SSD - Question

[tomgrindle]

Hiya,

Just looking for some advice if I could please?

I want to upgrade the current HDD, running my operating system on my Desktop PC, to an SSD. Now obviously I am looking at this upgrade to speed my PC up ... as running Windows 7 on an IDE drive (yes, I know) rus a bit sluggish.

Now my question .... what other factors do I have to think about, if I'm looking at this upgrade from a speed point of view. Is the memory, CPU, etc going to counteract what I am doing, and therefore, me not see a difference?

I cant tell you the exact specs of my machine, my memory isn't brilliant, and I'm only 18 ... but this is a rough guess ... :

Core2Duo Processor (I'm pretty sure its an E6 model, so lets say its between 2GHz - 3 GHz, 1333MHz
RAM (4 GB [3GB Usable 32Bit Operating System] DDR2 PC2-5300 @ 667MHz)

Are there any other factors that I will have to think about, and with them specs do you think I will notice a difference in the speed of my operating system.

Thanks in advance

Tom

[j17sparky]

Yes you will notice the difference. TBH with those specs I doubt even the fastest of SSDs would be limited, but either way it's an "investment" as you can take it to your new PC when you get it.

IMO SSDs are the single biggest thing you can change to make [almost] any PC faster.

[DAZZD88]

You'll notice a change in read/write operations providing that you get an SSD with high read/write speeds. If you just buy a "cheap" SSD then you may well notnotice any speed difference.

[3s-gtech]

You will need SATA 2 at least to really make a difference, as modern SSDs will potentially saturate even a SATA 3 interface. Your motherboard should support SATA 2 though. I would go for some faster RAM if you can too - the Core 2 have a seperate memory controller so love faster RAM.

I recently bought a Crucial M4 64GB for my x100e - it has made a huge difference, but it'll never be lightning fast due to the underlying specs of the machine - an SSD can only do so much.

[tomgrindle]

Yes you will notice the difference. TBH with those specs I doubt even the fastest of SSDs would be limited, but either way it's an "investment" as you can take it to your new PC when you get it.

IMO SSDs are the single biggest thing you can change to make [almost] any PC faster.

Well, that's good to know. Well that's definitely the way to see it, an investment. Well new PC .... if I get it. The specs aren't too bad, and good enough for what I use it for. But I do fing it a bit slow to respond etc that I can only really put down to the HDD with those specs.

You'll notice a change in read/write operations providing that you get an SSD with high read/write speeds. If you just buy a "cheap" SSD then you may well notnotice any speed difference.

OK, well based on the specs of this SSD OCZ Technology 60GB Vertex Plus Series SATA 3Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive (OCZSSD2-1VTXPL60G) - dabs.com am I likely to see a difference?

Thanks

[tomgrindle]

You will need SATA 2 at least to really make a difference, as modern SSDs will potentially saturate even a SATA 3 interface. Your motherboard should support SATA 2 though. I would go for some faster RAM if you can too - the Core 2 have a seperate memory controller so love faster RAM.

My motherboard does support SATA 2 thankfully . Well yes, my motherboard will support DDR2 800, so I might even look at upgrading the RAM. It was quite cheap recently, not sure if it still is. Will have to have a look.

Tom

[3s-gtech]

If it'll support DDR2 1066 even better, but it costs a bit over the DDR2 800. Of course, there are also much faster Core2s available which could be an option for the future (Ebay maybe) - an LGA 775 board still has a decent upgrade path.

[jamesfed]

Putting a OCZ Vertex 2 made a whole lot of differance to my HP dv2 (pretty much the same machine as @3s-gtech) - and you will notice it as well.

Your processor will be find however I'd suggest you take a look at upping to 800mhz RAM (if your mobo can take it) - although my dv2 runs of 667mhz as well (and it flys) it would be good to make sure all your PCs parts are talking to each other as fast as possible.

[DAZZD88]

OK, well based on the specs of this SSD OCZ Technology 60GB Vertex Plus Series SATA 3Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive (OCZSSD2-1VTXPL60G) - dabs.com am I likely to see a difference?

