SSD's for small business

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Henri108

Limp Gawd
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Dec 6, 2013
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Hi everyone.

I need some help with implementing SSD's into all pc's at an office.
The normal office pc's (8 of them) are i7's (3 gen I think) and have 1 5400rpm HDD's in them. We would like to upgrade them after seeing some studies that prove the productivity improvements of SSD's for businesses.
We also have 2 workstations (xeon, 2HDD's in raid 0), which we would also like to upgrade.


Is there an easier way to copy all the data to an SSD than to make an exact copy and then boot from CD/usb?
What other recomendations do you have?

I was thinking of Intel 530 SSD's (240GB for office pc's and 480GB for workstation), because they are considered extremely reliable.
 
I upgraded my office (10 workstations) to SSD using the Samsung EVO series.

Most got 256 GB because they are client machines, a few got 500 GB.

The MTBF on these units is 1 million hours, the computer will need upgrading before the SSD.

We had originally considered Intel brands, but they weren't quite compatible in bench testing with the Gigabyte M-ITX motherboards for some odd reason.
 
Apricorn SATA Wire Notebook Hard Drive Upgrade Kit with USB 3.0 Connection ASW-USB3-25 (Grey)
51zUYSqrPVL.jpg


^^^ This. Perhaps the easiest method for converting that could possibly exist. I have already used this and this was worth every single penny. It will make your life amazing. Even simpler than using Clonezilla (infinitely simpler and problem-free) and Acronis TrueImage (great software) -- both ways take more time due to having to direct connect SSDs to a workstation and using boot disks and all every time. The Apricorn device above with its boot software is the easiest, trouble-free, and fastest method I have ever used.

We purchase only 120-128GB SSDs. About 50% of the SSD is available to the user after OS + productivity software, or about 40% if OS + productivity software + engineering software. Considering that users are suppose to store their files on network drives / VDI environment (where everything is backed up), there is zero reason for any single user to be fully using up 45 - 60 GB of diskspace. If they are, their activity is questionable and we do a WinDirStat (usually to find that they're storing non-work related personal files). In the last 2 years of converting our several dozens of laptops to SSDs, we have only encountered one scenario where 120-128GB wasn't enough and that scenario is for two users who have a very specialized and more advanced function performing 3D simulations using SolidWorks (simulation data takes up more diskspace than normal usage) -- but this too didn't cause financial problem because a 250-256GB SSD is only 100 USD at the moment. Plain simple fact: users do not need more than a 120-128GB storage drive. That is unless your environment has no network drives; you setup POP3 accounts; multiple users use the same computer; etcetera.

Every time we went to purchase SSDs, we chose the cheapest (usually around 70 USD shipped on Amazon). Brands we have purchased as a result over the last two years: Kingston, Crucial, Samsung, SanDisk.

These are the models we have purchased over the last two years:
  • Crucial 128 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT128M4SSD2
  • Crucial M500 120GB SATA 2.5-Inch 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter) Internal Solid State Drive CT120M500SSD1
  • Kingston Digital 120GB SSDNow V300 SATA 3 2.5 (7mm height) with Adapter Solid State Drive 2.5-Inch SV300S37A/120G
  • Samsung 840 Series 2.5 inch 120GB SATA III internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7TD120BW
  • SanDisk Extreme SSD 240 GB SATA 6.0 Gb-s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SDSSDX-240G-G25
  • SanDisk Ultra Plus 128GB SATA 6.0GB/s 2.5-Inch 7mm Height Solid State Drive (SSD) With Read Up To 530MB/s- SDSSDHP-128G-G25 [Old Version]
  • SanDisk Ultra Plus 256GB SATA 6.0GB/s 2.5-Inch 7mm Height Solid State Drive (SSD) With Read Up To 530MB/s- SDSSDHP-256G-G25 [Old Version]
We only have two (2) 256GB SSDs out there. These two went into two high-end Engineering-grade Dell laptops that we upgraded with an additional 16GB of RAM for a total of 24GB per laptop (SolidWorks loves RAM for simulations).

They all work great, and they are all reliable brands. As far as solid state drives go, unless you're trying some of the riskier brands (OCZ or not well known small name brands), IMO you should be tackling this by price point rather than a piece of detail so insignificant. Making these conversions has significantly reduced maintenance and troubleshooting of laptops.

