Does anyone run a ssd in their laptop?

[Fjodor2001]

If on a restricted budget, would you prioritize a fast CPU or an SSD? Would you go for:

* Netbook: AMD E-450 & SSD
or
* Low spec Notebook/Ultrabook: Ivy Bridge / AMD Trinity & Hard drive

Any opinions?

 

[Broheim]

If on a restricted budget, would you prioritize a fast CPU or an SSD? Would you go for:

* Netbook: AMD E-450 & SSD
or
* Low spec Notebook/Ultrabook: Ivy Bridge / AMD Trinity & Hard drive

Any opinions?

it depends on your workload, but the E-450 is really weak and an SSD isn't going to change that.


I'd go with an ivy/trinity with a harddrive now and then throw in an SSD down the line.

 

[Fjodor2001]

it depends on your workload, but the E-450 is really weak and an SSD isn't going to change that.

I'd go with an ivy/trinity with a harddrive now and then throw in an SSD down the line.

But what if you're mainly going to use it for surfing the web, reading emails, listening to music, and watching movies? Do you need IB/Trinity class CPU performance then? Won't the I/O performance bottleneck of a hard drive be more annoying?

Also, the GPU performance is pretty good in the E450 actually (considering it's a Netbook GPU).

 

[COPOHawk]

the e450 would be such a bottleneck...that I wouldn't own one...even with an SSD.

Don't think of running decent AV software on a netbook processor, for example....

 

[thecoolnessrune]

the e450 would be such a bottleneck...that I wouldn't own one...even with an SSD.

Don't think of running decent AV software on a netbook processor, for example....

I dont necessarily agree. I think people don't fully understand just how much of a bottle neck a hard drive is. When you are just surfing the web and checking email, your hard drive is your bottle neck bar none.

A netbook with an e450, Microsoft Security Essentials, and a simple SSD would be faster than a ultraportable with a 5400 RPM hard drive when it comes to just web browsing and office work (where your time is spent waiting to load the files, not processing them).

 

[fire400]

55 bucks for 60gb Vertex.

Put it into a win7 starter netbook with N455 solo core with 2gb RAM w/intel graphics.

The difference in performance, night into day. Almost zero load times for basic apps.
Netbook went from 2:45 on 5.4K rpm HD to 25 seconds on SATA2 SSD, to start up.

Uses AVG for antivirus on start up. Loads web pages w/chrome just like any other core 2 duo computer.

 

[Towermax]

I dont necessarily agree. I think people don't fully understand just how much of a bottle neck a hard drive is. When you are just surfing the web and checking email, your hard drive is your bottle neck bar none.

A netbook with an e450, Microsoft Security Essentials, and a simple SSD would be faster than a ultraportable with a 5400 RPM hard drive when it comes to just web browsing and office work (where your time is spent waiting to load the files, not processing them).

Gotta agree with you. I put a 128GB Crucial M4 in my E-350 Asus netbook and it's a night and day difference. Web surfing, email, office stuff is all fast and smooth.

 

[LagunaX]

SSD's are perfect for laptops due to the boot speed, faster loading, and decreased energy usage compared to a conventional mechanical drive.

I cloned the HD on my Toshiba Portege R705 and it is like night and day.

The only other recommendation would be for low voltage 1.35v ddr3 1600 ram swap for faster ram and decreased energy utilization (vs 1.5v).

 

[RU482]

Laptops are a great home for SSDs. An SSD can make a 5 yr old laptop a bearable experience

 

[stevech]

another thing with SSDs in laptops... less worry about jarring the hard disk and crashing the heads.

 

[Quake6]

I had 5400 WD in my U36SD and that really killed his performance.. Once I replaced it with SSD, it was completely different notebook

 

[sgrinavi]

SSD's are perfect for laptops due to the boot speed, faster loading, and decreased energy usage compared to a conventional mechanical drive.

I cloned the HD on my Toshiba Portege R705 and it is like night and day.

The only other recommendation would be for low voltage 1.35v ddr3 1600 ram swap for faster ram and decreased energy utilization (vs 1.5v).

