SSD thoughts

[coolVariable]

Prices are only very slowly coming down.
Yet I am itching to get my hands on an SSD for my lenovo x60t.
Because of all the JMicron issues, I think I will stay away from the MLC SSDs (or should I see if I can get one at Frys ... try it out and return it if it doesn't work).
So I have been focusing on the SLC SSDs ... primarily the Samsung ones.
The 32GB Samsung is finally coming into reach at $300.
My problem though is that 32GB is probably not enough space. 64GB should hopefully be fine.
I am thinking though about using the integrated SD card reader and maybe a card reader+SD/CF card to get more space for data that does not need to be on the fast Samsung SSD.

Thoughts?

Would it be better than my 7,200rpm 100GB HDD?

 

[vol7ron]

I'm not the best expert at hard disk setups; I know in the past I had trouble (and gave up) trying to connect an IDE and SATA at the same time. I believe there are certain limitations, at least with my motherboard at the time, in doing this. It's been a long while so I never referred back to the matter.

I bring this up because SSDs and your 100GB -let's hope- probably both use SATA connections and should be able to work at the same time. I believe I've seen other users use a combination of an SSD with a conventional hard disk drive - a sort of hybrid, if you will.

So, if you have both, use both. Either a Raid 0 or just a dual storage setup. I'd recommend the later of the two choices. I'd place my OS and programs on the 32GB, and all saved media (music, movies, etc) that I'm not working on, on the 100GB. Really, just make sure your OS and high-performance applications are on the SSD.

For the comment about the SD/CF setup, I think it would depend on your OS how you really set it up. You might see a little bit improvement, my question is: is it worth it? I think you should also look at the MLC market and see advancements in the software algorithms developed to compensate with the lags.

Additionally, Intel's controller handling should be adopted my more and more manufacturers, so I think cheap, high-performing MLCs are just around the corner.

 

[coolVariable]

lenovo x60t => no raid

 

[Denithor]

This is a laptop, not a desktop...using both drives simultaneously inside is not an option.

Now, that being said, why isn't 32GB enough storage? Buy an external enclosure & use the 100GB as a storage drive for whatever and just use the 32GB SSD for Windows & programs.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I'm looking to increase the battery life of my laptop with one of these. I just hope they come in IDE flavor...

 

[coolVariable]

Originally posted by: Denithor
This is a laptop, not a desktop...using both drives simultaneously inside is not an option.

Now, that being said, why isn't 32GB enough storage? Buy an external enclosure & use the 100GB as a storage drive for whatever and just use the 32GB SSD for Windows & programs.

... because it's a laptop and portable.
No sense in having a thin and light laptop if I have to carry 20+ lbs in extra gear.

 

[vol7ron]

Didn't see the part about the lenovo, sorry.

32GB is not enough space anyhow. Your OS, with all the service packs and whatever, is going to be 10-15GB; if you're using Office 2003+ there's another 5GB, then that leaves you room for one decent game, like WoW or CS:S which are approximately 10GB and 7GB, respectively. Or, Photoshop, which also takes up a lot of space.

So, really, disregarding the fact that you won't have room for media (music, art, video) you will not have the liberty to install any and all applications. For a laptop these days, I would say you need at least 80GB. If you're tight and don't store useless media, or don't run too many programs on it, you could probably get by with 64, but 80 should be the real medium. And I would truely recommend 100+ (somewhere around 120) for future scalability.

I realize you can't do this right now, but I would recommend that you wait, or you get one of the bigger "broken" MLCs. 32GB will not do you, even if you use SDs and CFs.



You can tweak your OS/programs to "fix" the lag on XP: http://www.ocztechnologyforum....showthread.php?t=43460
And there is program/driver you can get (costs about $150) to fix the MLCs, though about 4GB of you the drive is wasted for the spooling. Basically, what it does is waits til you have a whole page to write, so it minimizes the amount of erases and re-writes to the disk.