Samsung MZ-7TD250BW 840 Series Solid State Drive (SSD) 250 GB Sata 2.5-Inch

Things I like about the drive: SPEED: I knew this drive would be faster than my laptop's OEM drive, but not this much faster. My boot time went from over two minutes to less than 20 seconds. Windows shut-down also dropped to about five seconds. But the biggest surprise was the start time of programs like Word, Excel and Outlook - they appear on the screen, ready to use, almost instantaneously. They cold-start as fast or faster than when they were running in the background on my old HDD. POWER USAGE: I have a laptop with infamously short battery life. This drive should give me between 30 minutes to an hour longer battery life. Samsung lists its idle power consumption (and SSDs spend most of their time in idle) at a very low 0.02 watts. This is equal to the 840 Pro and better than the older 830 series which used 0.6 watts. It uses MUCH less power than any mechanical HHD. WEIGHT: This 840 is 3.6 ounces lighter than the laptop HHD it replaced. That may not seem like much, but on a 3 lb notebook 3.6 oz is a huge difference. My laptop went from a 3 pound laptop to a 2.8 lb laptop. INSTALLATION: Absolutely zero problems installing this drive on a Win7 computer. I used Acronis backup software to clone my old drive to the SSD, so I can't comment on Samsung's Magician drive cloning ability. It is necessary to optimize the drive and OS after installing a SSD, and the Magician software made this easy. Changing the computer's OS settings took about ten minutes and improved the drive's performance by about 10% - so don't skip this step no matter how fast the drive seems. One thing I liked about the Magician setup is that not only does it tell you what you should change, it tells you why. The Magician software initialized the SSD automatically during setup, so no issues there. The Magician software also let me know that there was a firmware update available for the drive, and let me install it by clicking a button - very easy. Magician stores bench-marking tests to help identify performance changes over time. Benchmarking can also be used to see how changing your OS settings effect performance. Things I don't like about the drive: Frankly not much. It is 250 GB and not the standard 256 GB, but that wasn't a surprise since it is clearly labelled 250 GB. Also it could be a little cheaper, although its price has dropped to an affordable level lately ($170 at the time of my purchase). It is really a shame it is buried in my laptop because it is so beautifully designed - black with a chrome ring around the edge. With a USB adapter this drive would be a very nice looking external drive. Final comments: I'm very pleased with this drive. You will need an adapter to clone your old drive and I recommend the Anker® Uspeed USB 3.0 to SATA 3ft Converter Adapter Cable which worked very well for me.

I purchased this to replace the intel 330 120gb SSD that does not play well with my macintosh because intel doesn't care. It works phenomenally, playing well with my older mac's 1.5gb/s speed limit. It boots up fast, opens programs fast (photoshop and illustrator, WOW). HOWEVER: MY glaring gripe comes with how the drive arrives. I get it in the mail, and hook it up to clone my old intel SSD to this one so i can get RELIABLE ssd performance. My mac "couldn't identify" it, my PC wouldn't show it. My brand new drive showed up NOWHERE. it was only after using Gparted, the liveboot linux based drive partition editor, that I could see the drive. It was completely unallocated. No filesystem, so no computers would pick it up as usable space. What the gosh darn heck kind of way is that to ship a drive. A user of (not to toot my own horn) lesser experience would have no idea to use Gparted and would likely be as angry and frustrated as I initially was. That's no way to ship a drive, as it's literally unusable out of the box and requires more advanced allocation to become usable. So either I got an outlier on ssd style shipping, or samsung has to get it's ssd act together (which is sad to say because they're smart enough to NOT ship these affordable drives with a sandforce controller). This drive is fast. It's nice. the main issue with it is how it, from my view because it came like this to me, is shipped as unallocated space (even the software it came with wouldn't recognize it on my system as it was, again, unallocated). If you're and advanced user who can boot with Gparted and wants an affordable drive with good speed, this is for you, i suppose. Edit: Feb 11th 2013. Someone asked, in response to this review, if it'd fit in a Macbook Air. I'm assuming the original gen because the newest gen has integrated SSD (on the circuit board) to my knowledge. Anyway, I unfortunately do not know. The samsung 840 is absolutely slimmer in profile than laptop HDs and the Intel 330 ssd, but I'm unsure as to it fitting, because I'm unfamiliar with the HD size of those that go in original MB Airs. The real point of this edit is to say something else. A few weeks have gone by since I got this SSD. ZERO freezes like I got with the Intel 330. A huge improvement and step up. Photoshop, Chrome, heck, all my apps launch instant to near instant. It's amazing. It RE-INVIGORATES my computer, it'd undoubtedly do this to any computer, aging or not. I'd like to get another to replace in my Asus UL30vt, which has an Intel 330 SSD, with problems that prevent the laptop from sleeping.

