SSD compatible?

[JAGX]

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 P55 R
CPU : CORE i5 760 2.80GHz
RAM : 8 GB GSKILL F3-12800CL7D
GPU: MSI|N460GTX Hawk Talon Attack
PSU: CORSAIR|CMPSU-750TX 750W
HD : Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 7200rpm [current]
OS: Win 7 Ultimate SP1
Case: Azza Solano 2000

I'm looking to upgrade to a SSD. Probably a Samsung Evo 840, either in 250 or 500 GB configuration. Then I want to use my current HDD for storage and backup.

I need to know if my current setup is:

1) compatible

2) will get the full benefit, what can I expect

3) what else do I need to hook it up/make it fit in my case

It's been few years since I've looked, I know some things like: TRIM, AHCI, SATA III, and all that are relevant to some degree but I'm not sure if I can fully benefit from a SSD?

 

[lehtv]

Your CPU and GPU are both getting long in the tooth for current games. I'd suggest saving as much of your SSD budget as possible towards upgrading the rest of the system. After all, the main benefit of an SSD is the improved performance of the OS files and most used programs, a 500GB drive would be simply overkill.

Newegg has a nice deal on an ADATA Premier Pro SP600 256GB for only $100. If you're not in the US, let us know where you're buying from.

3) what else do I need to hook it up/make it fit in my case

You'll need a SATA data cable (you probably already have a spare one in the motherboard box...). Your case has native support for 2.5" drives.

It's been few years since I've looked, I know some things like: TRIM, AHCI, SATA III, and all that are relevant to some degree but I'm not sure if I can fully benefit from a SSD?

TRIM and AHCI should work fine on your setup. The SSD will be an order of magnitude more responsive compared to a hard disk even on SATA II, so that's not really an issue. It will limit maximum read and write speeds but that's about it. You'd only really notice the difference in benchmarks.

 

[Deders]

Your CPU and GPU are both getting long in the tooth for current games

My overclocked i5 750 does very well in games, It's not out of the game quite yet. Out of all the games I've played, There is only one level in Crysis 3 that actually uses 100% of the CPU and even then it's giving very playable framerates.

I agree with the rest of your statement, the maximum throughput of sata 3 really won't affect performance unless you are actually copying files from one SSD to another.

It's the 4k read and writes that bring HDD's down to a grind, SSD performance is at least 100x's as fast in that respect.

You may also need a caddy converter to mount your SSD into a HDD slot, but those are very cheap.

 

[JAGX]

Ya this rig is going on three years now. A long time has passed, I haven't really been gaming atm except for some light SC II play. In the future I might do some Battlefield or other RTS games.

While it was originally a gamer rig, now I need something that excels at word processing and general office type productivity. It's getting to the point where booting, and loading word and adobe docs seems to be slowing me down. Speeding up transfers to and from MP3 players and smartphones to fully utilize USB 3.0 would be a welcome bonus too is SSDs help with that.

That brings me to the second consideration I need. You said 500 GB was overkill. I read that you should keep 25% free in SSD to maximize performance. Aside from that, I don't know how best to maximize my performance when using a SSD.

Specifically, my current 1 TB HDD is full (mostly movies, no editing though). What is the best way to utulize the limited space on a new SDD? I know the operating system and drivers, perhaps my word files and install the games I will play on the SSD? The dynamic between a primary SSD and a secondary HDD is unfamiliar to me.

 

[bonehead123]

The dynamic as you call it basically boils down to space and cost, as large SSD's are still very expensive as compared to large HDD's...although they are/have been coming down some lately.

Therefore, most people take advantage of the SSD speed for the OS & some critical apps, while reserving the HDD for file storage, cache/temp files and other things that are not needed on a regular basis and/or wont really benefit from the faster read/write times of the SSD.......

But since you are upgrading anyways, it's really up to you....if you wanna spend the big bucks on a 1TB SSD and forgo the HDD, go for it.......or wait a few months till they drop some more in price & then pull out your wallet

Once you get everythong set-up, you can always copy files back & forth between the drives as you see fit, just like you would with any other machine with multiple drives.....

 

[Deders]

There is absolutely no advantage to putting movies, documents or music or anything like that on an SSD as they really don't need the speed so you won't notice any difference.

Some games will benefit from faster loading times but not all of them. I believe Startcraft 2 does but it won't make any difference in gameplay.

It's mostly the OS that gains the most, the whole experience is much smoother, no more waiting for boot times, or inexplicable pauses.

 

[JAGX]

I see, so for example, I would install office and adobe on my SSD and leave the docs on the HDD and that would boost performance?

The last piece of the puzzle then is AHCI mode. So right now it looks like it is not enabled. From what I have seen, I should change the registry and then immediately reboot and change the bios? I'm not sure which reg to edit though.... I don't want to edit something and then not be able to boot up again

Then I suppose I should prep the HDD to migrate/clone the data to the SSD (clean and defrag it, move unnecessary filed to backup, etc).

 

[mikeymikec]

"Hawk Talon Attack" is a great name for a graphics card. It reminds me of the "Graphics Blaster Exxtreme" I once owned (note the two x's, not a typo!).

