Solid State Drives

NYSpeed Automotive NYSpeed Off Topic
1

I am “building” a hp laptop and I have a few choices for hard drives. I am looking at 2 computers, one I can go with a 32GB SSD for cache and a 650 HDD at 5400. The other is a hybrid drive, not sure on SSD size, but HDD is a 750 at 7200. Or should I skip the SSD all together? I’ve heard they have had issues in the past, so is it even worth getting them? It’s about $50 for either option on top of standard HDD.

Ideas? I am using this computer for home office stuff. Web, Microsoft office, streaming movies, etc. Any other suggestions are welcome. Looking to stay around $700 or less, intel i5 setup.

2

How do these specs look? Any suggestions?

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
3rd generation Intel® Core™ i5-3210M Processor (2.5 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz)
Intel® HD Graphics
FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
FREE Upgrade to 640GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
32GB mSSD Hard Drive Acceleration Cache
Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel® only, No PowerPoint®/Outlook®
No additional security software
6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
15.6-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1366x768)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
HP TrueVision HD Webcam
802.11b/g/n WLAN
Backlit Keyboard with numeric keypad

3

Idk about the 32GB mSSD Hard Drive Acceleration Cache thing, but I just installed a 120GB SSD that I got on the cheap recently. I would suggest going with a hybrid drive if you have a lot of stuff basically. From what I understand, a fuller SSD will run slower and will ‘wear out’ faster(?). Also, bigger SSDs read slower than smaller SSDs and are more expensive.

If I were to change my SSD to something else, I would choose a hybrid just because right now I have my OS and all other software installed on my SSD (so relatively empty), and around 250GBs of media and other stuff on an external HDD. Works out great and you really see a difference in performance, but its annoying when I wanna listen to some music at school or something and my library is at home on my HDD…

And specs of the laptop above are dependent on the price I guess… I would say good if around $500 with just the standard HDD, I think.

4

My desktop PC has a 60Gb SSD and then I use normal HDs for storage.

My MBP has a 320Gb? SSD and its amazingly fast

5

I bought a SATAII 128GB hard drive for my computer’s main drive. I would definitely not recommend getting something that small. It fills up really quick.

6

It doesn’t fill up quick if you manage your programs/documents/pictures to the regular HD properly. I’m 70gb out of a 100 on my SSD and 100gb out of 450 on the regular drive. I have 4/5 of the main 3d modeling programs, mastercam x5/6, ansys and the normal stuff. It’s a real pain because all programs want to default install to your C drive so you have to manually install them to the other drive.

I think it’s worth it.

7

Justin, any problems with the ssd? I like the quick boot up ability it offers as the cache. Any truth to them crapping out prematurely? I’ve read that on a few sites, but nothing beats personal experience.

8

SSD’s have come a long way. I had a few die on me prematurely early on, but lately they have been much better. I don’t have much experience with the mSSD ones though.

9

I had a brown out in my neighborhood during the summer that cooked one.

They seem to be way more reliable now then in the past.

10

SSD all the way… all your important shit, save up in the cloud.

11

I put one in my macbook. its a Intel 3200 128gb. iv had no problems in 2 years with it. also had great reviews

12

samsung 830 or 840 all day long

13

Speaking of the 840…You can get a 250GB Samsung 840 Driver for $150 today ($40 off)

14

you know you want one.

https://youtu.be/b38Zrm1xqNI

Edit: give youtube a couple minutes to catch up lol.

15

Sorry to hijack here but speaking of SSD in Macs…

Can any of you guys help me or direct me to a good tutorial that shows how to boot from an SSD after install in a mac with Mtn Loin. I tried it but im having issues with the secondary user accounts on the wifeys Mac Mini. Im not a Mac guy at all so im pretty useless here.

16

I have installed a lot of ssd’s in macs. to boot from it you have to image the boot drive to it with the disk utility or install mountain lion from scratch using a usb key or a dvd.
Edit: follow this to image it How to Clone and Backup Your Hard Drive | Macinstruct

17

Thanks a lot, yeah I followed those exact instructions and still had problems… I guess ill have to hit the mac forums.

18

I’ve got one in my Dell XPS13; 128GB; thing is amazingly fast and works great. Never had any issues reliability/etc with it and I use it everyday a few hours a day.

Doesn’t have a ton of storage, but that’s what my NAS/FTP at home is for.

19

If you want the computer to feel slow irrespective of hardware, run a mechanical hard drive. Otherwise get a Samsung 830 256GB. The 128GB should be OK if you want to revive older hardware. The 840 isn’t very exciting aside from TLC, which is generally worse than MLC.

The 830 really has a bit of a legendary reputation…
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?271063-SSD-Write-Endurance-25nm-Vs-34nm/page218

Unfortunately the 840 tested was half the capacity of the 830, but it still didn’t perform very well. The fact that the 256GB 830 could maintain 300MB/s right up to it’s death is reason enough to buy it. They are getting harder to find now that the 840 replaced them.

Installing an SSD in Apple hardware:
Get some sort of external enclosure for the old drive, or SuperDuper! the existing volume to external storage. Install the new SSD, hold option while booting, boot to the back up volume. Format using Disk Utility, SuperDuper! the volume back to the internal SSD. This would mean you loose the restore partition if equipped, if you’re into that kind of stuff.