Stuck between keeping a Refurbished HDD or upgrading to SSD

My WD 320GB Scorpio Black die and a replacement should arrive tomorrow(11/18). I am expecting a refurbished/re-certified and not too comfortable keeping it.

I have a friend that is pushing really hard for me to get an SSD. I am not against it but want to make sure the money I spend is well worth it. If I did I would get a 120GB and use an external for most of my music and picture. I dont really play games so thats not an issue. It is a little more than I want to spend but I plan on keeping this laptop for another 3-4 years as my lifeline at college so making it tiptop shape now rather than when I have to back things up would be nice.

I read the thread that asked what the best upgrade was for most people and it seems to be a consensus that an SSD is by far the best.

Any reason not to upgrade to an SSD? How reliable are they?

Edit: Oh and if I did buy one it would be Black Friday. I am looking at the OCZ Vertex or Agility 2 120GB. Whats the difference between the agility and vertex? I will not be using raid or anything.

 

Without knowing the usage pattern, it is hard to tell.

I have a x25m 80G and I am not too impressed for the gain, noticeable but not sure if it worths the 200 bucks.

Boot up is much faster but still very slow comparing with coming out of sleep(within 3 seconds) and that is the mode I used 90% of the time.

Program loading is faster but the typical programs I use load within 5 seconds even on a 7200 rpm HDD.

If you want to go the OCZ Sandforce based system, make very sure that it is compatible with your particular model(i.e. someone who has used it on the same model for say 3+ months).

 

If you do alot of time on the net at various sites a SSD can easilly be worth it. You need to have a FAT pipe though. As the system loads alot of small images and files it needs to get these to, or retrieve from, the storage media. With most HDD's the IOPS are pretty low compared to a SSD. For this reason web pages can be quite a bit snappier loading.

I have noticed too about loading programs and boot but the IOPS issue with the net is the one I notice the most. Then again that is what I mainly do with the system. Now I have a 15 Mb/s connection so it does make a difference.........

 

I will be using Windows 7. Just like you I use hibernate or sleep rather than shutting my computer down 90% of the time.

I don't video edit or anything like that. Just an above average user that upgraded my OEM HDD to a 7200RPM, then it died.

 

In that case, I would save the 200 bucks. I am typing this on a similar system as yours P8700/6GB/ATI3650/7K320 and I don't find it to be much slower than my other machine with the x25m 80G. Looking at the resource monitor, most of the file access is less than 10ms(many are 0/1, almost the same as what I see on the X25M).

 

Sounds like an SSD would not suite me well. Now my only issue is do I keep a refurbished drive or spend 75 for a 500Gb 7200RPM and sell the refurbished on ebay for 30-50?

 

may be you need to find out why it failed, could be heat related ? Scorpio Black 320GB is a pretty old model which seems to be quite reliable and I don't recall particular issue with it(based on the search I have done on google).

 

The results that I came up with was that it was corrupted. I don't think it was heat related. My T400 seems to be very good staying reasonably cool compared to the rest of my families laptops. Even when I took the HDD out to recover what was on it I spent a while doing that it didn't seem to get any hotter than I would have expected.

 

The benefit of an SSD is not load times or boot times. Yes, the faster load times / boot times are nice, but any decent drive can boot an OS or load a single program relatively quickly. Where an SSD shines is its ability to multitask, measured by IOPS (I/O's per second). It is basically a measure of how many read/write operations a drive can handle simultaneously, and is a measurement of how well the drive multitasks.

An SSD will absolutely smoke a mechanical hard drive in this area. A 7200rpm mechanical hard drive has an IOPS rating in the neighborhood of ~500-600 IOPS. A fast SSD will have an IOPS of ~35,000 - 40,000.

Here is a video I made showing an extreme example of this: Windows 7 boot + loading 27 apps at boot time on an SSD, in about 1 minute.
YouTube - Why I love my SSD - Windows 7 boot + loading 27 applications in about 1 minute.

A real-world example of when you'd actually want this:
You are installing a game/app in the background, and launch a web browser. Even simple tasks like web browsing will be noticeably slower and feel laggier, because the install process already maxes out the IOPS of a mechanical drive.

This is inaccurate. A 2.5" SATA drive will work on any system that accepts 2.5" SATA drives. It does not matter what brand, manufacturer, or technology the drive is using. SATA is SATA. That is the whole point of making a standard like SATA.

 

Well corrupted would mean a logical failure most likely. GPT, or corrupt MBR, could be a million different reasons. Also could be a failure in the controller.

I believe SSD's right now are a good investment. They are now "affordable" to the mainstream customer, and the benefits are significant. Plus in 2-3 years prices will drop significantly so if your SSD exhibits serious issues or is right OOW and it's writing slower you will be able to repurchase another one for dirt cheap.

 

Why does everyone seem to forget all about the great Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive.....

 

Beat me to it....

I was going to tip my hat to that Seagate drive as well. A great combination of technology, at a price point that is more in line with what we've gotten used to in the storage realm.

 

XT, an excellent single bay option with lots of room for your junk

..as mentioned, I'm waiting for the SSD price cuts...

 

Go over to the OCZ forum and read through the support request. It is not about the form factor or the interface. It is about the factor that OCZ Sandforce(and actually Corsair Sandforce device as well) shows unexplained BSOD, sleep, lose of the whole drive when put in certain motherboard, notebook. The standard answer from OCZ is 'oh, it has no problem with the motherboard/notebook we have, check your hardware'.

 

Yes, we all knows it is the random simultaneous access that shows the strength of SSD(and boot up is a perfect example of it). The point is, how often one needs these kind of thing. I browse all the time and also compile program and while I can notice the difference between SSD and a well tuned 7200 rpm HDD, I am not sure I want to pay the price.

