Ssd question

Feb 7, 2021
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So I want to get a ssd to get the "super fast" start up. Is there any suggested brand or size that would be good enough to put the OS on for fast start up. Also should I get one to replace my hdd? Im new to this ssd stuff so any help would be appreciated. And the OS ssd would be internal? and the one to replace ssd would be external? I'm not sure.
 
Hi! You could fit just the o.s on a 120 GB drive if that all you want on there, but if you play games I'd suggest you get something a bigger to install whatever you are playing there too.

You would install it internally, and you could replace your HDD entirely if you wanted, but a lot of people keep a larger traditional drive because they are still so much cheaper per GB for storing files.

As to what to get, anything will be better than a HDD for the operating system. :)

Can you tell us what the rest of your components are, what country you are in and how much you are willing to spend?
 
Feb 7, 2021
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Hi! You could fit just the o.s on a 120 GB drive if that all you want on there, but if you play games I'd suggest you get something a bigger to install whatever you are playing there too.

You would install it internally, and you could replace your HDD entirely if you wanted, but a lot of people keep a larger traditional drive because they are still so much cheaper per GB for storing files.

As to what to get, anything will be better than a HDD for the operating system. :)

Can you tell us what the rest of your components are, what country you are in and how much you are willing to spend?


Yeah I think ill just get a ssd for the OS and keep all my other files on my hdd. I'm willing to spend I guess around $100 or whatever is necessary. Here are my specs,


{Case} CYBERPOWERPC X-Titan 200 Full Tower Gaming Case w/ USB 3.0, Fan Control, EZ Swap HDD Dock, Side Panel Window

{CPU} Intel(R) Core™ Processor i5-7600K 3.80GHZ 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1151 (Kaby Lake)

{CPU Fan} ENERMAX ETS-T40F-BK CPU Cooler w/ Black ENERMAX Twister PWM fans

{HDD} 2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

{Ram} 8GB (4GBx2) DDR4/3000MHz Dual Channel Memory

{Motherboard} MSI Z270-A Pro ATX w/ USB 3.1, 2 PCIe x16, 4 PCIe x1, 6 SATA3, 1 M.2 SATA/PCIe

{PSU} 850 Watts - Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB 850W 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Power Supply

{Video Card} GeForce(R) GTX 1060 3GB GDDR5
 
In that case you could pick up anything up to a 1TB drive.

Theres not a huge amount of difference in boot times and load times between a SATA SSD and an NVME.

SATA is a 2.5" drive and the NVME is about the size of a stick of gum and plugs into an M2 slot on your motherboard. NVME is way faster theoretically but in general use for gaming and day to day storage the only real benefit of M2 is not having to route the extra cables.

I'm not the most knowledgeable person on storage but I've done enough research a couple of months ago to know a couple of good models. Samsungs are mostly good but you pay for the name and not necessarily any extra performance.

I have this one, its a good one.


Other options.

A little cheaper, a little slower then the above. Not that you would notice.


Somewhere in the middle. The 1 TB version is also good but a little more expensive at the moment.


Much cheaper much smaller, plenty of room for OS and some extras depending on how big

 
Feb 7, 2021
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In that case you could pick up anything up to a 1TB drive.

Theres not a huge amount of difference in boot times and load times between a SATA SSD and an NVME.

SATA is a 2.5" drive and the NVME is about the size of a stick of gum and plugs into an M2 slot on your motherboard. NVME is way faster theoretically but in general use for gaming and day to day storage the only real benefit of M2 is not having to route the extra cables.

I'm not the most knowledgeable person on storage but I've done enough research a couple of months ago to know a couple of good models. Samsungs are mostly good but you pay for the name and not necessarily any extra performance.

I have this one, its a good one.


Other options.

A little cheaper, a little slower then the above. Not that you would notice.


Somewhere in the middle. The 1 TB version is also good but a little more expensive at the moment.


Much cheaper much smaller, plenty of room for OS and some extras depending on how big



Thanks! I'll probably go with the one you have. And I kind of want to do a fresh clean boot So i assume I would boot in bios and choose the ssd. I've seen a few videos on it. But after should I clean windows off of my hdd to clear up space?
 
