Thinking of installing an SSD mainly to speed things up on windows?

martin57

Hi folks,


I am thinking of installing an SSD as they seem to have come down in price a lot now, looking at the 250gb ones (any reccomendations) wanting to speed up boot time on my windows 7 32 bit desktop and maybe speed of launching applications.


1 I don't think I have a spare bay as I already have a few standard drives in there, do SSD's generate much heat say its just left lying in bottom of case or even using some Velcro to just hold it in place?


2 I have ancronis image of my windows 7, do you think I can just install that on new SSD without activation problems? Honestly there is no way (though its probably best) to do a clean install, would simply take me weeks on end.


3 my computer was bought feb 2010 amd quad core, can I just hook the sata conector to SSD or is there any other add on cards such as pc1 that I need to buy?



4 I understand that I need to disable defrag, any other pointers on what I should disable?


Thanks a lot for any help.
martin57

stator

You should be able to find a bay to put it in. If you don't have any hard drive bays you can buy adapters that let you put a hard drive in a CDROM bay instead. Note that SSDs all come in laptop sizes, some of them come with a desktop adapter, some don't. So if you are buying a CDROM bay hard drive adapter get one for a 2.5inch laptop drive.

How big is your current hard drive? You should be able to use acronis true image to install windows straight onto the hard drive but I think Acronis also do a different piece of software that would let you clone directly from one to the other, that would be easier
You'll need to check your motherboard to see if it has a spare SATA connector, if it does then you can just Plug and Play. If you don't have a spare SATA connector you can buy a PCI/PCI-E add on card to add a new SATA connector, but it can be harder to boot off one of these cards so you might want to move an old hard drive onto the add on card and put your new SSD to the motherboard.
Windows should look after your SSD for you, no need to defrag or anything else. You can install some SMART monitoring software to keep an eye on the health of your hard drive. Don't wipe an SSD using normal 3rd party software, you can download a util from the manufacturer to do a wipe of the SSD.

Cisco001

Usual pick is Samsung 850 EVO.

In terms of spare bay, i suggest consider changing the case, or take out one of your existing HDD and get a enclosure and make it to external HDD.

enfield_freddy

ok , I have ssd,s running on 2 machines


1: they give off no heat , are sealed (no bare metal parts) , you can get a 3.5 to 2.5 adaptor , or simply (as I have done on one of mine) use a bit of double sided tape to the case floor
256 is overkill , as you can keep your files/films etc on your old drive
I suggest a 120g from scan/dabs (dabs £39 http://www.dabs.com/products/sandisk-128gb-ssd-sata-6gb-s-2-5--solid-state-drive-870X.html?q=ssd&src=16 )


2: please reload win 7 (or 8) from scratch and re activate , or if you have a machine with a worrying licence key(oem) use an image


3: just connect to a fast sata connector on the board


4 , I will leave this one , as I run win 8 that is designed for ssd , however mini partition tools ( http://www.partitionwizard.com/partition-magic-free.html?gclid=CjwKEAjw8LOsBRDdub-swPW8riISJAAnmS01b6BKFp3tP1cPz_kQ2P8_QQdi2kYEsarFlFmhf8_B_BoCV1vw_wcB )has a clone proggy built in to transfer to ssd , I hav,nt used that section of the proggy , but its free.

kwikbreaks

SSD drives are 2.5" laptop size and produce very little heat. I converted all my laptops to SSD then after that I replaced the 3.5" HD with a 128GB SSD together with a 500GB 2.5" drive left over from the laptop upgrades. I put the mechanical drive in a 2.5-3.5 plastic adapter I got on eBay and have the SSD zip tied to it. I wouldn't recommend letting anything just rest free in a PC case but gaffer tape and zip ties have worked for me on several occasions.

I think Acronis has a drive imaging tool which you should be able to use. I use the mechanical drives for most data which allowed me to cut the size and cost of the SSD.

I got a product called SSD Fresh from GiftOfTheDay and it does get offered periodically. There are probably other free options to make the appropriate settings to reduce writes but it probably isn't the end of the world even if you do nothing as the disk will still probably outlive the machine considering the march of progress these days. Doubly so as this is already a 5 year old machine.

indesisiv

I picked up a crucial MX200 and it came with a licence key and download of acronis

almillar

SSDs absolutely do give off heat, depending on brand and how hard they're working, but not as much as HDDs, and of course they use less power. Placement is less critical. If you're low on bays you might want to consider the floppy drive bay if you've got one.
I also hope you've got a decent power supply if you're running a number of drives off it.

martin57

stator wrote: »

You should be able to find a bay to put it in. If you don't have any hard drive bays you can buy adapters that let you put a hard drive in a CDROM bay instead. Note that SSDs all come in laptop sizes, some of them come with a desktop adapter, some don't. So if you are buying a CDROM bay hard drive adapter get one for a 2.5inch laptop drive.

