Thinking of purchasing a new 240GB SSD.
I am not looking for the cheapest, rather a drive that gives a good performance, whilst not too expensive.
Any suggestions please?
Am I correct that I will have to initialize the disk?

Many, if not all, SSDs come with cloning software (off the manufacturers website), easy to do.

 

Crucial devices are competitively priced although not the most advanced, 249GB 1,250 Baht from Invade IT. https://www.invadeit.co.th/product/solid-state-drives-ssd/crucial/bx500-240gb-3d-nand-sata-2-5inch-internal-ssd-ct240bx500ssd1-p040112/

 

This one's in my basket on lazada for upgrading the family 'puter for only 1150 baht.

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/catalog/?q=Kingston+solid+state+hard+drive+A400+r%2F550+w%2F350+MB%2Fs+240+GB&_keyori=ss&from=input&spm=a2o4m.pdp.search.go.5b2a6a6a5XAPEI

Maybe go to below weblink to see real world speed results and customer rankings.  For a 240GB SSD set the parameters to 2.5" (or M.2 if you want that form factor) and capacity from 60 to approx 280GB....then review the results.  Recommend you add a column for Read speed...you can add this using the two red arrows on the Columns header bar.

 

https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/

 

 

I've just put an SSD into my portable, to hold the OS with the original disc put into a caddy replacing the DVD drive.

 

I bought a Goldenfir from the manufacturer's website on AliExpress, US$18 (600 Baht) for 128Gb. Seriously cheap.

 

I looked at SSD speeds, the SATA3 interface is a maximum of 750MB/s, but with overheads you are going to be lucky to get 600MB/s - so I felt 550MB/s was going to be OK. Most SSDs claimed to be that good.

 

I tested the Goldenfir on arrival - and got a result of 565MB/s, quite satisfactory.

 

So is it worth going for more expensive brand names? Of course I do not know how long it will last .............................

 

One person has done a tear down review on YouTube that is worth watching. Not sure if the link is allowed but if it is:

 

Oh, maybe OK since it has been embedded.

 

 

Any SSD is a lot faster than any HDD.

If you don't use your PC to the max then you won't see a big difference whichever SSD you chose. The performance numbers are different but the experience is almost the same.

I just read about a test that some M.2 SSDs get slower writing times after maybe 10 minutes intensive usage. But then again a 512GB disk is full in less than 20 minutes....

One thing I learned only recently is that some SSD don't support BitLocker to encrypt your data. If you want that feature make sure your SSD supports it. I.e. WD Blue does not support it.

The only rotating media left in our home is in my NAS, it has all the hard drives that I took out when installing SSDs in our PCs (1 lappie and 3 desktops).

 

Currently 16.4TB (over 14 drives) of on-line storage for my important work files (most current are also on OneDrive), OK, there's also some a fair bit a lot huge amounts of TV, movies and "some" gentleman's files ???? 

 

I can VPN into the NAS from anywhere and access anything I need without lugging portable drives around.

 

Bear in mind that there are certain use cases where SSD drives are inappropriate. For example, high read/write environments such as NVRs (Network Video Recorders) are far better suited to spinning disks, SSDs would wear out in a matter of weeks or months, even high end ones. I run a ~100 camera IP based system and use Seagate Skyhawk drives in RAID for that, but boot it from an SSD. On a sheer cost per Gigabyte scale, and in terms of read/write longevity, HDDs are still way ahead of SSDs.

 

For VMs and domestic use, SSDs all the way.