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Which one for a netbook?

Synomenon

Synomenon

Lifer
I just got an Acer 1410 dual core CULV netbook. I'd like to replace its 5400rpm 2.5" drive.

I'm looking at either of these:

Western Digital Caviar Black 160GB, 7200RPM w/ Free-Fall Sensor
WD1600BJKT
http://westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=479

or

Intel 40GB X25-V
SSDSA2MP040G2R5
http://www.intel.com/design/flash/nand/value/overview.htm


I know the difference in capacity is pretty big b/w the two. With the SSD, I'd get better battery life and a cooler netbook.

I'll be installing either 64-bit Win7 Home Premium or 64-bit Win7 Pro. and Office 2007 or 2010. I don't plan on installing much else, but I would like to also have ~5GB of music on it.

Is the Intel 40GB large enough for all of that?


Would I even notice a difference in performance b/w the Caviar Black and the Intel?
 
yes yes yes the SSD would annihilate that caviar - it won't save much power - but it will be noise free. it will be stupid fast due to latency being near zero
 
That's what I initially though, but I'm not so sure about the 40GB capacity and the stuff I listed that I'd be installing.
 
The 40GB SSD will be cutting it close. With just the operating system you should be fine, but throw in several applications and you'll be pushing it to the limit. Remember that you should keep ~10-20% of the space free for wear leveling. The 5GB of music can be shoved on a SD / microSD card or USB flash drive.

Also, it's a CULV notebook / laptop, not a netbook. Netbooks have Atom or similarly-crippled processor and 10" or smaller screens. 😛
 
The 40GB may be cutting it too close. Remember, SSD performance drops as free space drops, and reviewers recommend leaving 10-20% of your SSD free for best performance.

A formatted Intel 40GB X25-V has 37.25GB of free space. Let's say you want to leave only 10% free (~3 GB) on the drive. You have to ask yourself if ~33.5GB is enough for Windows and everything on there. Assuming you disable Windows Backup and Hibernate, your Windows folder can still take anywhere from ~7.5 GB (fresh install) to 15+ GB.

Anand has a great writeup on how the free space works on SSD's:
http://anandtech.com/show/2829/7

------

I bought an OCZ Vertex 30GB (32GB in reality) SSD and I found that it was just too small for me. I've currently got an 80GB Intel X25-M G2 on my desktop and an OCZ Agility 60GB (64GB really) on my laptop and I'd consider a 64GB SSD to be the smallest I would recommend for most people to get and have a comfortable amount of free space on there.

I ran an experiment with the OCZ Vertex where I filled up the drive to ~99% capacity (over 29GB used out of 30GB total) and performance just absolutely died. Write speeds were absolutely abysmal and reading felt sluggish.
 
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The 40GB Intel is big enough, but you may want to consider one of the Indilinx-based 60GB drives. Recently the OCZ Agility was a Newegg Shellshocker special for $125 after rebate with free shipping.

For some extra capacity such as your ~5GB of music, you can stick a flash drive in the reader and just leave it in there for extra capacity if it doesn't stick out too far.
 
40 gb is plenty of space.

I have Win 7, office, photoshop, acrobat pro, and CAD programs on my netbook with a 30gb OCZ vertex. I have ~8gb free still.

You'll be fine on space with a 40gb drive.
 
Get an 80GB.

The 40GB may be cutting it too close. Remember, SSD performance drops as free space drops, and reviewers recommend leaving 10-20% of your SSD free for best performance.

A formatted Intel 40GB X25-V has 37.25GB of free space. Let's say you want to leave only 10% free (~3 GB) on the drive. You have to ask yourself if ~33.5GB is enough for Windows and everything on there. Assuming you disable Windows Backup and Hibernate, your Windows folder can still take anywhere from ~7.5 GB (fresh install) to 15+ GB.

Anand has a great writeup on how the free space works on SSD's:
Click to expand...
There already is spare space on the SSD, it doesn't show up on Windows.
 
i've used a hp netbook with intel x18-m and it was wtf omg this is really a netbook?? for the most part.

compared to a pc with a hard drive at least.
 
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