Upgrading from HDD to SSD

Joppsta

Baseband Member
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78
Location
Scotland
Alright, so I'm finally considering upgrading from HDD to SSD. My budget is in the £100-£150 mark.

I've been looking at getting a Samsung specifically since I know they fab it all themselves and from what I've heard they are pretty damn good SSDs.

I've been looking at the 840 series in particular...

Barebones: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5 inch SATA Solid State Drive: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Upgrade kit: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5 inch SATA Solid State Drive Full Upgrade Kit: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Now I'm open to recommendations of other drives but one thing I'm puzzling over is the difference between the upgrade kit and the barebones? From what I've read the barebones you can download the migration software off the Samsung site although I'm going to do a clean install of windows anyway.

My next question with regards to that would be then, would I be best doing a clean install of most of the programs too? I don't fancy having to do my entire steam directory since it's kinda on the hefty side, it'll be staying on the 1TB HDD but just wanting to be crystal before I bite the bullet.

Just as an FYI, I've currently got 2 1TB HDDs installed on my system. The programs I'd be looking to shove onto the SSD would probably be photoshop, camtasia studio and perhaps a few frequently played games.

Cheers,

- Joppsta

EDIT: I should also add that I'm doing a lot of video rendering and recording, one of those 1 TB HDD is used purely for storing all the video files before being uploaded to YouTube.
 
Well a friend of mine recently (within the past 2 weeks) just had to RMA 2 840s. I haven't heard of anybody having problems with the 830 or 840pro though.

Idk though, I personally recommend the Corsair ForceGT or Neutron GTX. I have the Neutron GTX and this drive is great. Absolutely no problems, benchmarks are right on the money, and they are priced well. At least over here anyways.

The upgrade kit comes with the software and a 3.5" to 2.5" adapter. Other than, literally the same.

I always recommend a clean install and make sure AHCI is enabled in your bios.
 
I would honestly look at Kingston, OCZ for SSD drives.

OCZ vertex is currently out performing most other SSD drives.
 
Quality over quantity, or in this case benchmark numbers. I could also say reliability in both the company and the drive. Much rather have Corsair, Samsung, Intel in that order over ANY OCZ drive.

Anywho, the 830 and NeutronGTX are comparable to the Vector which is faster than the Vertex4 in benchmarks but in real world you wont notice a difference between any of the comparable SSDs. What you will notice is the degradation of SSD speed over time, and the possibility that OCZ might fall under due to their financial mishap last summer.
Wouldn't want my snippy Vertex to fail then not be able to RMA it under warranty.
 
Those two drives you suggested by Corsair are pushing £200 which I am not really fancying, would like to see what others think of the 840 since I'm seeing on Amazon nobody's complained about reliability.

I also agree on the OCZ thing, I don't really trust them as a company myself, something about them gives me the heeby jeebies.

Cheers for the input,

- Joppsta
 
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