I have a very old Pentium 2 machine that I use as a home machine on weekends running Windows XP (from around 2006 I think), with a ton of software, downloads etc, 3 gigs of RAM, an inexpensive Nvidia 210 video card (which, by the way, improved Flight Simulator performance 20 fold compared to running FSim off the motherboard without a graphics card). My home machine used to take forever to boot up - I would literally fire it up, go make coffee, read the paper, and then leave it running all weekend because it took so long to boot up or shut down. Windows Updates also took up to 30 minutes +++ to install. I have upgraded the hard drives a couple of times over the years, but re-installing all the software was a daunting task and real schlepp. (The thought of re-installing Windows and re-sourcing all those programs was a big disincentive to upgrading to Win 7 - particularly as I only use my home machine occasionally - and usually for Word, Excel documents, Flight Planning and for running Flight Sim 2004, X-Plane 9 and FSim X (I am a private pilot and like to brush up on and practice instrument approaches and difficult cross-wind approaches when flying the family into short or difficult bush air-strips. I also have a CH aircraft yoke and pedals attached to the PC by USB.). I also occasional program in Visual Basic and the older operating systems and older versions of Excel have less security hassles. I read the reviews for this 120 Gig Solid State Drive ("SSD") on Amazon and elsewhere, and the Samsung 840 appeared to be the fastest, most user friendly and simple to install and most affordable per gigabyte at the moment. Hence the Amazon Top Seller. This was my first SSD installation. I have installed a number of additional mechanical drives over time (referenced as D:\, E:\, F:\ etc) which is nearly as easy as plugging in a USB drive these days (Google if stuck). Installation of the SSD was as easy as installing another hard drive (in fact - even easier - because I had the Samsung Getting Started Desktop Installation 6 step diagram to follow). My PC now boots up in about 15 - 20 seconds and Windows updates take no time at all - a couple of seconds. The migration (I.e. copying the exact image of my old drive to the new SSD drive) was very easy and took about 30 minutes (I had about 70 gigs of programs on my Old C drive including the Windows XP operating system, Office and hundreds of other small programs and apps that I have accumulated over the years that I migrated onto the SSD - using the Samsung software in a couple of simple steps.. I am still using the same XP operating system , and all of the hundreds of legacy programs , so my PC hasn't changed at all since installing the SSD aside from the lightning quick boot-up. I used the Samsung speed test to test the Input / Output speeds of the Solid State Drive against my old ~2009 mechanical 250gig drive. The SSD is 30 to 50 times faster than my old drive at reading and writing data. I can highly recommend this SSD if you are looking to breathe new life into an old machine, and am going to do this SSD upgrade for all my work and family machines (about 10 machines in total). A couple of pointers: I had already installed a second mechanical drive (D:\ ) into my PC which was and still is used for music, movies, CD image backups, photos etc (You don't necessarily want to migrate these seldom used items onto your SSD) The SSD didn't come with SATA power or data cables to connect the SSD to the motherboard (these are the same SATA cables that the old mechanical drives use). Luckily I had some spare cables lying around. The SSD didn't come with a mounting tray, but because the SSD only weighs a couple of grams, mounting isn't as critical as for the heavy old mechanical drives (although good idea to stow securely - you don't want the drive floating around and getting entangled in your cooling fans). Good idea to have a look at your C: drive (do a search for all files bigger than 10 meg) and remove any programs that you don't use anymore, move your large personal docs, movies, pics, videos, old .iso and .pst (Outlook) files to a separate drive (either a USB drive or a separately mounted old mechanical drive) and clean up your C: drive temporary files before you migrate to SSD (i.e. slim down your C drive before you migrate - so you don't clog up your SSD and waste SSD space). SSD's apparently work better and faster with free space (I have used 70 out of 120 gigs i.e. about 57% of the available SSD space). Use the Samsung software provided on the disk. It is incredibly simple to install and use, and I've read about problems with using other (e.g. Norton or other Acronis) cloning software e.g. "alignment" and resulting speed problems (Google if interested further)

