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    T61 order pending - SSD or HD?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by kboyer, Jun 27, 2008.

  1. kboyer

    kboyer Notebook Consultant

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    I'm getting ready to order a T61 (T8300 2.4 GHz, 4GB RAM, Vista Business, and discrete graphics) and considering a 64GB SSD. It's an $800 upgrade and I'm wondering how much of a performance increase I will see.

    Most of what I do with a laptop is concurrently running Outlook (my .pst file hovers around 1GB in size), Photoshop, Firefox with 8-10 tabs open at once using sites with heavy JavaScript, PuTTY, AVG, HeidiSQL, Word, Excel, and iTunes.

    Opinions on SSD versus regular HD in this type of every day usage welcome and appreciated!
     
    kboyer, Jun 27, 2008
    #1
  2. Arki

    Arki Super Moderator

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    kboyer,

    I've moved your thread to Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades; you should receive more responses there.
     
    Arki, Jun 27, 2008
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  3. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

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    Be careful giving SSD's performance credit for things not related to HDD. Once applications are open they reside in Virtual Memory, RAM/pagefile. With enough RAM page file hits are reduced or don't happen making little to no performance difference between SSD and HDD. I think because of OS design page file hits less substantial perceived difference between SSD and HDD when you have enough RAM.

    When you talk firefox and java script? Would the connection speed not be the bottleneck? Nothing is run directly from the HDD that you mention. SSD'a are fast but they are what they are. They will shorten start up shutdown, load times. Applications should open faster. They produce less heat weigh less and cost more.
     
    powerpack, Jun 27, 2008
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  4. kboyer

    kboyer Notebook Consultant

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    Thank you, Ark.

    powerpack, you are probably right. Most of what I'm running is more CPU intensive than HD. The biggest instigator is Outlook and the giant pst files I use daily.

    The only other big speed increase I see is boot up, shut down, and hibernate & standby.

    Is it worth the extra $800? Not sure. That's why I've posted here asking for input.
     
    kboyer, Jun 27, 2008
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  5. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    Do they actually tell you what specific SSD they use?

    There is quite a big performance difference between let's say a Mtron or a Samsung.
    A fast SSD can do a more than that. You may want to read this review:
    http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3067&p=1
    [​IMG]

    Although it's a shame they picked that Seagate for the comparison. It would be a completely different story with a Hitachi 7K200 or 7K320.
     
    Phil, Jun 28, 2008
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  6. kboyer

    kboyer Notebook Consultant

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    They don't list the drive manufacturer on the Lenovo site, but a phone call may answer the question. Thanks for posting that article. Very insightful.
     
    kboyer, Jun 28, 2008
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