Looking to upgrade to an SSD

[Nillah]

But I know nothing about them. And I'm still very new at building computers and all that, so bear with me. What do I need to know before looking for one? I still use an old hard drive.

My main concern is what type of connections will I need, I'm still terrible at knowing those. I'll list what I have just in case, if anything else is needed let me know.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965 Processor (4 CPUs)
System Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD
System Model: MS-7551 (those are both my Mobo right?)
PSU: Corsair CX750 Builder Series ATX 80
Card: AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series

And will it even fit into my tower, which is probably 5+ years old? Does it come with an adapter in case it doesn't, or where can I get one?

[Sinndra]

some MOBO's have a special mini port for an SSD. doesnt look like your does. so you will need a SATA SSD. it should install in the same area as your current HHD's and then connect via SATA cable to your MOBO.

they install the same as HHD's in this case, just a couple of small screws into the sides. take a look inside your tower, your disk drive is 5" wide. just below that it should narrow to 2.5" and your HHD is there. there should be room under it to add another drive, your SSD in this case.

so when shopping make sure you are looking at 2.5" SSD's and not mini SSD's. i recommend going 250g or more. you will love the speed increase once you try it out. and will probably wish you had more space.



edit: fixed typo and size.

[Nillah]

some MOBO's have a special mini port for an SSD. doesnt look like your does. so you will need a SATA SSD. it should install in the same area as your current HHD's and then connect via SATA cable to your MOBO.

they install the same as HHD's in this case, just a couple of small screws into the sides. take a look inside your tower, your disk drive is 5" wide. just below that it should narrow to 3.5" and your HHD is there. there should be room under it to add another drive, your SSD in this case.

so when shopping make sure you are looking at 3.5" SSD's and not mini SSD's. i recommend going 250g or more. you will love the speed increase once you try it out. and will probably wish you had more space.

Is there a difference between SATA I, II, and III? And should I leave my old HHD in or just replace it with the SSD?

I'm looking at Newegg but the vast majority they have are only 2.5", would that still work or is that considered mini? It looks like they only have one that's 3.5" and it's over 300 bucks.

[Sliske]

Anyone know if this would suit him?

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computi...00705-pdt.html

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computi...29915-pdt.html

My HDD died 2 months ago, so i thought i may as well just get a SSD while I was there getting a new HDD. Above is the SSD I picked. I bought that along with a bracketing kit (2nd link) from currys. Was way cheaper than I thought they would be. The SSD came with a 3 year warranty too, which made me feel more secure about how inexpensive it was (i honestly don't follow technology prices, this might be normal or even high priced.) I would definitely recommend it. Not sure what the US version of the UK's PCWorld/Currys is, but the prices were really cheap for me.

£85 in total, for both the kit (£5) and the SSD (£80) which is about $129 according to google, or $121 (SSD) $8 (Kit)

Again, no tech guy here, but I bought that 2 months ago and Its made a massive difference for me, a guy previously w/o an SSD.

[Sinndra]

Is there a difference between SATA I, II, and III? And should I leave my old HHD in or just replace it with the SSD?

I'm looking at Newegg but the vast majority they have are only 2.5", would that still work or is that considered mini? It looks like they only have one that's 3.5" and it's over 300 bucks.

you can use it in tandem with your HHD. i still have mine hooked up. its more of a back up now. i put programs that i want to keep, yet speed/frequency of use isnt important on my HHD. i put my OS + important games onto my SSD. just change the BIOS to make the SSD the primary.

SATA I, II, III, is the speed of communication with your board. older boards may only allow a SATA I speed even if you had a SATA III device. so it would be throttled down. it should still be faster than a HHD, but it wouldnt reach its full speed potential because of throttling.

if price isnt an issue, consider a higher SATA for potential future upgrade. you could harvest this and continue to use it further down the road.

the kit posted above is ok if your tower doesnt already support 2.5" drives. or if you simply wanted it mounted higher in the tower. you just want it secured inside the tower, doesnt much matter where.

edit: im sorry, i meant 2.5" not 3.5" in my posts. yes 2.5" is the correct size you are looking for.


edit 2: just for visual comparison here is a mini SSD. it looks vastly different from normal SSD's

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/ssd/ct256m550ssd3

[provaporous]

Is there a difference between SATA I, II, and III? And should I leave my old HHD in or just replace it with the SSD?

I'm looking at Newegg but the vast majority they have are only 2.5", would that still work or is that considered mini? It looks like they only have one that's 3.5" and it's over 300 bucks.

1) Sata II is up to 3Gb/s and Sata III is 6Gb/s chances are your Mobo has Sata II ports if it is the one i think you have. You can still get any 6Gb/s Sata III SSD and it will work just fine on a Sata II port.

Plus in the future when you upgrade your Mobo/Cpu you will have a 6gb/s SSD

2) Almost all SSD's are 2.5" because the flash memory inside them doesn't need a large housing like old hard drives did. make sure if you need a 2.5" to 3.5" bay adapter you get one, most newer cases come with at least one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817997007

tl/dr buy a 2.5" 512 GB Samsung or Crucial SSD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9SIA2W02DV8166
the samsung EVOS are great performance for price.

[Nillah]

Thanks for the info all

One more question. I had an older system until my brother upgraded his, so I got his old mobo/CPU and graphics card, and had to get my current PSU since my old one didn't have the connections for the graphics card. He was saying that I would have to reformat my hard drive I think since the mobos were different? I never did and it's worked okay since with some hiccups, but should I still use my HHD along with the new SSD since it hasn't been formatted since, or just get rid of it/reformat? I'm still not sure how any of that works.

[moremana]

One thing to note here, your motherboard does not support ahci or Sata 3, so any SSD you install is not going to get the performance you see people talk about.

Your PC is not going to be much faster than it currently is. It will be quicker, and yes, install your old hdd as a data drive. Reinstalling Windows is a good idea when switching to a SSD as Windows 7 and 8 have features for SSD's that are not installed when migrating from a mechanical drive. Some have software that will solve this, but it is always a good idea to reinstall anyway.

[fixx]

One thing to note here, your motherboard does not support ahci or Sata 3, so any SSD you install is not going to get the performance you see people talk about.

Yes it will. Missing AHCI and running only at SATA2 speeds will affect IOPS and maximum transfer rates for sure cutting the maximum speed to half or less. The main thing why SSD feels snappier in use is nearly zero seek times, and you will get that benefit even with the shittiest computer that has SATA connectors available.