WOW!  I cloned my 1T Western Digital EZEX drive which I had as my primary OS drive onto my new Samsung 850 EVO 500G SSD.
 
the difference was just phenomenal!  500G is not enough to keep all of my data (especially including Sonar audio files) so I still keep my data on the 1T drive, but everything is lightening fast using the SSD!
 
One happy camper!

Out of interest, what tool(s) did you use?
 
Ta!

Samsung bundles a data migration utility with their drives; I'm guessing he used that.
 
Alternatively, you can use just about any cloning/imaging software -- even the free ones (from Aomei, EaseUS, Paragon) will do the job.

As I understand it, some tools are more flexible than others (allowing for cloning of different-sized physical media, different-sized partitions etc.)  Also, for SSD drives it's important to align the partitions precisely to the block size of the device (typically 2048 bytes), else performance can suffer.  So the ability to re-size and move partition boundaries would also be helpful.
 
I'm thinking of splashing out a bit and getting a PCIe SSD, but I'm not sure whether Windows 7 has drivers for those or not, I'm seeing somewhat conflicting information (AKA, "well, it depends").  There may be issues setting a PCIe SSD up as a boot drive, too.  I need to do some more research...

Yes, I used the included Samsung Data Migration tool, it does allow for migration between different size drives, but it did not give any options to resize or move partition boundaries.
 
I don't know anything about a PCIe SSD drive or whether windows supports it or not.

Hey Beagle, does it use a standard SATA cable? I was looking into getting an SSD, but wasn't sure about the connection type.

I have an Evo like Beagle's (mine is 1Tb) and it's a direct replacement for a standard Sata drive.

Leadfoot
Hey Beagle, does it use a standard SATA cable? I was looking into getting an SSD, but wasn't sure about the connection type.

yes, standard SATA cable, but it should be connected to a SATA6 (or SATA2 depending on how your motherboard labels it), not SATA3/SATA.
 
re SATA cables:  I know I have black SATA cables with clip locks and red and blue SATA cables without the clip locks, I was concerned that the black ones were for SATA6 and the red and blue ones were for SATA3 only, however, that's not the case.  the cables are designed the same and will both work as well as the other.  the ones with the clips won't fall off and the ones with the clips tend to "wiggle" loose if they are vibrated.  that's the only difference - color doesn't matter.

Okay, thanks guys.

Beagle
Yes, I used the included Samsung Data Migration tool, it does allow for migration between different size drives, but it did not give any options to resize or move partition boundaries.
 
I don't know anything about a PCIe SSD drive or whether windows supports it or not.

Ta :-)
 
I'm out of SATA connectors on my motherboard, hence the main reason for considering a PCIe attached SSD (that or lose one of my internal hard drives).  It's on my 'list of things to do'...