[YanivC]

Simple answer YES... complicated answer YES.. direct answer HELL YES.
Most people ask... but wont having more RAM be better?
Simple answer NO. Complicated answer? You need to understand how RAM works and hows the applications you have installed use your RAM. If your apps wont fill up your ram then having more of it wont help anything. Think of having a big pot to cook with... if all youre making is one egg.... then whats the point of a big pot.
The SSD on the other hand enables reading and writing from the drive lightning quick since there are no moving parts.

[Jason Rosenthal]

I would just use Microsoft's tool for making a DVD or USB stick to install a clean version of Windows. Minimal migration risk as you are leaving the original hard drive alone.
Windows 10
The key is stored on your motherboard so you won't be asked. Windows 7 PC's will have to enter the windows 7 key from the sticker.

[Sh4veD4ve]

Two things. 1) Re-activating is usually not a big deal as long as you're not on your umpteenth re-install using your Windows key. Just go through the re-activation prompts & it will be over in a few seconds. If it doesn't work, put your HDD back in & go to item #2.
2) If you can shrink your drives (mostly your C: Drive, using Computer Management/Disk Management) to be overall less than the formatted space in the SSD, you can use the built-in Windows 7 disk image backup tool to backup & restore to the new SSD (works on Win7, 8, 8.1, 10). Using the Windows tool does NOT require re-activating when you migrate to an SSD. I worked for Micron for several years & did this dozens of times when I needed to preserve Windows licenses after repeated re-images onto different SSDs.

If you're migrating to a 120-ish GB SSD, you'll likely need to do a *LOT* of disk cleanup & 'move' your system files repeatedly in order to reduce it to less than 50% of the original size. Google will be your friend here. (or Bing if you prefer - I learned several years ago off of Google, but Bing gives similar results).

[pankaj981]

^^ Windows 10 upgraded from Windows 7/8.1 needs reactivation if restored from an image backup. And yes, simple retries are not going to work. An SSD migration as discussed in this thread would need reactivating an upgraded version of Windows 10 which would need a reinstall and reupgrade.

I agree with your statement for pre-W10 OS activations.

[DMelan]

You do NOT need to reactivate Windows 10 if you swap hard drives or restore from an image backup. The activation for Windows 10 is tied to the motherboard, not the hard drive. As Jason pointed out, the key is stored on your motherboard.

I recently bricked my motherboard on a home-built system where I had installed Windows 8 and later upgraded to Windows 10 using the free upgrade. After purchasing a new motherboard I had to start from a Windows 8 image, reactivate, then do the Windows 10 upgrade. That process stored a Windows 10 key on the motherboard. After I had done that, I installed a clean Windows 10 on a new hard drive. It worked with no activation/reactivation required. So swapping motherboards does require reactivation, swapping hard drives does not.

[pankaj981]

^^ reinstalling the OS and cloning a hard drive and restoring it to another is a different scenario. You'll have to reactivate. Besides nothing is stored on your motherboard. The Microsoft activation creates a hash match with your hardware components.

[DMelan]

I'm sorry Panka, but your statements are simply not correct. First of all, the original post is about a pre-built computer. The activation key is stored in the BIOS. His windows license is tied to his motherboard, period. Second, even with a home built system such as mine, the license is tied primarily to the motherboard. Other changes aren't nearly as likely to trigger a reactivation. Plenty of confirmation of this out there on the web. Here's a couple of the first to pop up in a web search:

From a ZDNet article specifically about Windows 10:

...upgrades of system components such as a video card or a hard drive won't normally trigger a reactivation...The one exception is a motherboard replacement, which will inevitably...require reactivation, typically over the phone.

Here's a page humbly named The Ultimate Windows 10 Activation & License FAQ:

Can I Upgrade My Hardware?
...a Windows 10 digital entitlement [is] directly linked to your system hardware — namely, your motherboard...adding RAM, a new hard drive, an SSD, or a new GPU shouldn’t cause you any issues.

From the Microsoft answers site:

...I want to replace my old hard drive for a newer one with more capacity...

The easiest thing that you could have done would be to clone (image back up) the old hard drive to the new hard drive. As long as you have not changed the BIOS or motherboard, there should be no problem with the license.

Replacing your old drive with a new clone of the original drive will almost never trigger a reactivation. I'll give it a shot when I get a chance, possibly this weekend.