Nice and easy installation. I didn't bother with the included software. Used Clonezilla to clone my Windows installation onto the drive, then Partition Magic to create a partition for my games and copy them onto the Samsung drive. Make sure to set the SATA mode in your BIOS to AHCI in order to get max performance from the drive. If you had previously installed Windows with SATA in IDE mode and you change to AHCI you'll get a BSOD. Before you change the BIOS to AHCI, go here to apply a fix.[...] After you've taken care of that change, change the BIOS and clone your Windows installation onto the Samsung Drive. I'm running the drive on a MB that only has SATA II, so I'm not getting the full speed (until I complete my next build), but I'm still seeing noticeable speed increases. Games are picking up a few FPS and boot up/shutdown time is significantly faster, as are application load times. This drive does NOT come with a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter so, if you're installing in a tower, don't forget (like I did) to order one. NOTE : For some reason, my computer will not stay in sleep mode since I installed this drive. From what I've read, some SSDs do not like sleep mode and it could have an adverse effect on the drive. Not really a problem since boot times are so much faster and smoother. Gotta add that Amazon rocked shipping on this order. I placed the order on Wednesday, it shipped on Friday and was delivered on Saturday (all with free shipping!) Gotta love living near Atlanta when they ship from Chattanooga :)

I have a Windows 7 PC that I upgraded to Windows 8 three weeks ago. Earlier this year, I had upgraded my PC to a 128gb Sata III Chronos SSD. I felt that there would be enough space and the last couple of months was moving files to another hdd and trying to eliminate files. I could probably do this for the next two years, but had felt that once the 256gb drives had come down below $200 I would pay attention and make that decision. I was ready to buy a couple of weeks ago, but through some of the online threads and reviews of the Samsung 830 (The 840 was not out yet) I had learned that there were a few people waiting for the 840. Evidently Samsung had decided to put a lot of focus on the 840 to improve reliability, speed, and costs. I read the technology involved in the new 840 and was quite impressed. I felt even if I don't see or "feel" any improvements, so what... I would probably end up with something more reliable! What really sealed the deal was a reduction in price and the included software to clone the drives. I spent an hour installing the included software to clone my drive, which wanted me to go online and download Norton Ghost v 15. I did this, put the serial number from the CD jacket and Norton would not accept the serial number. Then, I looked further in the box and found another number (not matching) on the plastic disc holder, and that did not work either! I was really upset that something that Samsun was supposed to make easy, ended up being a complicated ordeal. No wonder people get discouraged! I was about to call it quits and planned on calling Samsung to force them into supporting this endeavor. Also, I did not see anywhere from Samsung that this supports Windows 8. When I was installing the software, Windows said the software was incompatible, however, it asked if I wanted to forge ahead and install and so I did. I felt like not giving up, so I downloaded a program called easeus partition manager and within minutes had started the process of cloning the drive and when the system rebooted to make the clone, it took approximately 30 minutes. When the process was done, I made sure to turn off my pc, unplug the older SSD and boot up with Samsung 840. Everything worked perfectly. I did see a little bit of a speed boost, and switching between apps and screens is a lot faster. The Windows Disk performance index on the Chronos SSD was 5.9 and now with the Samsung 840, it is rated at 7.6. I am impressed with this SSD and I am more relaxed knowing that I have more space to work with. Now, I can move my documents from a secondary hdd back to the ssd where I will gain even more speed. I feel this SSD is rock solid in performance, price, and reliability. It's nice that computers have progressed to the point where little things like this makes a huge difference. It's things like this that gives our main pc's a much longer life! My next endeavor is to get a pcie adapter for this SSD to free up a SATA port and allow me to add an additional 4tb hdd. Thank you, Amazon for selling this Samsun 840 at a much needed discounted price!

