My little experiment....

[lostinisaan]

I've just seen a 120 GB SSD drive at Advice for only 1,600 baht, the 240 is 2,200, or so.

Here're some questions before I even go and buy anything. What brand is the best? Is San Disk any good? Or WD better?

I'm planning to put a 120, or 240 SSD drive into my antique DELL notebook and place the 500 GB into the CD drive with the right container.

Regarding cloning: I've only cloned HD's with the same size, but could I theoretically clone a my existing hd in my notebook with the new SSD, that's way smaller?

Can I only clone drive C, where I've got my system on? Any input would be great and deeply appreciated.

[Rob13]

I've got 2 Samsung SSD's I bought over a year ago and haven't had any problems with either. Also they come with software for transferring your OS. They make it super easy for you.

[MJCM]

Maybe this article helps ?

http://lifehacker.com/5837543/how-to-migrate-to-a-solid-state-drive-without-reinstalling-windows

But please note this from that article

Note: If you have a laptop, this becomes a bit more difficult, since you only have room for one hard drive in your computer. You'll either have to get an SSD big enough to fit all your data, or remove your optical drive and replace it with a second hard drive. We've shown you how to do this on a MacBook, but you might be able to find optical bay adapters for your computer too; you'll just have to search around.

Edited July 2, 2016 by MJCM

[Daffy D]

Jeezzz They've come down in price

Less than a year ago I bought a Samsung 128GB 2.5" SSD 850 Pro for just over 7,000Bt.

[SoiBiker]

I'd just do a fresh install on the SSD and copy across what you want from your old drive.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Jeezzz They've come down in price

Less than a year ago I bought a Samsung 128GB 2.5" SSD 850 Pro for just over 7,000Bt.

They'll still be more expensive than the others, as they are simply the best in class.

[lostinisaan]

I'd just do a fresh install on the SSD and copy across what you want from your old drive.

The point is that I want to use the SSD and insert it where the harddrive is now. A fresh install might be the best option, you're right.

I'll buy a case that my 500 GB WD fits in and use it for all sorts of storage. I've seen some 64 GB micro cards for only 750 baht.

Not long and a 240 SSD will be around ,1500 baht. Too many competitors and China with its low cost production, not using the word slavery now.

[lostinisaan]

Jeezzz They've come down in price

Less than a year ago I bought a Samsung 128GB 2.5" SSD 850 Pro for just over 7,000Bt.

They'll still be more expensive than the others, as they are simply the best in class.

The guys at Advice let you check on their PC's, Samsung is great, but my external died after only eight month. A "Monday Drive, perhaps? "

There're so many new brands that it's really difficult to make a decision. More money doesn't always mean a better product.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Why would you need to clone if you are keeping the 500 GB HDD?

Clean install to the SSD and copy to it any data you need after the install.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Jeezzz They've come down in price

Less than a year ago I bought a Samsung 128GB 2.5" SSD 850 Pro for just over 7,000Bt.

They'll still be more expensive than the others, as they are simply the best in class.

The guys at Advice let you check on their PC's, Samsung is great, but my external died after only eight month. A "Monday Drive, perhaps? "

There're so many new brands that it's really difficult to make a decision. More money doesn't always mean a better product.

Samsung SSD are the best in class, no question. But no need for you to spend more if it is not necessary. You asked which are the best and you received the answer.

I've utilised a few different brands, but I will only use Samsung if I need optimal performance and ease of use.

Others I've used have been fine, such as Toshiba and Integral. Toshiba's SSD utility often doesn't work, but in day to day use has been fine. Integral doesn't come with any SSD utility at all. So, you'll need to check that TRIM is working manually and if not, troubleshoot it yourself. This goes for both the Toshiba and Integral.

Either way, SSD brings good performance improvements.

Also, bear in mind that your 'ancient DELL' may have only a SATA 1 or 2 connection, so you won't get optimal performance from the best drives anyway. The cheapest Sandisk may have a relatively low write speed specification.

Edited July 2, 2016 by Jiu-Jitsu

[lostinisaan]

Jeezzz They've come down in price

Less than a year ago I bought a Samsung 128GB 2.5" SSD 850 Pro for just over 7,000Bt.

They'll still be more expensive than the others, as they are simply the best in class.

The guys at Advice let you check on their PC's, Samsung is great, but my external died after only eight month. A "Monday Drive, perhaps? "

There're so many new brands that it's really difficult to make a decision. More money doesn't always mean a better product.

