATA. I have a few small 60GB Patriots -- one still in a specialized use, another waiting in the wings. I'm not displeased in any way with the ADATA SP550 in my Sandy 2700K as boot-system disk.

For a long time I limited my purchases to 500GB units, and I didn't fiddle with HDDs of more capacity than 1TB. I know what I need; I know how much data I'll end up storing on a particular system. I have gobs of space on my 8TB server disk-pool. There isn't a system in the house that has a disk filled to greater than 50% capacity. Just recently, I was accessing my Bro's system with Remote Desktop for maintenance, and discovered messages from the system saying his SSD-boot was getting near full to its capacity. I couldn't believe it. it was a 250GB Crucial MX100. I finally got upstairs and did a little poking around. He had music files on the server -- about 130GB-worth, and he wanted "easy access" so he simply copied the entire folder to his desktop. He had a 500GB second drive on his system, but didn't know what he was doing. I created a shortcut on his desktop to the server folder after explaining it all to him.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Just a reminder, "TBW" does NOT stand for "TeraBytes Written". As much as some of us think that's an easy reading of the acronym.

A-Data, for example, considers that to be a rating of how many times the Total Bytes Written of the SSD. So, how many times you can write the entire drive.

 

[shortylickens]

Many years ago I installed Windows to an early generation SanDisk. It died after a couple months. I lost some mildly important data. Had to order a high quality HDD to replace it and reinstall Windows. More of an inconvenience than anything, but still annoying.

I think these days the higher quality drives are safe enough for your OS, but never set yourself up to rely on a full functioning computer without any backup. For some of us it might mean the nearest library or a cheap small laptop.

OH, as for speed, I got a nice Samsung 850 Pro as well. Its damn fast. Much better than anything I've used up to this point.

 

[CatMerc]

What is the rest of your setup? It may not be the SSD that is the issue. Could be wrong bios settings, or wrong SATA port used. What OS? All this would be good to know.

6600K with RAM at 3000 CL15, Windows 10, Z170-D3H BIOS F5.

I don't have a problem per se, just wondering if a better SSD would actually be noticeable.

 

[UsandThem]

6600K with RAM at 3000 CL15, Windows 10, Z170-D3H BIOS F5.

I don't have a problem per se, just wondering if a better SSD would actually be noticeable.

Probably not. If I'm looking at the correct drive, they are rated up to 530 MB/s read, and 400 Mb/s write. Not great, but not horrible. If you've survived on a 120GB drive for this long, you likely aren't moving large files around a lot. I'd use it until it dies unless you need a larger drive. Also, at the same time, I don't think I would pay the premium the 850 PRO carries at this point. I'd personally much rather buy an 850 EVO/Crucial MX300/Crucial BX300/Sandisk Ultra 3D drive as far as SATA drives go, or buy a 960 EVO/PRO if I wanted an NVMe drive.

 

[Shmee]

Hmm, looking at your specs, I would pick up a 960 Evo or similar, assuming that Motherboard has a m.2 slot.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Just a reminder, "TBW" does NOT stand for "TeraBytes Written". As much as some of us think that's an easy reading of the acronym.

A-Data, for example, considers that to be a rating of how many times the Total Bytes Written of the SSD. So, how many times you can write the entire drive.

I stand corrected. That's what I should've remembered from the casual sampling of readings I'd scanned: "Total Bytes Written." Either way -- that's the measure for longevity comparisons. Either I have too much to distract my attention for keeping up, or my brain-cells are slowly retiring. Whatever, though -- I don't think I've made any fundamental mistakes in my SSD purchases and imperatives.

 

[Ventanni]

Just being realistic. I doubt you would notice much of a difference, if any at all, moving from the old SSD to the new one. The "night-and-day difference" gains come from moving from an HDD to an SSD, which you've already done.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Now that I've had more time to think about Larry's point regarding my interpretation of "TBW," a larger drive would last longer as a boot-system drive. One assumes that the user attempts to minimize "writes" to the drive, but many scenarios mean daily writes of at least a dozen or more GB. For instance, these will occur when hibernation is configured to automatically kick in after the system has been asleep for some desired length of time. If those sorts of writes are in a constant range of magnitude regardless the size of the drive itself, you would probably see TBW move more quickly toward the drive's spec limit.

That's a guess, and I could also be corrected by a better argument.

 

[Ancalagon44]

I don't think you would notice a massive difference personally.

However, this isn't to say that it isn't worth buying a second SSD anyway. I did recently. I now have a 250GB Samsung 850 Evo that I use as a boot drive. It also has some Steam games on it when there is space. Then, I have a 500GB Samsung 850 Evo that is just for games. Makes those load times REALLY quick!