TLDR: Great way to bring new life into not so new computers. New computer experience without the new computer (or price.) I bought a couple of these as an upgrade for my wife's laptop, and a laptop I just ordered. These are the first SSDs I have ever ordered, so while to those who are experienced with them may be saying "yeah, so?", I am saying to those who are wondering if they are worth the investment "Yes!" She has an Acer Aspire 5552 (AMB Athlon II dual-core 2.2 GHz, 4 GB ram) that has been running a little bit sluggish lately. After cleaning up some programs and junk files, it did seem to perk back up quite a bit, but I still wanted to breathe some new life into it to make it last longer. I ordered one of these drives along with a RAM upgrade (8 GB) to try and see what we can do to get it moving along. After receiving the SSDs last night I promptly got to work. The packaging was simple, included a CD with the Data Migration software, and a quick start guide. It was a comfort to be able to handle a drive without worries of causing some kind of ESD damage to exposed components (like those of an HDD.) The quick start sheet that had no words, but only pictures of all the steps needed to migrate your data. While I am not a fan of these types of instructions, the process really is simple enough to not require a worded desricption. It also came with 2 "Samsung SSD Activated" stickers that you can affix to whatever you want, so those who like their computer's capabilities brandished on display for all to marvel can proudly boast a SSD install. But doing so reminds me of when cars use to proudly display the "fuel injected" fixture on the trunk... the idea was a bit impressive for 5 minutes, but lost it shine and glimmer as such a great tech became the norm. Regardless, I am one of those saps and after all was said and done, I gleefully put the stick on the laptop while giggling giddiliy like a little girl (this sentance brought to you by 4G networks everywhere.) So I popped the SSD into the docking station (yes, you need some sort of external docking station/adapter that connects via USB) and let it install the drivers for the drive. Created a partition and formatted (not sure if this step was needed. I will find out when I do this when my new laptop arrives.) Installed the Samsung data migration software which already have an update that it downloaded and installed. The software was straight forward and easy to use. The transfer took aproximately 2 hours (around 70GB of data over USB 2.0) altogether. After it was done it even popped up a window that instructed you to now swap the disks out with an option to shut down now or later. I shut it down, got the drives swapped and prepared for the glory that would ensue upon start-up. I push the power button which flashes the Acer logo for a brief half a second before the Windows load screen pops up. It's only a mere 4-5 seconds before the windows log on screen pops up awaiting for the password. I log in and it's only another 4-5 seconds before all programs a loaded and I am connected to the internet. What used to take 5-10 minutes now took only about 15-20 seconds. I.Can't.Freakin.Believe.It. All performance aspects of the laptop have seemed to improve. Internet browsing is a lot faster. Streaming from Hulu and Netflix runs smoother and loads faster as well. I would definately suggest considering using one of these as a viable upgrade for your computer that seems to be lagging, but is still a bit to young to replace. For laptop users, this may be a sacrifice of some (or a lot in some cases) drive space, but you can always buy an external drive enlosure for the HDD you are replacing and use that as your storage drive while your OS and programs run off the SSD. You could also consider cloud storage as well if you need just a little bit more. I look forward to slapping the 2nd one into the 2nd drive space on my new laptop (Acer Aspire V3-771G-9441) and making it the main OS/program drive. I am very excited to see how quickly Civilization V will load and how long it takes between turns (compared to my old clunky laptop.)

