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Best SSD to use with laptop?

VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
I currently have an 80GB X25-M G2 in there now. It's 7mm, which I believe the laptop requires. Need more room, possibly double the space, might dual-boot.

Which SSDs have better power consumption:
160GB X25-M
240GB M500
128GB M550

Or should I be looking at a different drive? Not a huge fan of Samsung, really, but I think I recall them being good on power-consumption too. A bit pricey for me though.

Edit: Laptop gets hibernated fairly often, so I feel I should exclude SandForce, even the Intel SandForce drives.
 
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the devslp function is the new thing
however, I dunno if the difference between SSDs power use is really that big tbh

Just looking at some storagereview numbers for the drives you mentioned plus the samsungs and they are all within <1W of each other

Idle numbers:
X25-M 0.6W (no devslp?)
M500/M550/mx100 ~1W
samsung 850 pro/evo 0.3W

I guess these would be "active idle" states and can be taken with a grain of salt
load power usages seems to be around 3-4W tops for all of them

looks like tom's has an article on devslp
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-850-pro-ssd-performance,3861-9.html
 
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I don't think the newer gen SSDs are all that power hungry no matter what one you get... certainly better than your X25 in any event.

For my money, I would get a 512GB M550... because I just did!

Having said that, I would not get a 120GB M500... I got one for my daughter's laptop (which I eventually stole and put in my HTPC... 😉 ) and it had abysmal write speeds, and I suspect the M550 wouldn't be just gobs better.

If absolute cost is a consideration, you can't go wrong with the MX100, although they seem to be fire-sale'ing the M500/M550's right now... watch the sales, that's where I got my 512GB for $170.
 
M550 is better performance wise than M500 and mx100 because it has more channels

basically how their performance/budget has progressed
M4 -> M550 -> mx200
M500 -> mx100 -> bx100

The lines are kinda blurred when you consider the various sizes and how that affects performance however
64Gb vs 128Gb nand affecting the number of channels
 
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the 512GB MX100 and M550 are pretty much the same drive, but the MX100 is cheaper (most of the time.) smaller drives do not perform as well as the 512GB + drives in the write speed department.
 
I would suggest turning off hibernation in a laptop if you have a SSD boot drive. Hibernation writes a large file to the SSD - and that will be restored on boot. It can save you time with a HHD, but it can slow down the SSD's boot process as well as create needless writes.
 
corkyg said:
I would suggest turning off hibernation in a laptop if you have a SSD boot drive. Hibernation writes a large file to the SSD - and that will be restored on boot. It can save you time with a HHD, but it can slow down the SSD's boot process as well as create needless writes.
Click to expand...

1) Not worried about the extra writes. Been running that 80GB X25-M G2, and it hibernates multiple times a day (with 4GB RAM), and TBW is up to like 600-700GB. Intel toolbox still shows SSD lifespan at 99-100%. Been installed since I got the laptop, which was a year or two ago.

2) Yes, it takes more time to restore from Hibernate, but it maintains my state, which is much more important to me.
 
I would pick either the m500 or the m550, since both support HIPM/DIPM, pick the one that fits your space requirements.

And I would definitely not worry about extra writes caused by hibernation.
1. the ram is rarelly full 100%.
2. by default, windows compress the hibernate file, making it faster and uses less storage space
3. it is fairly small to write 2~4GB, considering the SSD can handle 50+ GB per day
 
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Essence_of_War said:
I'm not really excited about any of those particular models. Do you have a budget you're trying to stay within?
Click to expand...

Yeah, preferably $0. Those are the SSDs I already have. I was looking for the most storage for the least power-draw. Performance is secondary. (Laptop is a 1007U.)

If there is a drive that has significantly better power-consumption than those then I would consider purchasing it.
 
SSD's naturally are very low in power consumption simply due to the digital activity rather than the physical activity of how it computes. I don't think you need to worry about this.
 
With the SSDs you listed and your light usage, I wouldn't worry about power consumption or writes. You question is probably best answered by staying away from only one SSD which is the all-TOO powerful in many ways Intel 730. It's awesome as long as you are not on a battery powered device. Otherwise, just choose one and enjoy. As a fellow laptop owner you know very darn well that outside of intense CPU/GPU usage... it's often your screen brightness, followed by the health of your battery that will determine your battery life more than anything else.
 
VirtualLarry said:
If there is a drive that has significantly better power-consumption than those then I would consider purchasing it.
Click to expand...
No you wouldn't: even if that SSD would have zero power consumption, your laptop autonomy would not see that big of a jump.

For example, considering an Ivy Bridge equipped budget system, you probably have a 36Whr battery and under 4 hours battery life when browsing: that equals to around 9W power consumption. Completely shaving off SSD power consumption would amount to about 0.5-1W, considering the drive is idle most of the time and at least DIPM is working (alternating between idle @0.9W, writes @3W, and DIPM mode at less than 0.1W). That in turn would lower your average power consumption to 8-8.5W and increase battery life to around 4.2-4.5h, a jump of 12-30 minutes in autonomy.

However, your new SSD will still consume power.
 
VirtualLarry said:
Yeah, preferably $0. Those are the SSDs I already have. I was looking for the most storage for the least power-draw. Performance is secondary. (Laptop is a 1007U.)

If there is a drive that has significantly better power-consumption than those then I would consider purchasing it.
Click to expand...
Of the three, the M500 is the one I'd want.
 
Re: writes - using a conservative figure from techreport's SSD endurance tests (700TB, Samsung 840 PRO), I've calculated that my drive (with respect to writes) would last >400 years.
 
You also have other choices, I have used 2 Crucial MX100s, and 2 Toshiba branded SSD (Q series Pro), in a variety of different laptops, and those have been working fine, no complaints.
 
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Newegg has the MX100 512GB for around $180 until the 30th of Jan.

I kind of wish I had been able to jump on the M550 512GB drives that Newegg had recently for $170.
 
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