Hey I just bought a new laptop and was thinking about replacing the hard drive with a SSD cause I use holdem manager and have a fairly large database.

Probably need 200+ gigs and was wondering if it matters on which one I buy. Also is there any way to just copy my whole hard drive over to the ssd and if so how?

Some Solid State Drives are faster than others, so yes it matters which you buy.

If you go on newegg, it's fairly easy to find the read and write speeds when browsing.

If you want Windows to be on the SSD, then I advise a fresh install, if you just want files on the SSD, copy and paste will get it done.

I've heard of people having problems with OCZ and Corsair SSDs.

I've always used Intel SSDs and have never had a problem with them.

Make sure it'll fit in your laptop, most of them should. The steps to replacing an HD are as follows:

1. Backup all the files and information you need from your old HDD (anything that can't be easily downloaded and installed via internet or CD, like documents, mp3s, pictures, whatever). Storing them on a keychain flash drive is easiest, they're cheap and very useful. Or you could even email them to yourself, if you use a web-based email client.

2. Insert the Windows 7 (or whatever operating system) disc in your CD/DVD drive.

3. Shutdown your computer, unplug everything, remove the battery, and wait 30 seconds.

4. Remove the old HDD, plug in the new SSD.

5. Reconnect the power supply, turn the computer on, and boot from CD. The way you do this will be different depending on your machine. Sometimes it'll happen automatically when it sees your SSD is blank, sometimes you'll have to press a key to access the boot menu, sometimes you'll have to press a key to go into BIOS and change your boot settings. In most cases you can press F2 as the computer is booting up, and set the boot priorities to your CD/DVD drive first.

6. The computer will boot from CD, and if it's the right CD (an OS installation disc), it'll give you instructions on how to install the OS on that computer. This is usually very straightforward. You'll see a section where it'll ask you what partition on the drive to install to. If you're doing a fresh install, just use that menu to delete any existing partitions (don't do this until you've backed up anything important on that partition, because it'll be gone forever), and tell it to install on a fresh partition using all of the available disc space.

7. Change your boot priorities back to booting from your SSD (not your CD), and boot up like normal. Now you have a fresh install of whatever OS you use, and all you have to do is repopulate it with all the stuff you're used to using. Download your usual programs and install them, add all your usual websites to your preferred web browser's favorites list, make sure all your hardware's drivers are installed and up to date and working properly, plug in your keychain flash drive and get all your music and documents or whatever onto the computer. And that's it, you're done.

Fresh install is the way to go. Trying to copy everything is actually an even more complicated process than above, you might even need to buy additional hardware to accomplish that, and there's a good chance of it just not working and having to be fixed via fresh install anyway.

The hard part is having an OS installation disc. Most people don't have one, especially laptop users, because their computer is prebuilt and doesn't come with the CD.

You might have success getting your computer's manufacturer to send you one, or getting Microsoft to send you one if you're able to locate your Windows 7 product key.

But you might have to buy a new retail copy of Windows 7 to do this, so that should be factored into the cost. It's like $120.

Just download the Windows 7 ISO and burn into a disc. Pretty easy to find it

Gonso is the expert on this forum and he swears by the Samsung 830.

I just bought one from Newegg for $99.99 (128GB)

i got a Samsung 830 256GB for a new build and it's awesome. Nothing but trouble on the OCZ SSDs for me. My Mushkin and Sandisk were also reliable.

Yeah the Samsung ssd's are cheap right now.

At the moment I like the Samsung 830 and SanDisk Extreme as the best all-around factoring in everything (price, reliability & performance), and they're almost always on sale. I'd say the Samsung's controller figures to be a hair less risky, while the SanDisk a hair faster and can be even cheaper (my 240GB was $159.99 shipped).

There's more to factor in, for example some come with a 2.5 to 3.5" thing to fit into a desktop drive bay sized for larger drives. And there can be some capacity differences here and there to weigh in. I'd just stick to the elite performers with great customer feedback, there's no reason to overpay or grab one of the dicey models.