Advice on SSD

You will like the SSD as your O/S and program drive, and you would have an option of keeping your old drive for archiving data. That setup of course does not replace the need for regular backups

ManishMan said:

Hey guys,

So I'm think of buying a SSD for my desktop computer that I do my Graphic Design work on. I am not sure if I need to replace the HDD in the desktop with a SSD or if it would be better to keep both?

Click to expand...

If you use graphics software you see a benefit running the software from a Solid State Drive. Just as having lots of RAM and a fast video card improves the graphics work flow the SSD's faster response times should make creation and editing even better. I have tested PhotoShop, PaintShop and the 3d rendering software Maya and found a nice performance increase. My advice would be to replace your OS drive with the SSD, add a second small SSD as a cache drive and use the original hard drive to store your work if your PC has the spare room to accommodate the drives. In my opinion you would be better served doing a fresh install of your OS on the new SSD. I understand imaging a drive is faster but the fresh install gives you a chance to avoid any data corruption that might creep into a drive image file.

ManishMan said:

With regards to doing a fresh install of os on the ssd, while that is possible, it would take time to transfer the files from hdd to ssd wouldn't it!

Click to expand...

Yes.....as it would with any file transfer.

ManishMan said:

With regards to doing a fresh install of os on the ssd, while that is possible, it would take time to transfer the files from hdd to ssd wouldn't it!

Click to expand...

Consider this for a moment. If you image the drive then write that image to the new drive it will take you nearly as long as doing a fresh install. Going from a hard drive to the SSD is not as straight forward as read/write. While imaging software has gotten better it can still glitch. Also, if you have used your computer for any amount of time it will buildup what I call garbage files. These are left behind files and setting from old updates, upgrades and uninstalled programs. Please understand the advice I give here is just my preferred way of doing it. The reason I voice that advice is to give you the option of another way of going about what you intend. Educational purposes I suppose. I am sure there are others that disagree with old LC.

ManishMan said:

How long would you average? I only have 300-400gb filled on my hard drive at the moment

Click to expand...

That depends on the speed of the old drive which is the slowest. What method you use. If you are just transferring files drive to drive anywhere from an hour to two. If you image one drive to the other you can reduce the time by using the 'image used portion of drive' feature. Not recommended. The full image will be the full capacity of the imaged drive.

ManishMan said:

I actually don't know the speed of the hard drive but I believe it is a bit slow... The pc is fairly new, its a dell xps only been around about 1 year now 8900 and I only bought it a year ago. Is there any way I can check the speed of the hard drive?

Click to expand...

Most hard drives are 5400 to 7200 rpm. Use the Service Tag or Express Service Code on your DELL and check the DELL Support website for what is in your PC. They will have a record of it. The Express Service Code will gives you the details for your particular machine. Even so, there are other variables besides how fast the old drive is when calculating how long it will take. All anyone can give is a best guess estimate.
DELL Support Website