Would you say adding an SSD to a laptop would make a huge difference?

[ManBearPig]

I really wanna get one since I had one for my old system that I deconstructed, but don't know if it would be worth it. My system with the SSD was super fast, but then again all the components were way faster than the ones in my laptop so I'm not sure if the speed could be attributed to the SSD or the faster components or both (probable...but what %?).

Any opinions?

 

[kyonu]

I really wanna get one since I had one for my old system that I deconstructed, but don't know if it would be worth it. My system with the SSD was super fast, but then again all the components were way faster than the ones in my laptop so I'm not sure if the speed could be attributed to the SSD or the faster components or both (probable...but what %?).

Any opinions?

I often do upgrades for people at my work including SSD's, and I'll admit they make a world of difference. An average speed laptop (lets say an i5 or A8-series cpu, 4GB memory) would normally boot Windows in about 15 seconds or less, from my experience. Most games load a LOT faster, and most normal windows applications will process quicker.

 

[exdeath]

Go SSD. Hard drives suck and weak 2.5" laptop hard drives are among the worst.

 

[balane]

I put one in a netbook recently (Asus 1201N ION) and it made a world of difference. The laptop feels much more responsive now, snappier. I have zero regrets about spending the money on it.

 

[Broheim]

SSDs are an even bigger upgrade for a laptop than a desktop, laptop HDDs are much slower than their desktop counterparts, SSDs use less power and HDD noise is usually a bigger problem in laptops than Desktops. Get an SSD that has low power usage at idle, I believe samsung SSDs are among the ones that idle the lowest but I honestly can't remember.

 

[beginner99]

yeah. It is the one upgrade you will actually profit from the most especially on a laptop. If buying a new laptop, look for such that have mSATA capability. mSATA ssds are tiny and you can keep the hdd in the laptop for storage space.

I have an thinkpad X220 with the intel mSATA ssd (80 gb). It is fast and I have enough storage because I can use the original hdd for storage. because of that it probably feels faster than 95% of full blown desktops out there and that in a 12.5" chassis.

 

[amdhunter]

I couldn't live without an SSD as a boot drive period. I've had them in various laptops from cheap dual core Intels to my aging MacBook. Always made a world of difference.

 

[KingGheedora]

In general upgrading from a disk based drive to an SSD has a bigger positive impact on performance than any other upgrade you can do.

 

[leeland]

I put one in a netbook recently (Asus 1201N ION) and it made a world of difference. The laptop feels much more responsive now, snappier. I have zero regrets about spending the money on it.

I did the EXACT same thing as balane...wifes Asus 1201N as she hated how slow it was.

dumped in an intel ssd and 4 gb's of RAM...

reloaded the OS and man it is night and day...

I would definitely do it and wish I hadn't waited so long...

recently also did to my desktop to replace an older 7200 rpm drive and again night and day.

 

[KingGheedora]

I'll also add that over the past 5 years the only upgrades I've done have been adding SSD's to my machines (one work one, and one home one)

 

[podspi]

I'm surprised no one has asked you the specs of the laptop. In general, an SSD will be a big upgrade, but it really depends on the specific configuration.

For example, I have an HP 110 with an Atom N270 (single-core, 1.6ghz). Subjectively (and for light use, of course), upgrading the initial 1gb of ram to 2gb of ram boosts performance about the same as an SSD.


Along the same vein, my desktop machine with 8gb of ram doesn't benefit much from the SSD, besides startup time, except in very heavy use circumstance (when I have multiple VMs loaded, or working with large datasets).

But the huge impact? On my C2D laptop (1.5ghz) with 3gb of ram. Huge difference with the SSD.

So it really depends on what you are doing, and what your current configuration is.

 

[vbuggy]

No need to ask for specs. It will be a major upgrade.

As for 'desktops not benefitting as much' I sit primarily in front of dual-hex HP and Apple workstations, as well as an i7-2600K for gaming. I would not dream of not having at least an SSD boot / program / scratch drive on those, although I'm actually 100% HDD-free in reality - only my SANs / NASs and other servers have HDD's. Heck, even my HA(udio)PC runs a quad-SSD array for immediate response and the fastest possible OTF transcoding.

 

[zCypher]

Even my mother was blown away by the difference in speed from WD Black to OCZ Vertex3. There's no question that an SSD is a huge upgrade, it's alleviating the biggest bottleneck in computers today by a long shot.

Laptops sometimes come with 7200rpm hard drives too, but the most common ones are 4200-5400rpm drives. An SSD would give you a dramatic increase in system startup time, responsiveness of the whole system, launching apps for the first time will take much less time, and you can launch multiple apps without slowing down like a typical hard drive.

 

[fffblackmage]

Even 7200 rpm 2.5" HDDs are slow compared to the desktop counterparts. The only disadvantage with getting an SSD is that you most likely won't have much storage space, but I hardly keep any data on my laptop, so it hasn't been a problem for me.

 

[rchiu]

hybrid drives like seagate momentus xt is a good alternative. I have the older 500gb generation and it is pretty quick already (compared to my all SSD setup on my destop). The newer 750gb generation is even faster and compares well with SSD with the added size advantage.

The reason I go with hybrid is not so much the cost, but lack of disk space for SSD as laptop is usually limited to one hdd, and I don't wanna carry external drive around.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

Put an SSD in my 4 year old X61t with a low voltage C2D, and it made bootup/loading of startup apps much quicker. Nearly a minute with a slow 5400rpm drive to about 20 seconds. If you don't need the space for storage, go for it. Totally worth the $100.

