Right, I've been trawling the internet in general for advice on SSD's and everyone seems to have very varying opinions on them. I've basically decided (been informed) that I need a Solid State Drive in my next PC. And if all goes to plan, I'll be buying my next PC within the next month / around the beginning of February. I think I need 256GB (or thereabouts), because then I could store all my programs / games etc. without having to worry too much about space issues. I have two main questions: Firstly, what SSD should I be looking to buy? The Crucial M4 seems to have brilliant reviews all around, but the OCZ Agility 3 - at least on paper - appears much, much faster. There are quite a few SSD's out there now, and I'm not necessarily looking for the absolute fastest. But I'd feel a bit cheated if I didn't get the best that I can for the money that I'm spending. My second question is regarding how to utilise a second drive. I'll be getting a 1TB drive to store all my media and documents. Ideally I'd like to have the "Users" folder automatically direct to the 1TB drive. My experience with Windows 7's "Library" system has been quite terrible, and having the Users directory permanently on the second drive would be a much better solution for me than having to "include" different folders in a library. Thanks for any help you can provide. Matthew
Having just got my 240gb Agility 3 I can say it flies! The M4 is also an amazing drive around this pricepoint/size. Would highly recommend both so would go with either Agility 3, Vertex 3 or M4. With regards to the users folders. What I did when I was up and running in windows you go to Users\Matt (for me) then right click on each folder e.g. My documents then click properties, location, move and select the appropriate folder on the other drive. So my new location for My Documents reads "E:\data\Documents" Did this for all my folders I had on my 1tb F3 right at start of install. Also as you will probably already know but there are some little tweak to do when you set up your Pc such as: Install windows with BIOS set to ACHI mode. Run WEI (it makes some tweaks) Turn of hibernation (powercfg -h off) Turn of scheduled defragment Ensuring newest FW Etc... Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Thanks for the advice. Changing the folder in the properties of each user subfolder would be great. And to be honest, if I convince myself not to let other people have user accounts on my PC then I'll do this. But I'm looking for the same kind of security that you get with the c:\users folder. Other user accounts not being able to access my files etc. I've honestly not got a clue what you're talking about when you say Install windows with BIOS set to ACHI mode, or running WEI etc. but I'll definitely take a look into them and find out what I can. I'll post a sorta "finalising" thread when I actually get around to buying my PC, just for to get extra tips for a new build to make sure it's all going to go as smoothly as possible. P.S. I wish there was an easy way to post multiple questions on one thread, because I don't want to flood the forum. So I'll leave other questions (about monitors etc.) til later in the week.
WEI Is Windows Experience Index, And is shown below, Just above the CPU info: That's taken from my trusty Netbook, hence the low score. AHCI is one of the settings you make in the Bios, i can't remember exactly what it comes under, but generally, it's a list that includes IDE and Raid. And personally, i would buy the Crucial M4, had the 120gb model and it was quick as anything, even on a SATA 2 port. Sam
Ohhhh Okay. I just didn't link the acronym to the name WEI. I feel kinda stupid now. So, M4 is definitely the one to go for? I'll start saving now xD Erm, can I also just say I noticed that under your dp it says you're from Chichester... I'm also from Chichester!?!?! :O
Yep, i'm in Summersdale, Chichester, the not so posh part of Summersdale though, can somewhat see Goodwood airfield from the bedroom window. Where about's are you then? I have to say, i did like the Crucial M4, Despite some of the horror stories around the M4, i didn't suffer any issues. Out of all the SSD's i've had, the M4 was by far the fastest, The Samsung i started with made a difference, i then bought an Intel X25M which again, made a difference. I then stuck a 2nd X25M in Raid, but didn't notice any difference in speed, but i noticed another speed boost when i went from the X25's to the M4. Sam
Oh wow! Awesome. I've got a friend who lives in Summersdale! (When he's not at Uni). I'm actually not in Chichester, so much as it's my closest town. I live in Runcton? Not many people know it though It's a village in-between Chichester and Pagham. About a minute's drive from what I call the "Bognor Roundabout". Just out of curiosity, do you know any decent places for buying computer components nice and cheap that're near Chichester? I don't mind going online, but if there's somewhere fairly cheap and local, then I'll buy there. M4 definitely sounds like the drive for me then
For what you're after, the A3 (& any of the other current async nand SFs) would be slower than the M4. Better than the M4 you've got things like (in order of how i'd buy) - 1. the V3 max iops or Patriot Wildfire or..., which are high end SFs using 3Xnm nand for greater longevity. 2. the Corsair Force GT, which can be marginally faster than 1 but only uses 2Xnm nand - another SF. 3. &, for a non-SF, theres the Corsair Performance Pro, which uses the same controller as the M4, but would be both much faster for your uses & uses 3Xnm nand (vs the 25nm in the M4). Otherwise, i'd use the 2nd drive for backing things up to & anything that's either (a) going to be pointless sat on there (your media collection), (b) is going to hammer a drive with writes without a speed advantage (for example p2p temp folders) & (c) for regularly backing up to. Ultimately, c is the most important as without any backup you stand the risk of losing data if something goes awry (or you do something foolish)...
Yeah, i know Runcton, Little farm shop there. Even though i get free Delivery from Scan, i buy all parts from Novatech (Cosham/Portchester) I can either bribe mum to drive me down, or a pay P&P, but if i have any issues, i just pop down there and get it resolved face to face, rather than email or over the phone. Sam
Awesome Yeah, I try and go to novatech as much as possible. Well, I used to. They recently (just after Christmas) stopped selling a lot of OEM stuff. And some of their products are priced way above competitors now. For example, a 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black is £109 from scan, but £169 from novatech? This isn't just on this hard drive, or even on hard drives exclusively. I'd expect a tenner, maybe even 20... but £60 price difference?... It's a tad confusing. I've never tried haggling at novatech, but do you know if they're any good regarding this? I know that by shopping around I could get my ultimate PC (including screens etc.) for £1,800. But if I got it all from novatech exclusively it'd come to something like £1,950... Do you reckon they'd knock the difference off? I'm planning on having two 1TB Hard Drives. I know I won't use the whole 1TB. So the other will be for backups. (The day I use up an entire SSD AND a 1TB HDD, I'll go out and buy some 2TB drives lol xD)
