NEED FOR SPEED SORTED

Do it.

Do it now.

Don't wait another second.

If your PC or laptop is still running on a hard drive instead of an SSD, stop what you're doing right now, go and get the latest SSD from Crucial and swap them out.

Immediately.

Well... as soon as you've read this review anyway...

The BX500 is the lightest SSD I've come across, weighing virtually nothing. If you're replacing a steel encased HDD in your laptop, you've just lightened your load.

But let's back things up a bit - maybe you're not a geek like me and you don't understand the difference between an HDD and an SSD. In fact, maybe you don't know what either of them are. That's okay - you just need to know SSD is better and you need to find out if you have an HDD, because if you do, you need to replace it. Don't argue. Just do it.

The last "D" stands for Drive - as in where your computer stores all its stuff. Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) are an actual disc that spins around super fast. The computer reads the information on that disc, or adds to it, as quickly as it can. Late model, super-duper HDDs can read and write very quickly indeed, but nowhere near as fast as an SSD.

SSD stands for Solid-State Drive, which is just a nerdy way of saying it's all circuit boards and microchips and no moving parts at all. This means almost instant access to all the storage space at once - so an SSD like the Crucial BX500 can read and write at least 300% faster than even the fastest HDD.

Sounds cool right? But what does it really mean in practical terms?

Swapping your HDD for an SDD will speed up your computer more than any other improvement you might make, simple as that.

Boot times, loading times, even download speeds and file transfers all improve when you have storage space your computer can access faster.

And that's not the only benefit.

A spinning hard drive makes a lot of noise. SSDs don't.

A spinning hard drive gets really hot. SSDs don't.

A spinning hard drive needs more power to keep spinning. An SSD isn't spinning anything, so its electrical footprint is dramatically smaller.

Oh... and moving parts wear out and break. The BX500 comes with a three year warranty. Case closed.

Okay, so how do you actually do it? If everything I've just told you is news to you, chances are the thought of taking a screwdriver to your computer gives you chills. Take a breath and watch this 30 second video. It really is that easy. Crucial provides a link that walks you through the process step by step.

Even I (and I really am a geek) was a bit reluctant to swap out the main storage drive in my PC. My big issue was I had too much stuff. I was trying to replace a 1TB hard drive with the 480GB BX500 (the largest capacity available).

Thankfully, I already have a separate 4TB hard drive installed for extra storage. I use a great utility called TreeSize Free to show me what's taking up all the space on my computer. Usually, by moving all your photos, videos and music to another drive, you'll be amazed how much space you've freed up.

In my case, I have a 14 year-old gamer in the equation - so it was her game folders hogging most of that 1TB drive. Once I transferred those to my secondary HDD, I was more than ready to follow the instructions Crucial provided with the free cloning software. I'm begging you here; this is not a complicated process at all - just time consuming.

If, like me, you've got several hundred megabytes of stuff to move, you'll need to set aside a whole morning or afternoon or evening for the process, but its so worth it.

The instant boost in my PC's speed is a revelation and I'm kicking myself for not doing this months ago.

If you've ever sat at your computer chanting, "Come on! Come on!" while waiting for it to boot up, surely $150 and a few hours of your time isn't too much to spend to solve that once and for all.

Do it. Do it now. You won't regret it.

The BX500 SSD will make your computer run faster. It's that simple.


Click here for more information on the Crucial BX500 SSD.