X-53mph Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 Hi guys, I'm thinking of updating my SSD as it's been quite a few years since I got my current Samsung drive. However, before upgrading to something like a Samsung Evo Pro, I wanted to ask people on here advice on the benefits. I've got an old laptop bought second hand (HP Pavilion with CPU Intel i5) and I've upgraded it to the max. I'd love to get a new laptop, but I'm going to be made redundant by the end of the year so I shouldn't be forking out a grand on a new system. Instead I thought of just expanding the SSD from the current 250GB to 500GB. so I can fill it with all the free Kontakt libraries posted in the Deals section. ;) My current drive is a Samsung 850 Evo Sata III, which should have read write speeds of around 540 MB/s. However, the Samsung Magician software tells me my system is running at 283 Read 270 Write, which suggests to me that my laptop cannot get up to the 500 MB speed even if it wanted to. So, would it be worth getting the Evo Pro? I've read the glowing reviews, but I wonder if it would really make such a big difference if my laptop cannot get to those fast read/write speeds. Then there is the question of brand. I like Samsung, I've used Crucial but found it slower, and I know there are all sorts of low end SSDs on the market now claiming to be just as good. Any tips? Much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mettelus Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 Look up the motherboard on that machine. It is possible your current SSD is plugged into a SATA II port. If you do not have a SATA III port available, you won't see the full speed from even a new SSD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X-53mph Posted August 21, 2020 Author Share Posted August 21, 2020 8 minutes ago, mettelus said: Look up the motherboard on that machine. It is possible your current SSD is plugged into a SATA II port. If you do not have a SATA III port available, you won't see the full speed from even a new SSD. The Magician software says SATA II port. So I guess I don't get the advantages of SATA III speed. bummer! Is there any other advantage of EVO Pro, even without top speeds? Or should I just go for a bigger driver at a cheaper price? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synkrotron Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 slightly off-topic, but worth considering If you have an optical drive, and you feel you don't use it that much, take it out and fit a second SSD in that bay. There are caddies available for that purpose. The way you can leave your OS alone and place all your sample stuff on the second SSD. That said, I'm not sure that you can do that with all laptops. I just happened to spec up a new CLEVO about six years ago and I had the option of not having the optical drive from new. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X-53mph Posted August 21, 2020 Author Share Posted August 21, 2020 10 minutes ago, synkrotron said: slightly off-topic, but worth considering If you have an optical drive, and you feel you don't use it that much, take it out and fit a second SSD in that bay. There are caddies available for that purpose. The way you can leave your OS alone and place all your sample stuff on the second SSD. That said, I'm not sure that you can do that with all laptops. I just happened to spec up a new CLEVO about six years ago and I had the option of not having the optical drive from new. I thought about that before, but I read that the transfer speeds across the optical drive bridge is very slow. However, at this point they may not be so different to what I already have. ?♂️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mettelus Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 Unless you can connect to a SATA III port, you are not going to see the advantage of a high-end SSD, except for longevity/warranty differences, which may not be cost effective. A second drive would let you pull data from 2 drives at once. Another consideration is an "older" i7 machine with higher specs than you have and you can scavenge from your current machine. 250 GB SATA III is actually a good O/S drive option. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/ Is a good reference site. The money of putting extra components into a machine that cannot use them might better be used on a machine upgrade (and scavenge what you have now that will work). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Roseberry Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 Samsung "Pro" series will not offer any speed improvement vs. the EVO. The Pro series has double the warranty (10 years). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InstrEd Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 thanks Jim for that information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 I just want one of these: Liqid LQD4500 Honey Badger 50x faster than normal SSD's, 32 TB... That said, if I had $60k laying around, I'm sure I'd do something else with it! ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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