Ahoy Technicians! Notebook storage upgrade

[TheQuin]

Hi there,

I'm looking into upgrading my laptop storage. Basically, I have place for two drives (one used as primary and one as backup at the moment). I am looking at getting either an SSD or a Seagate Momentus XT, to put in place of the backup drive and run it as primary. My budget: $300 AUS ($305 US).

I use my laptop for my Uni assignments, running a couple Math and Stats packages, watching movies, storing and playing music through iTunes and I do some gaming primarily with Steam.

The main questions I need answered are:

1. What effects on performance and lifetime of an SSD can I expect to get from about two years of usage ? -(with it containing only Windows 7, Office Professional, iTunes, Math and Stats packages and other essential programs up to 60GB). What qualities should I look for in a SSD that will reduce these effects, which ones are the best within my budget?

2. What adjustments should one make to Windows 7 and programs so as to reduce or even prevent performance drop and reduced lifetime? Are there programs that should not be on an SSD for any reason? What is the basic SSD usage etiquette?

3. Does the Seagate XT experience similar performance drop and reduced lifetime like SSDs? If different, what should one do to prevent these things on the Seagate XT - like adjustments to OS and programs or regular cleaning. If not at all, what is some general tips for keeping the drive fast?

4. How can one prevent the automatic (provide no option) saving of programs to the drive containing the OS? Is it possible to transfer such unwanted programs from the primary drive to a secondary without losing their functionality?

5. Do my questions suggest i'm too paranoid to be a SSD user? (lol) Or should one be very careful and conscious when using a SSD? Would you straight out recommend the Seagate XT?

6. What internet security program would be recommended to prevent undesirable effects to SSDs, provided they are somewhat powerful and usable (can you comment on Norton or AVG?)

7. With either one of the two desired drives, how does one make the transition - in terms of either a type of transfer or just starting fresh with a full version OS.

8. Finally, would you recommend I install the drive on my own or should I pay someone to do it? (Ive built a few PCs - no SSDs obviously)

Thanks very much in advance :awe:
PS. post some links if these questions have been answered elsewhere

--Quin

 

[Zap]

Hello TheQuin, and welcome to AnandTech Forums.

1. Any modern SSD will easily last beyond 2 years of usage. Of course there can and always will be examples of units that failed before 2 years. This is exactly the same as hard drives, some last near forever in hardware years and some die young.

2. Do a fresh install of Windows 7 with AHCI enabled in BIOS. Never run defrag or anything that hammers the SSD (like endless benchmarking or daily virus scans). Don't fill it up beyond about 80% full.

3. The Seagate Momentus XT should be treated as just another hard drive, albeit one with a few GB worth of cache memory instead of the typical 8/16/32MB. Note that it does have a learning curve. Read AnandTech's review for more details.

4. During installation most software allows you to change the path of the install.

5. Your questions suggest that you are intelligently trying to research something that is new to you. The Seagate Momentus XT is a good choice for those who want a lot of storage space and are limited to a single drive and can't afford to pay over $1000 for a 500GB class SSD.

6. Internet security has nothing to do with SSDs. You will want to research that separately for one that best fits your needs, just as if you were using a normal hard drive. Oh yeah do expect virus/malware scans to go really fast with an SSD compared to scanning a HDD. BTW, for the sake of longetivity I would suggest skipping on daily scanning. Do a full scan the first time, and then just scan anything new. Daily virus/malware scanning (on top of scanning new files) does close to nothing for security. It is like a security guard frisking everyone that walks into a room that is totally sealed except for one door. If everyone inside has already been frisked, what purpose does it serve to occasionally go in and frisk everyone AGAIN? As long as any new person going into the room gets frisked, a weapon is not likely to materialize out of thin air.

7. With the Seagate Momentus XT, you can clone the existing install over. With the SSD, a fresh install is the best choice.

8. Being an SSD has nothing to do with whether or not you should install it on your own. If you were going to install a HDD (anytime I say HDD this includes the Seagate Momentus XT) on your own, then no reason why you shouldn't install an SSD on your own. The only difference would be enabling AHCI in BIOS (if possible, this enables Trim in Windows 7) and doing a fresh install.

I suggest you read the sticky in the Memory and Storage forum. It has some links in there for more information.

