Sporting a new SSD and Windows 7 on a 6 y/o computer

I haven’t been doing anything lately because I decided to give this computer a second chance and upgrade it as much as I can.

Two weeks ago I received an email newsletter from Tigerdirect about a one-day sale of a new 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD (VTX3-25SAT3-120G) that had a $20 rebate and free shipping. I thought about it for a couple of hours and decided to go for it. I ended up paying about $80, and with the rebate it came down to $60.

This is an HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7680n Desktop PC that I got back in 2006. It’s been good to me, and the motherboard can take up to 8GB of RAM, so it’s worth a shot.

I got the SSD last week, but I didn’t try it until I had gone through as many tutorials about either  re-installing Windows XP Media Center, or installing a fresh copy of Windows 7. I thought about it long enough and decided to go for the latter.

Before doing anything, I backed up my files and a few settings to that Fantom Drives eSATA external HDD that I reviewed two years ago. I mention it because somebody commented on this entry about how bad those drives were and how hard it is to get the warranty honored by the makers. I think the reason mine is still working is the eSATA enclosure. I’ve had a few HDD’s die on me while using USB 2.0 enclosures, so that’s why I don’t like them that much anymore. Mine is still kicking butt after two years, so maybe I got lucky and got a good one, who knows.

Anyway, I followed this guide to make sure Windows 7 would get installed properly the very first time and I have no issues with the SSD. After installing Win7 I added one of my previous HDD’s back to use it for files and other things, like the page file and stuff.

Everything seems to be working good so far. I haven’t had blue screens  yet, and I don’t have to wait 5 minutes for the system to boot up like before.

I’ll give it a few days to see how it works out before I buy a Windows 7 key (I’m using a trial version), and add more RAM.

I read many reviews about the OCZ Vertex 3 SSD series before buying, and it had more positive reviews than negative, so I really hope it lasts me a good couple of years, or until I get a new desktop computer.

The only thing that bothers me is all the horror stories about the life span of SSD’s, it makes me feel like I’m living a suspense story; I don’t know when I’m gonna wake up and find the SSD is dead…