Sata SSD Recommendations (Some of Onega's recommended products):

Over time we've found a number of useful products which are uthat we have come to know and trust, and thus we're happy to link to here for your convenience. We can't guaruntee that you'll have a perfect experience with everything (ie even a Rolls Royce can break down sometimes), but you'll be likely to have a better than average experience with the items below:

Solutions for giving your computer a midlife upgrade:

A computer (Desktop or laptop) will generally have a primary life of three to four years. We find that at approx 2-3 years from new it can be well worth performing a 'mid life' upgrade. The reasons for this are that:

  1. You'll be running heavier software (latest versions which are more demanding on computing resources) on the computer and have more data on it now than when it was new (along with 100s of Windows updates applied over time etc.).
  2. The price of components like memory will have come down quite a bit compared to when the computer was new. Thus if you bought your computer with 2/4/8 Gbytes of RAM (chip memory) then not to upgrade to 8 / 16 / 32 Gbytes of memory may be very useful in making everything run more smoothly. 

All things being equal, the two biggest single best things to upgrade on a computer are the memory (little sticks that click into the mainboard) and if you have a hard drive inside your computer that most machines come with, then you'll find a huge performance boost by upgrading to a computer with an SSD (Solid State Drive) - which as it has no moving parts can be up to 1000 times quicker than a hard drive to access files. In the real world it means your computer will boot in seconds not minutes, so that you can get on with work rather than drumming your fingers on the desk.

If you're confident of the process, then you can probably upgrade your computer yourself. Otherwise we're happy to help do it for you. Before buying any upgrade components, unless you're very sure of your computer specs and the process, please do consult with us as to what is right and appropriate for your computer - you don't want to waste time and money buying incompatible components for example.

SSD Drives:

Our advice is to stick to the quality drives from either Samsung or Intel. Many others make SSD drives, and some offer a value proposition of perhaps double the storage for your money; but from experience we can tell you that this often comes at the expense of reliability. If you value the information and data on your computer (though you have got it backed up haven't you?) then save time and hassle down the line by getting good parts now.

Samsung SSDs:

When you buy a Samsung SSD you can also download their free migration software which copies your current hard drive contents to the SSD to swap in. Once cloned (you connect the new SSD drive to a USB adapter to do the clone) then you shut down your computer, swap the new drive into the place of your old drive and startup again at turbo speed.

Samsung offer a few grades from the still decent but value oriented 750EVO drives to the 850 EVO and 850 PRO drives wich are class leading. The 850 Pro also comes with a 5 year warranty (the 850 Evo with 3 at time of writing) so you can be assured the drive will last well as you only offer a warranty when you know you'll not be called on to honour it (in the vast majority of cases).

A selection of Samsung SSDs on Amazon is here below (you may as well buy them here as Amazon have the best prices - we suspect they're selling them for a loss leader as they ration orders if you try and buy too many; plus you get free delivery:

Good - Samsung 750 EVO 500 Gbytes:

The 750 Evo drives are good quality if not very latest tech. Still leaves your old hard drive for dust.

3 Year or 100TB limited warranty (whichever comes first - 100TB is a lot of data though)

Better - Samsung 850 EVO 500 Gbytes:

Faster than the above 750, but you'll probably not notice in the real world unless you're rendering or working your computer very hard.

5 Year or 100TB limited warranty (whichever comes first).

 

Best - Samsung 850 Pro 512 Gbytes:

The fastest and most reliable of the Samsung range uses new V-Nand (3D Memory) technology.

10 Year or 300TB limited warranty (whichever comes first).

If you're buying a drive that you think you may still be using in three or more years time (like in a new computer or moved to a new one), then it would be good to know that in three years time, Samsung still think you'll be likely to have 7 years good life left in the drive.  If you can afford it - the extra peace of mind from the engineering quality of this drive is probably worth it to safeguard your invaluable data.

PS - did you notice you get 12 extra Gbytes free with the Pro vs the 750 or 850 evos?

 

...and don't forget a compatable data transfer cable:

When you come to transfer your current hard drive to an SSD, one of these cables make the process a cinch. Plus as a bonus you get to connect your old drive to use as a portable drive or backup drive after the initial transfer process is complete.

Other capacity options:

We've put 500 / 512 Gb drives above as the most popular drives for price / performance (bang for your buck), but other capacities are available from 250 Gb (yes you can get smaller but we would not recommend that) and all the way up to 2TB (if you need that capacity you'll be happy to pay for it). We'll thus list these as secondary recommendations if you need more or less data.

NB don't go on how much capacity your current drive has - instead look at how much data you are using. Ie in many cases where a laptop comes with a 500 Gbyte hard drive, if you are only using 100 Gbytes, then a 250 Gbyte SSD will give you plenty of spare capacity plus be much much much quicker. For a guide as to how to see how much disk space you are using see: http://www.windowscentral.com/windows-10-check-free-space-hard-disk  or http://www.wikihow.com/Check-Your-Hard-Disk-Space (for Windows 7)

We've never known anyone to be unhappy about an SSD upgrade we've done - most of the time the comment is 'I wish I'd done this long ago'.

 

Alternate Capacities - again in 750, 850 Evo and Pro Varieties - 250 Gbytes first:

Now for 'The Daddies':  850 Evo and Pro Drives in 1 and 2TB capacity.
Indubitably More Awesome than an Awesome Possum!

Fitting:

If you know what you're doing (there are plenty of instruction videos on Youtube for example) and are confident then you can swap your hard drive for an SSD yourself. If you're not sure about the process then best we do this for you. Either you can buy the drive or we can order it in, but then for fitting we'd charge a fixed fee of £150 ex VAT to to a transfer from a working computer to the new SSD if you bring the computer in and pick it up (else courier expense at cost). Normally we can fit the drive and transfer same day for you if booked in ahead. If you're also adding more memory to the machine (a good idea on any desktop or laptop with less than 16 gbytes currently in it) then we'll fit that at the same time at no extra cost.

If you want to make your PC feel like new and be a joy to use again, then an SSD upgrade is the way to go.

NB IMPORTANT NOTE ON FAKE DRIVES:

There are some very very convincing fake Samsung drives doing the rounds at the moment. These look the part (drives and packaging look the same - it is almost like having to spot a fake Rolex) but they are not the same drives underneath and the electronics are not so good for performance and they have a much higher risk of failure. We strongly suggest only thus to buy Samsung SSDs from official sources like UK Distribution or Amazon direct (not ebay or 3rd party sellers). The saving of a fake is small whereas the hassle of lost data is great so don't take the risk!