Updating my rig with a SSD, advice needed!

[silverzx]

Hi guys!

I'm looking at getting an SSD as I believe its currently the bottleneck of the system and it's been over a year since I last formatted! I'm looking for something around £50~£100, must be SATA III 6GB and want best value for money with reliability being a main concern!

A feature of my MOBO I found is:

"Intel® Smart Response Technology"

SSD Speed with HDD Capacity
Intel® Smart Response Technology boosts overall system performance. It uses an installed fast SSD (min 18.6GB available capacity) as a cache for frequently accessed data. Harness the combination of SSD-like performance and response with hard drive capacity, that's 4X faster than a HDD-only system.

1) Would this be worth taking advantage of?

Having done a little research the OCZ Vertex 4 which are only £125 refurbished from Scan.co.uk in the 256GB model at the moment. Way over budget but should be plenty of storage! Also I've read some good things about the Vertex's such as this article: http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/storage/best-ssd-10-of-the-top-ssds-on-test-994095/3#articleContent

PC spec:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64
CPU: i5 2500k 3.3GHz to 4.5GHz.
CPU Cooler: Artic Cooler Freezer 13.
MOBO: Asus P8Z68-V LX, Intel Z68 Chipset.
RAM: 8Gb (2x4Gb) Corsair Vengeance LP, DDR3, 1600MHZ (CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V)

GFX: XFX ATI Radeon 7850 HD 2GB GDDR5 'Core Edition'
- 1200 Stream Processors
- 860 MHz Core Clock
- 2GB 256-Bit DDR5
- 4800 MHz Effective Memory Clock

HDD: 128GB OCZ Vertex SSD & 2TB Samsung Sata II (HD204UI 3GB/S BarCode 5315920035).
PSU: TAGAN 530w TG530-U15.
Case: Jeantech "Phong II".
Networking: SunVision £15 300MBs Wireless Card.
DVDRW: Lite-ON LH-20A1S-11C
Speakers: 5.1 Logitech Surround Sound.

Will be putting Windows 8 on the new SSD and using my 2TB as mass storage with only vital programs and games being put on the SSD.

This leads to another question:

2) Can I install Windows 8 onto my new SSD and have access to all my photos, videos, games, applications etc on the 2TB HDD without having to format the 2TB HDD and recopy everything onto it from an external?

In other words, can I install Windows 8 fresh onto the SSD I purchase and access all my files from Windows 7 on my big HDD? If not, I suppose I need to buy a big external drive to back up onto!

I look forward to your replies!

Silverzx

 

[qazzi]

answer to your question 2 is yes.


read up on ssd here:http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/270102-32-useful-articles-part

as for your question 1 well that's kinda up to you. using ssd as a boot drive speeds up the boot process.
vertex for is a good choice.

 

[mad-max79]

1st a SSD is a pretty good idea, but I would use the SSD just for OS and APPS and the HDD for mass storage.
I you want to install your OS fresh it is best to unplug the SSD while doing this and also checking for activated AHCI.
I'm not a OCZ fan, but the Vertex 4 is ok, but I personally like the Samsung SSDs much more.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Here is a comment about Intel's SRT caching that I first posted several years ago:

Intel's SRT caching technology was designed quite a few years ago for buyers who cannot justify or afford the cost of a larger capacity solid-state drive. According to Intel, the original idea was that for about $100.00 a user could purchase a small capacity ssd of about 20GB and use it as a cache to improve hard disk drive performance. The actual improvement could not quite compare to a stand alone ssd. Intel also tested different capacities all the way up to 512GB and concluded 64GB was the point of diminishing return. It made more sense to use a 64GB ssd as a boot drive that also contained software programs. Intel was hoping that if business clients saw an increase in performance, then they would be induced to purchase larger capacity ssd's.

We've come a long way since then. You can purchase a lot more than a 20GB ssd for $100.00 USD. In addition a 128GB capacity is now considered to be the sweet spot.

I normally recommend Samsung because of their stellar track record. Crucial, Intel, and Plextor are also worth considering.

I maintain the ssd database listed in the sticky at the very top of this forum section. Here is the link:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-storage/ssd-database.html

Scroll down to the brands and models you are interested in and follow the links to the technical reviews.