O.K!

If you do a fresh install of Windows you'll have to download from Microsoft and use a USB stick to install it. You can then set that to install Windows to the new drive instead. IIRC it should format it ready for you as you do this.

Always advisable to make sure to back everything important up to an external before you start messing with things though. Any programs that were installed with the old Windows on that drive will need to be installed again as the new install wont see them. You'll be able to use diskmanager later to either reformat or rejig the partitions on the old drive.

You could also clone the old Windows install drive to the SSD using software like Macrium reflect free and use the same Windows installation. There are plenty of tutorials online on how to do it around. I'm not the best one to guide you through tbh, I had some trouble doing this with my BIOS and ended up just reinstalling to the new drive.

One last thing, I had lost my M2 drive installation kit from my motherboard, there's a kind of riser nut and a screw. I had to buy one from Amazon to install the drive. Something like this, I believe they are universal.


Good luck :)
 
Feb 7, 2021
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O.K!

If you do a fresh install of Windows you'll have to download from Microsoft and use a USB stick to install it. You can then set that to install Windows to the new drive instead. IIRC it should format it ready for you as you do this.

Always advisable to make sure to back everything important up to an external before you start messing with things though. Any programs that were installed with the old Windows on that drive will need to be installed again as the new install wont see them. You'll be able to use diskmanager later to either reformat or rejig the partitions on the old drive.

You could also clone the old Windows install drive to the SSD using software like Macrium reflect free and use the same Windows installation. There are plenty of tutorials online on how to do it around. I'm not the best one to guide you through tbh, I had some trouble doing this with my BIOS and ended up just reinstalling to the new drive.

One last thing, I had lost my M2 drive installation kit from my motherboard, there's a kind of riser nut and a screw. I had to buy one from Amazon to install the drive. Something like this, I believe they are universal.


Good luck :)


One more thing. So would it be ideal to get the one you have (in 500gb) just for OS for startup time. And in the future if I want a bigger ssd to replace my hdd I could get an external ssd and have that in a hard drive bay and still have the internal ssd on the motherboard. Is that possible?
 
If I'm understandinmg you correctly, then you wouldnt need to have an external drive. External means outside of your PC case.

You only have one M2 slot on your motherboard so if you wanted another drive it would have to be a SATA drive, thats the 2.5" ones. It would require SATA power from your power supply and a data cable would link to one of the free SATA ports on your motherboard.

Like this one

If there isnt a free bay to install it in no need to worry. As SSD's have no moving parts you can attach them anyway even sideways or upside down. Wherever there's a bit of space with some velcro tape. I have one currently attached to the back of the motherboard tray in my case, and my boot drive was also there for many years.
 
Feb 7, 2021
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If I'm understandinmg you correctly, then you wouldnt need to have an external drive. External means outside of your PC case.

You only have one M2 slot on your motherboard so if you wanted another drive it would have to be a SATA drive, thats the 2.5" ones. It would require SATA power from your power supply and a data cable would link to one of the free SATA ports on your motherboard.

Like this one

If there isnt a free bay to install it in no need to worry. As SSD's have no moving parts you can attach them anyway even sideways or upside down. Wherever there's a bit of space with some velcro tape. I have one currently attached to the back of the motherboard tray in my case, and my boot drive was also there for many years.

Ok sounds good! So I can have a 250gb nvme ssd for the OS (assuming that's enough for the OS and any updates for the OS) then if I want to swap my hdd for ssd I can get the sata one like you showed me
 
Ok sounds good! So I can have a 250gb nvme ssd for the OS (assuming that's enough for the OS and any updates for the OS) then if I want to swap my hdd for ssd I can get the sata one like you showed me

If you wanted to yes exactly 250 GB is plenty for just the O.S, mine was on a 128 GB one until a short time ago. I do also keep all my games on SSD too. But at least having Windows on the SSD makes everything much snappier and improves boot time a lot.
 

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