SSD options

what would getting, say a 120 gb ssd do for me? I have the stock 5400 rpm drive in now. I am thinking of either getting
1. seagate momentus xt + 8gb ram
2. 120 gb ssd

which would give the better performance?

 

SSD by a longshot obviously, however they are way more pricey than hdd, the momentus is a hybrid between hdd and ssd.

It's review say they are better than a hdd, but still very inferior to a ssd, I was thinking of buying a momentus, but I decided to break the bank and go for a ssd instead, no regrets here.

 

Clearly its a 120gb SSD thats much faster. No doubt about it. Go for the OCZ Vertex 2.

8GB RAM doesn't do you any good. Diffference 4gb vs 8gb is VERY minimal, you won't even notice it.

Don't forget that only 64bit programs can use more than 3GB RAM (eg Photoshop 64bit). Most games are programed in 32bit (incl. Starcraft 2, Fallout New Vegas etc.) so NONE of these games can use anything above 3GB anyway and your RAM is utterly wasted!

 

Zchay :# i play Starcraft 2 my RAM reaches 3gb sometimes XD
and SSD is amazing and the 120GB is getting low prices now adays but can you limit yourself with only 120GB ? thats nothing really i have 250GB HDD and i feel like am gona make it full soon xD have like 60GB or 70Gb free XD

 

There you see Salue, exactly what I said. Starcraft 2 can use a lot of RAM but other progs won't be able to use any more if they are 32 bit, and most are 32bit.

So if you are playing SC2, you have 8GB RAM, SC2 uses up most of the first 3GB RAM, ok so lets say win 7 64bit uses another 1gb, you're up to 4GB but still have 4GB. Lets say now you want to play Mass Effect 2 and alt-TAB out to start that game while SC2 is STILL running, then your PC would NOT be able to use the extra 4GB RAM, the first 3GB would be re-allocated for Mass Effect 2 and your HDD would be used for swap files, but that extra 4GB would still be there unused! Because its all programmed in 32bit.

Since nobody in their right mind would start two 64bit compute-intensive games at the same time you won't have any RAM trouble normally with just 4GB.

 

go with the ssd, whats the point of spending the money and getting something that's LIKE an ssd, just get the ssd. i've got the x25 120gb and am very happy; boot times are fast, installation is faster, laptop is cooler, programs load up quicker - its the shizzle. lots of deals too, got mine for $165 with a gift card for $100, so its kinda like i got it for $65.

 

Agreed with Dragon23. If you have the money always ssd!

 

Definitely absolutely SSD.

To give you an idea: Going from a mechanical hard drive to an SSD is like going from a 56K dial-up modem to a 5Mbps broadband connection. The SSD is literally two orders of magnutude faster (100x faster) than a mechanical drive in areas that count - random read times and I/O's per second.

 

agreed with all the posts^ ssd feels like your computer is finally WORKING (so many times i've sat waiting for my computer to load cursing it out)... and the 8 gb ram goes virtually *untouched* (unless if you use vmware i hear... but i'm assuming that you aren't going to).

 

I strongly urge you to check out the NewEgg OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD. Obviously space is more limited than the Momentus XT but - drops are (mostly) worry free for data and its useful for more than O/S loads. I swapped my stock HDD for one and love it.

Make sure you get an SSD with the Sandforce controller, not the Indilix (sp), and TRIM.

With the Speedstep disabled on a U7300 R1 M11x my disk drive score with it moved to 7.4.




If you're cloning a drive, defrag it FIRST... SSD drives don't need it and it reduces lifetimes for them.

This is the one I picked up for reference: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227551

 

Yep, agreed with everyone up top.

I did go for the 8GB of Ram upgrade a bit earlier but now I see that it was a mistake. I could have just as well survived with 4GB.

Anyway, my 240GB Vertex 2 is on the way to replace the Momentus XT that is currently my main drive. Hopefully, the changes are as drastic as everyone says they are.

 

Your right about the space issue... I have like 26GB free... so I am careful to not keep large downloads, etc. If I didn't have the other lappy as my main I would not get by with a 120 GB SSD.

 

At the risk of contradicting myself, I DO think 8 GB is worthwhile... if you either multitasking some heavy apps AND have an i-series to support. The C2D just isn't going to really see the benefit in most cases though.