I have also put in 120-128GB SSDs (one of the models up there, probably a Crucial M500 or Kingston) in a handful of desktop PCs at my other workplace. Not regretting it! I was hesitant at first due to the lack of mobility of desktop PCs, but after observing for more than 8 months both the owner and I agree that it was a purchase well spent. The computers hard/full boot to desktop in less than 15 seconds (it's insane, I still can't get over the awe), and has also significantly made my job easier when troubleshooting certain issues with the ERP software that may have been related to the storage technology being used.
 
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I'd suggest samsung also, but I'd say for general office machines, the 840 evo is a better value than the pro's.
 
I would use the Intel Drives you mentioned above. Its hard to beat them for reliability.
 
Intel 530, Intel 2500, or Crucial MX100.

Oh, and I 2nd the Apricorn kit. Been using that for a couple years and it does easy and flawless clones.
 
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I have been using an Intel SSD (something 5X0) and it has been on the go to a lot of locations without any issues (used as a remote laptop for some of the staff, used 6 days a week and 10 hours a day). And it's stable as can be.
I personally have a Samsung 840 EVO (500gb) in my system and don't have problems with either. (although the Samsung has not been tested for years on end)
People tell me Intel's are much more reliable and after checking the price difference is less than 8%.

We are indeed using a lot of programs from our network, which works great. But I checked a few of the computers (fitted with a 500GB HDD) and some were close to 160GB used. I think I'll go for 240/256GB ones as these will offer a little future-proofing (we also always update to newest programs and OS as soon as they launch, so if these become slightly bigger, we are safe).

Thanks Cerulean for the detailed and simple solution. I thought about using a server to plug in all the HDD's and all the SSD's and let them copy over, I'll probably have to check with our IT specialist to check the viability of this solution. But if this is too complicated or impossible, your solution is great!

Btw, none of these systems are laptops. These I have upgraded a long time ago. Now I feel like upgrading the Dell's. Other businesses should check the studies about SSD's, just mindblowing in terms of ROI.

Thanks a lot and more recommendations/opinions are always welcome everyone!
 
Cerulean said:
Plain simple fact: users do not need more than a 120-128GB storage drive. That is unless your environment has no network drives; you setup POP3 accounts; multiple users use the same computer; etcetera.
Click to expand...

It very much depends on exactly what your users are doing. For some office work the above may be true, but there are other cases where it would not.

For example, with the work I do it's not unusual for me to run multiple VMs on my laptop, each of which has a 60GB root disk. Combine that with the fact that our source code repository is 30GB, a full build takes another 80GB, and I might want to keep more than one build around for testing. Basically I've used up most of a 500GB drive. (And that's with most of my work being done on remote build servers.)
 
cbf123 said:
It very much depends on exactly what your users are doing. For some office work the above may be true, but there are other cases where it would not.

For example, with the work I do it's not unusual for me to run multiple VMs on my laptop, each of which has a 60GB root disk. Combine that with the fact that our source code repository is 30GB, a full build takes another 80GB, and I might want to keep more than one build around for testing. Basically I've used up most of a 500GB drive. (And that's with most of my work being done on remote build servers.)
Click to expand...
Heh, you're right. I work at a manufacturing company, a printer supplies distributor, and have close connections to a company that sells workers. In all three environments, there's no excuse for a drive larger than 120-128 GB. It is humanly impossible to need 40-50GB of data on a daily basis unless you're doing work that generates and actively uses that data (such as VMs or a code repository). :)
 
The Intel and Samsung SSDs come with an Acronis license to mirror the spinning disk that you have onto the SSD. I've done that a few times without issues.
 
I still use 120gb models for general office/admin staff, but any of the engineers/architects I support get 250gb. Things like revit/building design suite take up huge amounts of space anymore, and there is the last 3 versions of those apps on every machine to cover the lifecycle of old projects and new. Plus things like the outlook .ost cache file can be 5-10 gb by itself., and with 16 or 32gb or ram, paging files are large.
 
some company here used Intel 7300 ssd but changed to samsung 850 pro due to slow downs as the drives from Intel coudlnt handle 50-60gb writes a day. their month with samsung 850 pro has been great.
 
David_Schroth said:
The Intel and Samsung SSDs come with an Acronis license to mirror the spinning disk that you have onto the SSD. I've done that a few times without issues.
Click to expand...

Right, Samsung's "Data Migration" tool has been flawless for me. Been deploying 120gb and 250gb Evo's like they're going out of style. And for 95% of basic office tasks a Core2 PC with an SSD will have better perceived performance than recent generation i7's backed by spinning disks.
 
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