The positive side: the disk was immediately recognized by my relatively old ACER ASPIRE AST180 motherboard BIOS (2007). The negatives, the disk package lacks basic instructions of what to do after your PC BIOS recognizes the disk. It didn't mention at all the Partition/Format steps. Being around PCs for more than a quarter century, I knew I had to follow those two steps, but a little indication about the specifics of where and how to find the proper options in the main operating systems the disk is supposed to work under, just a line for each WXP, WVista, W7, W8, would have been nice and time saving. Even more disappointing has been the Samsung software accompanying the disk. Two utilities: disk maintenance and disk cloning/migration. Can't tell which one is worse. The maintenance app is not the latest version. After you installed it, it keeps asking you to upgrade it to the latest version. The problem is that it doesn't stop to ask no matter how many times you respond "NO". Even when starting your PC, since it is hosted in your TaskBar, the first thing that greets you once Windows terminates its initial protocol, is this little stupid app asking you again to upgrade. But that's nothing. You installed and configured your SSD an hour ago, you started to use it, copied files and installed/moved programs onto it, you even set the Windows page file to don't bother anymore your conventional hard drive and you allocate instead 16GB for it in your new SSD, and even after all this, the stupid maintenance app keeps telling you that it can't find a Samsung SSD in your PC! The cloning/migration app, well, it doesn't tell you that it can't find the Samsung SSD. Better if it did. After you spent 45 minutes waiting for the cloning process to be done, once it reaches 100%, the app tells you the process has failed because the SSD was disconnected ... by the app itself! So, I went to the Partition/Format process again, repeated the cloning process and again, same result. Well, enough is enough. Went back to Partition/Format and after that, started to do myself the things at my reach other than migrating the OS: moving the big files/applications I use the most: all my Total War games collection. Also, the already explained settings change of the Windows page file. After all that, my PC overall and my games in particular, work better and faster, and I feel good about it, but not because the Samsung software was of any help. Needless to say, I have uninstalled both utilities.

For the average consumer, the Samsung 840 500GB Solid State Drive (SSD) will go above and beyond expectations. With its incredibly fast read and write times, anyone who buys it, having only experienced hard disk drives (HDDs) before, will be blown away. For example, with my old Hitachi 500GB 5400rpm HDD, my laptop booted in around 5 minutes, but now, with this SSD, my laptop's boot time is determined by how fast I can type my password in; it takes about 12 seconds to get through my Samusung BIOS and Windows Startup screens, and then, once I type in my password, I can open up any program instantly. By this, I mean that, with an HDD, even if you have booted to your desktop, you will still have to wait awhile to be able to open up any programs. With the SSD, there is no wait time, and so, once I arrive at my desktop in ~15 seconds, my laptop is ready to go. ***SPECIAL NOTE TO THOSE NEW TO SSDS*** I would like to note a few "failings" in the product and SSDs in general that weren't made evident to me when I made this purchase. First of all, SSDs do wear out. Yes, they will wear out slower than HDDs, but they do wear out. Being essentially a CD or DVD but with a much larger storage space, HDDs have several moving parts that wear out as you use the HDD more and more. On the other hand, SSDs have no moving parts, and are instead made of cells that store data (called writing). Each cell in an SSD has a limited number of times it can written to, and so has a sort of clock that counts down till its death (called write endurance.) The amount of time on this clock is determined by what kind of cells the SSD is made up of: Single Level Cell (SLC), Multiple (meaning Double) Level Cell, or Triple Level Cell (TLC). Incidentally, TLC, the type used in the Samsung 840, has the worst write endurance of the three. However, the result of the Samsung 840 using TLC memory isn't quite so bad. Unless you are writing and then clearing loads of data to your SSD daily, it should last quite a long time. So far, in the month I've owned it, I have written .9 terabytes (.4 of which was me uploading my old HDD's data to the SSD and .2 of which was me trying to back it all up, which, oddly, failed halfway through) of data to my SSD, and have expended about 1% of the SSD's writes. Therefore, it would seem that I have only written about 300GB in day to day usage. Seeing as how I have calculated the Samsung 840 500GB SSD to be capable of 200TB (perhaps an optimistic calculation, take with a grain of salt) of writes or more, and how I've written about 10GB per day, that means it'll take me about 55 years to completely wear out this SSD.