Looking for help upgrading storage.

Xepher101

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Jan 24, 2016
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What the title says, I'm currently using a 128GB Crucial SSD from 4 years ago in combination with a 750GB WD Blue 5400RPM HDD from 3 years ago, and I'm running low on space and looking to upgrade. So, my questions are:

1: Should I go all solid state?

And 2: Do you guys have any recommendations as to SSDs?

Thanks. -Alex
 
Solution
With you mentioning an SSD upgrade, is that due to performance or space? The main thing is to get your OS, applications (including games as decreased load times are great), and profile root onto it - your document libraries can live on an HDD. I'd have a look at the Samsung 850 EVO and Crucial MX200 - both are quick enough, and inexpensive enough for a 500GB one to be a viable option (this should give you plenty of space for games). Personally, I wouldn't bother with the M.2 drives - I'd rather have more capacity than an unnoticeable speed increase (I have a SATA-based Samsung 850 Pro - Windows 8.1 boots in under 6s, and Visual Studio 2013 load in under 2s - I don't care if it could be faster, as I wouldn't notice).

In terms of bulk...


So is the Samsung 850 EVO Series good? If so, looking at those prices, I could do that.

 
With you mentioning an SSD upgrade, is that due to performance or space? The main thing is to get your OS, applications (including games as decreased load times are great), and profile root onto it - your document libraries can live on an HDD. I'd have a look at the Samsung 850 EVO and Crucial MX200 - both are quick enough, and inexpensive enough for a 500GB one to be a viable option (this should give you plenty of space for games). Personally, I wouldn't bother with the M.2 drives - I'd rather have more capacity than an unnoticeable speed increase (I have a SATA-based Samsung 850 Pro - Windows 8.1 boots in under 6s, and Visual Studio 2013 load in under 2s - I don't care if it could be faster, as I wouldn't notice).

In terms of bulk storage, any modern HDD of sufficient capacity should be fine (e.g. WD Blue) - just tell Windows to put your Documents/Music/Videos/Download library onto it, and go.
 
Solution
Thanks for all the help guys, so my plan as of right now is to get a Samsung 850 EVO (not sure exactly what size yet) and then load my OS onto that and just change the location of all the user data folders to the 750GB HDD that I already have.

And to answer your question about performance or space, the answer is a bit of both but mainly space.

Thanks again. -Alex
 

Yup, that's right (although I'd still consider the Crucial - both have good reputations for reliability, and performance of modern drives is about the same as far as the end user is concerned unless you're writing lots of data, so just get whatever's cheaper). You can leave stuff like AppData, etc, on the SSD, as you'll get a benefit from it (lots of small files with random I/O).

From memory, the ~250GB and ~500GB models are the sweetspot in terms of pricing (1TB is generally more than 2 500GB models), and unless you're installing games, 250GB will be ample for Windows and lots of programs, if that helps.