Buy an SSD Drive to Boost Performance for Under $200

From Consumer Reports, December 2014:

Upgrade My Old Computer or Buy New? Q. I am trying to decide between replacing the hard drive on my 2007 iMac for $250 or buying a new iMac for about $1,350. The old iMac is meeting my needs, and I’ve barely used the storage available on it. But I’m trying to avoid be- coming obsolete. Any advice?
—Roseanne Morrell, New Haven, CT

A. We’re big proponents of upgrading before buying new. (One of our experts once upgraded several 10-year-old Windows XP PCs to Win- dows 7, with double the memory.) Apple is good about maintaining compatibility between its computers and its latest Mac OS version. So replace the hard drive. And while you’re at it, install enough memory to bring it up to 4GB: That will boost performance with newer, larger Mac OS versions and applications.

The Geek's take:
Upgrading your older hard drive to an SSD drive is now very affordable, with 250GB drives available for under $150 and 500GB options available for $250 or less.

B&H has a Toshiba 512GB Q Series Internal Solid State on sale for $200 right now.  Just 18 months ago ago, these would cost $300-500.

The Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III model is the #1 selling internal SSD drive on Amazon.com, and has been in the top 10 list for many months.  At only $120, this drive is an easy way to swap out an old laptop hard drive.  Average users love it too.  It has a 4.7 out of 5 star rating with over 5,000 customer reviews. The larger 500GB model from Samsung is just $230.

$120 for a 250GB drive = $0.48 per GB.
$110 for a 256GB drive = $0.43 per GB -- Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5"
$230 for a 500GB drive = $0.46 per GB.
$205 for a 512GB drive = $0.40 per GB. - Crucial MX100 512GB SATA 2.5" 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter)

Sale Prices (around Black Friday)

$110
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD (MZ-7TE250BW)
Sequential Read Speed 540 MB / Sequential Write Speed 520 MB

$190
Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSD (MZ-7TE500BW)
Sequential Read Speed 540 MB / Sequential Write Speed 520 MB

$190
Crucial MX100 512GB SATA 2.5" 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter) SSD CT512MX100SSD1


Why Upgrade to an SSD?
They are best performance upgrade for the money.  For $200 or less you can upgrade your operating system drive to run on one of the fastest drives available today.  Your computer will boot almost instantly and applications will also load much faster.

SSD drives have no moving parts, use less energy, and do not generate as much heat, which is one of the things that wears out laptops over time.  If you drop a laptop that contains an older spinning hard drive, there's a good change that you'll trash your drive and loose data. (Unless your drive has a motion sensor to detect falling movements.)

Upgrade an old laptop to SSD power for less than $100
If storage space is not a concern and you simply want to upgrade an old laptop to get the performance benefits of an SSD, check out these models:

Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5-Inch SATA III 
Sequential Read Speed 540 MB / Sequential Write Speed 410 MB
$83
SanDisk Ultra Plus 128GB SATA 6.0GB/s 2.5-Inch 7mm Height
sequential read: up to 530 MB/s
sequential write:up to 290 MB/s
$64
the SanDisk Ultra Plus offers a Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) of 2 million hours based on a parts stress analysis (4). MTBF is the predicted amount of time the drive will operate without failure and is a measure of reliability.
2 million hours is 228 years.

Kingston Digital 120GB SSDNow V300 SATA 3 2.5 
450MB/s read and write
$57
(bad reviews on some versions of the firmware)

Crucial MX100 128GB SATA 2.5" 7mm
Sequential Write: 150MB/s - Sequential Read: 550MB/s
(lowest write speed of these models)
$70


Learn more:

Top 20 Best Selling SSD drive on Amazon.com

Amazon.com: Intel 520 Series Solid-State Drive 240 GB SATA 6 Gb/s 2.5-Inch - SSDSC2CW240A310 (Drive Only): Computers & Accessories


What buyers are saying about SSD upgrades:

Crucial MX100 512GB SATA 2.5" 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter) 
Received my MX100 512GB today and swapped it into my 2009 MBP [MacBook Pro] and put the existing 256 GB 5400 RPM hard drive into an external case. Cloned over the hard drive, enabled full disk encryption, and moved on without any issues so far. Granted it has only been a few hours, but I can see the difference immediately. My 5 year old machine has new life. Bootup went from 3 minutes to 7 seconds. I tend to keep multiple tabs open on my web browser and it definitely is moving faster. I could tell on my old hard drive that I was spending lots of time paging to the disk (even with 8GB of RAM).
read the complete review on Amazon.com

Consumer Reports: Best Computer Monitors

Ratings From the June 2010 issue.

