Hardware recomendations

PwnFrnzy · 16 Mar 2014

I've gotten my hands on a motherboard and CPU that is a step-up from my current, but my IDE hard drive won't be able to connect to the motherboard due to lack of an IDE input.
So I need help on looking for either:
1: A new SATA HDD or SSD that is very reliable, 30GB minimum for a SSD and whatever for a HDD since those are cheap these days to begin with and this new device would be my OS drive.
2: A IDE to SATA converter with excellent read-write speeds.

I'm leaning toward option 1, but still looking at both possibilities for which route to take here, my price limit is $50 and I've been looking at refurbished WD HDDs, but I know it's a gamble. Can anyone point me in the right direction and suggest appropriate hardware?

Thanks.

ignatzatsonic · 17 Mar 2014

I've seen a few SSDs at $50 and less.

Given a choice between one of them and a refurb HDD, I'd take the former IF, I say IF, I knew I could live with low capacity. I wouldn't even consider an HDD unless I needed more capacity. There's no comparison. And you don't have to worry about the "refurb" thing.

Most of them are 32 GB, but there is a 64 GB Adata SSD on New Egg right now for $49.99.

I see more and more complaints about HDD reliability than ever before, new or refurb, regardless of brand. I would never call any of them "very reliable".

All anyone can tell you is, "well, I've had brand X for 6 years and never had a problem"; or "don't buy brand Y. I just got 5 of them and 4 were DOA". So what? Those are just anecdotes you have to try to ignore.

For reliability alone, I'd take any SSD other than OCZ over a HDD---ignoring price and capacity.

Expect them to fail and have a backup plan of some type.

PwnFrnzy · 17 Mar 2014

Yes, I've been leaning toward an SSD, both for the amazingly low power usage and speed, also found a 32GB 6.0 Gb/s Sandisk SSD for $40, so that one might be taking my money over everything else, it helps that it includes the SATA cable since I was unsure if HDDs came with them.
I was wary about an IDE to SATA converter because of slow write speeds being limited by the transfer bridge, and wary about refurbished HDDs since they ARE refurbished, it's a shot in the dark with those.
So this SSD I found will most likely be my new OS drive and my 1TB will be games and storage, I'll likely use a Ubuntu Live CD to transfer the files from the 500GB IDE to the 1TB SATA after I format the SATA too.

I'll need to find out what this 'ReadyCache' thing is though unless it's simply what the SSD is called.
Anyone have experience with Sandisk SSD reliability?

ignatzatsonic · 17 Mar 2014

I think "Ready Cache" SSDs are marketed as being used as a caching drive in conjunction with a regular HDD.

But I don't know if they can be used as the one and only drive in a PC.

At any rate, you'd be really squeezing it with a 32 GB drive of any type. A fully updated Windows 7 Home Premium installation is somewhere around 20 GB.

I have an 80 GB SSD with 55 applications. Occupied space is about 25 GB, excluding about 8 GB devoted to restore points. You could do it, but you'd have to be very careful. Turn off hibernation. Don't let the page file get out of hand.

So, I'd look at that Adata 64 GB--unless I wanted to go with HDD.

Sandisk stuff has a pretty good rep as far as I know. I don't hear much about Adata other than their USB drives.

PwnFrnzy · 17 Mar 2014

I'm taking a look at the SSD right now, and $50 at $30-off it a pretty good deal, so I'd take it into consideration, I don't plan on loading many programs into it, but the extra space would be beneficial, but I have to see how much I'll have afterwards though, so If I have enough, I'll definitely go for it.
But the 32GB will be $45 due to $5 S&H, while the ADATA is free S&H, so it'll be a close choice.

Thanks for the help!