Samsung 250GB SSD on Amazon Lightening deal - Ends 15:45 - £109 / €137

Xzen

Shlippery wrote: »

Under the circumstances, I'm happy to make a one-time exception for you and issue a refund for the price difference in the amount of 33.49 GBP."

Well, that was nice

Wow - I always knew amazon were good, but no idea they'd be that good - well done Shlippery.

Now, try doing that with their competitors, soundstore, pcworld/currys or the infamous pixmania. Your response would likely be a gif of a middle finger

54kroc

Xzen wrote: »

Wow - I always knew amazon were good, but no idea they'd be that good - well done Shlippery.

Now, try doing that with their competitors, soundstore, pcworld/currys or the infamous pixmania. Your response would likely be a gif of a middle finger

Currys would do it if it's within seven days of purchase I think.

dingding

vibe666 wrote: »

you have to make the purchase and they give you the £30 discount as a gift certificate at the checkout just before you pay.

Tried that now and it did not work. It must have expired.

Zascar

I was thinking of an SSD but don't need anything near 250gb, 60gb or so would do me, just enough for an install of Windows 8, I keep all my files on other drives. Are there any other good deals on smaller capacity but decent fast SSD's does anyone know?
Thanks

Tar.Aldarion

Zascar wrote: »

I was thinking of an SSD but don't need anything near 250gb, 60gb or so would do me, just enough for an install of Windows 8, I keep all my files on other drives. Are there any other good deals on smaller capacity but decent fast SSD's does anyone know?
Thanks

Something like http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/novatech-sandisk-64gb-ssd-sata-6gb-s-2-5inch-1387539

vibe666

dingding wrote: »

Tried that now and it did not work. It must have expired.

yes, it's a 'lightening deal' only on for a few hours at a time and it looks like it's expired again. might be on again (again) though if they still have stock left, so keep an eye on it, you never know your luck.

vibe666

Shlippery wrote: »

"Hello,

I understand that you have ordered the item "Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5 inch SATA Solid State Drive" from the order #026-3551430-7602761 for 143.48 GBP and now it is available for 109.99 GBP which is 182.39 EUROS.

We recognise that you have a choice of retailers and appreciate that you prefer to order from us. Please note that we don’t extend a post-order price guarantee.

I've looked at your order and can see that the price change was significant and you just ordered this item from us.

Under the circumstances, I'm happy to make a one-time exception for you and issue a refund for the price difference in the amount of 33.49 GBP."

Well, that was nice

yup, pretty much word for word what i got at the time i did it with the apple tv (also a bargain alert).

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75199926&utm_source=notification&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digestthread#post75199926

Shlippery

Arrived today..3 days early! Thing is tiny, said I'd wait a few days before installing it but decided to sorta..skip ahead and buy windows 8..good god it's like I'm running sort of god machine...the difference is immense! major props for this BA! ...this could delay my beveragement for NYE!

vibe666

got mine too today (delivered to parcel motel).

only got sata2 on the work laptop, but it's still pretty nippy.

here's what crystaldiskmark has to say about it.

darconio

They must have a full warehouse of these sdd because the deal is on again at 1:59 PM today

ablelocks

ordered one today so if anyone has any advice or links for set-up in a dell xps 15 L501x laptop i'd appreciate it...

Xzen

ablelocks wrote: »

ordered one today so if anyone has any advice or links for set-up in a dell xps 15 L501x laptop i'd appreciate it...

There's a very handy instructional here from Dell. It explains all that's needed to exchange the old HDD for an SSD.

Should be easy enough to follow, but if you get stuck, just ask

Ronan H

Mine landed today too, can't wait to install it!

ablelocks

Xzen wrote: »

There's a very handy instructional here from Dell. It explains all that's needed to exchange the old HDD for an SSD.

Should be easy enough to follow, but if you get stuck, just ask

thanks xzen, hard ware side does look straightforward but it's more the software side - pre-install preparation and post-install steps - that I'd need guidance on.

basically the steps to take between backing up the current hdd to installing os and files on the new ssd.

(and best option to continue using the old hdd - i assume a hdd caddy in the optical drive bay?)

dingding

I got a caddy to put the hard drive into the optical drive bay, and I got a USB powered caddy for the external drive.

It was called ICYBOX and I got it on ebay a couple of months ago for 20 - 25 euro.

Works a treat.

Tar.Aldarion

What do you need help with in particular? Stick in the ssd and install windows, put the other hdd in a caddy. That's all there is to it I think.

vibe666

pretty much. as long as you are installing Windows to a new disk you don't need to perform a backup as long as you have some way of connecting the old disk, either a usb or DVD bay caddy would be ideal or even a sata to usb cable would do. either can be had for under a tenner off eBay.

also, laptop and desktop sata connections are the same, so if you have a desktop pc you can connect the old disk to that if you're stuck.

Xzen

ablelocks wrote: »

thanks xzen, hard ware side does look straightforward but it's more the software side - pre-install preparation and post-install steps - that I'd need guidance on.

basically the steps to take between backing up the current hdd to installing os and files on the new ssd.

(and best option to continue using the old hdd - i assume a hdd caddy in the optical drive bay?)

There are a few options here.

1st things 1st - Back-up Personal files:

Note: If you're planning on getting a caddy for the old HDD, backing up files here isn't necessary, since you can assess them via the caddy.

