Newbie to SSD

I am working on a new system build and I was suggested I get a SSD to boost performance.. I have never bought or used a ssd drive .. So I was looking to pick up a used 40gb ssd from ebay or here ... My plan was to used the ssd for my os which is Win7 Ultimate and my 1tb spinpoint for my storage..What older drives would you suggest or recommend???

The few dollars saved isn't worth the drop in storage space or performance from newer drives.
Grab an 850 EVO and be done with it. 120 GB is honestly the bare minimum for an OS drive if you plan to have anything other programs installed on it.

Spend the $100 and you can generally find a 240gb ssd for brand new on sale for that. The performance difference is huge in comparison to a spindle and a 40gb would fill way too fast.

Janus67 said:

Spend the $100 and you can generally find a 240gb ssd for brand new on sale for that. The performance difference is huge in comparison to a spindle and a 40gb would fill way too fast.

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+1 Even top notch SSDs are at a great $/GB these days.

Everything they've told you is correct. 120GB is barely enough and you'll end up wanting to upgrade soon since you can't realistically fit any games that might benefit from an SSD on them without annoying space management. 40GB will barely hold the Windows folder for Windows 7 Ultimate with SP1 (mine is at 32GB for example) and would leave zero space for the user folder(s) or page file or anything else. Beyond that older small SSDs were very slow compared to modern SSDs and they were not exactly reliable - it's not at all worth buying a small used SSD when you can get a new 240GB/256GB for reasonably cheap. If you don't go for a 850EVO the MX100's or (roll the dice due to OCZ/Toshiba) the Arc100's are supposedly decent.

I'd recommend sticking with Samsung or Intel SSDs though since drive RMAs are not fun or convenient so I'd go for reliability instead of doing that. I had an OCZ (pre-Toshiba buyout) die on me and it wasn't good times although the RMA was fast - haven't had any issues with my Samsung 830's/840pros, and the Intel drives I used for a few builds are still going strong.

Crucial is another brand I would add to the list of acceptable manufacturers. Depending on how you use the computer, 120GB may be enough, but I'd probably go for the 240 if it was me. 240-256 GB seems to be the sweet spot right now for finding good deals as those are the high volume models currently. I wouldn't pay more than $0.40/GB for a drive, preferably $0.35/GB or less would be a great price. Since this will be your first SSD, I'm betting your type of computer usage won't benefit from spending top dollar on the absolute fastest drive out there. The differences between the best drives and mid-tier drives from the brands that everyone is recommending isn't that significant so if you don't know specifically why you're paying more for the better drive, you probably shouldn't as it's just a waste of money.

Once you play around with ssds your mechanical drives will really feel S L O W

120GB SSDs are in the video game price territory. Definitely do not buy a 40GB for Win7.