How big is your current hard drive? You should be able to use acronis true image to install windows straight onto the hard drive but I think Acronis also do a different piece of software that would let you clone directly from one to the other, that would be easier
You'll need to check your motherboard to see if it has a spare SATA connector, if it does then you can just Plug and Play. If you don't have a spare SATA connector you can buy a PCI/PCI-E add on card to add a new SATA connector, but it can be harder to boot off one of these cards so you might want to move an old hard drive onto the add on card and put your new SSD to the motherboard.
Windows should look after your SSD for you, no need to defrag or anything else. You can install some SMART monitoring software to keep an eye on the health of your hard drive. Don't wipe an SSD using normal 3rd party software, you can download a util from the manufacturer to do a wipe of the SSD.

thanks a lot for replies everybody I really appreciate it.


I just had a look inside case and at motherboard manual, its an asus M4A785TD-EVO.
manual http://www.produktinfo.conrad.com/datenblaetter/850000-874999/871799-an-01-en-Motherboard_M4A785TD_V_EVO.pdf


On the motherboard there are five sata conectors all filled (sata 1,sata 2, sata 3, sata 5 sata 6, don't know why they number them that way omitting a sata4.


I think the reason they are all filled is I have 2 dvd drives, 2 hard drives and a card reader at front of case.


Looking at any spare card slots at back I have a modem card for dialup that I don't need and is not in the way of any other card. Can I install a sata card in there, that slot is described on manual as pc13, there is also pc11 and pc12 slots there but cant user them.


What kind of expansion card do I need to order (ebay ok) and would it be ok to say hook up one of the dvd drives to it, so that I can then connect SSD direct to motherboard?


many thanks once again.
Martin57

stator

Looking at the manual you also have one external eSATA connector on the back panel, so you can use that if needed for an external device. Or you could even get a long SATA cable and poke it back in a hole to an internal device

Yes swapping one of the DVD drives to the PCI card would be a good idea.
You could get a PCI SATA adapter and use any of the three slots labelled PCI1, PCI2, PCI3.
Or you could get a PCI-E SATA adapter and use the slot PCIEX1_1 or even PCIEX16_2 if they are not used

Personally I would avoid eBay and stick with UK sellers. Some stuff on eBay is fake chinese stuff that doesn't work:
Something like this for PCI-E
http://www.dabs.com/products/startech-com-2-port-sata-6-gbps-pci-express-sata-controller-card-72H8.html?q=PCI%20SATA&src=16
or for PCI
http://www.dabs.com/products/startech-com-4-port-pci-sata-raid-controller-adapter-card-3ZRJ.html?q=PCI%20SATA&src=16

gjchester

martin57 wrote: »

2 I have ancronis image of my windows 7, do you think I can just install that on new SSD without activation problems? Honestly there is no way (though its probably best) to do a clean install, would simply take me weeks on end.

Check with Acronis's web site, its not as simple as just putting the image to the new drive. There are underlying changes that may mean it won't work without changing drivers or settings under the hood.
.

martin57

stator wrote: »

Looking at the manual you also have one external eSATA connector on the back panel, so you can use that if needed for an external device. Or you could even get a long SATA cable and poke it back in a hole to an internal device

Yes swapping one of the DVD drives to the PCI card would be a good idea.
You could get a PCI SATA adapter and use any of the three slots labelled PCI1, PCI2, PCI3.
Or you could get a PCI-E SATA adapter and use the slot PCIEX1_1 or even PCIEX16_2 if they are not used

Personally I would avoid eBay and stick with UK sellers. Some stuff on eBay is fake chinese stuff that doesn't work:
Something like this for PCI-E
http://www.dabs.com/products/startech-com-2-port-sata-6-gbps-pci-express-sata-controller-card-72H8.html?q=PCI%20SATA&src=16
or for PCI
http://www.dabs.com/products/startech-com-4-port-pci-sata-raid-controller-adapter-card-3ZRJ.html?q=PCI%20SATA&src=16

Well spotted about the e-sata at back, I could always cut a hole on one of the blanking plates where no expansion card is installed and use a 90cm sata cable as this to connect the dvd drive.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LONG-90CM-0-9mt-LATEST-REVISION-SATA-3-III-6GB-S-ATA-S-ATA-SERIAL-INTERNAL-CABLE-/251162680860?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3a7a765e1c


Good idea thanks a lot.
martin57