Pondering SSD - Got Some Noob (?s)

liquidfluidity

liquidfluidity

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This is all about my sig rig which I don't plan on changing any time soon. I might just beef it up a little more and call it good. Anyways, I now have plenty of speedy dependable storage and am now contemplating upgrading my OS drive. The VelociRaptor has served me well but I'm interested in seeing what all of the hype is about the speed difference between mechanical drives and solid state. I do some video encoding and some light gaming and that's about it. Here's some questions I have so far:

1. What kind of lifespan should I expect? I don't install/uninstall apps regularly. I usually have a game or two installed, play them through, install the next one, etc. Obviously, if I'm encoding, files are going to be being written and deleted throughout the process

2. Maintenance - does trim do all of the clean up including caches, registry cleaning , etc, or is there a utility pack that can also be used to keep things in optimum working order?

3. OS migration - can my current OS drive be perfectly cloned to the new SSD? I know there were issues in doing this in the early stages of SSD usage. Is it simpler now? I hate formatting especially after I get all of my apps and Windows settings all tweaked and set up with all of my preferences.

4. What are the best/most reliable brands/models to buy right now? I'm looking at 120gb or under.

Please, no flaming about doing searches and using Google. I want personal experiences and opinions . I did a lot of research in the early life of SSDs but that's been a few years and I know things have changed. I'm just trying to figure out if it's going to be worth my time and money to go in that direction or look for something else to upgrade ;)
 
1. What kind of lifespan should I expect?
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For current generation 256 GB drives around 10 years of normal desktop usage is expected or 2 times what you expect from a spinner. Smaller SSDs will have less life expectancy however. Also like hard disks an SSD can die at any time even if it is lightly used so make sure if you have important data it is backed up.

2. Maintenance - does trim do all of the clean up including caches, registry cleaning , etc, or is there a utility pack that can also be used to keep things in optimum working order?
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If you have a modern OS Trim will handle all of this as long as you do not raid the SSD. In that case there are only a few controllers available that enable TRIM in RAID.

3. OS migration - can my current OS drive be perfectly cloned to the new SSD? I know there were issues in doing this in the early stages of SSD usage. Is it simpler now? I hate formatting especially after I get all of my apps and Windows settings all tweaked and set up with all of my preferences.
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Acronis supports this.


4. What are the best/most reliable brands/models to buy right now?
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Intel, Samsung or Crucial

I'm looking at 120gb or under.
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I would not recommend going under 120 GB. Spend at least $100 on an SSD. You will get much better life expectancy and a little better performance for a larger drive.
 
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Wow, thanks a lot for all of the answers. Helped me out a lot. Any specific models of Intel or Samsung that are more preferred?
 
I don't recommend the 840 to anyone other than casual computer users. Stay away from anything TLC. The 840 Pro is good. I'd take an 830 over 840.
 
liquidfluidity said:
3. OS migration - can my current OS drive be perfectly cloned to the new SSD? I know there were issues in doing this in the early stages of SSD usage. Is it simpler now? I hate formatting especially after I get all of my apps and Windows settings all tweaked and set up with all of my preferences.
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drescherjm said:
Acronis supports this.
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Acronis True Image costs hefty money unless the drive you are cloning to is Western Digital (which your new SSD will likely not be; the prog is free from the WD site). Furthermore, it has a very bad design defect which makes me not want to touch it with a 10 foot....acronipole. A defect that I experienced and leads me to this conclusion, btw; its not hearsay.

Basically the problem is that when uninstalled (as an average user would do after cloning), it leaves behind drivers that are always active and cannot be turned off. That is, unless you want to permanently BSOD your system on the next boot. You cannot even get into Safe Mode. If you manually disable the leftover drivers in Windows (using Nirsoft's Serviwin or some other method), you will need to head into the Recovery Console prior to boot and either revert to a last known good configuration or manually reenable the drivers (if you remember their names) from the command line.

So basically its designed to have your data will be permanently filtered through these third party drivers even when uninstalled; not a good thing. Programs should not behave like that. That is, unless you are skilled with the registry and follow these instructions. The only way I've found to reliably kill those left over drivers.

