Keep the stock 500gb WD HD's or go to Samsung 830's or 840Pro's?

I am still trying to figure out if its worth going to SSD's right now, if I do I want at minimum 1TB.

Samsung 830's are $399 each, Samsung 840 Pro's are $519 each (512gb)

 

Personally ,I would go with a single SSD for O/S and games and a Seagate Momentus Hybrid or one of your WD'sdrive for storage.

But thats just me, as to your question, an SSD is a large improvement

This sub-forum most likely has multiple threads with the answers you want

SSD Forum

Here is some light reading on the subject as well

SSD vs HDD | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews

Hard disk drives vs. solid-state drives: Are SSDs finally worth the money? - Computerworld

 

I could tell a noticeable difference after putting one in my M11x

 

You don't want to put a Samsung 830 on a laptop because it has extremely high power draw and the write amplification on it is significantly higher compared to crucial m4.

I would recommend crucial m4 because you could usually get it on eBay for $150-$170 bnew. the drive is good because it has good performance, relatively low power consumption, very high endurance (toggle nand).

as for performance drives. I would recommend a Samsung 840 pro(not the non pro as it has TLC nand which is significantly less durable) and a plextor m5 pro as both is virtually the fastest drive and have low power consumption(840 pro has lower consumption). Though the price could be deal breaker because it is like $60 more expensive than 256gb crucial m4 and you won't notice the difference in real world performance between them.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

+1 on the 840 pro

Been a great drive for me

 

+1 on the 840 Pro, I love my 830's, but the 840 Pro is a different League.

 

I had a Crucial M4 until it died and now I have an OCZ Vertex3. Both are great drives and you will notice a huge difference once you install a SSD as your boot drive
I agree with the suggestion to install the largest SSD you can afford now and then use a large HDD as your data drive.
You can never have too much storage!

 

OK so I am hearing an SSD boot drive and a large HD for the second drive from almost everyone and the Crucial or the 840Pro is the way to go.

From a performance standpoint, just like the 2 500gb WD that came stock in my M17xr4, 2 840pro's in raid 0 are going to have to out perform a single one and a single large hard drive..... or am I wrong?....

It just that 512gb 840 pro's are $549 a piece

 

I prefer the 840 due to 2 extra warranty years.

SSD's do wear out and I like to know mine are golden for 5 years

 

You are correct, when raid0-ing 2 x 840 Pro, the performance will increase even more then how fast a single one already is.
But honestly, a single 840 Pro is so fast already, you will only notice with copy actions or benchmarking that the raid0 is faster. It's like comparing a Ferrari that goes to 100mph in 4 seconds, and a tuned up version that does it in 3. It's both really fast already and will be hard to notice.

Having that said, an SSD is great bang for buck, everything feels snappier, boot and loading times are unbelievable.
Though read up a bit on SSD's, it takes some maintenance and some settings you should apply to enjoy it to it's fullest, and preserve it for some years with the same out of the box performance. That is why it's advised to use a 2nd big Storage drive next to the SSD, if you do a lot of downloading for example (torrents), an SSD shouldn't be used to much for that.