Do SSD's have a real world noticeable benefit?

[taltamir]

buy the CHEAPEST drive they allow you to, and then replace it yourself with a quality SSD.
The samsung is not nearly as good as the vertex or intel. and even if it was, it is overpriced when offered through a reseller who takes a cut...

For example, dell charges 3000$ for 24GB of ram on their i7 systems... but you can buy that ram for less than 700$

 

[wkabel23]

Originally posted by: taltamir
buy the CHEAPEST drive they allow you to, and then replace it yourself with a quality SSD.
The samsung is not nearly as good as the vertex or intel. and even if it was, it is overpriced when offered through a reseller who takes a cut...

For example, dell charges 3000$ for 24GB of ram on their i7 systems... but you can buy that ram for less than 700$

$395 to upgrade from a 250 gb 5400rpm hd or 160gb 7200rpm hd to 128GB SSD on lenovo's website.

$314 for an 80gb x-25M on newegg.
$375 for 120gb OCZ Vertex.

Seems like a wash, but the OCZ and Intel SSD do outperform the samsung.

I mean...what's the point of SSD if I can't fit anything on it? I would at least need 80gb...i have 160 now and am barely scraping by. Granted, this computer will basically be work only...but it'd be nice to have my music on there.

 

[taltamir]

you can sell the 250GB drive that comes with it... and the intel is much better.

 

[wkabel23]

Originally posted by: taltamir
you can sell the 250GB drive that comes with it... and the intel is much better.

Undecided between the Intel and the OCZ Vertex, but I think I'm going to take your advice. Thanks.

Anything special about installing a SSD? Will it have any problems fitting, or being too loose, in the lenovo?

EDIT: Since I'll be ordering the SSD seperately, I might delay on that. After all, it seems better to jump in once the technology is widely established than be a guinea pig! Or at least until prices come down.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: wkabel23

Originally posted by: taltamir
you can sell the 250GB drive that comes with it... and the intel is much better.

Undecided between the Intel and the OCZ Vertex, but I think I'm going to take your advice. Thanks.

Anything special about installing a SSD? Will it have any problems fitting, or being too loose, in the lenovo?

EDIT: Since I'll be ordering the SSD seperately, I might delay on that. After all, it seems better to jump in once the technology is widely established than be a guinea pig! Or at least until prices come down.

that is another good point... wait for TRIM to be well implemented then buy.

 

[alcoholbob]

Too bad you are getting a Lenovo. Dell has the craziest (subsidized?) cost for SSDs. $200 upgrade (from a 250GB/320GB HD I believe) for 128GB Samsung, $400 for the 256GB Samsung. The latter drive would set you back $700 by itself.

 

[wkabel23]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
Too bad you are getting a Lenovo. Dell has the craziest (subsidized?) cost for SSDs. $200 upgrade (from a 250GB/320GB HD I believe) for 128GB Samsung, $400 for the 256GB Samsung. The latter drive would set you back $700 by itself.

I don't think Dell offers anything that can match the T400 in terms of power, portability, reliability, and battery life. Oh, and cost.

First computer that I haven't bought from Dell (excluding machines I build).

 

[alcoholbob]

I managed to snag a Studio M1530 laptop from Dell:
T8100 CPU
4GB RAM
4x Blu Ray writer
128GB Samsung SSD
For $949 back when they had a $450 off Studio M1530 last month. The only purchase that gave me greater satisfaction was probably the 2lb Thinkpad X41 although that was over $2k and was already slow as molasses even for the current generation.

Dell's lightest laptop (M1330) is just a hair under 4lbs. Isn't the T400 4.7lbs? I really don't consider a laptop portable unless its 3lbs or under personally.

Are you sure Dell has nothing that can compete for what you are looking for? The M1330 is fairly well priced and every month Dell will have insane $100s price drops. Had I opted for the 256GB Samsung SSD, basically I'd have a laptop with a bluray writer for $450 given the SSD alone is worth $700 on the open market. Dont' get me wrong, I'm not saying you should get a Dell--their customer service is attrocious.

The only reason I enjoy owning a Thinkpad is because it looks so ancient almost nobody would steal it.

 

[wkabel23]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
I managed to snag a Studio M1530 laptop from Dell:
T8100 CPU
4GB RAM
4x Blu Ray writer
128GB Samsung SSD
For $949 back when they had a $450 off Studio M1530 last month. The only purchase that gave me greater satisfaction was probably the 2lb Thinkpad X41 although that was over $2k and was already slow as molasses even for the current generation.

