Think you know SSDs? Think again.

[fseal]

As long as you don't need that extra HD space for something (like dumping raw images in the field) then yeah, it'll be a total win. I did the same thing to my relatively new VAIO. Laptops these days are chained down by the spinners in them. an SSD really lets it fly like it was meant to.

Before you begin though, go to sony's website and DL every single driver for that model laptop and burn them all onto a CD. There could be like 30 installers all told. But then after you have installed a fresh windows 7 on the SSD in the laptop, you can then get back proper functionality for the card reader, wifi, bluetooth, trackpad, special function keys, proper battery management and on and on. (Assuming the laptop CAME with windows 7)

I have 100% original shipping functionality with a clean install of W7 doing that (minus certain sony blaotware apps I "forgot" to install)

 

[Hikeman]

Hello ignatzatsonic !
Yea of course, I was planing to put only OS and the applications on SSD and the rest of my personal data (everything) on HDD, but SILL is it really worth to replace 500 GB with 80 GB (from the available Memory point of view), I mean I am using my personal data every day!!
And one more question pleas, in case I use my HDD as an external device! how big is the risk of HDD failure when I use it externally and internally ..??
Thank you very much for responding )

 

[smarteyeball]

Does the VAI) have a usb 2.0 or USB 3.0 ports?

If USB 2.0, accessing the external daily is going to be a tad slow dpending on data accessed. If USB 3.0 + a USB 3.0 external, SSD all the way.

Depending on external drive model, the failure rate is not dissimilar to a standard internal HDD. The weakest points on externals are the USB connections (easy to knock repeatedly) and same goes for the power plug.

But overall, you'd notice an appreciable 'snappiness' improvement swapping the 5400 drive to a SSD as mentioned by ignatzatsonic

 

[slizz189]

Thinking about a SSD...
If not this one, could someone suggest one?
Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

[Hikeman]

Hello smarteyeball.
I am sorry to ask but what is VAI ? If you mean External Hard Drive "Enclosure" then yes I am planing to get with USB 3 support. My HDD is: TOSHIBA MK5055GSX 500GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" (hope it's compatible with USB 3 enclosure?!)
And according to my HDD model pleas tell me if it is ok to use it as external? Also you mentioned the USB is the weak point of external heard drives! I do have a eSATA port on my laptop, so maybe it's worth to get the HDD enclosure with eSATA support as well?
Thanks for your advice's ))
Have a nice day

 

[rtmeek]

Question; Prior to SSD's it was pretty much a rule of thumb that when your HHD was around 75% of its capacity that you should get a larger drive so as not to sacrifice speed, etc. Does this hold true for SSD's or not? Does it make any difference at all?

 

[fseal]

I don't know about that 75% number, maybe that came from the fact that the data transfer rate on HDs drops significantly the closer to the inner spindle you get (as you fill the drive).

But certainly if you are reaching 90-95% you are limiting the number of places that new data can be efficiently written on a spinner and agressive defragmenting may be needed to keep the drive from having terrible write performance.

Neither of those really affect an SSD. It can write anywhere with the same exact speed, and it can read and write files that are "fragmented" just as fast as not. In fact the term "fragmentation" doesn't really even apply. Files are writen into 4k blocks (Just like on a HD) and so are "fragmented" at the start, but those blocks can be anywhere and it doesn't make any difference to the read/write speed at all.

That being said, there was an issue in earlier SSDs that indeed did slow them down as they started to get full, but these days, idle time garbage collection and "TRIM" support fro mthe OS makes sure that there are always fresh cells ready to go when the time is needed to write new data. So todays crop of drives really don;t suffer from that problem at all any more.

(Note that TRIM support on Linux is a bit spotty as well as non existent before Windows 7)

 

[FuturDreamz]

True, but over time SSDs usuallly are compacting data for faster write speeds. 95% may be ok, bu not if you're booting off of it.

 

[Layback Bear]

I'm still trying to find out whether cleaning Free Space on a ssd is good or bad to do.

 

[fseal]

I'm still trying to find out whether cleaning Free Space on a ssd is good or bad to do.

