hard drive upgrades?

[Bigbacon]

right now I have 2 oldish SATA drives, maybe like a 500 and a 320

I want to upgrade from my aging 5+ year old vista install to windows 7.

would a 256gb ssd for windows/programs and maybe just get a 1gb regular work?

problem is I know nothing about SSDs or even regular drives now.

Really don't want to spend big bucks.

I'd even consider just 2 new SATA drives.

I'm trying to avoid wiping my current drive to do the os install just in case.

 

[me4get]

Get a SSD for main drive and use a regular drive for storage.

 

[Dangman]

Get this setup and you'll be set:
$109 - Crucial MX100 256GB SSD
$53 - Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
---
Total: $162 shipped

 

[tiraides]

You should invest in an SSD as its performance runs circles around a HDD. Plus, today's hard drives are using 1TB drive platters that make them faster than older drives.

The SSD+HDD combination is a good choice and you can buy them both for under $200.

Here's what we often recommend:

$130 - Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD
$53 - Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB HDD

 

[neologan]

Absolutely. The most common config when factoring in an SSD these days, is something like a 128/256GB SSD for your Win install, plus perhaps a second partition for games and apps you want to run fast. Then a sufficiently sized HDD for media files (films, music, other game snot so played,etc). The speed different from an SSD is massive on an OS install.

I have a 64GB SSD and a 2TB drive, and it serves me well. (though is always borderline full to the brim!)

 

[Bigbacon]

i'd be ok with the SSD just for windows and my program file installs. I normally have my OS drive partitioned into 2.

for games and what not I'm not really concerned although does capturing game video onto an SSD way faster? I'd consider that a plus if so.

 

[Jospeh]

I bought a 256GB SSD a long time ago. Put all your programs on it, it makes your computer experience much better. But I recommend putting games and other big files on another drive. A lot of games today are in the 10+GB zone so they will fill up your drive really fast. I put a few games on my SSD but it was a bad idea. I have to move them now.

 

[Syribo]

Like everyone else said... the HDD to SSD performance jump is astounding. Glad I listened to everyone on getting an SSD for my new build because it's phenomenal. But yeah, putting games on it seems to be filling it fast.. I got this 250GB SSD 5 days ago, and I have only 70 gigs free already.

 

[tiraides]

But yeah, putting games on it seems to be filling it fast.. I got this 250GB SSD 5 days ago, and I have only 70 gigs free already.

Even with a 250GB SSD, you need to limit yourself to key programs -- stuff you use everyday.

You can offload nonessential programs and games to the hard drive. And you should; SSDs suffer performance-wise the closer they get to full capacity.

for games and what not I'm not really concerned although does capturing game video onto an SSD way faster? I'd consider that a plus if so.

An SSD would help, but I can't give an exact estimate. What program are you using?

 

[kindasmart]

Get a SSD for main drive and use a regular drive for storage.

This.

/thread.

Get this setup and you'll be set:
$109 - Crucial MX100 256GB SSD
$53 - Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
---
Total: $162 shipped

You should invest in an SSD as its performance runs circles around a HDD. Plus, today's hard drives are using 1TB drive platters that make them faster than older drives.

The SSD+HDD combination is a good choice and you can buy them both for under $200.

Here's what we often recommend:

$130 - Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD
$53 - Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB HDD

Can't go wrong with either suggestion. I think the 2 TB version of that drive is only $10-20 more so that would be my only suggestion.