Dell's lightest laptop (M1330) is just a hair under 4lbs. Isn't the T400 4.7lbs? I really don't consider a laptop portable unless its 3lbs or under personally.

Are you sure Dell has nothing that can compete for what you are looking for? The M1330 is fairly well priced and every month Dell will have insane $100s price drops. Had I opted for the 256GB Samsung SSD, basically I'd have a laptop with a bluray writer for $450 given the SSD alone is worth $700 on the open market. Dont' get me wrong, I'm not saying you should get a Dell--their customer service is attrocious.

The only reason I enjoy owning a Thinkpad is because it looks so ancient almost nobody would steal it.

Well...Lenovo has 15% off Thinkpads through the 22nd. I will take another look at Dell's website, though. My main concern is battery life and build quality, and purely from anecdotal evidence, I think Dell laptops come up short in those areas.

As long as my laptop can fit into a bag, it's portable. Weight is largely a non-factor. But that doesn't mean i'm going to buy an XPS or some other brick.

 

[Hacp]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
I managed to snag a Studio M1530 laptop from Dell:
T8100 CPU
4GB RAM
4x Blu Ray writer
128GB Samsung SSD
For $949 back when they had a $450 off Studio M1530 last month. The only purchase that gave me greater satisfaction was probably the 2lb Thinkpad X41 although that was over $2k and was already slow as molasses even for the current generation.

Dell's lightest laptop (M1330) is just a hair under 4lbs. Isn't the T400 4.7lbs? I really don't consider a laptop portable unless its 3lbs or under personally.

Are you sure Dell has nothing that can compete for what you are looking for? The M1330 is fairly well priced and every month Dell will have insane $100s price drops. Had I opted for the 256GB Samsung SSD, basically I'd have a laptop with a bluray writer for $450 given the SSD alone is worth $700 on the open market. Dont' get me wrong, I'm not saying you should get a Dell--their customer service is attrocious.

The only reason I enjoy owning a Thinkpad is because it looks so ancient almost nobody would steal it.

The M1330 is something to avoid if you have the Nvidia chip.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

When Windows 7 comes along, things will be better because of the trim command. Not to mention trim needs to be supported by the RAID controller.

I ended up returning 2 Vertex 120s because of the degradation of performance over time issue. I had them in RAID 0 on a Terminal Server. Due to the constant use, in 1 week they had a 15% reduction in performance...

I replaced them with 2 Velociraptors; the Server doesn't boot up as fast but otherwise it is only slightly slower.

 

[taltamir]

I ended up returning 2 Vertex 120s because of the degradation of performance over time issue. I had them in RAID 0 on a Terminal Server. Due to the constant use, in 1 week they had a 15% reduction in performance...

The performance degradation is a finite thing. That is, it wouldn't have kept going down, it is a one time drop in performance. At a "fully degraded" state it is still a lot faster than a spindle drive.

 

[wkabel23]

Originally posted by: gersson
When Windows 7 comes along, things will be better because of the trim command. Not to mention trim needs to be supported by the RAID controller.

I ended up returning 2 Vertex 120s because of the degradation of performance over time issue. I had them in RAID 0 on a Terminal Server. Due to the constant use, in 1 week they had a 15% reduction in performance...

I replaced them with 2 Velociraptors; the Server doesn't boot up as fast but otherwise it is only slightly slower.

TRIM is a windows 7 command? I assumed it was a firmware thing on SSDs. Must've read Anand's article too quickly!

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: wkabel23

Originally posted by: gersson
When Windows 7 comes along, things will be better because of the trim command. Not to mention trim needs to be supported by the RAID controller.

I ended up returning 2 Vertex 120s because of the degradation of performance over time issue. I had them in RAID 0 on a Terminal Server. Due to the constant use, in 1 week they had a 15% reduction in performance...

I replaced them with 2 Velociraptors; the Server doesn't boot up as fast but otherwise it is only slightly slower.

TRIM is a windows 7 command? I assumed it was a firmware thing on SSDs. Must've read Anand's article too quickly!

TRIM is a command that an OS (any) can send to a drive to notify it of free space so that the controller may do whatever it wants with it (presumably, preemptively clear it on an SSD).

The drive firmware must have algorithm to DO something with that command, otherwise it just discards it as an unknown command, so far win7 is the only OS out there that sends a TRIM command, and it does so for every file deletion (regardless of the target drive, if it is a spindle drive, it will ignore the command)

there are also psudeo trim tools from drive makers, which are nothing but an SSD free space defragger.

 

[SpeedEng66]

I put a 30gb vertex in my wifes rig as a os only drive (lol vista hp64 pretty much ate up the whole drive)

but it's really nice the load time is noticeable less (she had a 150gb raptor in there as a os drive before) it's deff quicker than the rap.