 

[lehtv]

It's getting to the point where booting, and loading word and adobe docs seems to be slowing me down. Speeding up transfers to and from MP3 players and smartphones to fully utilize USB 3.0 would be a welcome bonus too is SSDs help with that.

Out of these, booting up would be boosted by the SSD. USB 3.0 transfer rates are limited by the USB 3.0 devices themselves; your Seagate 2TB should be plenty for maximum USB 3.0 transfer rates, provided the device being written to or read from doesn't limit it.

That brings me to the second consideration I need. You said 500 GB was overkill. I read that you should keep 25% free in SSD to maximize performance. Aside from that, I don't know how best to maximize my performance when using a SSD.

Even if you keep 25% free, you'll be able to put everything important onto a 256GB drive. Plus, it's not exactly necessary to maximize the performance of an SSD to see the immense benefits over a HDD system.

Specifically, my current 1 TB HDD is full (mostly movies, no editing though). What is the best way to utulize the limited space on a new SDD? I know the operating system and drivers, perhaps my word files and install the games I will play on the SSD? The dynamic between a primary SSD and a secondary HDD is unfamiliar to me.

Is it actually 1 TB instead of 2 TB? You typed 2 TB in the opening post.

The main idea is to have the OS files and programs on the SSD, and all the rest on the hard disk. If there's space left on the SSD (which will be the case if it's at least 120GB in capacity), you can use it for whatever you want, but putting large media files, even documents, would be relatively pointless. An SSD excels in loading up multiple small files quickly into RAM; this allows the operating system and applications to load up and function responsively and without delays.

The last piece of the puzzle then is AHCI mode. So right now it looks like it is not enabled. From what I have seen, I should change the registry and then immediately reboot and change the bios? I'm not sure which reg to edit though.... I don't want to edit something and then not be able to boot up again

If you're going to install Windows fresh onto the SSD instead of cloning the OS partition, then you don't have to regedit anything. (Although it'd be a really simple operation that you couldn't really mess up.) Just disconnect the hard disk, connect the SSD, enable AHCI in the BIOS, and install Windows. Then connect the old hard disk as well, boot into the SSD, move over whatever you need from your old OS partition, and format the old OS partition to be used for other data.

If your current hard disk is one single partition, then things are a bit trickier. You need some place to put all your data while you delete/reformat the old OS install. So you may need additional storage space just for the installation. However... a backup hard disk would be recommended anyway... Always have backups.

 

[JAGX]

If you're going to install Windows fresh onto the SSD instead of cloning the OS partition, then you don't have to regedit anything. (Although it'd be a really simple operation that you couldn't really mess up.) Just disconnect the hard disk, connect the SSD, enable AHCI in the BIOS, and install Windows. Then connect the old hard disk as well, boot into the SSD, move over whatever you need from your old OS partition, and format the old OS partition to be used for other data.

If your current hard disk is one single partition, then things are a bit trickier. You need some place to put all your data while you delete/reformat the old OS install. So you may need additional storage space just for the installation. However... a backup hard disk would be recommended anyway... Always have backups.

See this is the part that I'm least familiar with and want to make less painful. I still have my Win 7 disk and product key, but my drivers are all screwy. Long short something with my mobo/VGA drivers resulted in BSOD a while back and somehow I reinstalled/updated them to work now about 95% of the time with no issues. Don't laugh I actually bought $14 driver updater software and it seemed to do the trick... I promise I tried fixing it on my own for countless hours. :'(

Basically I would prefer to avoid a fresh install so I could just transfer my OS and drivers without needing to update and customize that stuff again. I do have a an extra HDD so I have room to 'park' my files and make a backup.

I foolishly did not partition my HDD and isolate my OS and drivers. So I might have to just move all of this data elsewhere to make the the clone of the OS and drivers and programs fit. Alternatively, I wanted to try the EVO and use Samsung's custom software which supposedly allows you to pick and chose with files to migrate.

Here is where I am confused. I don't know the difference between: migration, cloning, transfer, image, etc. Ideally I would want to just pick and chose which data to transfer from my HDD to the SDD. My rough understanding is that cloning an image takes the entirety of one partition to another, which obviously won't work here unless I park all the extra files elsewhere. What data migration is idk...

Another issue about AHCI I'm wondering about is why would I wait for the SSD to enable it? I'm going to be using this current HDD for data storage in conjunction with the SSD anyways, why not just enable it now and then when the SSD comes migrate/clone the data and OS?

Oh, and lastly, I don't know what the practical implications would be of either making a clean install of windows 7 or cloning/migrating it. Would I need to delete it off the old HDD? Would MS somehow look at this as 'not genuine' now? I only ask because I just got that message on the bottom right of my desktop for some reason yesterday...

Just peeked into BIOS, and it has two AHCI options:

PCH SATA CONTROL MODE: IDE, RAID, AHCI

GSATA CONTROL MODE: IDE, AHCI

I don't know which one(s) would be correct to enable AHCI.