Upgrading to SSD

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PotatoesAreReal

New Member
I've been wanting to upgrade my hard drive to a SSD for a while, and a recent bout of blue screening led to someone advising I do a fresh OS install. I figured if I was doing this I might as well upgrade to SSD at the same time and kill 2 birds with one stone.

My vision is to have a small (125?)SSD with only the OS on it for lightning startups, a second 500gb SSD to store games on, and a third 1tb HDD. I'm pretty sure this is possible, but I don't know how. I've googled for hours and only gotten tired and frustrated, which is why I've resorted to downright asking for someone else to do it all for me, so please hold my hand. I've been looking at samsung evo drives, are these acceptable/advisable? The current drive in my computer is a 1tb HDD so I'd be wanting that as the tertiary.

I also need a new case as the one I have atm is truly awful and nor does it have the rails or something for SSDs. If anyone could suggest good cases I'd be very grateful. I have zero idea about what to look for in a case and looking for guides atc. has just confused me more. It needs space for a new soundcard too as the one on the motherboard is broken. The computer is almost exclusively used for gaming, if that matters, and is an i7 running windows 7.
 
You don't need 2 ssd drives. 1 ssd for OS and a few games and a storage drive for personal files and then rest of your games. Most SSD drives come with drive rails so you can fit them into a 5.25 bay. If not you can buy a rail kit to do it.
 
You would still need to reinstall all programs if you the ssd crashes as programs install registry and system entries that are required to make the program run correctly. You really want an SSD drive big enough for OS and a few of your most used programs so they run quicker. 120 gb is sufficient, 60 gb is just too small, and 90 gb would be pushing it. Not sure who has been telling you to only put your OS on your SSD.
 
There are a lot of people online who tell you to only put your OS on your SSD - but you should be putting as many programs as possible on your SSD.

It's quite simple: Windows (or whatever your OS is) and all of your programs (eg Office, browsers etc) go onto the SSD but things that take up more space such as games may need to be installed on a hard drive instead. You can also use hard drives for storage - eg storing documents and videos and so on.

Yes, the Samsung 840 EVOs are great drives. They are probably the fastest SATA SSDs out there as of right now. Get the 250GB one. 250GB is affordable so no point going lower than that these days I think.

Give us a budget for the case but if you want good value for money look at the Corsair 200R and 300R cases and the Zalman Z9.

If your board has it, plug your SSD into the *SATA 6GB/s* port and then go into the BIOS and set the SATA mode to AHCI (again, if your board/BIOS supports it).

Make sure no hard drives are connected when Windows is installing. Connect them once Windows has installed.

And that is all you need to know. It's best to do fresh installs onto SSDs.
 
Is it really that bad an idea? The reasoning behind it was to keep the Os drive clear of virtually all programs etc to prevent any clogging or slowing as has happened with all computers i've ever had. Maintaining very fast startup and base functionality speed is a priority. I was told isolating the os would also help in case of problems with it.
 
Been using SSDs for 3 years and I've used 4 or 5 of them now for long periods of time with OS and all programs on same drive - no problems with slow down at all.

It kind of defeats the point of having an SSD if you're not going to notice any of your programs are any quicker because they're still running off a hard drive. All you will notice is that Windows feels really fast but all of your other programs will feel really slow in comparison. :rolleyes:

This is why manufacturers are making 250GB and 500GB drives affordable - so you can install even more of your programs and games to the SSD and feel the advantage. Hence why I recommend you get 250GB.
 
spirit said:
There are a lot of people online who tell you to only put your OS on your SSD - but you should be putting as many programs as possible on your SSD.

It's quite simple: Windows (or whatever your OS is) and all of your programs (eg Office, browsers etc) go onto the SSD but things that take up more space such as games may need to be installed on a hard drive instead. You can also use hard drives for storage - eg storing documents and videos and so on.

Yes, the Samsung 840 EVOs are great drives. They are probably the fastest SATA SSDs out there as of right now. Get the 250GB one. 250GB is affordable so no point going lower than that these days I think.

Give us a budget for the case but if you want good value for money look at the Corsair 200R and 300R cases and the Zalman Z9.

If your board has it, plug your SSD into the *SATA 6GB/s* port and then go into the BIOS and set the SATA mode to AHCI (again, if your board/BIOS supports it).

Make sure no hard drives are connected when Windows is installing. Connect them once Windows has installed.

And that is all you need to know. It's best to do fresh installs onto SSDs.
Click to expand...

I was aiming for 2 SSDs. One for the OS exclusively, and the other for games and programs. I was thinking 125 and 500gbs respectively. For the case I don't really want to spend more than ~£80, but I can be flexible.

For the other info, thank you, although I will without doubt be back before I touch BIOS.
 
£80 should buy you a Corsair 300R or even a Fractal Design Define R4. I forget how much the R4s cost here in Britain but £80-90 seems about right for those.

If you're thinking of a 500GB SSD then just get a 500GB SSD. Save the £60 or so a 120GB SSD would cost and just get the one 500GB SSD. I mean, Windows takes me up maybe 10GB of drive space? And 500GB is plenty of room for programs and installed games.

You could put your saved £60 towards getting a nice full tower NZXT Phantom which will set you back about £110 and then save the change for a rainy day, of which there are many here in the UK. ;)
 
So you'd advise against having 2 separate SSDs in all circumstances? Even if expenditure didn't worry me? Having start up run off a separate, pristine drive makes sense to me, but i'm willing to bow to experience lol.

The fractal case appeals to me, more more sleek and understated, as opposed to the typical 'cool' gaming case that looks like it was designed by a 10yo on a sugar rush. If I were willing to spend £120 on a case are there any other standouts that you could recommend? The corsair 500r looks good.

Thank you for all your input so far.
 
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Yes if you like Fractal look at the Define XL. Or maybe look at the Corsair 500R. I think the 500R looks gorgeous in white, but you may disagree. You may actually decide that a Define R4 is all you need. I'll leave that choice up to you.

And honestly it would be a waste getting two SSDs. Just get one 500GB and save your cash. You can install Windows and everything onto that and you will probably still have space leftover.

As I said, I've used 4 or 5 SSDs for long periods of time with Windows and everything installed onto them and I've not had 'slowness' issues. That is generally how SSDs are designed to be used and how 99% of people use them! ;)
 
I've looked at the 500r and it's very appealing. I'm currently umming and arring between that and the define xl. The 500r seems to have more cooling though. Considering the idea of the computer is to run the latest games at the highest settings, would this swing things in favour of the 500r?
 
Well hang on what video card are you planning on getting? If this is going to be playing a lot of games get the best card you can afford - which may mean spending less on the case. The video card is going to make more difference to gaming performance than the case will.

But, given the choice I'd go for the 500R personally. I think cooling in both is fine I just prefer the looks of the 500R.
 
I've had this computer for a while, I'm not building a new one from scratch. I've just been getting blue screened recently and that prompted me to make a few upgrades. I currently have a gtx580 though.

With the case the only consideration between the two is looks then? One is not superior to the other in any non-arbitrary way?
 
By post the logs I assume you mean save the .dmp files and put them up? I don't see any logs I'm able to copy/paste.

With the case/SSD, thanks very much for the advice.
 
You should be able to copy the logs from BlueScreenView into the post. I did it once before and lots of other users do it.

I think you're talking about uploading your minidump files that Windows produces when it BSODs aren't you? Run BlueScreenView and get the log. :)
 
Looks about right. I'll have a look for you in the morning but I'm sure John (our resident blue screen interpreter :P ) will assist you before I can. Feeling sleepy! ;)

Might be worth starting a new thread by the way with this blue screen issue.
 
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