Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE120BW

I had a very sluggish ASUS laptop that was about 2.5yrs old. It had a 2nd gen Intel Core 2 Duo processor. It took forever to boot up and website browsing was very slow. I mainly use my laptop for checking e-mail, web surfing and downloading photos from my digital camera. I'm not a power user so I just couldn't rationalize spending hundreds of dollars to replace it. Plus, I'm not a fan of Windows 8 which is installed on nearly all new laptops which dissuaded me from buying a new laptop (I have Windows 7 now).Lately I've been hearing how replacing the old mechanical hard drive with an SSD would increase performance of any PC. I wasn't sure how much of an improvement it'd be since I wouldn't be updating the processor. After I put in the SSD it was a whole new world. The laptop booted up in seconds instead of minutes. Applications opened faster and everything was more responsive. Until now I never realized how much the mechanical hard drive bottlenecked the laptop's performance (as opposed to the processor). I don't think adding more RAM can increase performance this much.I want to let you know that replacing the hard drive was super easy. I was overwhelmed at first because I couldn't find any easy installation instructions on the web. I was afraid that if I did it wrong I would lose all my data (especially my photos) or brick my laptop because I don't have the Windows Operating System installation CD (p.s. you don't need it). I thought I'd share my installation experience for people who are novices like me.The steps below are for upgrading the hard drive on a regular PC laptop (i.e. I'm not sure if my instructions will work for a MacBook). Most people will just be swapping out their hard drives and likely won't have an external hard drive to back up their data. That is perfectly fine. Also, you don't need the Windows OS installation CD because you won't be reinstalling any software. The steps below will copy EVERYTHING from your old hard drive onto your SSD including your Operating System, Applications, Programs, Photos, device drivers, etc.Before starting you need to make sure you have the following items:1) Make sure your new SSD has enough space to copy all your existing data. My original laptop HDD was 300GB, but I was only using 60GB. I bought a 120GB SSD and that was fine.2) Small phillips head screwdriver (hopefully you already have one in your house)3) 2.5" SATA III enclosure (purchased separately). I bought the following Sabrent USB 3.0 enclosure and it actually came with a phillips head screwdriver. Personally, I wasn't crazy about the Sabrent enclosure because it looked and felt cheap, but it did the job. Sabrent USB 3.0 To 2.5-Inch Sata Aluminum Hard Drive Enclosure Case (for 9.5mm, 12.5mm 2.5-Inch SATA-I, SATA-II, SATA-III HDD and SSD) Black (EC-TB4P)4) Hard drive cloning software (Samsung includes this with their SSD).BASIC steps to upgrade/swap hard drives:1) Install SSD into 2.5" SATA hard drive enclosure.2) Plug enclosure into USB port of laptop (USB 3.0 will be a LOT faster than USB 2.0).3) Install hard drive cloning software onto laptop (Samsung provides the software with SSD).4) Follow instructions to clone old hard drive from laptop onto new SSD (Samsung software makes it very easy).5) Shut down your laptop, unplug the power, remove battery and uninstall old hard drive.6) Remove SSD from enclosure and install into laptop.7) Reinstall battery, plug in power and restart laptop.8) You're Done!Restarting your laptop in step 7 will be super fast. That's when you know that the new SSD was worth the upgrade.[....]

Just like every other review for this SSD, and any other name brand SSD, the increase in speeds in fantastic. From Windows Experience Score 6.4 to 7.9 (max) in December 2013. Incredible shutdown speed, and restart speed. You might miss the login/logo screen, its that fast. Today's SSD's are reliable, and will outlast normal hard drives. Today's SSD's have been put through equivalent stress tests of over 20 gig a day for 20+ years and they have not worn out. Their failure is more likely a result of a mechanical problem, of which a normal hard disk drives are far more susceptible to.To be honest, the difference in speed between this SSD, and other competitors is something that would be difficult for a human to discern. What is the practical 50 mb/s difference in speed, when you are comparing against other 400-500 mb/s ssd's? Maybe half a second on start-up?What makes this SSD from Samsung a great buy, is the included software, whether or not you have the desktop kit, that is included. You get migration software, and a SD set-up and monitoring software. This software exceeds the software provided by Intel for their SSD, and other manufacturers sometimes does not include any software, or provides for download a limited use software.If you are building a system, check out computer cases with built in 2.5 drive bays, and cases with built-in SSD mounts like Antec Three Hundred Two Gaming Case, Black. This case has two mounting platforms just for SSD's, one behind the motherboard, and the other on the floor of the case (SSDs will not require cooling). This setup does not use any of the bays. I purchased this case, and like it, but have not reviewed it yet.The Samsung Magician Software provides a user interface for the following tasks, which as as simple as clicking through. This software makes the Samsung SSD the best buy, when compared to similarly priced SSD's, or even similar capacity SSD's.PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKING. Benchmark the SSD, and keep a history of benchmarks. Compare them in graphs. Not just this SSD, but any of the drives in your system.PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION. Optimize Performance if your current OS does not use TRIMFIRMWARE UPDATESOS OPTIMIZATION. Optimize Windows. Easily choose three profiles; Maximum Performance, Maximum Capacity, or Maximum Reliability, and the Samsung Magician software will automatically make the associated settings on the SSD and in Windows. You can also make your own customized profile.OVER PROVISIONING. SSD need over-provisioning to maintain performance and reliability. Some SSD's like Kingston will not need Over Provisioning, but will require that you have unused space for the benefits of Over Provisioning. The Samsung Magician Software give you a recommended amount, and will unallocate the space for you.SECURE ERASE, if you ever needed to secure erase the SSD. I'll be honest, I don't use it, but I believe that SSD's have a difference procedure than disc drives.RAPID MODE. Samsung has a mode that can accelerate the SSD even more. But I have read that this acceleration can only be used in certain circumstances. It will require a gig of space to be enabledDATA SECURITY: Data security can be enabled.This is an endurance test of Samsung 840 SSDs. And, it is a conservative test. [...]