I agree. It is very easy though. I just wonder, since the OS ours used when running programs if moving the OS over would have an effect as well, or if moving the OS hard drives only effects boot speeds.... Again I know the difference is minimal, but these little questions would probably help me in the future with other hard drives and how they work
The OS and it's components get their performance from the access time. The data transfer rate plays only a minor role.
If you look at the example in post # 18, the access time is 19.6ms. That is very slow. An average HDD is 15ms and the best are 12ms. A SSD is 0.1ms or less - that is 120 to 190 times faster than a HDD. That's why SSDs give such a performance boost to the OS.
Even my USB sticks are a lot faster than HDDs. I have a 128GB stick with Mint installed. That has an access time of 0.7ms and a 64GB stick also with Linux that has an access time of 0.3ms - even the data rate is a lot higher than the example in post #18. Those systems are a lot faster then HDD installed systems - in boot and execution. Example:
Sounds like overall the most economical thing to do is upgrade my hard drive when I can to a SSD.
Then whenever I get the money I can upgrade my motherboard to one that can hold DDR3 ram and hold a way better processor, and upgrade my processor. Would cost me a few hundred but that would be cheaper than a new computer. Also upgrading my hard drive to an SSD would be transferable to the upgraded computer. My performance is nearly where I want it so I probably won't buy all those upgrades anytime soon. I'll just save my money, get an SSD and eventually when it's worth it I may jump to a new motherboard.
Really appreciate all the advice
It's true that SSDs are way way faster, but we don't have any evidence that your dissatisfaction with your current situation is due to slow hard drives.
In fact, I don't even think we know what CPU you have.
If it is more than 5 or so years old--not an Intel Core 2 Duo or newer, I'd suspect that your issues are 90 plus percent related to CPU and/or graphics card.
It might be that a CPU upgrade for $100 would have more real-world immediate effect than a $100 SSD.
But we don't know what CPU you have and buying a new CPU for an old socket is a dead-end street, so I can understand a preference for spending the first $100 on an SSD. Just don't expect to be overwhelmed by it. You'll notice booting is quicker and apps open more quickly, but you've still got your antique CPU as an anchor holding you down.
I have a $300 video card, a 3GB HD Radeon 7970.
If you remember earlier in all this I shared my motherboard specifics. I took one person's advice and upgraded my processor to the Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHZ. It has definitely improved my computers performance overall. I have 6 GB of DDR2 RAM.
Why don't you get a SSD now - e.g this one for $60. That is sufficent for the OS. You can always reuse it later for something else when you can afford a bigger one. E.g. I run all my virtual systems from an external SSD. I would not have any system on a spinning disk - waayyy too slow.
Not so unless you do a lot of CPU intensive work - e.g. video encoding.It might be that a CPU upgrade for $100 would have more real-world immediate effect than a $100 SSD.
I also already upgraded my processor to the best processor offered for my motherboard.
Actually we talked about that in a different thread a few days ago. If you look up my threads. Sorry, I mentioned it was in this thread but I forgot it was in another.
Anyway. It's not smart in my opinion to spend $60 on a small hard drive with sketchy reviews when I'm just going to buy a better one in a month or two. I would rather buy what I need and save the money in the long run
I don't know about 'sketchy reviews' I own two (of 7) Mushkin SSDs and they perform very well. Plus the company is known for excellent customer service.
I run 3 desktops with 60GB SSDs - and that since years. I got my first 60GB SSD in 2008 (for $265 at the time). I never ran out of space, in fact my 60GB SSDs are half empty.
That would be a different story for laptops where you have only 1 port. There I would go with a 240GB model.
But if you want a bigger SSD, here is a really good deal for $75:
Amazon.com: Mushkin Chronos 120 GB SATA 6.0 Gb-s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (MKNSSDCR120GB): Electronics
But if you rather go by flaky reviews than the opinion of someone with 6 years of SSD experience, you may want to buy something else.
Looks like they're there are a ton of 120 GB drives from reputedly brands on Amazon for $75. Seems like my best bet. Most are sata 3.
Quote