Silicon Power 256GB SSD 3D NAND A55 SLC Cache Performance Boost SATA III 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (SP256GBSS3A55S25)

Great for refurbishing an old machine you have laying around and sending it out the door with a new lease on life.Used for my nephew's computer I build him for Christmas, with an AMD FX 6300, 8gb of RAM, Asus MA-970 chipset motherboard with garbage ASMedia hard drive controller. It actually sped the thing up nice with a legit copy of Windows 10 (using the Windows 7 key for authorization as it was tied to the motherboard on an OEM license).Nary an issue, works great, and was nice and fast.Great for:Kid's computernon-production machines for net uselight to medium-duty Laptopmachines you are gifting away, to friends, family, or grand-maStorage for media files (get the bigger model, but check prices against more known brands first)Not to great for:Content creation, or other heavy-duty multimedia work like video editing or game design. Get an NVME or high-end sata drive for that, you'll thank yourself later.Saving large pictures when working with 4k or higher, get something like an NVME drive for this again.Conclusion:For all those times when it doesn't pay to spend the extra 10~20$ to get a super-fancy brand, as not everyone needs that nor will notice the difference, these drives fit the bill. I have no complaints and have had a few SP brand drives without any issue. Just go in knowing that, while they're much much faster than any hard drive could ever hope to be, they're not the fastest thing out there, nor will they set any speed records. The top-half of the drive is plastic, vs some other drives that have a complete metal enclosure. The drive does not go fast enough to warrant metal for heat-dissipation, so as not to worry, otherwise it wouldn't be designed this way.This is a solid mainstream drive and is marketed as such. No gimmicks, no run-around.To that end, I got what I paid for, no hassle & no complaints what-so-ever.If your drive gets slow after an unplanned shutdown (as all Hard Drives or SSD's can), please open an Administrator-level command prompt (CTRL+SHIFT+CLICK) and type "CHKDSK /F C:" (provided C: is your SSD), and press enter. If it asks to do it after a restart, press Y and hit enter. Then save your work and restart the machine and wait patiently for a minute or two (or less!) while the machine checks the drive for loose files laying about. The machine will be faster after it auto-restarts upon completion.This holds true for any drive OF ANY BRAND in a modern computer, and is due to the fact that an unplanned shutdown will mark the disk as dirty making the drive double-check where everything is, causing quite a bit of wait time for the CPU, resulting in slower performance and hitching in games or other applications. So write down that command and keep it for later incase the power goes out or the machine locks up or gets slow.--Best of luck and GREAT PRODUCT!

Over the years, I have built, rebuilt, and repaired thousands of computers and typically have only used Samsung or Crucial SSD drives. However, as my customers seek lower prices, I have transitioned to less expensive SSDs such as Silicon Power or ADATA. Both are still very reputable brands and make quality products. I can certainly say that for these Silicon Power SSDs.- Build Quality of these are on par with other brands; lightweight, with a sturdy plastic housing. No issues mounting in hard drive caddy, so installation was a breeze.- Installed Windows on the 256GB using a USB, took about 15 minutes to install and setup. Afterwards, Windows booted in under 7 seconds on an older 2nd gen i5 laptop.- Write speeds are below what you can expect from the higher end Samsung and Crucial drives, but not significantly. This honestly won't affect or be an issue for the everyday consumer. Nontheless, definetely a huge step up from traiditional mechanical drives.Overview: Don't let the lower price fool you. Silicon Power is a fairly well-known brand that has been around for roughly 18 years. There are about 5 major NAND manufcaturers and it's likely that you'll see some of the same internal components in these as you will in more expensive SSDs. It's all about branding and marketing. Read/Write speeds on these is great at this price point and can defintely breath new life into your older machines. I will continue to buy and recommend these Silcon Power SSDs.

I have an old laptop for use at home. At the moment I really cannot afford a new computer. But my laptop is 10 years old, and slow. What to do?! One way to speed up your old computer significantly is by upgrading from an HDD to an SSD. As far as I have read, it's the best way to upgrade computer performance. I thought I'd try it.I was skeptical, especially when I first got it, because it was light weight compared to any disc drive I have ordered in the past. I'd never ordered an Solid State. The physical installation was easy; it is a standard size laptop drive. But I was still skeptical because for 256GB it is a good price.I ended up cloning my old hard drive to this new one, and after a few bumps and bruises (my own cloning understanding issues) I was able to get the image off of my HDD to this SSD.First boot? It was brilliant! I booted my computer and was delightfully pleased. It's fast. It boots into Windows 10 with lightning speed. It makes my laptop feel like a new computer. I'm excited about this purchase and about being able to run Windows and Linux without the frustrating latency. I feel like I have a new computer. I haven't benchmarked the speeds yet, and I may not have to, because the response time is so much better for me that I am pleased regardless. I'd definitely recommend this drive.