1A: the easiest option is to back-up to the cloud, this may or may not be the best for you depending on how much you need to back-up and how fast your connection is (Anything under 10Mb/s may be best to avoid this option)

A few online storage options are around, most people use Gmail which comes with Google drive . Visit there and you can upload online or download the handy app. Drop your files in and they nice and safe online.

1B: more complicated, but handy if you don't trust your files online, don't have bandwidth or simply prefer to backup localluy. If you don't have much only a few GBs worth, you could back-up onto a few DVDs. You won't need any special software, windows 7 up comes with built in DVD writing software - pop in a blank DVD, drag a few GBs of your files on (4-8GB depending on the DVD disk type), then burn away.


Next, Installing

So you've backed up your files and swapped out the old HDD, popped in the SSD. Now you need to install an OS.

If you have the Dell CD/DVDs that came with the laptop, they probably have all the install files and OS that you need. Likely Windows 7 for that laptop. Make certainly you do have a bootable windows disk, if you don't you'll need to get one from Dell, Microsoft, other nefarious means or buy one. Alternatively you could install Ubuntu or other free Linux distro

Pop in the Windows/Linux DVD and boot up, follow the instructions to install.


What to do with the extra HDD

Well there are a few options.

3A Turn it into a simple USB external drive - Just used for viewing and storing files on your PC/Laptop

You can find cheap SATA caddies all over the place. Probably in your local shop for about €15-30. I've found a few for you here and here

3B Turn it into a multimedia driver and USB drive - handy for plugging into a TV anywhere and watching your stuff as well as just storage.

You may or may not find these in your local tech shop. Again I found one for you here.



********

That's that. A bit basic, but if you need more - let me know

RobertFoster

vibe666 wrote: »

just filled out the form for the assassins creed 3 download and it says it'll take about 7 days for them to check it and confirm the download.

still not bad for a freebie that i wasn't expecting.

Have you heard anything back from them yet? Did you use your Irish phone/address, or your UK Parcel Motel details?

vibe666

RobertFoster wrote: »

Have you heard anything back from them yet? Did you use your Irish phone/address, or your UK Parcel Motel details?

used my real details, nothing back from them yet, but didn't expect to with it being Xmas.

Tea_Bag

got mine today.

The only thing I do on my SSD installs out of the normal is disable hiberfil.sys. its used if you want to use hibernate. with an SSD, i dont see why you would considering the boot times. more importantly though, it takes up large amounts of space (roughly the amount of RAM you have). space is tight and for me thats 16gb!


dont forget drivers from their respective vendors websites.

Tar.Aldarion

good tip to disable hibernate...I did that on current hdd but it so didn't work. Will try again with ssd.

Tea_Bag

Just an FYI, there is a newer firmware than it ships with.

Ive updated it, and it isnt dead yet

will be installing windows now. according to the Samsung Magician software's simple benchmarking tool, its outperforming my 256gb 830 considerably

Tar.Aldarion

That's weird because it uses TLC NAND and that's slower for writing, and even reviews saying Samsung did a good job with the TLC say that the 840 should just be for relatives that aren't concerned about performance. Wonder how the pros is with the 21nm MLC

Ronan H

Still haven't gotten round to installing mine yet. Fresh install of W7 Ultimate x64 FTmofoW!

I was supposed to be building flat pack Ikea stuff tonight, but I think I, em, hurt my back last night so I'll have to take it easy, at the laptop... :cool:

Ronan H

Yep. Sore back is official.

As for the SSD...

...one word, beginning with "f", ending with "t", with ass in the middle!

Thank you OP.

ablelocks

Xzen wrote: »

There are a few options here.....

xzen, thanks for taking the time to write that up, i appreciate it. When I purchased windows 8, i put it on a usb so i should be able to install os from that, yeah?

vibe666

just as an FYI for anyone doing a fresh install of windows onto an SSD (or any other type of drive tbh) do yourself a favour and download the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool and use it to make a bootable USB disk with the windows install files on, instead of using a DVD.

how long it takes is going to depend on how fast the USB drive is, but i clocked it at a couple of seconds over 11 minutes between starting the install to my SSD and sitting in front of a fully booted windows 7 desktop.

the first time did it, I'd actually walked away and left it for 15 minutes and when i walked past the door where the PC was and it was sitting at the desktop, i figured something had gone wrong and actually re-did it again from scratch just to watch it and make sure (and time it).

all you need is a Windows ISO (you could make one from your windows DVD if you don't already have one) and a USB drive of 4gb or more.

Xzen

ablelocks wrote: »

xzen, thanks for taking the time to write that up, i appreciate it. When I purchased windows 8, i put it on a usb so i should be able to install os from that, yeah?

Indeed it should, as Vibe666 said, you can use the very handy ISO to USB tool from Microsoft.

Pop the USB key in, reboot, you may need to press Del , F2, F6 or other Key to gain access to your BIOS and change the USB at the 1st drive to boot from. You could also press either F11 or F10 during the Bios boot (POST) to select the USB drive.

******

After you've installed Windows 8 and gotten annoyed/bored with the new "Start" menu, you can revert to the Windows 7 like Start menu using this really handy Classic Shell mod.

Tar.Aldarion

Is the image freely available legitimately and we can put in our cd key?

i never had a dvd, as I had free access to microsoft software in uni, so i just have my key etc. Would like a download of it.