I’m thinking of adding an SSD to my current computer system (1st generation i5) to give a bit of a performance boost, but I’m not very up to date on what’s good in the SSD market.

I’d be looking for something affordable, with the capacity to take a full Windows 8.1 Professional installation with surplus capacity for future upgrades (250Gb seems about right as I can’t stretch to a 480Gb unit).

I buy a lot of my kit from CCL computers who currently seem to be pushing Kingston SSDs but also supply a bewildering range of other makes and models; I wondered what people here use or would recommend.

Just go to Crucial’s website and let it pick one for you.

Following the discussion here, this afternoon I ordered the one I linked to. Can’t tell you if it’s any good or not yet though, but as far as I’m aware the Intel drives are well regarded.

Samsung 840 Evo or 840 Pro – a few months back they were universally recommended. Not sure if something better has come out since.
Got a 128GB Pro for home which is big enough for Windows Server 2012 – keep files etc on a separate HDD.
Got a 512GB Pro for work.
Neither have skipped a beat.

Currently running a Crucial 240GB, for about 3 years prior to that was running a Kingston (40GB was getting too small) no issues with either, Samsung has a good rep as well.

240GB seems to the the current sweet spot for price, would keep an eye on Hotukdeals for good prices.

Remember they are 2.5″ form factor so order and adapter/get a desktop kit when you buy so you can install it correctly.

I think that I have the Sumsung 840 Pro in my work laptop and it’s not missed a beat, yet. Sees a lot of IO too.

I would normally say a Samsung EVO, but the Crucial M500 seems to be the best priced/performance at the mo. I’ve got a 240gb one in my laptop and its been great. Very cheap at amazon at the mo i think.

Thanks for the thoughts; I’ll have a ponder. 240Gb does seem to be an affordable option with a bit of future proofing.

Corsair Force 3 240GB, bargain at £104

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/240gb-corsair-force-series-3-gt-ssd-slim-7mm-25-sata-6gb-s-sandforce-ssd-read-550mb-s-write-520mb-s-

I did have a samsung but it was to small (30gb used as cache), is’t a m-SATA so couldnt get a bigger samsung at the time and went for a cruicial based. Samsung then cruicial were the best at the time about a year ago.