[pankaj981]

^^ I'm not actually making up stories here. I've upgraded SSDs for two laptops, both HP 2000-363nr. Both were Windows 7 from factory upgraded to Windows 10. When I swapped the factory Seagate hard drives to a Kingston V300 and a Crucial BX100 it did not activate. Then I saw a post from Gabe Aul on Twitter where he mentioned about redoing the Windows 10 upgrade again and that's what I had to do to get mine activated. Those posts online can talk and post all they want but I believed what came from the man himself. The OP did not mention anything about whether the license on the PC came with Windows 7, 8.1 or 10. I'm just giving out my first hand experience on two of my machines. It'll trigger a reactivation if you clone your hard drive and restore it. And Windows license are tied to your motherboard only for the OS it came with. For an upgraded license it's tied to multiple components. So it really depends on how the op got his Windows 10 license.

Edit: The MSDN post above specifically talks about Windows 8.X. I don't see Windows 10 mentioned anywhere.

Edit 2: The Znet article specifically mention about reactivating the license by calling the Microsoft activation line which basically means the hard drive upgrade triggers activation which is inline with what I've been telling so far.

[DMelan]

So I'm a week later than I said I might be, but I tried it out. It works exactly as I said it would. I bought a brand new never been formatted SSD yesterday (good sale at Best Buy this week), cloned my Windows 10 system drive over to it using Macrium Reflect, then took out the old system drive. It booted up immediately and reports "Windows is activated" in system properties with no intervention on my part whatsoever.

[DMelan]

And by the way, the license I just successfully transferred by cloning a drive was a retail Windows 8 license upgraded to Windows 10, exactly the situation you said would trigger a reactivation.

[pankaj981]

And by the way, the license I just successfully transferred by cloning a drive was a retail Windows 8 license upgraded to Windows 10, exactly the situation you said would trigger a reactivation.

Well that's good to know. It never worked for me on the November 2015 Update.

[antheocy]

smaller capacity ssd have come down in price and much more affordable now. But I would only use ssd for the operating system as it runs quieter , cooler and faster than regular hdd. I would say get one for your operating system and get hdd for archive/files/backup.

[msalmank]

Upgrading to an SSD was one of the most expensive and the best decision that I ever made. I have an Alienware 14 laptop (4th Gen). It came with a 256 GB msata SSD installed + 1 TB 5400 RPM standard drive. Although the overall laptop performance was nothing short of beastly, when working with data on the standard 1 TB drive, I often noticed delays and hiccups in performance.

Being a developer, I usually have multiple Visual Studio instances running along with full enterprise level SQL Server among other tools. Given that the 256 GB hosted Windows OS itself and also the VS and SQL install files, all actual data was residing on the 1 TB HDD. And so when I started loading more projects and more concurrent execution against databases in SQL Server, the system started to huff and puff. Add to that moments when I started Camtasia for a recording and left it in the background rendering the video, or Lightroom for DSLR photo editing... In a nutshell, the beastly laptop didn't feel that great in those moments.

After over a year of usage, I ended up swapping the 1 TB drive with a Samsung 850 Pro SSD drive. With 1 TB capacity, it set me around $500 USD. But since the day I swapped that in... my Alienware has never been better! Outperforming under extreme work load and not hesitating in concurrently handling multiple process and files, I simply couldn't be happier.

I even built a desktop PC recently, and installed a Corsair 480 GB SSD into that. It works awesome as well, even for a smaller price tag than the Samsung 850 Pro.

[MBY]

Any thoughts on whether a PCI-e or SATA SSD is better? For example, WD offers both form factors.

[onlysublime]

NVMe (PCIe) is faster than via SATA. If your motherboard supports it, get it rather than a SATA SSD.

for any users curious about SSD, by far the single best upgrade to any computer system is going from a hard disk drive (HDD) to a SSD. it's better than more RAM. it's better than a better graphics card. an SSD can turn an old dog into a new computer.

[androomidaa]

Simple answer YES... complicated answer YES.. direct answer HELL YES.
Most people ask... but wont having more RAM be better?
Simple answer NO. Complicated answer? You need to understand how RAM works and hows the applications you have installed use your RAM. If your apps wont fill up your ram then having more of it wont help anything. Think of having a big pot to cook with... if all youre making is one egg.... then whats the point of a big pot.
The SSD on the other hand enables reading and writing from the drive lightning quick since there are no moving parts.

Haha, I agree with YanivC. Ram upgrades won't cut it. I have upgraded from my slow HDD to SSD and whoa the speed increase blew me away! Once you're on SSD you can't go back, you only want to upgrade. I want to get faster NVMe drives now.