All models are recommended models.

22- to 26-inch displays

#1 Apple 24" LED Cinema Display, $850
Overall score: 76
Excellent display quality
Excellent viewing angle
Very good ease of use

#2 ViewSonic VA2223wm (21.5-inch), $160
Overall score: 74
Excellent display quality
Fair viewing angle
Very good ease of use
on Amazon, $169 on 7/6/10

#3 Hans G HH221 (21.5-inch), $150
Overall score: 71
Excellent display quality
Fair viewing angle
Good ease of use

#6 Dell S2409W (24-inch), $225
Overall score: 68
Very good display quality
Fair viewing angle
Very good ease of use
Not available new on Amazon, available refurbished from some places

Consumer Reports Ratings for Plasma TV's

From the July 2010 issue:

"If you have a TV budget of $1,000, you won't have to compromise on screen size of picture quality or settle for a bare-bones set. Just don't expect all the newest high-end features."

Here are the recommended models from the ratings charts:

Panasonic Viera TC-P42S1 (42-inch)
77 overall score
Excellent HD picture quality
Excellent SD picture quality
Excellent viewing angle
3 HDMI / 2 Component
58, energy cost per year
Amazon /
$800

Panasonic Viera TC-P46S1 (46-inch)
76 overall score
Excellent HD picture quality
Very good SD picture quality
3 HDMI / 2 Component
55, energy cost per year
Amazon /
$850

Consumer Reports: Best Digital Cameras

Consumer Reports, July 2009

Subcompact

#3 Nikon Coolpix S610 $220 Recommended
- very good image quality
- optical stabilizer
- wide angle

#8 Canon Powershot SD1100 IS Elph $150 Recommended
- very short next shot delay (excellent)
- very good image quality
>> Also available: the 10MP Canon Powershot SD1200 IS Elph, $230, with
face detection self timer.

Compact

#2 Canon Powershot A1000 IS $140 Recommended
- very good image quality
- one of the highest battery life ratings (450 shots)

#3 Canon PowerShot A590 IS $110 Best Buy
- Good image quality
- 450 shot battery rating
- excellent next-shot delay


Consumer Reports rated the Nikon D300 and D90 to have "max ISO with best quality" at 3200.

Consumer Reports: Best TV's

Consumer Reports March 2009

Movie Lover
. . .To do justice to your favorite flicks, choose a TV with a least a 40-inch screen, and think bigger for a greater dramatic impact.

Plasma sets generally display richer, more movie-like images that LCD TV's, with better blacks, truer colors, and better detail in the shadows. . .Our tests have shown that LCDs using LED backlights with local dimming give plasmas a run for their money in producing deep blacks, great contrast, and accurate colors.

Plasma TV's

50-Inch sets

Samsung PN50A550 $1,600 Best Buy
- Rated 'excellent' rating for HD picture, DVD, and SD picture quality.
- 3 HDMI, 2 Component

Vizio VP504FHDTV10a $1,100 Recommended
- Only other model listed as a great value with excellent HD picture quality
- 4 HDMI, 1 Component

None of the 42" plasma TV's are 1080p.

_______________________________________________

LCD TVs

Viewing angle is still a limiting factor for LCDs; most sets got middling scores because image quality declines as you move off to the sides or up and down.

40 and 42 inch sets

#1 Samsung LN40A630 $1,400 Recommended ($870 on 10/1/09)
- Excellent picture quality across the board

#5 Sharp Aquos LC-42D65U $1,100 Best Buy ($900 on 10/1/09)
- excellent picture quality and an unusual five HDMI inputs

#14 Vizio V042L FHDTV10A $900 Recommended
- Excellent HD picture quality and a wide viewing angle