Considering getting a new hard drive
My PC is feeling sluggish, the hard drive seems to be working a lot. I'm wondering if I got a SSD and installed windows from scratch on there if that would help. So my questions are:
I had windows 7 and got the upgrade to windows 10, would I have to go through 7 to 10 again? Can I install windows 10 straight?
What SSD would you recommend?
Would I need any special connections?
Anything else I should know?
T A N S T A A F L
You can get a new hardrive and just download the Win10 installer and let it rip. Ive done it on 3 different pc's that had Wind10 on so it works. Make sure you download the correct or same version of Windows 10 you have installed now.
You dont really have to get a new HDD or SSD if you think that will speed up your current installation. By formatting and reinstalling from scratch you will be surprised to see how much faster your pc is.
Naturally a SSD will be so much faster than normal HDD. IF you do get a SSD then use this for Windows installation files and smaller app install only. Installing games on is not advisable.
will boot windows quicker, definitely noticeable difference.Originally Posted by czc
win 10 uses unique Hardware ID (usually in motherboard) to identify your machine for purposes of activation. So when you reinstall it just let it go online (can take a few days, mine had me worried as i also did free 8 - 10, and then format/reinstall and for a 2 days said i need to buy it) and it will eventually activate itself (you do get the option on the win 10 install setup to just not enter a product key at this time.)
once you go ssd, youll never go back.
Some tips tho, its a good idea to put your user folder (downloads/documents/vids/music) on another drive, so you dont waste the precious ssd space and read/write on things that get no benefit from speed.
You also wanna keep in mind that once over +-75% full an ssd's performance does tend to falter a bit, so try not have it too full. I find my 256gb with windows 10, csgo and 2 other games at a time (along with standard program's like office etc) reaches around there.
Brand recommendations, I would go Samsung > Intel/Corsair/Adata > Kingston/Transcend/Patriot/Galax/Everything else. If you are going for 128Gb's then OS and a few apps are fine, maybe a game. 265Gb+ You can put a few of your most played games on. 512GB+ Would be like a standard 500GB plate drive.
Speed wise, most SSD's are going to be 350-500Mb/s however this depends on your SATA ports speeds. However even a average speed SSD is faster than a plate hard drive.
Samsung 250Gb EVO750 R1700~
Adata Premier SP580 240Gb R1300~
Adata SU800 512Gb R2700~
Corsair LE 240GB R1700~
Corsair LE 480Gb R2600~
Intel 540S 240Gb R1800~
Intel 540S 240Gb R1800~
No, standard 2.5" SSD's use the standard SATA connections. Unless you wish to use a M.2 Drive which needs a special port on your motherboard or a NVMe card.
They are electrical products and just like plate drives capable of failing one day into use or 10 years into use. Having said that...
You'll find most SSD's have a 3 year warranty, where the faster models have a 5 year warranty.
Look at the MTBF (Mean time Between Failures) the average is around 1.5 millions hours, while some brands have it at 1 million.
A SSD does have a limited read/write cycle life, but it will probably outlive other components on PC before it needs replacing.
Disable Windows recovery to save space. Also try to keep it around 70-75% full, filling it up to maximum tends to slow it down slightly. Don't defrag it, that will cause unnecessary amount of writes which won't help with speed.
Care to elaborate on that? I would rather install games on a SSD before install something like Handbrake or uTorrent which will do way more reads/writes than a game.
You have a 256GB SSD and your game is a 25GB download, for one game. It's a waste of time as the loading time for games on normal HDD is not that slow. It's better to install your games on a seperate HDD such as a 1TB etc...
IF you only install one game then yes, go for it.
You clearly haven't played ARK, BF3/4 or CSGO.... loading times are SIGNIFICANTLY improved when they're installed on an ssd...I'm sure there are many other games too.
It's definitely better to install the slower things on an ssd...but games? Sure not ALL games, but definnitely your most played games should go on an ssd...
Download the Win 10 ISO and install from there. If it asks for a key, use your Win 7 key. When you ungraded, the key carried over to Win 10. If you get any issues with Win 10 not activating, contact the MS online support. They'll sort you out chop-chop.
Samsung. 750, 850, doesn't matter. If you don't like Samsung, at least get a known brand. Secondly, I would recommend at east 250Gb. In theory 120Gb should be ok but it depends on what you install. Most Microsoft products (and some software from other companies) dump a lot of files on C even if you specify D as the main installation drive. I have a 120Gb Samsung 840 EVO and I am now in a situation where diskspace is running low so I'll have to upgrade to a larger drive soon.What SSD would you recommend?
Not if you buy a SATA disk.Would I need any special connections?
Yes.Anything else I should know?
1. If you go Samsung, install the Magician software (or whatever it is called now) that comes with the drive. It handles all the settings Windows settings for you and gives a nice interface to check your drive health and tweak stuff.
2. Think before you install. Unless a game has huge level load times, it won't get a performance boost from an SSD. So dump those on your mechanical HDD. Ditto movies and series. And change your windows settings so that Documents, Pictures etc all point to locations on D.
Edit: I see everything in here has already been said, but I took the time to type this, so I'm going to post it, dammit.
Last edited by Mister 44; 20-02-2017 at 12:37 PM.
One day, I'll grow up and become responsible.
Probably not today.
I agree with drive sizes, I would only go for 240/256Gb+
I have ARK, ive played BF3 and i even play Star Citizen and the wait is not that long dude. It's mental to install so many games on your OS SSD... But hey each to his own.
Most things have been said already, as [MENTION=11450]Mister 44[/MENTION] said get the Win10 ISO from the MS website. The best way to install is to put it onto a flash drive and install, it goes so damn quick; even more so if you have USB3 and a USB3 flash stick.
Hopefully you have a new(ish) system with Sata 6Gbps ports, because you'd want to use that and not Sata 3Gbps. If your motherboard does have the port, you can look into an M.2 SSD. They are much, much faster than Sata SSD's, however they are also a bit more pricey.
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