 

[vbuggy]

hybrid drives like seagate momentus xt is a good alternative. I have the older 500gb generation and it is pretty quick already (compared to my all SSD setup on my destop). The newer 750gb generation is even faster and compares well with SSD with the added size advantage.

The reason I go with hybrid is not so much the cost, but lack of disk space for SSD as laptop is usually limited to one hdd, and I don't wanna carry external drive around.

I often wonder if people who post things like this - and I do notice quite a lot of Momentus owners do post this sort of stuff - have ever used an SSD. In no way whatsoever does a Momentus XT compare in terms of everyday utility to an SSD. It is basically a fast 7200RPM HDD - which is basically way slower than an SSD.

There are 500Gb SSD's (Intel 320 is available in 600Gb) around if the issue is not so much the cost.

 

[beginner99]

If cost is an issue and a lot of space is needed, just get a laptop that supports mSata ssds and you get the best of both worlds.
AFAIK mSATA support is getting more common every day and certain common dell models support it too.

I can only repeat my self. My little x220 is a charm because of that (and Sandy Bridge).

 

[balane]

I often wonder if people who post things like this - and I do notice quite a lot of Momentus owners do post this sort of stuff - have ever used an SSD. In no way whatsoever does a Momentus XT compare in terms of everyday utility to an SSD. It is basically a fast 7200RPM HDD - which is basically way slower than an SSD.

There are 500Gb SSD's (Intel 320 is available in 600Gb) around if the issue is not so much the cost.

So true. I put a Momentus XT hybrid 500GB in my Asus laptop (Not the netbook I mentioned above.) and used it for quite some time as the solo hard drive. It was a nice spindle drive and was definitely better than the OEM drive. But then I got an OCZ Vertex II 128GB SSD for the boot drive and moved the Momentus XT to the other bay for data storage. The difference in speed between the two is incredible. I would never want to go back to the Hybrid as my OS drive, regardless of how nice it is compared to other spindle drives.

Here are some test results I just took a few moments ago. SSD on left, Hybrid on the right.

 

[rchiu]

I often wonder if people who post things like this - and I do notice quite a lot of Momentus owners do post this sort of stuff - have ever used an SSD. In no way whatsoever does a Momentus XT compare in terms of everyday utility to an SSD. It is basically a fast 7200RPM HDD - which is basically way slower than an SSD.

There are 500Gb SSD's (Intel 320 is available in 600Gb) around if the issue is not so much the cost.

And have you ever used Momentus XT?

I have a 256gb SSD on my desktop as my main and 2xIntel 160gb as my application, plus terabytes of regular HDD for data. That's the basis for my comparison for the Momentus XT that's sitting in my x200s laptop.

If you go by benchmark, sure SSD is going to have the advantage in sustained transfer rate, but most people buy SSD for the response or the feel of responsiveness. People buy SSD because application launch faster. That's where the XT's NAND comes in. My x200s Windows launch faster, application launch faster, general responsiveness feels better. Before changing the HDD, my x200s is unbearably slower than my desktop, but after the swap, it is close to the experience on my desktop in day to day computing task.

Coincidentally, Anand just did a review on the 2nd generation XT, and from that and many other reviews, you will see the same experience. And that's from people with both SSD and XT experience.

 

[vbuggy]

And have you ever used Momentus XT?

I have a 256gb SSD on my desktop as my main and 2xIntel 160gb as my application, plus terabytes of regular HDD for data. That's the basis for my comparison for the Momentus XT that's sitting in my x200s laptop.

If you go by benchmark, sure SSD is going to have the advantage in sustained transfer rate, but most people buy SSD for the response or the feel of responsiveness. People buy SSD because application launch faster. That's where the XT's NAND comes in. My x200s Windows launch faster, application launch faster, general responsiveness feels better. Before changing the HDD, my x200s is unbearably slower than my desktop, but after the swap, it is close to the experience on my desktop in day to day computing task.

Coincidentally, Anand just did a review on the 2nd generation XT, and from that and many other reviews, you will see the same experience. And that's from people with both SSD and XT experience.

Yes - I tried a few on Macs and Windows notebooks after reading similar comments to yours, and marked it as total BS. They're being used as laptop backup drives now.

 

[rchiu]

Yes - I tried a few on Macs and Windows notebooks after reading similar comments to yours, and marked it as total BS. They're being used as laptop backup drives now.

Heh yeah maybe BS for those of you who do SSD only and quad SSD array and can afford/justify 500+gb SSD in a notebook.

For the rest of the people, Seagate Momentus xt is a good balance of responsiveness and size without having to pay more than the notebook itself for just the hdd. I think if you read around the review sites, most reviewers would agree the benefit of Momentus XT for notebook usage.

 

[zuffy]

Best upgrade you can do for a laptop or desktop. Every PCs (6) I use has SSD. It's the only way to go.

 

[vbuggy]

Heh yeah maybe BS for those of you who do SSD only and quad SSD array and can afford/justify 500+gb SSD in a notebook.

For the rest of the people, Seagate Momentus xt is a good balance of responsiveness and size without having to pay more than the notebook itself for just the hdd. I think if you read around the review sites, most reviewers would agree the benefit of Momentus XT for notebook usage.

But I thought cost wasn't so much the issue?

 

[86waterpumper]

at work we just got some dell precision desktops and laptops both. The laptops have a much slower cpu, (I7 2720QM) but have a ssd drive, while the desktops have a 3 something ghz xeon and 7200 rpm mech. drive. The difference is staggering. So much so that I will venture to say you are nearly better off just running a older system for most things with less cpu power if you are going to throttle it with a 7200 drive. For christmas I bought my wife a samsung 830 to upgrade her two year old dual core laptop, it will be just the shot in the arm that it needs I think.