SSD Questions

[elezoz]

Alright I am planning to purchase tomorrow, and I have a few questions. I have a budget of $250, but is somewhat flexible. Can anyone recommend me a nice SSD in the $250 - $280 price range? Also how do I add a SSD to an existing home-built PC? Like how should I go about putting windows on my SSD and taking it off my regular HDD? I have the windows 7 disk if that helps at all. Also I am wondering if my PSU is strong enough to support an SSD. I'll list my PC specs below.

MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 667MHz (9-9-9-24)
ASRock 870 Extreme3 (CPUSocket)
VW246 (1920x1080@60Hz)
AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series
977GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG HD103SJ ATA Device (SATA)
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24LS50 ATA Device
Realtek High Definition Audio

My power supply is 650W.

 

[Dereck47]

This Crucial M4 comes with a transfer kit to copy everything from your existing HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148448

Yes, your PSU is more than enough to handle your build.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Sounds like you need to do some reading:

Beginner's Guide:

http://thessdreview.com/category/ssd-guides/beginners-guide/

Buyer's Guide:

http://thessdreview.com/category/ssd-guides/buyers-guide/

SSD and Windows Optimization Guides:

http://thessdreview.com/category/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/

SSD's and Game performance:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-gaming-performance,2991.html

Tom's Hardware analysis of the most common Windows tweaks for SSD's:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-performance-tweak,2911.html

 

[ram1009]

The crucial C300 probably has the best rating of any SSD on Newegg and is in your price range @ 128GB. I've been waiting for that to come down to buy it myself.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The Crucial M4 which is very popular is the new and improved version of the C300.

 

[elezoz]

I've done some research and this SSD seems to be the best in the price range. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=20-233-191&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2&RandomID=95108685413220820110930144712

Any opinions?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

elezoz - That was the Corsair model that had issues. Corsair offered to replace the all the defective ssd's. Corsair and SandForce worked together to fix the problem. Newer version should be okay.

 

[RetiredChief]

My vote, Curcial M4.
Benchmarks can be misleading.
..Most advertized spec is the Least important, Sequencial read / writes.
..Most often it is quoted using compressable data, real life data tends not to compress to much.
.. Need to pay attention to chipset and driver used. Tend to be for Intel / iaSTor ver 10.6 which tends to out perform other chipset/drivers.

 

[tecmo34]

elezoz - That was the Corsair model that had issues. Corsair offered to replace the all the defective ssd's. Corsair and SandForce worked together to fix the problem. Newer version should be okay.

@JohnnyLucky... I'm pretty sure it was the Corsair Force drive that was defective in the 120GB range and not the Corsair Force GT that was referenced by the OP. Either way though, the Sandforce 2200 controller has been very buggy with the random BSOD that Sandforce is working with the manufacturer's with. The best overall option is the Crucial m4, as stated by others above.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

tecmo34 - Could be. I am growing old disgracefully and I forget stuff!!! :lol:

 

[tecmo34]

You might be growing old but the other two I highly doubt are true :lol: