120GB SSD - £24.99 delivered

[Itsallaguess]

There's been some discussions recently regarding SSD's, and how they can transform a relatively old PC that might feel like it's struggling a bit into something much more usable.

I came across this Integral 120GB SSD drive for £24.99 delivered, and thought that for anyone who's yet to upgrade their mechanical hard-drive, and who has what feels like a sluggish PC, then this is the sort of price-point where a couple of hours reinstalling Windows (even if you don't actually activate it at this point....) will give a real indication as to how such an SSD drive might transform your current machine -

https://www.mymemory.co.uk/integral-120 ... 0mb-s.html

Of course the low price-point goes hand in hand with it's relatively small storage space, and many people will need more than 120GB for their overall storage needs, but 120GB is still ample for a boot-drive, and an existing mechanical SATA drive can still be used for extra storage, so I think this is a decent entry-point SSD for anyone toying with the idea, and it might just save a possibly much larger outlay if anyone has nearly convinced themselves that they need a completely new PC.

Of course, if you still want the new PC, then don't let this post stop you.... I know exactly what it's like when the 'need new hardware' monkey gets on our backs....

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Infrasonic]

There's a 240GB version up on the site as well @ £49.95 if you want a bigger boot drive.
https://www.mymemory.co.uk/integral-240 ... e-ssd.html

https://www.hotukdeals.com/ has had quite a few SSD deals coming up in the past few weeks also, so hopefully the trend is down on after a considerable period of high prices.

[RaspberryFool]

120GB is still ample for a boot-drive, and an existing mechanical SATA drive can still be used for extra storage

The suggestion has set the interest juices flowing. At the risk of opening what I can see may be a real can of worms, Is it a simple process to install an SSD to be used purely for a boot-drive, reinstall (presumably) just the operating system onto this SSD, reinstall ones data files onto the mechanical hard drive and to allocate the existing hard drive to be used purely for future data? Are there any guides as to how to go about this process?

RF

[Infrasonic]

120GB is still ample for a boot-drive, and an existing mechanical SATA drive can still be used for extra storage

The suggestion has set the interest juices flowing. At the risk of opening what I can see may be a real can of worms, Is it a simple process to install an SSD to be used purely for a boot-drive, reinstall (presumably) just the operating system onto this SSD, reinstall ones data files onto the mechanical hard drive and to allocate the existing hard drive to be used purely for future data? Are there any guides as to how to go about this process?

RF

It's been covered many times on this board and in general on many other techie boards. It's probably the most common PC upgrade these days as it's so effective.

The only caveat really is to Google your exact computer model, spec (which CPU, how much RAM etc.) and OS first to see if there are any peculiarities specific to your PC.
Also get hold of the manufacturer's online technical specification and manual (PDF download generally) for your PC, so you can see what physical issues there may be around access, power, fans in the way etc.

I've done it twice. The first time was a 'clean install' on a recent good spec W10 PC. Went without a hitch, took about an hour in total, if that.

The second time was on my sisters 6 year old W10 upgraded PC that it turned out didn't have a USB boot option in the BIOS, and had lost the DVD drive detection after a W10 update, which meant I had to 'clone' the old SATA HDD onto the new SSD.
It all works fine now but it took a lot of faff relative to the first one, (including ordering extra bits from Amazon like SATA power splitters after I'd opened the case up to put the SSD in and found out there weren't enough power leads. There was an extractor fan in the way which needed removing and there wasn't enough space to side mount the SSD, so it went on the floor of the case... ).

So definitely do your homework first...

[RaspberryFool]

Thanks for the reply.

Maybe one for me to consider when I retire and can spend all day on it should things go wrong ...