Samsung SSD are the best in class, no question. But no need for you to spend more if it is not necessary. You asked which are the best and you received the answer.

I've utilised a few different brands, but I will only use Samsung if I need optimal performance and ease of use.

Others I've used have been fine, such as Toshiba and Integral. Toshiba's SSD utility often doesn't work, but in day to day use has been fine. Integral doesn't come with any SSD utility at all. So, you'll need to check that TRIM is working manually and if not, troubleshoot it yourself. This goes for both the Toshiba and Integral.

Either way, SSD brings good performance improvements.

Also, bear in mind that your 'ancient DELL' may have only a SATA 1 or 2 connection, so you won't get optimal performance from the best drives anyway. The cheapest Sandisk may have a relatively low write speed specification.

Thanks a lot for the nice post. That's why I named it "my experiment" to use my ancient DELL Inspiron 1440 that has never let me down.

You gave me some ideas I wasn't even aware of. Like if my laptop's BIOS can support an SSD via AHCI and find out whether the hard drive is Sata I.II,or II. From what I've understood is later versions of SATA are faster but backwards compatible.

Here's an example i found on the net. : A SATA II laptop should work with a 6Gbs SATA III drive, but it will only run at the speed of a cheaper 3 Gbps SATA II drive.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2016/feb/04/is-it-worth-swapping-my-laptop-hard-drive-for-an-ssd

I think I'll send a message to DELL's customer support and ask them what their input is.

P.S. Edited to add: Just checked on their website and now I know why certain programs didn't work and i had to take for example Windows Vista drivers for a program.

From their website:

Product not tested for Windows 10 upgrade

Dell is not testing or developing Windows 10 drivers for this product. If you choose to upgrade, some features, applications, and connected devices may not work as expected.

See a list of tested products

Edited July 2, 2016 by lostinisaan

[MJCM]

I'd just do a fresh install on the SSD and copy across what you want from your old drive.

The point is that I want to use the SSD and insert it where the harddrive is now. A fresh install might be the best option, you're right.

I'll buy a case that my 500 GB WD fits in and use it for all sorts of storage. I've seen some 64 GB micro cards for only 750 baht.

Not long and a 240 SSD will be around ,1500 baht. Too many competitors and China with its low cost production, not using the word slavery now.

You can clone your installation, but then the problem would be to fit the SSD in place of your Current Boot Drive and then make the SSD the Boot Drive. Also you need to think about installing the drivers required for Windows to Boot (as your current Boot device doesn't have the device drivers for the SSD)

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Jeezzz They've come down in price

Less than a year ago I bought a Samsung 128GB 2.5" SSD 850 Pro for just over 7,000Bt.

They'll still be more expensive than the others, as they are simply the best in class.

The guys at Advice let you check on their PC's, Samsung is great, but my external died after only eight month. A "Monday Drive, perhaps? "

There're so many new brands that it's really difficult to make a decision. More money doesn't always mean a better product.

Samsung SSD are the best in class, no question. But no need for you to spend more if it is not necessary. You asked which are the best and you received the answer.

I've utilised a few different brands, but I will only use Samsung if I need optimal performance and ease of use.

Others I've used have been fine, such as Toshiba and Integral. Toshiba's SSD utility often doesn't work, but in day to day use has been fine. Integral doesn't come with any SSD utility at all. So, you'll need to check that TRIM is working manually and if not, troubleshoot it yourself. This goes for both the Toshiba and Integral.

Either way, SSD brings good performance improvements.

Also, bear in mind that your 'ancient DELL' may have only a SATA 1 or 2 connection, so you won't get optimal performance from the best drives anyway. The cheapest Sandisk may have a relatively low write speed specification.

Thanks a lot for the nice post. That's why I named it "my experiment" to use my ancient DELL Inspiron 1440 that has never let me down.

You gave me some ideas I wasn't even aware of. Like if my laptop's BIOS can support an SSD via AHCI and find out whether the hard drive is Sata I.II,or II. From what I've understood is later versions of SATA are faster but backwards compatible.

Here's an example i found on the net. : A SATA II laptop should work with a 6Gbs SATA III drive, but it will only run at the speed of a cheaper 3 Gbps SATA II drive.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2016/feb/04/is-it-worth-swapping-my-laptop-hard-drive-for-an-ssd

I think I'll send a message to DELL's customer support and ask them what their input is.