Hard to justify the extra cost for fancy RAM in a new build, Not a very cost effective upgrade

 

[hal2kilo]

Yes. See my sig. The Vostro is a 2 drive laptop, the second drive has a 640 Gb blue WD 5400rpm drive for data.

Wouldn't own a computer without an SSD.

 

[Meaker10]

2 in raid0 (and no, one is not in the optical bay).

 

[LagunaX]

Hard to justify the extra cost for fancy RAM in a new build, Not a very cost effective upgrade

Normally yes but if upgrading from 4gb to an 8gb kit anyways the difference in kit prices is less than $10...

 

[bico]

definitely get ssd, it's faster and you don't have to worry about dropping it in the backpack

 

[jacktesterson]

I use one in all my laptops. (currently have 2)

I always use an optibay and remove the DVD drive. I have an external slim usb powered blu ray drive in rare cases I need the optical drive.

(I install Windows off a USB key)

 

[PeeluckyDuckee]

This post makes me sad, my Thinkpad uses the old IDE interface

 

[bico]

This post makes me sad, my Thinkpad uses the old IDE interface

don't be sad, there are ide ssd drives too. alternatively, you can get yourself sata caddy which replaces the cd/dvd (this way i have added 640G sata drive to my x40. you won't get sata2 speeds but it's not a fileserver, right?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

2008 macbook pro.

boot in 15 seconds. freaking pwn. compare to... forever even with a formatted HDD.

I was ready to throw this thing away but wow its blazing fast with the SSD. And even then this mainboard doesn't get me great transfer speeds. Like 100 MB/sec or something only.

 

[thescreensavers]

Plextor M3 128 on W8 RP and I have a 320gb Data Drive

Only on Sata II though, on my Toshiba A300 from 08

 

[cppguru]

Seriously?
Thoughts? Exactly what you said - Expensive. Fast. Low Capacity.
Experience? Varies from person to person and your type of workload. If all you do is launch firefox and type your documents. Then hard to justify the cost. This will become yet another question with as many answers as people posting.
Should you buy it? No if you are happy with the overall experience. Yes if you are not happy with the overall experience. Ofcourse assuming you have the money to pay for it. Because if you don't have the money to pay for it, you really can't buy it.

Isn't that nice that it's all common sense.

 

[xapo99]

I just bought an Acer Timeline M3 quite cheaply. I wanted it because of its portablity and also the fact it had a 640M. The CPU turns out is pretty good, it is an i3 1.4 Sandybridge, but is way out in front of the C2D in my M11x. It came with a 500Gb Hitachi drive and a small SSD which is 20GB. Ok, so that looked great...I imagined it used the Intel Smart Cache and sped up the slower 500Gb drive as Intel intended...right ?

WRONG ! All that was on this 20GB ssd (and it is pretty rapid according to Atto) was Hiberfyl.sys and the recovery partition. This is so you can resume from Hibernation quickly.....

Sort of like buying a BMW M5 and removing four pistons to store lemonade and a warning triangle for a comparison of usefulness.

It took some tomfoolery to re-install windows on the SSD (still got 7GB spare on 18.6Gb total) and then put all the other stuff on the HDD. Seems zippy...but just be warned that not all hybrid SSD/HDD setups are setup with common sense in mind.

 

[span01]

Most (yeah not all) laptops today usually ship with sufficient RAM. SSD is what I recommend to all my "non-tech" friends who ask me what they should do for an upgrade. I got an SSD for my old white MacBook when it was ready to be sent to recycling... It lasted 2 more years and is still going strong enough for my wife to use it in her daily work. Cheapest upgrade I ever did compared to her buying a new laptop.

 

[Azuma Hazuki]

I got a Thinkpad T410 (i5-520M/6 GB RAM/1440x900 LCD) from Craigslist for fairly cheap, and added a Crucial m4 128 GB SSD into it. I'll never ever go back to spinning rust ever again! Gentoo boots in 10 seconds or less.