Poll: Which laptop Harddrive would you get?

[Tempered81]

1. $60-$90 ~320gb -1000gb Regular fast mechanical HDD (Ex: Wester Digital 320gb scorpio black 7200rpm)

2. $110-$140 ~320gb - 500gb Hybrid SSD/HDD SSHD drive (Ex: Seagate Momentus XT 500gb 7200rpm)

3. $100-$225 ~30gb - 80gb Regular SSD (Ex: intel x25, ocz vertex, kingston SSDnow, etc)

4. Other choice that makes better sense.


-I'm upgrading my laptop and unsure of which drive to get. Option one - regular hdd - has reliability and proven performance. Option two - new hybrid sshd - has performance potential somewhere between a fast Velociraptor and slow SSD and also a ton of space for a decent amount of money. However, its main drawback is its mechanical portion is based off the Seagate 7200.4 model - known for a notoriously high failure rate. Option three - new, fast SSD - looks good. It has the most speed and performance. Drawbacks for option three are: SSDs are new and require special tools and maintenance (format, alignment, GC, Trim, installation, Firmware, headaches, etc). Price per GB is insane, and you don't get much space. There are also reports of corrupted data, and wear over short time periods - then Braidwood.

I'm enticed by the raw power and speed of an SSD (especially Vertex 2). Is the SSD worth it to toss in an old laptop with 4GB and Windows 7? I like the idea of speed, size, and affordability of the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid, however the failure rate of Seagate lately is a turn-off. Lastly, and the slowest of the bunch (although still fast) is the Western Digital Scorpio black 7200 rpm drive. It's run of the mill, very standard, and still an upgrade from my old 80GB hitachi 2.5" drive. It has the highest overall rating and most purchases on newegg, 5 year warranty, and best price: $59 free shipping.

Given these choices, which drive would you choose to upgrade a laptop with and why?

Laptop specs:

Core 2 duo T7700 2.4Ghz 4mb L2 Merom
Intel PM965 chipset
2GB (2x1) DDR2 667 (it will be upgraded to 4gb)
80 GB Hitachi HDD
Windows 7

 

[teatime0315]

Wondering the same thing myself. I'm debating between option 2 and 3.

 

[ZXT]

HDD - I don't think your laptop specs is up to a uber fast storage drive. HDD is the cheapest and most reliable as of the moment. It's fast enough for your needs too.

 

[randomlinh]

HDD - I don't think your laptop specs is up to a uber fast storage drive. HDD is the cheapest and most reliable as of the moment. It's fast enough for your needs too.

what? Installing a good SSD will certainly improve performance. it really depends more on what the OP does.

The new hybrids look to get some decent potential in balancing out space and speed.

However, with that said, I'd just replace it with a standard HDD. Why? It's cheaper. Hybrid is too new/unproven long term. SSD just is too damn expensive.

 

[corkyg]

Been pondering the same question. Will stick with 320GB/7200 HDD for the time being. If SSHD proves itself, that would be a possibility. In the meantime, for on the road use, space trumps speed.

 

[Voo]

I think apart from Atoms (and Anand says even there it's a noticeable improvement), every modern CPU (and modern in a very loosely meaning) is bottlenecked by disk IO. If the only thing you're doing with the laptop is surfing the web, it's probably bearable, but I always cringe when I've got to use laptops without an SSD - you get used to it if you have one (80gb intel in laptop, 160gb in desktop).

I think the hybrid drive is an interesting alternative, though there are lots of good proven SSDs out there and we've got no idea about the reliabilty of those hybrid drives. But if you need the space and don't want to spend too much I think it sounds like a good deal.

At least I wouldn't want to use a laptop without a good drive in it, it really helps making even older laptops feel new and useable - friend of mine considered buying a new laptop, but after he got an SSD (80gb Intel) he's completely fine.

 

[jjmIII]

All three would be fine and a 320gb Black is a great drive, but I'd try the new hybrid. Why? For fun!

