Build a PC

[PlaneMan]

They fit in a slot on the motherboard.

Info.

[JayCeeDee]

They are plug-in SSD’s that go into a socket on modern motherboards. They fit into a smaller version of a memory socket. If you’re still on Socket 775 motherboards, you’ll likely not come across a mobo with one of those on it for another 10 years.

To fit the SSD into your case, you’ll need to get a cradle that has fixings for a 2.5″ SSD;  most SSD’s are this size; that itself fits into a 3.5″ drive bay in your case. Like THIS.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PM & JayCee

It’s for a Lenovo E50-00 not sure if it has a slot. I need to do more investigating, this SSD is not as easy as I thought it would be.

[JayCeeDee]

I’ve just looked at the MANUAL for your E50-00, – is your hard drive mounted sideways on like on page 29?? If so, it looks like there is enough space on the floor of the case, or sideways on, on that small half panel, above the hard drive. You can mount it with Blu-Tack or double sided sticky pads.

You’ll need to check you have a spare SATA port on your motherboard, depending on what you are using currently. Good luck.

[Dave Rice]

The Lenovo is SATA only and only has 2 SATA ports. You need an normal 2.5″ SSD not an M2 version.

SSDs are so light I regularly only use 1 or 2 screws to mount them. As JCD says sticky pads would be OK. If you want to mount it in place of the HDD (or even in the spare space above it) you can get around the problem that it uses a bottom mount (as opposed to the usual side holes) by using an adaptor like this one Screw the SSD into the adaptor and then screw the adaptor to the mounting holes on the case.

The last few builds I’ve used these £45 DREVO X1 Series 120GB SSD. They are fine.

When you are installing W10 in the SSD make sure you have unplugged the old HDD to avoid accidents. Once that’s done, if you need to copy data from the old HDD, use the DVD’s SATA and power cables to plug it in.

[Ed P]

You beat me to it  Dave. If John looks in the Hardware Maintenance Manual, on page 30 there is even a picture showing a drive being replaced. Instead of the hdd shown you put in an SSD in its place. Although an SSD will make your box sing, big SSDs are expensive and you might want to look at a hybrid drive instead. Hybrids work by using a large SSD cache that sits in front of a nearly normal hdd. Over a period of time (hours) its firmware learns how you use the PC and intelligently stores it in the SSD bit. Imo it gives probably 60% of the benefit of a SSD but it is great for Steam storage. (Just search using the term hybrid drive – typically you can get a fast 2TB hybrid for <£100 while the equivalent SSD would cost five times as much.

[The Duke]

My ssd just sits on the floor of my pc, on a spot of hot glue. To fit in my current gpu in surgery was need. The lower drive was removed.

Given cases next to never move, and the ssd doesn’t move (vibrate) I’ve not had any issues.

[Anonymous]

That’s it then the floor and I have double sided sticky pads, As you say Dave only 2 Sata, I will have to use the original from the HDD

Thanks for the manual page refs it is that one and the other pointers.

It is so confusing what about this, if not then please point me in the right direction.

Amazon – Dispatched from and sold by Amazon, only – freepost – not above £60

O yes Dave maybe the Drevo.

[Dave Rice]

That SanDisk would be fine too.

[Anonymous]

Nice one Dave SanDisk it is.

[Ed P]

John, if the SSD is just going to be a boot/OS disk and your existing drive is going to be programs/docs then you may need to do a bit of housekeeping in order to separate the OS from programs & data.

I’ll get a bit contentious with my views on SSD sizing. It has been my experience that you need 120 GB just to keep Windows happy as some of its ‘upgrades have been a huge 20+GB and also there are a few non-OS programs that are ‘picky’ about requiring to be on the C-Drive. IMO it becomes essential to have all your personal stuff on a different drive and make sure you know how to specify which drive is used for future additional installations.

[Dave Rice]

Just let John do the thing in front of him first before adding tweaks. All this is doing is confusing matters.

