So, about one month ago I snagged a new 1TB hard drive, cloned it to my old HD, and then swapped drives. I do this about every two years so I can run a fresh drive and keep the old one as a ready back-up.
Its been bugging me for a couple of years why I don't install an SSD to replace the hard drive and after some deep thought
I have a WD 1TB SSD (PCI) on its way for delivery.
I was a bit torn over which type of SSD I wanted to install. I can run either a PCI-based unit or an M.2 "clip in" and by-pass the external drives entirely.
I'm kind of doing this upgrade in phases. The new SSD will be formatted and cloned just like the older HDs (for now, anyway). I'm not expecting miracles but it will be neat to check out the faster load times. A 1TB drive is more than enough for this rig and the way I run it.
With the M.2 SSD, I guess it will happen sometime over the next two years. I want to watch what happens with the M.2 prices and I'll probably buy a 500MB board and only install the operating system on it and use the PCI SSD for files and game storage. Or maybe not..
I still want to learn a bit more about how M.2's like a little more heat when they run and I'm still not 100% sold if I'll even install an M.2. This rig is based more on stability, simplicity, and low power usage (I only run CPU and P/S fans).
In terms of cloning the current drive to the SSD, I'll probably stick with Acronis unless one of you has a better suggestion.