It's good only ONLY if using a tool from the dive manufacturer to do so and that is only ncessary if it's an older drive (like 1.5 - 2 years old or older?) and/or if the drive or your OS does not support TRIM.

Otherwise it is not only unnecessary but potentially (though only slightly) harmful.

 

[Palindari]

Funny, I did quite a bit of research and almost as much financial soul searching to finally convince myself to go the SSD route.

After a year - and the expiration of my warranty - the Toshiba HDD in my Toshiba laptop was producing emanate peril warnings. I was getting noticeable pauses and boot speeds were granny gear slow. And then there was the noticeable click noise it would making every so often.

So I had to act.

I chose the Samsung 830 128gB drive (Newegg $199).

Took a while to condense a 510gB drive down to 110 (needed room for the system and back partitions), but I got it done and after 2 weeks still happier than I could ever imagine.

The speeds are everything I could have hoped for.

Still have the Toshiba drive. The Samsung comes with a cool USB/SATA cable for ghosting the new drive before install. Now the old drive is on that and still clicking away as an external storage device.

But after reading this article I'm a bit worried about the 10k write times a NAND flash hold up to before failure.

Most HDD life cycles are based on a spin hours. But these are based on write times.

Curious now to how long these will last before failure of pages occur. For I'm not in the mood to replace drives every year.

 

[fseal]

Though not all SSDs are the same, most of them have gone through enthusiest testing hat has them a hundreds and hundreds of gigs of wirting for months at a time before failing. Most of them are exceeding manufacturers "specs" buy severlal times over. In other words like 10-20 YEARS of normal use.

COurse some drives do fail, but some spinners fail too. Always backup/keep duplicate copies of all data.

 

[smarteyeball]

Hello smarteyeball.
I am sorry to ask but what is VAI ? If you mean External Hard Drive "Enclosure" then yes I am planing to get with USB 3 support. My HDD is: TOSHIBA MK5055GSX 500GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" (hope it's compatible with USB 3 enclosure?!)
And according to my HDD model pleas tell me if it is ok to use it as external? Also you mentioned the USB is the weak point of external heard drives! I do have a eSATA port on my laptop, so maybe it's worth to get the HDD enclosure with eSATA support as well?
Thanks for your advice's ))
Have a nice day

Sorry for the delay mate.

It was a typo - It was meant to be VAIO

Yes, it will be compatible with a 2.5 external enclosure. Also USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0.

Unfortunately it looks like your Sony only supports USB 2.0, so a USB 3.0 enclosure would be wasted.

However eSata is indeed quicker than USB 2.0, so from a speed perspective it would be worthwhile investing in eSata, although it's only a 5,400rpm drive so I wouldn't expect exceptional speeds. (But it is a further reason to replace your HDD with a SDD for your OS and apps)

When you mention 'personal data', what exactly are you referring to? ie Files, Music, Pictures etc?

 

[Palindari]

Though not all SSDs are the same, most of them have gone through enthusiest testing hat has them a hundreds and hundreds of gigs of wirting for months at a time before failing. Most of them are exceeding manufacturers "specs" buy severlal times over. In other words like 10-20 YEARS of normal use.

COurse some drives do fail, but some spinners fail too. Always backup/keep duplicate copies of all data.

Well it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that this is the way data storage/access needs to go - not only for speed, but for power consumption and reliability. Besides the most recent near failure - I've had HDDs fail catastrophically in the past and I think its all that highspeed spinning that wears them down over time.

So I'm in the SSD camp firmly and I'm hoping the Samsung 830 is a good choice. By my best guestimate by the end of the year the price for a solid performance SSD will drop to less than a $1 a gB maybe more - as more and more competitors get into the game. Like WD, Seagate and Hitachi.

 

[Layback Bear]

Thanks fseal for your response. My Intel 510 supports Trim and is new so I will just leave it alone.

 

[Layback Bear]

Thinking about a SSD...
If not this one, could someone suggest one?
Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

One of the reasons I chose Intel 510 SSD is because of 5 year warranty.