[misterS3]

Originally Posted by Bomber

I've just installed a OCZ Vertex 4 in my 2009 Macbook Pro and all I can say is OMG , its the fastest thing I have ever used, I just cloned the original HDD and away I went.

I will be installing SSD's in all the machines I use now.

I got an Agility 3 for my old netbook on a whim just before xmas (there is a curry's 10 mins walk from my house so i ordered it to collect from them but when i got there they didn't have it, so they got one put aside from PC world and gave me free mounting kit to pay for petrol) which i was about to bin and it's brought it back to life.

I'm going to get a vertex 4 for a new desktop (pc world again coming out cheapest?!) i have coming and one for the old one which i'll give my dad.

SSD for OS is the way forward for sure!

[doughboy]

Been thinking about upgrading existing machines, but how do you clone the existing HDD if the machine has only 1 drive slot?

I wa planning clean installs again.

[Boz335i]

I just specced a 512GB SSD for my new Vaio Z series (+£1150)

Off to fully booted and ready to work is about 15 seconds whereas my old Z takes about 3 minutes. Both Windows 7 - 64 bit. (I remember when I thought 3 minutes was quick!)

[rich1068]

An additional £1150!!??

Couldn't you have put one in yourself?

[Dave_3]

Originally Posted by doughboy

Been thinking about upgrading existing machines, but how do you clone the existing HDD if the machine has only 1 drive slot?

I wa planning clean installs again.

Some come with a kit including Norton Ghost, and an adapter cable so you can connect the ssd externally to a usb port. So all you would need is the cable and cloning software.

The kits I was looking at had these in a bundle - but doesn't look like they are still available - so will have to locate a cable myself. Though I have a few sata to usb cables I can try first.

One other thing that may be included is a small adapter plate as some drives are thinner than the standard 2.5".

D.

[Bomber]

Originally Posted by doughboy

Been thinking about upgrading existing machines, but how do you clone the existing HDD if the machine has only 1 drive slot?

I wa planning clean installs again.

I just bought a basic 2.5 caddy from eBay and it worked a treat

[Mr Singh]

I have a 240GB Corsair SSD, plus 16GB of ram disk. The Ram disk is worth considering if you have space for more ram on your MB

[- Paul -]

Get one - they are fast.

[CarAbuser]

Originally Posted by Mr Singh

I have a 240GB Corsair SSD, plus 16GB of ram disk. The Ram disk is worth considering if you have space for more ram on your MB

If by ram disk you mean pagefiling onto HDD space then you will still see a performance drop. The latency and speed ram operates at is still far quicker than any SSD could hope to achieve, especially one connected to SATA ports.

Originally Posted by Dave_3

Some come with a kit including Norton Ghost, and an adapter cable so you can connect the ssd externally to a usb port. So all you would need is the cable and cloning software.

The kits I was looking at had these in a bundle - but doesn't look like they are still available - so will have to locate a cable myself. Though I have a few sata to usb cables I can try first.

One other thing that may be included is a small adapter plate as some drives are thinner than the standard 2.5".

D.

I can't remember the exact numbers but I think even if you have a modern PC with USB3 you will still be losing out on speed by connecting an SSD to USB. Even if the advertised figures look good the actual throughput that most USB interfaces provide is a lot lower.



Another thing that most PC modders forget is that to gain the best performance from the SSD you need to enable AHCI in the motherboard before installing windows. If you fail to do so then Windows will install with trim disabled and you aren't going to get the full performance boost an SSD can offer. There is ways of changing retrospectively but they are messy.

[rich1068]

Originally Posted by CarAbuser

Another thing that most PC modders forget is that to gain the best performance from the SSD you need to enable AHCI in the motherboard before installing windows. If you fail to do so then Windows will install with trim disabled and you aren't going to get the full performance boost an SSD can offer. There is ways of changing retrospectively but they are messy.

Quite true. I used to follow a great SSD install guide over on the OCZ support forum. If I can find it I'll post the link.

:edit:

Found the link http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...-win7-with-SSD

It's from 2010 but works well for my (old) Vertex Turbos.

[Dave_3]

Originally Posted by CarAbuser

I can't remember the exact numbers but I think even if you have a modern PC with USB3 you will still be losing out on speed by connecting an SSD to USB. Even if the advertised figures look good the actual throughput that most USB interfaces provide is a lot lower.

I meant to use an ssd connected through usb only to clone your existing hd, then replace your internal laptop hd with the newly cloned ssd.

Agree, usb no match for a sata link - no benefit really for using an external ssd compared to prices and capacities of good hds.

D.

[doughboy]

Agree, I wouldn't use USB for service drive connection.

TBH new drive and full clean install ain't so bad anyway, SSD should prove its speed then

Its good to have a clear out...

[CarAbuser]

Installing a new OS on an SSD is very quick.

If you think just one SSD is quick you can get cards that slot into your PCI ports and have two SSD cards in a RAID0 configuration. Combine the doubled read/write speed with the faster throughput PCI offers and you have warp speed!

[xenon]

RAID 0 is a mirror - it does not double the write speed (impossible - as it's actually writing the data to two discs (albeit simultaneously) it's marginally slower). Thoretically it can double read speed as it can get the data from either disc - with a traditional HDD it can get the data from whichever disc's heads are physically closer. In practice speed is about 1.2x. If the disc is solid state then the performance increase is negligeable.

The throughput of a PCIx is better assuming there is enough buffering.

[scottc]

SSD's are the way to go, if you combine it with Windows 8 your boot time will be very fast.

If your PC has Native UEFI support switch it on, use Windows 8 your PC will boot in around 10/15 secs.

[MEGA]

I don't really trust any computer builder that 3 years past the post thinks SSDs are terrible and unreliable: But there you go !!!

[MEGA]

Originally Posted by xenon

RAID 0 is a mirror

No it isn't!

RAID 1 is mirrored.

RAID 0 is striped IE the data is written to one disk or the other. So raid 0 is far far more performant but there is no resiliency.

There's not even parity information so if one disk fails you've lost 100% of your data. However it's great for performance, very close to 100% faster than a non RAIDED disk although the controller or bus can throttle this back slightly. You have as much storage space as the smallest disk.

I am pretty sure you were thinking of RAID 1.


Rgds
Dave

[xenon]

Sorry Mega - my bad. You're absolutely right, I was thinking of RAID 1.

I'd never use 0 - too risky....

[MEGA]

I might for say a gaming machine assuming any data I needed to keep was also backed up elsewhere

But not for a main working machine!

I've not looked into the numbers of say RAIDING SSDs at 0. I'd guess you are throttled by everything but the disks in that scenario ...

[doughboy]

Originally Posted by MEGA

RAID 0....... You have as much storage space as the smallest disk.


Rgds
Dave

Are you sure dave?

AFAIK in raid0 striped you'll have the storage of both drives added, or twice the smallest one if they differ, as only half the data is on each drive, until the smallest one is full.

i.e 2x500gb striped = 1TB

or 1x500 and 1x400 striped = 800gb (2x400)

Mirrored raid 1 will give the total storage of the smallest drive only.

[xenon]

I think with SSD drives performance enhancements through striping would not be hugely significant, but I haven't tried it. Obviously makes a big difference with normal HDDs for which I tend to use RAID10 on the OS.

[xenon]

@ DB - you're correct.