 

I have seen it and thought about it but I don't really understand it. Is there any special setup to it or anything like that?

I will be doing a clean install when I get it.

 

From my limited understanding of it, just plug it in and and go just like any other drive.

The majority of the drive itself is a normal 7200 RPM drive. However, the feature that it touts over normal drives is the inclusion of a small flash ssd in the package. By having the flash there, the hard drive detects patterns of frequently opened documents and programs, and appropriately rearranges your data to put your most used applications into the flash section of the drive, allowing you to enjoy the SSD performance with things you use the most, while still retaining large storage space at a similar price that is the current standard.

 

I'd be all in for the Momentus XT if it was not so easy to find so many issues about it online. It seems to me that although the drive(when it works) is much better than an ordinary HDD it still has some tweaks that need to be fixed before it will be as reliable?

I don't know anyone that has one but I am just basing my observations on neweggs ratings and other forums online. Seagate has a very active forum talking about issues on their Momentus XT.

 

Remember that the people who post on forums about any product are a very vocal and self-selecting group. Only the people with problems post about it. If you believe what you read in forums, then you'll think that every product ever made is absolutely abysmal.

You'll never find a forum full of posts about any product that keeps saying "Yes, everything is working exactly as it should."

 

True but one can judge from the problem descriptions to see if it is a real product issue or just a simple lemon.

I don't mind lemon though for the case of the Momentus XT, it seems to be a real design issue as the symptoms are all the same.

 

That is true. I just realized I did some math wrong. 72% give it 4/5 eggs rather than the 61% that I initially thought.

I think I am convinced on getting one. My only other thoughts are Seagates RMA service. I've had goodluck with WD and just want to know I get it replaced if needed.

Also, any guesses if newegg will lower the price for black friday or should I go ahead and buy it with the $10 off/free shipping promo?

 

I have an XT which I got from Amazon. Their return and replacement system is really good but I haven't had any problems so far. All I have is a much faster system to the point of being unable to go back to my standard WD Scorpio Black. I discovered this when I temporarily switched back to my old HDD to do a few tests, it was over 40% slower at bootup and overall my system felt more sluggish and took longer to load programs.

Edit: Regarding noise levels, it is no different to my previous HDD. I can barely hear it.

 

I guess it's all anecdotal evidence but I have alot of people complain about their RMA service.

There's some truth to the posts on Newegg. The people who normally review things are normally angry customers about getting a DOA product. And I find it unnerving that Newegg allows that because DOA stuff happens. Also you get the 12 year old kids who just crap on the reviews. And also another reason why not to trust Newegg reviews; over 4000 good reviews about the rubbish Antec Nine Hundred case (absolute worst case ever). If you built the number of custom computers as me that is the most horrid case to work in lol.

 

My XT has been great, perfect for it's intended use and works pretty much as claimed. Read thru the XT thread, LOL, people went from "no way" to converts for the most part..

I had to RMA my 2 year old 500G Free Agent Pro that was knocked off desk and did massive death screech on the carpet. RMA was quick and painless, 9 days total, which was replaced by a 640 G drive for the remainder 3 years of the original 5 year warranty. NP.

 

Not everyone is a sock puppet, especially on the Seagate and Lenovo forums.

After checking them, make your decision. The XT is great for some, but it isn't for everyone.

 

Nankuru,

Correct.

That is exactly why I always recommend to 'buy to try' in your own setup/workflow with a no restocking fee return policy.

If that type of return option is not available, then know going into this that you will either 'eat' the whole or part of what this 'experiment' will cost you.

 

For me the best thing about SSD boot/app drives is not the speed. Its the complete absence of noise. Normally your HDD is thrashing away fetching code from executables and dynamic link libraries when loading applications. It thrashes away whilst writing and reading from temporary files and folders, browser cache and other types of on disk cache. All of that is gone with an SSD and for the first time I can only hear the gentle wooshing sound of the cpu fan without the din of the disk drive's spinning platter and the periodic tell tale ticking sound of the actuated head realigning itself.

This used to be a sound that I forever associated with double clicking desktop icons and turning a computer on and off and ever since I got a Vertex 2 that has been banished for good. At first its actually kind of weird but once you get used to the silence you can't go back.

 

So reviews are not everything but they are a reasonable way to judge a product by its cover.

Either way I like the Momentus XT if I knew it would work. Obviously no one can guarantee that but what do you think about the people saying that it is really loud? What is your opinion on the XT's noise level compared to a normal HDD?

 

What I did is to search for my particular model and momentus XT to see if there are issue reported. That deter me from upgrading my Dell 1737 as there is incidence reported on seagate's support forum.

For your T400, this is what I have found

If you have problems with Momentus XT, please come... - Page 2 - Seagate Community Forums

So it seems that the random spin down does affect this model(just like my 1737 and other MacBook). I am not sure if this is a random incidence but enough for my hold off.

BTW, I used the same method for my decision of returning my OCZ Vertex 2 and switched to Intel x25m for another machine.

It actually teached me a lesson that modern HDD/SSD is not as simple as they were before, there are compatability issues, mostly in the power management department which unfortunately is a critical one for modern machine, especially notebooks(and difficult to fix as BIOS update is usually required).

 

I returned the Momentus XT I bought. Going to get an SSD as the primary drive and put a 5400rpm hdd in the ultrabay. Just waiting to see what deals are out around Black Friday. See my sig, same machine.

SSD's are cheap enough now that this is the clear way to go, no compromises with the above setup.

 

vinuneuro,

there are always compromises.

I forgot your usage model, but you may want to see the last few posts by TANWare on the stickied 'the SSD thread'.

SSD's are for very specific uses right now - and depending on what drive you get, it may not be without compromises even with your intended setup.