With a number of good, totally free cloning solutions available, there is no reason to put up with that Acronis mess. A fine listing of free Windows and other cloning options is here. I personally recommend Clonezilla (listed there) for average users. Its offline, though; you can't use the drives when the clone is being done. If you want to do it from within Windows, the other options are decent.

dandragonrage said:
I don't recommend the 840 to anyone other than casual computer users. Stay away from anything TLC. The 840 Pro is good. I'd take an 830 over 840.
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A lot of people aren't fans of TLC. The fact is, though, that despite the fears, the regular 840 is designed to last as long as any other SSD (that has a 3 year warranty). Anandtech estimates that under average usage, it will last 7 years before needing replacement. The TLC allows for a low (low) price & average performance.

The 830 is discontinued, good luck finding it.

But yes, the more expensive 840 Pro is good. Probably the best choice in SSDs right now, if the price works for you. 5 year warranty, best overall performance of any SSD currently.
 
How does the Samsung warranty/RMA process work if there is an issue. Is it by serial or is a receipt required? Just wondering in case I find one on the forums or from the great auction house in the sky.
 
I have never used the Samsung repair/return process for hard drives/SSDs (yet), but have for monitors & printers.

As suspected, RMAs for hard drives/SSDs are different from other things for them. Looks to be similar to what Western Digital (and others) do; you don't need a receipt.

Fill out a form including serial number (on this page I found, linked to from the main service page here (near the bottom)). Wait for them to email a "XRA number" back. Send the drive in, they will send a replacement back.
 
Samsung 840 and Crucial M4 are the best values for a reliable drive right now. The m4 is an older, but reliable and fairly quick model. Crucial will be replacing it with a new model soon so it might get even cheaper in the near future.

How much data do you write on an average day? A lot of these 7 year calculations are based on something like writing 10 gigs of data to the disk per day 365 days a year for 7 years. Check what the life estimates are based on. An estimate based on 5 gigs will be longer than one based on 10 gigs....twice as long if they're just assuming it's the flash that wears out and not another failure mode that takes out your drive.
 
Oh and the 256 GB drives are the GB per $ sweet spot right now. m4 or Samsugn 840 you can pickup a 256 GB for under $150 shipped if you're patient and wait for a sale. The 128's don't seem to go on sale as much anymore.

Did you have a planned $ amount budgeted that is limiting you to the 120-128 GB drives?
 
Please, no flaming about doing searches and using Google. I want personal experiences and opinions
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I've seen this type of question before and just gotta ask....are the experiences on Google and test sites computer generated and not to be trusted?

Or do you feel the people on this site have different experiences or have a diffferent intelligence level?

Can you clear this up for me?
 
I come to this forum for assistance and opinions from people that I have probably saw here over the few years that I have been a member. Yes, I do feel/hope that the people here would have a better opinion than some random Joe voicing his inexperienced opinion on some random review site. And yes, I would like to assume(I hate using that word :( ) that most of the people here have a higher intelligence when it comes to things pc related. I see [H] as more of the "real" world than just Googling . You wouldn't buy a car, like the one your friend has, by just reading a bunch of reviews online. You'd probably ask your friends opinion and experience.

I appreciate all those that replied and the experience/opinions that were provided.
 
liquidfluidity said:
How does the Samsung warranty/RMA process work if there is an issue. Is it by serial or is a receipt required? Just wondering in case I find one on the forums or from the great auction house in the sky.
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I had to RMA a 840 and IIRC I had to input the SN. Samsung paid for next day air both ways so shipping was fast. The replacement was a new drive.

I think a bug in Windows 8 contributed to drive's demise.
 
liquidfluidity said:
4. What are the best/most reliable brands/models to buy right now? I'm looking at 120gb or under.
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Buy the largest size you can afford. I have friends that bought 128GB drives with the intent of only installing programs, but they couldn't resist installing games. Once you start gaming on a SSD you don't want to revert to a HDD. I wouldn't buy a drive smaller than 240-256GB.
 
liquidfluidity said:
I come to this forum for assistance and opinions from people that I have probably saw here over the few years that I have been a member. Yes, I do feel/hope that the people here would have a better opinion than some random Joe voicing his inexperienced opinion on some random review site. And yes, I would like to assume(I hate using that word :( ) that most of the people here have a higher intelligence when it comes to things pc related. I see [H] as more of the "real" world than just Googling . You wouldn't buy a car, like the one your friend has, by just reading a bunch of reviews online. You'd probably ask your friends opinion and experience..
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I.C. says the blind Old Hippie. :)

We have pretty much the opposite views. I gather much more info from Google and searching than I do from here.

While HF is one of my tools for info I don't believe the members here are a step-up in intelligence.

I guess we've just had different experiences. :)
 
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