 

[lsv]

SSD with some sort of external solution if you need more space. But then again I'd use a laptop for work and my line of work needs the speed.

 

[Zstream]

I just purchased a 5310m and it comes with the seagate momentus drive. It is one of the fastest drives I have seen on a laptop.

 

[C1]

Alert!
Leo Laporte (tech guy) on KFI 640am radio talk show just reported that WD is getting a lot of heat concerning a systemic chip failure on the PCB of their notebook HDDs. It is some kind of clock chip in which, when it fails, only allows recovery of half of the written data.

 

[pitz]

I just put a 128gb Samsung PM800 SSD into my Dell Latitude D830 + T7500 CPU. Makes an incredible difference insofar as the overall experience is concerned, as well as battery life, etc.

Don't shy away from using a SSD because your computer is old. I know,a they aren't cheap, but shop around, make sure you get one with TRIM.

I was able to buy a refurb Dell Latitude E6400 laptop with the SSD included for $700 (the laptop, alone, is worth $700 easily), and then strip the SSD out and sell the laptop with a HDD. So basically, free SSD for me (woohoo!). If you can't swing some sort of deal, then shop around. Although, refurb notebooks are so cheap these days, sometimes with SSDs, that you might be able to find a similar deal yourself.

 

[Emulex]

ssd - when you drop the laptop - it will happen - you don't need to worry about your storage. those fancy motion detection routines for hard drives can cause painful performance if you are on bumpy roads etc.

 

[taltamir]

I voted for SSD but then I noticed the "Old Laptop" part so I would like to rescind my vote for that..

I would not burn money on an old laptop (learned that from experience... there is little you can do for an old laptop's performance)... replace the entire laptop, not just the drive!

also, be aware that many old laptops are often IDE, not SATA, and as such cannot take an SSD.

 

[pitz]

I voted for SSD but then I noticed the "Old Laptop" part so I would like to rescind my vote for that..

I would not burn money on an old laptop (learned that from experience... there is little you can do for an old laptop's performance)... replace the entire laptop, not just the drive!

A T7700 is hardly an 'old laptop', even though those machines started shipping 3 years ago. Adding a SSD to such a laptop, if it was a good quality laptop to begin with, could easily get you another couple years of pleasant use out of it, particularly if one has bumped the RAM to 4gb, and upgraded to Windows 7.

Any machine that has a T7700 CPU in it also has SATA through the Intel Santa Rosa chipset.

also, be aware that many old laptops are often IDE, not SATA, and as such cannot take an SSD.

IDE SSDs exist, although I agree, its probably time for a new laptop if you're considering an IDE SSD, unless there's a very specific reason the old laptop needs to be kept in service.

And besides, if you buy a SSD now, and then buy a new laptop next year, the SSD can always be transferred over, and the drive that comes with the new laptop, used as a backup drive, or cycled into another machine.

 

[taltamir]

A T7700 is hardly an 'old laptop', even though those machines started shipping 3 years ago. Adding a SSD to such a laptop, if it was a good quality laptop to begin with, could easily get you another couple years of pleasant use out of it, particularly if one has bumped the RAM to 4gb, and upgraded to Windows 7.

I should have paid more attention to the post...
yes a T7700 is not that old, and with 4GB it still has plenty of life in it...

T7700 + 4GB + SSD is a nice setup for a laptop.

 

[pitz]

I should have paid more attention to the post...
yes a T7700 is not that old, and with 4GB it still has plenty of life in it...

T7700 + 4GB + SSD is a nice setup for a laptop.

Yeah and all machines that take T7700s, with appropriate BIOS support, can also support 8gb RAM. Really, its just a matter of how much one wants to throw at an old laptop. If you have some el-cheapo laptop with a beaten up case, a low-end LCD, and in need of a new drive and a few busted connectors, then its probably time to put it out to pasture. If you have to pay $150 for Windows 7 instead of getting a cheap or free copy from school/work (through a site license), or through a Technet subscription, then maybe buying a new laptop makes more sense (even if you just get a cheap refurb!).

