Need new HDD for cdrive - should I buy an SSD?

If you care about speed, yes. Mechanical hard drives have an access time that runs from 5-15 miliseconds (1000th of a second). That's the time it takes it to find the data you requested. A good SSD has an access time of 0.1 milisecond. a mechanical drive takes time for the disk to spin up and for it to find the data; an SSD has no moving parts so the time is almost instantly. Not only is startup time faster, but programs open much faster and generally run better. Most people have their OS and programs stored on the SSD and data stored on a mechanical hard drive to save space.

There's really little benefit to using an SSD for a Data drive. I ran my OS and programs from a 60 GB SSD for over a year and never had problems, a 128 GB SSD is the comfort zone. A 256 GB SSD is great and you will never worry about space very much.

All the advice above is exactly right. I run a 128GB Samsung SSD for my OS, which includes the OS, programs/applications/games(I'm currently using about 50% of my SSD), and I have several Terabytes of HDD storage for movies/tv shows/etc. An SSD is THE single best upgrade you can make to a computer, old or new.

What many of us do is use the SSD for the OS, like I said above, and move the "Users" folder to a storage drive so the Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Music,etc folders don't eat up space. That kind of data doesn't benefit from being on an SSD at all.

I recommend a Samsung 128-256GB model........either the Samsung 840 EVO(which will be in 120/250GB flavors) or the Samsung 840 Pro which can be found in 128/256GB models. Let us know if you have any other questions.

AaLF said:

Thanks. 1 more thing. My image 4 windows backup of cdrive from the HDD. Will copy over? or new install reqd?

You can migrate that image to the SSD, but I've always favored a fresh install. It takes about 10-12 minutes installing from a USB to an SSD before you are on the desktop, and ready to start updates!

It would be much better with a clean install. An SSD has to be aligned different than a hard drive. The installer will do it for you automatically. Plus, it's always better with a clean install. Just make sure your bios sata controller is set to AHCI mode, and there are no other drives connected during the install to avoid problems. They can be reconnected as soon as the install is complete. The installer will do everything for you. this may help Clean Install Windows 7 Just have all you installation disks handy with aactivation numbers, Drivers on a USB drive and other programe installers that you want to install on a usb drive. It can be as simple as you make it. Just plan for it and it is pretty uick and simple.

I'm really not sure, and sort of doubt, that the Windows image will properly align the SSD. I am of the opinion it will carry over the alignment from the drive it was made from which will be wrong for an SSD.