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Installing an SSD

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  • SuperBas 8 Oct 2010 08:30:16 1,380 posts
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    Anyone done this? I bought one of these, and I was wondering if it really is so simple.

    Picture from my PC. Is it as simple as plugging power cable 1 into the SSD, and connecting it with a SATA cable to hole 2? Will my existing Windows 7 installation recognize it without having to do anything else, as if it was a USB thumb drive?
  • Dirtbox 8 Oct 2010 08:34:12 73,963 posts
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    Yeah, it's that simple. It doesn't recognise it as a USB drive, it recognises it as a proper HDD.

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  • THFourteen 8 Oct 2010 08:39:42 29,262 posts
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    heh, i'm getting an SSD for my birthday in a couple of months with Windowzzz 7. Can't wait! My two OS hard drives are about 10 years old, and SO noisy, i had to turn off virtual memory as it kept chuntering away at the disks non-stop
  • Buztafen 8 Oct 2010 08:40:09 15,207 posts
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    Crikey. £200 and only 120gb. Are these worth it for the read/write speeds?
  • Dirtbox 8 Oct 2010 08:42:26 73,963 posts
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    Best upgrade you'll buy.

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  • THFourteen 8 Oct 2010 08:45:39 29,262 posts
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    Dirtbox wrote:
    Best upgrade you'll buy.
    This is what i've read elsewhere

    apparently its the most noticeable improvement you can buy compared to more RAM, CPU etc
  • Buztafen 8 Oct 2010 08:48:43 15,207 posts
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    /takes hand full of coppers out of pocket

    SHIT! :(
  • Bremenacht 8 Oct 2010 09:21:14 11,696 posts
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    The terrible thing is that you take the speed for granted within hours of getting one installed, so rather than thinking 'yay! my machine is fast' every now and then, you end up irked when having to use other machines which take longer to boot, launch, shutdown etc. I installed one of these about a month ago, and I've forgotten it's there already, partly because my existing drive wasn't bad.

    Checkout the various SSD tweak guides on the net once you've got it going, but don't follow all the advice without considering the potential problems they may cause in the future. Most guides were written with the aim of reducing disk space usage, so they recommend getting rid of restore points, pagefile etc - things which can stay if you've got 128GB. I read a Microsoft engineer blog a while back that explained what W7 does when it detects SSDs - I'll link it if I can remember where it was.

    A good example of what can happen buggering around with SSD settings is turning off file indexing. Your Microsoft 'disk performance' rating will suddenly drop because Windows uses indexing to improve performance. Oh yeah - check this rating before and after you install the SSD. Mine jumped from 5.1 to 7.2.
  • SuperBas 8 Oct 2010 10:30:11 1,380 posts
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    Awesome, thanks for the answers guys! I was planning on installing it, run the firmware upgrade software from my current Win7 install on the HDD, then format everything and start anew on the SSD. Space shouldn't be a problem, I'm only going to install Win7 and games I always play on it.
  • Bremenacht 8 Oct 2010 11:07:42 11,696 posts
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    Here's that blog.

    Also, here's the tweaking guide I mentioned, although the only things you really need to do is enable AHCI for your drive in BIOS, and then install W7.
  • Deleted user 9 October 2010 14:22:12
    Woah!

    Do want, anyone got one?
  • apainlessa 9 Oct 2010 14:38:11 4 posts
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    I have a crucial C300 and WOW, best hardware upgrade I've ever bought. well worth the money even if overpriced. 7.9 on the windows rating scale ;-) as Bremenacht said, make sure AHCI is enabled for your drive in BIOS before you install win7. the os will do the rest, including disabling defragmenting and enabling trim, if your ssd supports it.
  • Deleted user 9 October 2010 14:40:03
    Do you think I'd be better off upgrading to SSD instead of upping my RAM?
  • Deleted user 9 October 2010 15:56:03
    Hm...might get a few if they're all that good. What's the best one then?
  • SuperBas 9 Oct 2010 16:10:05 1,380 posts
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    Probably the ones Bremenacht and myself bought if you're interested. Don't know about his, but if you're looking at an OCZ, make sure you go for Vertex 2, and not a 1. Newer SSD's have a Sandforce controller, which is apparently a really good chip to have inside your SSD.

    Also, Windows 7 is the only decent OS that supports TRIM.
  • Deleted user 9 October 2010 16:18:36
    okie dokie
  • nickthegun 9 Oct 2010 16:42:31 45,269 posts
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    A lot of our clients are putting in an SSD as a primary OS, Apps and WIP drive and using a secondary 1tb for longer term storage.

    We are also getting a lot of optical drive conversions to do the same thing for laptops, swapping the main HDD for an SSD and swapping the optical drive for a 500gb drive in a caddy.

    Its amazing how many people never use optical media anymore.

