Think you know SSDs? Think again.

[fakeasdf]

Good call, anyone buying SSD needs to read this article (and the followup AnandTech: The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD) for sure.

 

[johngalt]

I added a snippet of that article to the first post and credited you and the above post for recommending it as a followup.

 

[FZ21Z]

SSD are freaken awesome.. i just cant wait till i can get 1TB drives for an affordable price

YouTube - Samsung SSD Awesomeness

Jesus, puts this PC to shame.

 

[nate42nd]

Good call, anyone buying SSD needs to read this article (and the followup AnandTech: The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD) for sure.

TYVM for the article.

 

[fakeasdf]

And yet another good article, kind of exciting actually. 85 $ Kingston (Intel Rebranded) 40 GB drive.... Not bad!
AnandTech: Updated: The SSD Improv: Intel & Indilinx get TRIM, Kingston Brings Intel Down to $115

On a more personal note, I bought the X25-M G2. My Intel Rocks... It's the Bomb diggity. I also updated to the 02HA firmware in Win7 without a problem thankfully.

 

[zrtom]

Yes, that is exciting. Great information and thank you.
The only downside of reading an article like this is that it usually ends up costing me money. Within days of Anand's first Anthology article, I had several hundred dollars less in my bank account.
November 9, huh?
I'll let you know.

 

[batmeat]

Been running my SSD's Corsair P128 Raid 0 config for a while now with no hitches. Win 7 didn't automatically configure itself on the install to optimize for them. I had to manually disable a bunch of useless stuff like the defrag, pre-fetch...etc. Also, if you have an SSD run a slave hard drive to offload pre-cache OS and browers tmp files.

 

[bualle]

I upgraded to a core i7 system recently, running windows 7 pro 64 bit.

All my data is still on standard hdds, but I got a "Corsair Performance P256 256GB" to install windows and my software on.

No doubt about it, this thing is blisteringly fast and once solid state comes down to more reasonable prices I will replace all my hard drives with them.

The speed windows boots at it unbelievable!

 

[BruhthaKuga]

I Bought The OCZ 1VTX30G SSD For $100

Is there anything different to do when installing a SSD from a HDD? I will be using 64bit Windows 7 Ultimume RTM that I got free from attending the Launch Event.

For me this is trully an entry level SSD as I already know that I am waiting for further refinements in the SSD industry. This SSD will let me "Play" and see and then I will clear it and send it to my friend on the other coast so he can get his jollies off also.

I first looked at the Kingston 40GB SSD for under $100 but it didn't look worthy.

 

[bualle]

Is there anything different to do when installing a SSD from a HDD? I will be using 64bit Windows 7 Ultimume RTM that I got free from attending the Launch Event.

For me this is trully an entry level SSD as I already know that I am waiting for further refinements in the SSD industry. This SSD will let me "Play" and see and then I will clear it and send it to my friend on the other coast so he can get his jollies off also.

I first looked at the Kingston 40GB SSD for under $100 but it didn't look worthy.

Well if you're installing it into a desktop 3.5 inch bay, you need an adaptor as they are 2.5 inch.

Apart from that no difference, but I am told you should not defragment them (and I currently am not doing so). I have not fully researched this though.

 

[pparks1]

You don't need to defrag an SSD. Reason is that without access times, it doesn't matter if the data is in various parts of the drive as the drive can get to everyplace just as fast.

Also, with SSD's having a finite number of writes, doing things like defrag which cause tons of writes to the drive just shortens it's life.

 

[BruhthaKuga]

I am going to make a 2.5 to 5.25 hard drive adaptor by takingt an old CD drive gut it, hot glue the face back on then drill holes in the bottom coresponding to the holes on the SDD to secure the drive to the inside bottom on the CD case,









Other than that I will just take some thin sheet metal and make an adaptor.

 

[fakeasdf]

That looks fun, I just tossed my SSD in the computer and let it fly. I love my SSD, but apparently not enough to make it a real place to live.

 

[FuturDreamz]

just a quick question about SSDs:
If I'm using a computer for internet access or other tasks that only need to get a small file off the hard every so often, would my battery life be increased?
because as i see it if for example whenever you need to open a new tab in IE8 it has to grab the new tab info off the drive, so for a hhd it has to spin up the drive, get to the file, then read it which a SSD will access the file immediately using power for less time?
thanks.

 

[fseal]

Laptops is where I think SSDs shine even brighter. I've seen several people report that yes they get better battery time which makes sense when you look at the power consumption for each device. But also, laptop drives are 1) Slow already and 2) as you pointed out, when in aggressive battery saving mode they are always off when you need them and it takes forever for them to spin up again.

So the huge gains in performace experienced on a desktop would be double for a laptop (PLUS the battery savings!)

 

[fakeasdf]

just a quick question about SSDs:
If I'm using a computer for internet access or other tasks that only need to get a small file off the hard every so often, would my battery life be increased?
because as i see it if for example whenever you need to open a new tab in IE8 it has to grab the new tab info off the drive, so for a hhd it has to spin up the drive, get to the file, then read it which a SSD will access the file immediately using power for less time?
thanks.

To be honest most of anything that IE needs to look up to open up a new tab is cached in memory. But the OS itself is constantly accessing files etc, You definitely will get a gain in performance and it will use less power for sure resulting in a significant battery life increase.

 

[zrtom]

Yup. Better battery life is another real world benefit of SSDs. On my Dell M1330, using an SSD gives me darned near another hour of battery life on the 56 Wh battery.
Tom

 

[FuturDreamz]

i'm so going to get one.

 

[Hikeman]

Hey Guys. Pleas help me decide!!
I have a good laptop SONY VAIO: Intel Core i5 M 430 2.27GHz, 4Gb RAM, 1024 MB "AMD Radeon HD..." Graphic card and 500 Gb HDD - 5400 RPM.
Now I've got a 80 Gb SSD "for free" !!! Is it worth to change my 500Gb HDD with 80 Gb SSD and use my HDD as an external device???
With all the above mentioned characteristics , how much difference will it do for the performance of the laptop???
Pleas help me out... )))
Thanks

 

[ignatzatsonic]

It will make a considerable difference--particularly since your existing drive is 5400 RPM.

The best idea is to put Windows 7 and all applications on the SSD. Then put all data on the HDD.

Overall "snappiness" will increase a lot, and boot time in particular will probably be cut in half.