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Looking into getting a basic SSD for Windows 8.1 and a couple of games. The rest of apps/storage will be on a WD 1TB Blue HD. I have had an SSD before (Intel 335 Series) but have not been paying to much attention to them. I know they have come down considerably in price/GB terms. Looking to spend less than $100 and get as much space as possible. It will be limited to a SATAII connection. Thanks for the help!

If you can stretch your budget to $114, the 256GB version of the Crucial MX100 recently reviewed by TR is a fine deal, though it (like just about any current-gen SSD) will be somewhat limited by SATAII.

If $100 is a hard limit, the 120GB Samsung 840 EVO is what I'd choose.

I can stretch the budget, and I guess it might make sense to get a decent SSD to use in future builds. My current machine in sig will be my main for a while. Still can do basic tasks and what games I have are older. I barely have time to game as it is. The current HD is having issues posting and it's 5+ years old. On it's way out.

256GB MX100 and Ultra Plus both go on sale for around $100, if you're not in a hurry. If 120GB is all you need Newegg currently has the 530 Series on sale for $82 with promo code--may have to sign up for their email spam.

Picked up basically a new Intel X-25M SSD. It's SATA II but all I can use for now. By the time I rebuild the current SSDs will hopefully be cheaper and faster. Be fun to mess with this old school Intel drive. Hope it's got a good controller.

GeForce6200 wrote:

Picked up basically a new Intel X-25M SSD. It's SATA II but all I can use for now. By the time I rebuild the current SSDs will hopefully be cheaper and faster. Be fun to mess with this old school Intel drive. Hope it's got a good controller.

I hope you didn't pay much for that, that is about as old as you can get. There are many HDDs these days that have a higher sustained write speed than that does.

TwistedKestrel wrote:

GeForce6200 wrote:

Picked up basically a new Intel X-25M SSD. It's SATA II but all I can use for now. By the time I rebuild the current SSDs will hopefully be cheaper and faster. Be fun to mess with this old school Intel drive. Hope it's got a good controller.

I hope you didn't pay much for that, that is about as old as you can get. There are many HDDs these days that have a higher sustained write speed than that does.

I did not. I know that the current SSDs have come a long way in terms of speed, longevity and compatibility. Too good of a deal to pass up and will fit my current needs.

I don't know about the MX100, but both my M500 and 840 Evo have been working nicely for me. (With one exception - I found out that my T440s won't recognize M500's, so that's why I got an 840 evo for that particular machine.)

Re: X-25M

It still beats the piss out of ANY hard disk drive in access time, and that's the delay you are usually experiencing in desktop use.
Transfer rate is nice and all, but which HDD beats a X25-M in that consistently? I don't think any do.

Ya, it will be so much faster than worn out than my old WD SE-16 hd. Anyone have suggestions on HD clone programs? The current install is not old and rather just clone.

Macrium Reflect.
http://techreport.com/blog/26611/tr-sub ... -20-40-off

I use Acronis True Image when I need to clone. Haven't had any problems with it yet. To get the clone feature you have to pay though. I don't know of any other cloning freeware.

use Clonezilla to clone. get the ISO from here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/clonezilla/

use UNetbootin to make a bootable USB from the ISO
http://sourceforge.net/projects/unetbootin/

Thanks for the suggestions on cloning software. Ended up just doing a fresh install as it was much easier.