Buying an SSD, what to get?

[roflcoopter]

Hello!

I am looking to upgrade my rather old and slow harddrive and I'm really interrested in the SSDs. Problem is though I'm really torn on what to get, since i don't have much knowledge about leading brands and stuff like that. Also, my motherboard is a Gigabyte 945GZM, would todays SSD's fit with this motherboard?

As I've understood it if you want to keep the pricing fairly low, say between 200-300 bucks you wont get a lot of space, would you recommend getting another harddriver with bigger storing capacity and only run OS and some other programs you want running fast on the SSD and music etc, etc on the other harddrive?

I would greatly appreciate any response!

Thanks in advance, Jesper

Edit: The machine is used mainly for gaming

 

[sneeks83]

Intel Samsung and Crucial are the ssds you want. For that price 200-300$ you should be able to get a 240gig so that will be plenty to load windows and games on just use an external usb 3.0 drive for any thing else if your mobo doesnt have usb 3.0 or sata 3 i would maybe go 120 and get a new mobo.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Your motherboard is an older Intel based model that supports SATA 2 3Gb/s solid state drives. Luckily the SATA 3 6Gb/s ssd's are backward compatible and will work on your motherboard. There will be a little bit of a performance penalty but not enough to be of any concern during ordinary day to day use.

The general rule of thumb is to purchase the largest capacity ssd you can afford. At your mamximum of $300.00 you'll be able to get a 256GB ssd when it is on sale. That is plenty of room for Microsoft Windows 7, software applications, utilities, and your favorite games. You can use a hard disk drive to store photos, videos, movies, music, and other data.

I normally recommend Samsung, Intel, and Crucial ssd's. Right now the Crucial M4, SATA 3 6Gb/s 256GB ssd is on sale at newegg.com for $299.99 and shipping is free:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148443

The Crucial M4 is popular with gamers and enthusiasts.

I maintain the ssd database listed in the sticky at the very top of this forum section. Here is a link to the ssd database:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-st [...] abase.html

Scroll down to the brands you are interested in and follow the links to the technical reviews.

 

[roflcoopter]

Thanks for the replies guys! I'm definetely gonna have a look on that M4! That price on newegg is amazing compared to the local prices. I'm a bit skeptical at changing my motherboard yet, im planning to get a new CPU before i go ahead and do that

Thanks again

 

[JackNaylorPE]

At your budget, I'd be buying Tier 1 - 240 / 256 GB ..... Tier 3 for 120 / 128 GB. I wouldn't waste my T, M & E (time , money and effort) on anything smaller.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-review-benchmark,3139-6.html

Drop a tier and ya drop roughly 10% performance.....drop 3 tiers and ya drop 33% (1.1 x 1.1 x 1.1)

I prefer units w/ premium 3Xnm Toshiba Toggle Mode Flash which includes the Mushkin Chronos Deluxe, Patriot Wildfire, OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G and OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Just a reminder your current motherboard is an olderIntel socket 775 based motherboard. Only certain older cpu's will fit in that socket. If you are planning on a new cpu, then you will also have to plan on a new motherboard and memory. I don't even list socket 775 boards in the Intel motherboard database I maintain.

 

[roflcoopter]

Just a reminder your current motherboard is an olderIntel socket 775 based motherboard. Only certain older cpu's will fit in that socket. If you are planning on a new cpu, then you will also have to plan on a new motherboard and memory. I don't even list socket 775 boards in the Intel motherboard database I maintain.

Yeah, what i meant was that if i ever decide to get a new motherboard i would get a new cpu aswell since mine is a bit roasted after some rookie overclocking tries hehe

 

[adampower]

Yeah, what i meant was that if i ever decide to get a new motherboard i would get a new cpu aswell since mine is a bit roasted after some rookie overclocking tries hehe

Join the club... I'm still on a p35 with a q6600. Ivy bridge upgade baby. I just saw some 16gb (4x4) ddr3 kits for less than $100!

Buy the ssd now and look for a good one around $1/gb. Wait for a sale! I'm over the brand preference except I'm a bit of an intel fanboy. However, I consider the Samsung 830, Intel 520, and Crucial m4 to be basically equal and all are best of the best as of today. If all were 1$/gb I would grab the intel. Of course these are the premium drives and you would be lucky to get any of the 240/256gb models for less than $300.

After that I look to the intel 320, and all the way down the list to be good drives when compared to spinners (ie mechanical hdd). Can't really go wrong unless you grab a dud and need to RMA.