Why do you need DELL? You can see for yourself that you can toggle AHCI mode....which you can.

SATA 2 - 3Gb/s will still bring a very noticeable performance benefit.

8 GB RAM max

Inspiron 1440 is not ancient. My Toshiba is of the same age and has a Samsung EVO SSD installed. It's now a pleasure to use.

I use Windows 7 on all of my equipment. I'll use Windows 10 if it suits....not because Microsoft wants to force me to upgrade.

Edited July 2, 2016 by Jiu-Jitsu

[surangw]

I put one in my mac mini over a year ago. so far works perfect, only thing I notice is the secure erase feature for trash and unallocated no longer is a choice

[MissAndry]

I had a Sandisk Ultra 240GB put in my laptop (windows 7)

Before it took 3 minutes to fully load, now it takes 12 seconds.

[BudRight]

In the early days of SSDs the firmware was immature and there were serious differences in reliability and performance between brands.

Nowadays, it doesn't really matter. I've had great luck with my Sandisk SSD, but a chinese knock-off brand would probably be just fine too.

You can easily clone from a large to a small disk in Windows 10, and you don't need to jiggle anything special to tell the OS what happened. It's fire and forget.

Any partition can be cloned to any other partition.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

I would still run a clean install regardless, rather than to clone. Especially if AHCI isn't enabled for the original HDD.

With my Acer Aspire ZG5 the option was hidden, so the Advanced section of the BIOS setup needed to be 'unlocked' in order to be set. Then to a clean install to SSD.

[SoiBiker]

I like do a clean install on a new drive or new hardware anyway. Otherwise every little glitch you get, you're thinking is the installation messed up.

[lostinisaan]

I had a Sandisk Ultra 240GB put in my laptop (windows 7)

Before it took 3 minutes to fully load, now it takes 12 seconds.

My notebook boots in 33 seconds. I might wait and if there's a bigger problem, like the main board, etc..I better buy a new DELL with the parts I want.

Why wasting some money if all is working fast enough. It's not about seconds. I think i was too fast just by looking at the cheap SSD's.

The same drives will be around 50 % cheaper within a year. I bet on it. Thanks for all the great ideas, I'll keep my DVD drive an leave it as it is.

[Rob13]

Alot of thought for a $60 purchase.

[gandalf12]

Basic question, does your BIOS support SSD drives? If not dont buy

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Basic question, does your BIOS support SSD drives? If not dont buy

That's not the question. The question would be does the hardware support AHCI. Sometimes the hardware supports it, but the vendor has the option hidden.

In this case, as in post #13, it's not an issue.

[lostinisaan]

Alot of thought for a $60 purchase.

It's not about 60 bucks a t all. DELL on their support page tell their customers that this model isn't suppoorted when running W 10.

The only oprion would be to clone, as i barely remember all the driver problems I had in the beginning.

One driver was for a Lenovo, the other one for a Toshiba. No idea if I really want to do such a clean install.

Anyway, my next notebook will be a DELL again and if there's a model with an SSD, it would be great.

If not, I'll buy the right parts and out them together. The driver issue, plus some programs that aren't supported can create a huge headache.

I might wait for the school holidays this month and give it a try. Last time i bought a hard drive for my nortebook, I bought a slim one, which seems to be the same size of the SSD's i saw.

Did anybody try that bnefore how such a SSD drive fits into the original disc spot, without an adaptor? Well, I only have to take the drive out and see.

Edited July 3, 2016 by lostinisaan

[SoiBiker]

The slimmer drives usually come with a plastic 'shim' that attaches with adhesive tape to bring them up to the wider dimensions.

[Rob13]

I pulled a Dell Vostro 1500 out of my brotther's trash a few months ago. After upgrading the BIOS, I upped the RAM and put in a SSD. Last month I did the upgrade from Win 7 (64 bit) to Windows 10. It works great. I'm sure it's not supported as it's so old.

Go ahead and try it. Worst case scenario is it doesn't work and you end up back where you started and have a SSD for future use.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Windows 10 64 bit Drivers

[lostinisaan]

Windows 10 64 bit Drivers

Thanks a lot, had to look for the 86/32 version as I'm running the thingy with only 4 GB DDR RAM. You're the man.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Windows 10 64 bit Drivers

Thanks a lot, had to look for the 86/32 version as I'm running the thingy with only 4 GB DDR RAM. You're the man.

4GB is ripe for 64 bit. Not fully addressed by a 32 bit OS.