Also, if you use a HDD along with an SSD, you may consider moving your My Documents/My Pictures/My Videos/Downloads to the HDD since most software default to saving there. Windows 7 makes it easy. After a fresh install you can usually just drag/drop the folder to the HDD and Windows will make the necessary adjustments. Put them all in one subfolder if you wish to keep it organized.

 

[TheQuin]

Hi Zap,

Thanks a lot for the help: I'm really looking into going for the SSD option with HDD secondary now 🙂

Just a couple more things: Is TRIM an application that you run voluntarily or is it a regular function that Windows 7 runs to maintain speeds?

Out of Patriot, OCZ and Intel, which has the better (this may be too vague) sort of in-built ability to reduce effects of dropping speeds and fragmentation?

 

[disports]

2. Do a fresh install of Windows 7 with AHCI enabled in BIOS. Never run defrag or anything that hammers the SSD (like endless benchmarking or daily virus scans). Don't fill it up beyond about 80% full.

Hm is that really true about the daily virus scans affecting the life of the SSD? If so, I should probably stop doing that :X. I bought a OCZ Agility 60gb back in the end of July and it's already down to 78% :/

 

[StrangerGuy]

Hm is that really true about the daily virus scans affecting the life of the SSD? If so, I should probably stop doing that :X. I bought a OCZ Agility 60gb back in the end of July and it's already down to 78% :/

1st: Virus scans are merely reading your SSD. Reading a SSD does not degrade it.
2nd: SSD lifetimes as "short" are the worst myths ever perpetuated. Even if you write to at max speed 24/7 the flash memory is going to last for decades.

http://www.storagesearch.com/ssdmyths-endurance.html

 

[Zap]

Just a couple more things: Is TRIM an application that you run voluntarily or is it a regular function that Windows 7 runs to maintain speeds?

Out of Patriot, OCZ and Intel, which has the better (this may be too vague) sort of in-built ability to reduce effects of dropping speeds and fragmentation?

Trim runs automatically.

You can't go by the brand on the drive, you have to go by the controller that it uses. Intel of course use Intel controllers, but Patriot and OCZ have used all kinds of controllers. The capabilities of a drive are tied really close to the particular controller it uses (and associated firmware).

There are differences in background garbage collection (what you are asking for) but Trim just does it for you. If you use an operating system that doesn't have Trim (anything that is not Windows 7) then this is something to worry about.

Hm is that really true about the daily virus scans affecting the life of the SSD? If so, I should probably stop doing that :X. I bought a OCZ Agility 60gb back in the end of July and it's already down to 78% :/

It probably isn't true, but the other stuff I said about daily scanning is true. If your stuff has already been scanned and anything NEW coming into your system gets scanned, what purpose does daily scanning serve?

 

[TheQuin]

Thanks Zap -I'm going with an SSD now 🙂 and I have spotted a couple within my budget, but one last concern:

If my laptop website advertised that it uses a "500GB 5400RPM SATA" HDD, would this mean I cannot install a SATA-II SSD in its place? Or will it still work, but will be constrained a bit?

Also, what can you say about the 'OCZ Vertex 2 E 120GB' (Sandforce 1200, Max IOPs firmware), or the 'Patriot Inferno 120GB Sandforce' (Sandforce 1222) ?

What I know is that they are both SATA-II (Patriot shows SATA I/II), both have native TRIM and each have their own extra options like garbage collection in the OCZ and 'DuraClass' technology in the Patriot. What they do exactly would probably make the difference. Lastly, the OCZ advertises "Max 50,000 IOPs" where Patriot states "Random Write IOPS up to 14K / 4K Random Read IOPS up to 5".

To make things a bit hard for me, they also both advertise the same read/write speeds, and both have a 3 year waranty...

 

[Zap]

You'll probably be fine. If it came with the 500GB drive then it will be SATA II because I don't think they are made any other way, plus any notebook new enough to come stock with a 500GB drive will be new enough to have SATA II native.

The Sandforce controller is capable of really high IOPS, but it is artificially limited in firmware so that they can sell a cheap and an expensive version (kind of like how Intel limits their X25-M performance to justify X25-E pricing). Unless you need the high IOPS (database server?) my guess is that you won't notice a difference in normal desktop usage.

I personally would buy the cheaper one.