 

[TwinsenTacquito]

HDD. I don't see laptops as magical high performance machines.

 

[taltamir]

Yeah and all machines that take T7700s, with appropriate BIOS support, can also support 8gb RAM. Really, its just a matter of how much one wants to throw at an old laptop. If you have some el-cheapo laptop with a beaten up case, a low-end LCD, and in need of a new drive and a few busted connectors, then its probably time to put it out to pasture. If you have to pay $150 for Windows 7 instead of getting a cheap or free copy from school/work (through a site license), or through a Technet subscription, then maybe buying a new laptop makes more sense (even if you just get a cheap refurb!).

or just use ubuntu

 

[dawza]

I have a T60 widescreen with a T7200, and moving from the stock 7.2K RPM HDD to a X-25V made a noticeable difference in startup/shutdown, app launching, and made the entire system feel on par with an i5-based Latitude (also with an SSD) for office apps, surfing, etc.

I actually see more utility for SSDs in laptops than in desktops. Even though hybrid drives may turn out to be a great middle ground, before them, there was no VR equivalent to bridge the gap between 7.2K RPM HDD and SSD in a notebook-compatible form factor. Then, there are the durability advantages of an SSD in a mobile system. Finally, HDD noise and vibrations tend to be much more readily heard and felt, respectively, in a notebook than in a desktop.

 

[pitz]

I actually see more utility for SSDs in laptops than in desktops. Even though hybrid drives may turn out to be a great middle ground, before them, there was no VR equivalent to bridge the gap between 7.2K RPM HDD and SSD in a notebook-compatible form factor. Then, there are the durability advantages of an SSD in a mobile system. Finally, HDD noise and vibrations tend to be much more readily heard and felt, respectively, in a notebook than in a desktop.

Yup. On a desktop, you can go RAID. You can remote boot from a SAN through iSCSI. There's tons of things you can do to reduce noise and improve overall IOPS and reliability. The SSD is basically the only solution on the laptop that gives you characteristics anywhere near that of a nice 2-4 disk RAID-1 in the desktop environment, especially if said RAID-1 is neatly tucked away in a closet somewhere and connected to your desktop using Ethernet.

 

[taltamir]

I don't know what you guys are talking about...
the move to a quality SSD was the biggest upgrade I ever had on my desktop.

 

[dawza]

Easy there skippy. No one is saying that SSDs aren't a huge upgrade on a desktop- just that your options for dealing with HDD-related issues (performance, heat, noise, vibration, durability) are much more limited in a notebook platform than a desktop one.

 

[Voo]

Easy there skippy. No one is saying that SSDs aren't a huge upgrade on a desktop- just that your options for dealing with HDD-related issues (performance, heat, noise, vibration, durability) are much more limited in a notebook platform than a desktop one.

Are there? I can't think of one technology to reduce latency, which is the major reason why SSDs are such great OS drives. A "a nice 2-4 disk RAID-1" won't do anything for that, it could even make things a bit worse, depending on the used controller
Sure if we want throughput a short stroked 15k SAS raid is better than every "normal" SSD combination, but for latency there's just nothing that helps to make up for rotational delays.

 

[pitz]

Are there? I can't think of one technology to reduce latency, which is the major reason why SSDs are such great OS drives. A "a nice 2-4 disk RAID-1" won't do anything for that, it could even make things a bit worse, depending on the used controller

RAID-1 really speeds things up around here on reads, twice the throughput with 2 drives, 3X on 3 drives, etc. Hurts writes, but unless you're dumping a lot of stuff to it....

Of course, in the laptop environment, RAID-1 really isn't an option for most, but perfectly plausible on a desktop or in a SAN.

 

[boomhower]

I would give a hybrid a shot. I currently have a 60GB Vertex and while I love the speed the size is a bit of an issue. I am constantly offloading video to external. If hybrids were available two months ago I likely would have bought one instead. Sure they aren't as fast as a true SSD but they are an improvement in a lot of tasks over mechanical but still give large storage.