Thanks

I'd be tempted to go for something alittle more like this Corsair Memory 60GB Nova Series 2 SATA 3Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive

You'll see that the one I spec'd up is around the same size as the one you were looking at but has much higher read/right speeds. It's not the fastest SSD but on balance of size and performance,you can't gofar wrong with it.

You could also check this one out but it's not as fast as the first one I spec'd up... Kingston 64GB SSDNow V100 SATA-300 2.5" Solid State Drive

[tomgrindle]

If it'll support DDR2 1066 even better, but it costs a bit over the DDR2 800. Of course, there are also much faster Core2s available which could be an option for the future (Ebay maybe) - an LGA 775 board still has a decent upgrade path.

Hrmmm ... ok ... well I will think about that maybe, but for the immediate future if I am going to notice a difference with just buying the SSD then I will do that for now.

Tbh ... if I am going to notice a difference only after changing memory and CPU then sometime in the future I will just build a new PC with an I series processor and some better memory etc.

I wouldn't say that the PC is terribly slow, but after using 7 on my work laptop or my colleagues PC (which is of similar spec, but with a SATA HDD) and then going home and using my desktop you notice a difference.

Tom

[zag]

Once you get the SSD in there you realize how much RAM and CPU upgrades are pointless. The bottleneck has been the disk IO for a long time.

There is also no need to really care for the speed or interface unless you are copying large chunks of data to another SSD. The biggest advantage of the SSD is the access time not the actually speed it copies data that so many people seem to be worried about.

Just as an example, my 4 year old 1st generation Samsung 20gb 40mb/s SSD "feels" exactly the same as my Intel 600gb 400mb/s SSD in normal usage

[tomgrindle]

I'd be tempted to go for something alittle more like this Corsair Memory 60GB Nova Series 2 SATA 3Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive

You'll see that the one I spec'd up is around the same size as the one you were looking at but has much higher read/right speeds. It's not the fastest SSD but on balance of size and performance,you can't gofar wrong with it.

You could also check this one out but it's not as fast as the first one I spec'd up... Kingston 64GB SSDNow V100 SATA-300 2.5" Solid State Drive

Well that Corsair looks quite appealing to me. Especially as its only £5.00 difference in price.

[tomgrindle]

Once you get the SSD in there you realize how much RAM and CPU upgrades are pointless. The bottleneck has been the disk IO for a long time.

There is also no need to really care for the speed or interface unless you are copying large chunks of data to another SSD. The biggest advantage of the SSD is the access time not the actually speed it copies data that so many people seem to be worried about.

Just as an example, my 4 year old 1st generation Samsung 20gb 40mb/s SSD "feels" exactly the same as my Intel 600gb 400mb/s SSD in normal usage

Ahhh ryt I see .... Well that is also interesting to know. Looking at the specs of the 3 drives that are mentioned in this thread I would say the access speeds are all quite similar?

[zag]

Ahhh ryt I see .... Well that is also interesting to know. Looking at the specs of the 3 drives that are mentioned in this thread I would say the access speeds are all quite similar?

Yes the access speeds are identical on all SSDs in real world usage.

This is what matters really in terms of booting the computer and starting programs which is where SSDs really excel.

[j17sparky]

Once you get the SSD in there you realize how much RAM and CPU upgrades are pointless. The bottleneck has been the disk IO for a long time.

There is also no need to really care for the speed or interface unless you are copying large chunks of data to another SSD. The biggest advantage of the SSD is the access time not the actually speed it copies data that so many people seem to be worried about.

Just as an example, my 4 year old 1st generation Samsung 20gb 40mb/s SSD "feels" exactly the same as my Intel 600gb 400mb/s SSD in normal usage

^ What he said.

My PC has a sata 3 interface but it was the first gen marvell chips which are a bit poo to say the least. I never get the full sata 3 speeds but as said its the access time which makes the difference. I can now load big programs like photoshop in [split] seconds.

As a bit of a comparison; I use music programs heavily. They use lots of small audio samples, ie lots of small files, and the difference between samples stored on the SSD and ones stored on a HDD or raid 5 nas is unreal!