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There are no reliability issues with SSDs compared to HDDs, and haven't been for a very long time. As always, if you're worried about your data, you should be making backups regardless of whether you're storing it on spinning platters or solid state flash.
Use an SSD. Between moving to that and W7, your computer will feel like a totally different beast.
Samsung 840 Pro and Crucial M500 are the two brands and model series I recommend.
And from XP to W7 is a MASSIVE improvement. You'll have fun with it. If I were you I'd go with 8.1 though.
Why 8.1? I prefer the look and controls of W7.
%99 of people wont notice the speed diff from the samsung Pro vs Evo series, period, save money, get an Evo.
There are no reliability issues with SSDs compared to HDDs
Why 8.1? I prefer the look and controls of W7.
I have W7. The justification I can go on is if you want to take advantage of Ultra Fast Boot (requires GPT (not MBR), Windows 8 and above, and a GPU that supports UEFI GOP) for faster boot times. Windows 8.2 is said to be bringing back the start menu. We'll have to wait and see if they do follow through with it.
MrGuvernment, don't the evo uses ram memory to be faster? you got to have extra memory for it to use? (I was wondering about the evo too).
Before diving into our results, let's spend a moment to, ahem, refresh our memory about what RAPID mode is all about. RAPID stands for Real-time Accelerated Processing of I/O Data, so we should probably honor the all caps. You can enable the feature via Samsung's SSD Magician utility, and you'll need to be running Windows 7 or 8 for it to work. When enabled, RAPID mode takes up to a gigabyte of system memory. DRAM is even faster than the flash memory used in SSDs, so there's some wisdom in using it as a high-speed cache for solid-state drives.
Samsung says RAPID mode is used primarily to accelerate read performance. Data is speculatively loaded into the cache based on user access patterns. The caching intelligence considers several factors, including how frequently and recently the data has been accessed. It also discriminates against large media files to avoid polluting the cache with data that may not benefit from quicker access times.
If this all of sounds familiar, you may be thinking of Windows' SuperFetch routine, which does something similar. However, Samsung says SuperFetch only considers application data. RAPID mode looks at each and every read request, and it's capable of caching both application and user data.
Completely false.
But yes.. SSD for Primary Drive no questions asked.
Actually, you're not supposed to defragment an SSD - it simply runs down the memory cells and provides no benefit. Defragmenting utilities don't care and will still "defragment" it - lessening the effective disk life.There are no reliability issues with SSDs compared to HDDs, and haven't been for a very long time. As always, if you're worried about your data, you should be making backups regardless of whether you're storing it on spinning platters or solid state flash.
Use an SSD. Between moving to that and W7, your computer will feel like a totally different beast.
Win Key + XThere's an awesome new menu you get with all my favorite things (by default) when you right click the start menu:
May I ask why you mostly recommend Samsung 840 Pro series? Is it that reliable?
And why 256 GB, is 120 not enough?
Should I use the drive only for Windows and "permanent" applications while moving all "user data" and "documents" directories and drives to a secondary HDD? Or could I also consider installing like games on the drive? Where should I my swap file put? Or are nowadays SSDs as reliable that they can be used normally as HDDs?