IMO 120GB is more than enough to run Windows 10 happily for years unless you have huge Steam folders. If after installation and running for a few months John feels he has an issue with space we can cover that then.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Ed & Dave

I can only run one (SSD) or the other (Sata) not enough sata plugs, I need the one of two for the rom.

I will have to cut down on storage, it mainly occurs when I am up to backup 10 and still have the other 9 on. However I will look into system backups (as Dave suggested) and save space that way.

I would of preferred a bigger SSD have you seen the price, maybe one day.

I will leave the original drive in the case and I can swap plugs over as/when

Also I got one of the caddys (while in the bracket for free post, all set for Thu delivery.

[JayCeeDee]

John – you could always get a cheap external DVD drive. They’re under £20 these days. The amount they’re used mostly it’s taking up a useful SATA port.  That would give you the best chance for two drives, SSD and Spinner. ?

 

Edit – is that 10 full backups, or some of them differential??

[Anonymous]

Good idea JayCee

Infact I have a USB external DVD, not sure if it writes. I only use a rom drive for installing (off a CD) or booting CD/DVD or writing.

Sadly there lies the problem of the suggestion, the Lenovo only sees USBs in Windows not dos (as such) on startup to boot.

I use the USB DVD to raise my KVM plugs above the monitor stand.

[Dave Rice]

John, I believe I may have a 2 port SATA card that would run from the pci-e slot.

It’s of no use to me but let me test it first. You could use that to plug the internal DVD drive into. Meanwhile check and see if you have enough spare SATA power plugs on the PSU. If you haven’t I have lots of molex to SATA convertors / splitters and bucket loads of SATA cables.

I can’t see why (in theory) you couldn’t boot from a USB DVD drive, but it could mean also sorts of messing about with CSM and legacy settings in the UEFI so let’s not go there. Unfortunately I don’t have access to the Lenovo E50-00 I bought, it’s in the local womens nick (a terrifying place).

EDIT as an aside I’m just installing W10 pro on an old Toshiba laptop with a T4300 2.16Ghz CPU, 4GB and 5,400 rpm spinner. It’s busy doing the Creators update at the moment but first impressions are it’s going to be very usable.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Dave

Sometime ago on MM we talked about the same problem and on suggestion I purchased a PCIe sata, that wasn’t seen on boot either only within Windows (where the drivers loaded)

At that time to see another drive was achieved with shrinking/splitting the Lenovo drive.

I am sure I tried all the legacy stuff but it didn’t help, I will have another look.

[Dave Rice]

Have you really got that much data that a 120GB isn’t big enough?

[Anonymous]

To answer your question Dave, I had a peep in Computer

I never store data on C:

Great news

I looked in the bios and USB Legacy is enabled but can’t see any on boot.

However I noticed in startup/boot mode is a Legacy I enabled this and can see USBs on boot. I plugged in my USB DVD and it is now seen in select to boot.

Further to that I am confident my PCIe Sata ports can be seen, if only I could see it to fit back in the Lenovo.

Sadly I seem to have mislaid it, I will have to get another one, As I recall it didn’t work in Windows 10 anyhow.

[JayCeeDee]

John – if THIS is your BIOS, you can boot from an attached drive, as long as it’s connected before booting. I would imagine that could be a thumb drive or a DVD drive, ( or maybe even an external hard disk).

 

From link above – “Note: That “USB drive” doesn’t appear as an option in the list, even though our computer has USB ports. If we connected a USB device to the computer before starting our computer and accessing this screen, we’d see the USB drive option in the list. Some computers display the USB drive option even when a drive isn’t connected, while some don’t.”

 

Edit – that’s a strange BIOS on my link – it’s dated 2008, – for W7, 8 or 10, – yet it shows Diskette ( floppy ) and primary and secondary/ master and slave ( IDE?? ) both of which were out of date by then. That’s taking Legacy to the extreme??:-)

I was still writing when you posted.

 

[Author]

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