Solved Is it worth to buy a SSD for my laptop?

[Imrankhan]

I am having Dell XPS 15 L502x.
Intel Core i7, 8GB 1333Mhz RAM, 2GB nVidia 540m Gt, 750GB 5400rpm SSD, Win7 HP and LinuxMint 14.
My Laptop is one year old. My HDD's write speed never exceeded 28MB/s. Now it got drastically reduced to 17MB/s :shock:. My Lap takes nearly 90 seconds to reach desktop which is far worser than before . After reading lot of reviews, opinions and user feedback, I have concluded that HDD is biggest bottleneck of XPS 15. Also my HDD goes upto 48 Celcius at Idle and 57 Celcius while gaming .
Some people say that switching to SSD will propel XPS performance to a great extend. So What about getting 200GB SSD for program files and a 500GB external HDD for media files(since i cant have both in a laptop) ?
Please tell me, if you have a better suggestion.

 

[Bongo]

You can never go wrong adding a SSD to your laptop a 200 GB would be plenty for the OS and programs and 500 GB external for data would work just fine.

Jerry

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

YES, Yes and Yes ------->>yes again "Ad Nauseam".

Once you've fitted one you will wonder why you ever delayed so long before buying one -- even the 250 GB versions are cheap enough -- and if you manage storage sensibly (external USB's / 64 GB micro sdHC cards in internal readers etc) you've got plenty of local storage so even the very cheap 120 GB SSD's should not be too much of a restriction on storage space.

Use SSD for OS (and applications) -- multimedia on slower devices are just fine. If you've got spare space on the SSD scratch files for Photoshop is another good use for SSD space - but only usually keep OS and apps on the SSD -- typical user data (multi-media, photos, office files, email etc) is better left on the slower Spinners.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

While you will never separate me from the SSD in my desktop so long as I can draw breath, I found it just too hard to justify buying one for my notebook when one big enough for my needs costs 50% more than the notebook. I recently ordered a hybrid that has been delivered to my mail service; I just haven't gotten around to picking it up yet (the weather has been driving my arthritis, allergies, and sinuses nuts). It won't be as fast as an SSD but it should improve boot and some program loading times significantly.

 

[whs]

Your scenatio is very viable if you are not afraid of the extra cost. But I don't think that a 200GB SSD exists - you'd have to go to a 240GB or 256GB model. And the HDD which you recover you can stick into a $20 USB caddy and use it as an external disk.

 

[LMiller7]

Another advantage of an SSD in a laptop is the much higher resistance to mechanical shock. Many a conventional drive has been seriously damaged by what was thought to be a minor fall.

 

[kbrady1979]

Extreme performance, no moving parts, and a very low power draw.......can't go wrong!

 

[whs]

Plus less heat. I solved the heat problem in one of my laptops by replacing the HDD with a SSD.

 

[kbrady1979]

Plus less heat. I solved the heat problem in one of my laptops by replacing the HDD with a SSD.

I knew I was forgetting something. In my desktop, my SSD runs 5-10*C cooler than my HDD....and my HDD's run pretty cool.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I just looked in my desktop and the two HDDs are running at 32°C and 33°C. The SSD is running at 26°C. The ambient is also 26°C.

 

[Imrankhan]

Samsung 840 Series 120 GB SSD Internal Hard Drive
Kingston SV300S37A/120G Internal Hard Drive
Corsair Force Series GS 128 GB SSD Internal Hard Drive
OCZ Agility 4 128 GB SSD Internal Hard Drive
SanDisk Extreme Series SDSSDX-120G-G25 120 GB SSD
ADATA Premier Pro 128 GB Laptop Internal Hard Drive
Plextor M5S 128 GB Desktop, Laptop Internal Hard Drive

Lot of options, very confused, how to choose... My SSD needs to be reliable and upto 55C temp resistance.

 

[kbrady1979]

Samsung 840 Pro, Samsung 840, OCZ Vector, Plextor M5 Pro, Corsair Neutron GTX, OCZ Vertex 4. All great drives

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Of the bunch you listed I would strongly recommend the Samsung 840 120GB. However, if you can afford it, I would strongly recommend the Samsung 840 Pro 128GB over the 840. Just the longer warranty alone (five years instead of three) would make the extra cost worthwhile. Also, the 840 Pro uses MLC technology which has a proven track record for reliability and long life opposed to the 840's TLC, which, in theory, will not last as long but hasn't been out long enough to know for sure how well it will hold up in real life. Still, the 840s have been getting excellent reviews.

The OCZ Agility 4 appears to be being discontinued.

The rest use a Sandforce controller which has had a bad track record in the past for reliability. Also, they all only have three year warranties. Of those, the SanDisk is the one I would not recommend under any circumstance due a bad experience I had with them when they jumped through hoops to weasel out of the warranty on a camera card that died.

It's a pity the Kingston listed also uses a Sandforce controller because I have had good luck with their products.

The OCZ Vertex 4 kbrady1979 suggested uses a non-Sandforce controller but the reviews aren't as good as the Samsung 840 and 840 pros.

 

[kbrady1979]

Hardly any of the reviews are better than the Samsung models lol. I know several people that use one and have had excellent reliability and performance from it...it was the first Vertex model without a Sandforce controller I believe. It's been out long enough to have a good firmware for it, and you can probably find it on sale more often than not. That being said, I honestly would just stick with Samsung. I've got the 830 and it is the gold standard in reliability.

That is just the standard list I give when people are looking for a new SSD. They are all premium drives and will usually be a few dollars more than mainstream drives(except the regular 840 of course).

 

[Imrankhan]

Based on your views and my small research, I decided to go for Samsung 840 series 120GB. Its costs me around $125 in India.

Forgot to mention Intel 520.... Does they use Sandforce? MLC/TLC? Better than Samsung or still Samsung stand on top? Will it be reliable ?

 

[kbrady1979]

The Intel 520 uses a Sandforce controller, MLC nand. When I built this rig a year ago, I originally went with the Intel 520 because of how reliable my Intel X25-M was. First one went bad in a day, got a new replacement, went bad in a day, went with a Samsung 830 after that.......100% reliable. No, Intel is not better than Samsung. Maybe I had horrible luck, but 2 of them going bad within 24 hours in the same way made me not want to give them another chance. I will never recommend an SSD with a Sandforce controller.

 

[Imrankhan]

Thank you kbrady and Lady Fitzgerald.
I ordered a Samsung 840 series 120GB. I will definately give my feedback about this Samsung 840 SSD within a week of delivery. Thanks again.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

That SSD is going to rock your world, are you planning a clean install of clone of your existing drive?

 

[Imrankhan]

I am going to clean install.....
Another doubt... Whats the name of that dock or adapter that enables a HDD to be connected to a USB 3.0 port in my laptop.

 

[DocBrown]

Here is a link to several different HD Docks


:ar: http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/298953-show-us-your-dock.html#post2478747