 

[Candymancan21]

what exactly are SSD cards ? Memory ? and what does it do , Do they go in the PCI-E 4x slots ?

 

[Jumpem]

Originally posted by: Candymancan21
what exactly are SSD cards ? Memory ? and what does it do , Do they go in the PCI-E 4x slots ?

Flash memory hard drives.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: Candymancan21
what exactly are SSD cards ? Memory ? and what does it do , Do they go in the PCI-E 4x slots ?

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-...-Package/dp/B0009RGLSE

 

[hans007]

i played with a bunch of 256gb samsung SSDs (right before i sold them).

They were a lot faster at say starting up windows, and maybe starting up apps . but after that it makes no real difference. I would consider them a real luxury item though I am sure you could notice for the times that they help.

Right now I can tell my system is slightly slower since I swapped out a 7200rpm drive for a 5400rpm western digitl. But just barely. The only time i can notice is it takes maybe 4-5 seconds longer for windows to start up and get all its services loaded into memory. But thats it adn everything else seems just as fast. But you would definitely notice with an SSD. Is it worth the money? probalby not, especially for the really good SSDs (the 256gb ones I had I bought and resold, but they were selling for $800. $800.... my new 1.5TB western digital barely cost me over $100 open box)

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: wkabel23

Originally posted by: Astrallite
I managed to snag a Studio M1530 laptop from Dell:
T8100 CPU
4GB RAM
4x Blu Ray writer
128GB Samsung SSD
For $949 back when they had a $450 off Studio M1530 last month. The only purchase that gave me greater satisfaction was probably the 2lb Thinkpad X41 although that was over $2k and was already slow as molasses even for the current generation.

Dell's lightest laptop (M1330) is just a hair under 4lbs. Isn't the T400 4.7lbs? I really don't consider a laptop portable unless its 3lbs or under personally.

Are you sure Dell has nothing that can compete for what you are looking for? The M1330 is fairly well priced and every month Dell will have insane $100s price drops. Had I opted for the 256GB Samsung SSD, basically I'd have a laptop with a bluray writer for $450 given the SSD alone is worth $700 on the open market. Dont' get me wrong, I'm not saying you should get a Dell--their customer service is attrocious.

The only reason I enjoy owning a Thinkpad is because it looks so ancient almost nobody would steal it.

Well...Lenovo has 15% off Thinkpads through the 22nd. I will take another look at Dell's website, though. My main concern is battery life and build quality, and purely from anecdotal evidence, I think Dell laptops come up short in those areas.

As long as my laptop can fit into a bag, it's portable. Weight is largely a non-factor. But that doesn't mean i'm going to buy an XPS or some other brick.

I use a x200s myself, but I have to say the Dell E4200 is something I could be jealous of.

 

[Candymancan21]

Originally posted by: taltamir

Originally posted by: Candymancan21
what exactly are SSD cards ? Memory ? and what does it do , Do they go in the PCI-E 4x slots ?

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-...-Package/dp/B0009RGLSE

This helps on my questions how ? Im not talking about SD cards im talking about SSD cards, if what your saying is they are the same thing, it still doesnt answer my questions.

 

[taltamir]

I am saying they are the same thing.
unless he is referring specifically to this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...30857&name=ExpressCard
which are the bastard children of USB-Thumbdrive and an SSD... giving you something that is not bootable. Giving you the disadvantages of USB (not bootable, slow, not recognized by some low level apps) and the disadvantages of SSD (bigger, more expensive) rolled into one shitty package

 

[coolVariable]

Originally posted by: Jumpem
Aside from benchmarks, will an SSD provide a tangible benefit for basic desktop work and gaming?

On Vista (which caches most of my programs into RAM and thus loads even photoshop CS3 within 3 or so seconds) the speedbump going to ssd was minimal.
More RAM probably gives a better speed increase.
Bootup is faster but with sleep ...

 

[Syzygies]

Originally posted by: taltamir
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...30857&name=ExpressCard

The detonator links weren't firing the other day. De-obfuscated, this is

www dot newegg dot com
/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2013240636%201421530857&name=ExpressCard

 

[TitusTroy]

Originally posted by: gerssonI ended up returning 2 Vertex 120s because of the degradation of performance over time issue. I had them in RAID 0 on a Terminal Server. Due to the constant use, in 1 week they had a 15% reduction in performance...

why didn't you run the manual wiper tool?...doesn't that do the same thing as TRIM at the moment?

EDIT: never mind...the wiper tool does not work in RAID