PNY - 120GB Internal SATA Solid State Drive

Second SSD drive I got is good but it had alot of writing error's when using it for a Laptop upgrade when using cloning software, I had alot of trouble with this one I didn't have with the first one I got that is identical to this one, not just the problem with write error's but it was being detected by the BIOS but not being detected by the OS after it was fully loaded, I ruled out interface problems, after first Windows 10 OS installation it showed the wrong capacity of 18GB with 5.38 GB free, that made no sense as it's a 120GB drive, I had to keep using Windows Built-In Partition Tool to manually clean and the Computer Management Disk Manager to manually Initialize, and Reformat the SSD, there were several attempts to transfer operating system copy for an ASUS laptop upgrade using cloning software but the clones kept failing at random points due to the high amount of write error's until the last time which everything went fine after several attempts related to the write error's, end result required 3 re-installation attempts of Windows 10 before the installation held and now shows the correct 120GB storage size. The problems were a bit annoying and I didn't experience this with the first drive I got, and something like this would indicate something such as a defective or early failing drive, and you need to have some advanced knowledge of handling partitions using the command line or a special tool in order to deal with and troubleshoot things like this. At the moment it's working ok now, no write error's now, so I'll keep it unless it completely stops working, but the life of the drive is probably reduced a bit from the steps that were needed to get it to this point and I'm not comfortable with the high write error's it had the first several attempts, I will still probably get another one sometime to do another upgrade later of an old mini-computer. It was a higher price than the first one I got but I would still recommend the drive.

I've been using this SSD for a couple of months now, and I've had no problems. It definitely beats the heck out of every HDD I've ever had. It's too small for most people to use as the only hard drive in a computer, but it'll work for gamers who just want their system files on this hard drive and everything else on an HDD. Personally, I have Windows installed on an HDD and Linux installed on my SSD. I checked the read/write speeds. I did 10 trials of each within a 1-2 minute period. Write speed average: 444 MB/s Lowest write speed: 265 MB/s Highest write speed: 513 MB/s Read speed average: 3 GB/s That's right. I'm not joking. It's far above the advertised maximum read speed. But it's true, so I won't complain about it. Lowest read speed: 2.8 GB/s Highest read speed: 3 GB/s Both read and write speeds went above the advertised max write speed of 490 MB/s and max read speed of 515 MB/s. I'd say this SSD performs better than advertised, which to me, makes it a good buy.

I picked up 2 of these, one for my wifes aging Asus netbook and one for my sons brand new HP budget laptop for school. Both laptops had bigger drives in them, but not much actually being used, so the size downgrade was doable. The netbook was almost unusable using Win10. She just wants to plan grocery trips and check email and couldn't even do that in less than a 5 minute bootup. The SSD, with a fresh Win10 install, she is up and running in seconds. For the HP, I cloned that one over and the teen who has no patience for prolonged bootups and background processes is now actually using the laptop instead of crying about wanting to use my desktop because his was too slow! Seriously, the joke about Windows users that do the upgrade sitting there restarting the computer all day is true. You restart it over and over because you cannot believe how fast it is actually booting!

This definitely made my boot time faster. However, there were no 2.5" sled mounting screws included and none of my regular PC screws were the correct size. This wold have been ok except for the fact that my case 2.5" sled does not have any pins to hold the SSD in the sled. Also the included free Acronis software only has the cloning feature unlocked. You must pay to upgrade if you want to use the backup feature. The cloning feature is not smart enough to realize that a source drive larger than the target drive but actually has less used space should be ok to clone. Instead it wants to shrink the source drive partition. I decided to use the free Macruim Reflect software instead as it is smart enough to only clone the space actually used on the source drive.

There's now no doubt in my mind that the single, easiest, cheapest way to significantly increase the perceived speed of your computer is to use an SSD as a boot drive. It really feels like a new computer when you do so. Put all of, or just your most used, applications on this drive as well. My computer boot time has changed from over a minute to just a few seconds. Same with opening apps, and saving and opening documents. Once you install one of these you will realize how much of the lag or slowness of your computer was due to seek/access times, and the throughput speed of your hard drive. Also, you will now have no moving parts in your computer. (Except possible, the CPU cooling fan.) And with prices already pretty low and only going lower, installing one of these is a no-brainer.

I bought this drive for my dad's computer when he started to complain of its sluggishness. He didn't need anything fancy nor a lot of capacity, so I started to search for the most inexpensive 120GB or high model SSD I could find at the time. I saw this and had some BestBuy bucks to contribute toward the purchase. I stopped by, picked it up, and put it into Dad's computer in the same day. This has been in is computer, I would approximate, close to two years and has run flawlessly. I know more demanding users may need a more powerful drive as well as a higher capacity, but if managing everyday tasks without needing too much storage is a fit for you, this drive can do the job with ease and reliability.

This is a good starter SSD, exceptional for things like booting Windows 10 from. However It isn't the latest PNY drive architecture (Nand 3D) so it is slower. (255MB/s read and 393 MB/s write Vs over 500MB/s read and almost 700 MB/s write on the new drives) That said, I plan on buying another one of these as a spare drive, unless the PNY CS1311 drive goes on sale (that's the new one btw) I am using the drive for speed booting large gaming files and have seen my load times drop from 32 seconds to under 2 seconds on games over 20gb. Remember that SSD's work best when they are under 90% full, so this 120gb drive gives you 108 usable Gigs before performance degradation.

This product is nothing short of blazing fast. It will bring life into any new or old laptop that has a spindle drive. While capacity is not its strong suit, being fast (and lets face it, who needs TB of storage on a laptop, as they are more for function rather than storage). Helps improve battery life too as the data is available almost instantly for the system to process. The other key factor in this product is the price. Cheapest SSD on the market and with great stability and performance, it is a must buy product for anyone wanting to breath life into an old notebook or PC.