    ---------------------------------------------------------
    AGP.SRPT

  • coda 9 Oct 2010 17:10:16 1,868 posts
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    nickthegun wrote:

    We are also getting a lot of optical drive conversions to do the same thing for laptops, swapping the main HDD for an SSD and swapping the optical drive for a 500gb drive in a caddy.
    Interesting, do you think it would be possible to do the same with with an iMac?
  • Dirtbox 9 Oct 2010 17:17:16 73,963 posts
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    Of course, they're a bit low capacity though. They use a lot less power than a proper HDD so they're more ideal for laptops.

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  • nickthegun 9 Oct 2010 17:59:46 45,269 posts
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    coda wrote:
    nickthegun wrote:

    We are also getting a lot of optical drive conversions to do the same thing for laptops, swapping the main HDD for an SSD and swapping the optical drive for a 500gb drive in a caddy.
    Interesting, do you think it would be possible to do the same with with an iMac?
    Yeah, you can get caddys for most of the apple range now. Never done an iMac but the place we get the MacBook and mac mini ones from does iMac one too, I think.

    Be aware that if you do it yourself, taking the screen on and off is a ball ache.

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  • Deleted user 9 October 2010 18:02:04
    Not sure why you'd want to remove the CD drive from a stationary computer though.
  • nickthegun 9 Oct 2010 18:14:12 45,269 posts
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    Some people don't want drives hanging off the back among other reasons.

    ---------------------------------------------------------
    AGP.SRPT

  • Bremenacht 9 Oct 2010 19:18:26 11,696 posts
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    Dirtbox wrote:
    Of course, they're a bit low capacity though. They use a lot less power than a proper HDD so they're more ideal for laptops.
    Not really true! It depends on the drive (and the drive you're replacing), but I've found battery life is extended by just 5 to 10 minutes, tops. Of course, you actually get a lot more done in that time - installs are almost instant, loading apps/games very fast, startup fast, shutdown faster etc etc. So, productivity is better.
  • Bremenacht 9 Oct 2010 19:20:16 11,696 posts
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    CrispyXUK64 wrote:
    Do you think I'd be better off upgrading to SSD instead of upping my RAM?
    Hmmm. Do you use a lot of RAM? If you're already at 4GB, then getting an SSD is probably best. If you've got 2GB or less, get more RAM. Probably.
  • androidave 9 Oct 2010 20:19:20 102 posts
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    I'm considering getting one of these. I bought a new laptop, i7 quad core, 4gigs of DDR3, 500GB HDD. Boot times are around 30 - 40 seconds I would say, although I havnt timed it. While its a pretty fast machine I'm sure the HDD is only 5400 so switching to an SSD should give a big boost to already nippy laptop..

    I've never switched a HD before, and I don't fancy installing win7 and all my programs again after only a week.. So if I buy a usb caddy, is it pretty simple to cloan my HDD and just swap them over? I've had a bit of a google but I'm not really sure what I should be searching for. Can anyone point me in the direction of a step by step guide to cloaning my HDD onto an SSD? :)
  • Bremenacht 9 Oct 2010 20:32:28 11,696 posts
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    Actually, it's the best time to to re-install. You've got so much less to put on there. And it's fast on an SSD. No idea about cloning - I've not done it.
  • androidave 9 Oct 2010 20:38:35 102 posts
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    I bought this laptop last week, wiped the hd and installed a clean windows 7. I have Office 2010, CS5 master collection and Google sketchup pro.. thats it. I just don't fancy having to reinstall win7 and redownload all the updates again.. Also I'm a little worried my OEM code won't work again? I had to ring up and type in a load of numbers it spewed at me to get it regestered the first time..
  • Rusty_M 9 Oct 2010 21:39:11 3,706 posts
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    I want an SSD on my upcoming new PC, but I think I'll have to give it a miss initially, simply due to the price. Is it best to basically have the OS and a few programs on the SSD, and run everything else from an HDD, or do you constantly swap stuff about from one to the other?

    The world is going mad. Me? I'm doing fine.

  • Sandbox 9 Oct 2010 21:57:34 335 posts
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    I probably build a couple of PC's a week, and now the 64gb SSD's are down to £80ish, I've tried dropping the processor and motherboard a few notches and adding an SSD, customers are very happy as the machines just feels really fast. Last few based on the X4 Athlon with a modest motherboard can produce some very impressive results, instead of an i5 or 965. The Athlon's all seem to sit quite happy at about 3.6ghz with the stock cooler and get about 7.4 on the WEI, married to a 1TB F3 and a 5670, you get a really balanced machine.
  • androidave 10 Oct 2010 18:02:47 102 posts
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    My WEI is 5.8.. Processor and ram are 7.4, graphics are 7.1 but the HDD is 5.8 :( I really want to get an SSD.. Where are you getting a 64GB for 80quid? or do you buy them in bulk? atm Im going to go for the Intel X-25-M 80GB which is around £170, I've heard they have some decent tools to keep it fast and clean as well.. But I'm open to suggestions, I don't really want go any lower than 80GB as my win7 install as it stands now is taking up around 50.. Just don't really want to spend almost 200quid if I can help it.

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