Considering a Solid State Drive? Here's a comparison video

I just received a T400 with a 160g 7200rpm HDD. I replaced it with an Intel X25-M 80g solid state drive.

With the HDD, I reformatted the machine and installed Windows 7. I applied all updates, and installed nothing except a couple small programs like Chrome and Trillian. I set Windows to log in automatically and launch Chrome at start up. The tiime from when I pushed the power button to the time Chrome was usable was about 1 minute.

With the SDD, I did the same thing. Reformatted, applied updates, installed the same programs. Windows logs in automatically and launches Chrome.

The video can be seen here:
YouTube- HDD vs SSD

Another comparison I ran but didn't record is launching Adobe Photoshop CS4. On the HDD it loaded in 4-5 seconds. With the SSD, it's fully loaded in only 2 seconds.

To anyone thinking of making the switch to an SSD, I highly recommend it. It's the best upgrade I've ever done.

 

it is quite amazing how fast the SSD is loading up the Win 7 OS.

 

Much faster. Good upgrade. Will be one of the first things I do when I get my X201s

 

I just ordered a X201 with cheapest HDD since OEM SSD doesn't support TRIM. Anyone know whether or not it comes with a Windows disk? If not can I use generic Win7 pro disk to install then plug in the Windows code included with the Thinkpad??

 

As far as I know, you'll not be able to use a ThinkPad OEM code in a generic Win7 pro install. You can make an OEM recovery disk which includes a factory install of windows from within the system once you receive your new laptop.

 

Very nice. I'm considering getting the 160GB one, there seems to have been a price drop recently (does anybody know more about Intel's 2010 SSD roadmap?).

Not sure why people are obsessed with boot times tho. Suspend and hibernate broken?

 

"it is quite amazing how fast the SSD is loading up the Win 7 OS."

Microsoft has done some things to improve the "apparent" boot time.
Renee

 

I'm pretty new to SSD's so bear with me. Is the only difference with boot time with SSD's the read speed? For example, would one that reads 250MB/s be faster than one that reads 220MB/s? Or is there more to it than just that?

 

"Another comparison I ran but didn't record is launching Adobe Photoshop CS4. On the HDD it loaded in 4-5 seconds. With the SSD, it's fully loaded in only 2 seconds."

What do you consider load? I have a Crucial 256 GB SSD on an Extreme that is not nearly so fast?

Renee

 

To clarify, I wasn't opening a photo/project/etc. I was only launching Photoshop from scratch. I considered it loaded when all the plugins, etc were initialized and it was ready for me to begin work. That was 2 seconds.

I just tried it by right-clicking a 4.5mb jpg and clicking Open With.. Photoshop CS4. It took exactly 5 seconds for all plugins to initialize and the image to be ready for editing. When doing the same thing for an image that is only about 100k the load time is 3 seconds.

For what it's worth, I only have a fresh installation of Photoshop right now, so I don't have extra plugins, etc to initialize.

 

That's a valid point. I've honestly just never got in the habit of using sleep & hibernate. I shut down my laptop every time I stick it in my bag and take it to/from work.

 

I use sleep and hibernate on my work T60 because it takes about 5 minutes to start, given the software stack that needs to load. I shutdown once a week, but I would rather have this reboot more often, unfortunately it takes too long.

With my T510, there's no need for hibernate with boot times of 28 seconds. I have no need to save state (such as mail, or open documents), and prefer a fresh start every time I use it.

 

Thanks for the comparison. It’s abundantly clear SSDs are the way to go for performance, but I stopped turning my computer on and off once Microsoft got sleep and hibernate working reliably—which happened around the time Vista SP1 appeared.

While not a big deal, a small related reason for the reduced performance while on the HD in your video appears to be related to Windows installing new hardware after login.

 

This is legacy thinking. There is no need to start “fresh” every time anymore. Actually, when you do this with Windows 7 today, Windows 7 will kind of reverse this behavior and begin “unfreshing” things due to the way SuperFetch works—so Windows will spend time preloading all the stuff you normally use every time you turn it on anyway.

While booting might only take you 28 seconds, waking up from sleep takes 1 or 2 seconds—and coming out of hibernation also only takes about 28 seconds. The difference is the last two don’t require you to reopen all your browser tabs, documents, spreadsheets, email and etcetera/workspace—everything is already there waiting for you.

 

Agreed. And when software providers write bug-free code, and Lenovo and Microsoft get hibernate and power management and dynamic docking working completely and reliably (about 1/4 of the threads on the Lenovo site are related to these), with no memory leaks, with DLLs properly unloading, I'll use it more. But for now, system reliability and computer resources are more important to me, so the legacy of rebooting continues, just much faster with SSD.

 

Sorry to hear—this has been working flawlessly for me well over a year now under Windows 7. Then again, I tend to reboot at least once a month or so due to software installation and/or Microsoft’s patch cycle so I still get the benefit of a “fresh start” regularly.

 

Alnother point is that with SSDs, sleep mode is much more useful (and safe). With a HDD, you put the computer to sleep and hope you don't bump it and damage the HDD (ive done it before) whilst with the SSD thats not an issue.

 

Personally I don't mind slow boot ups - it gives me the time to do something else such as get a drink or take a wizz...but I say this probably because I've just gotten used to it waiting and not expecting any speed miracles.

What bothers me is when my antivirus kicks in to do a scan (on my T61) it halts performance significantly i.e. lots of hdd chugging (light on constantly). I suspect this is another area (in addition to boot/app start times) that would be non-issue for the SSD...I mean would it be noticable that the virus scan even runs ? What about duration, would it complete nearly instantly?

 

I use MS Security Essentials. Barely noticeable when it scans.

 

I don't use one, but that may change with the SSD. With very low access times, and potentially 3x the speed for a wide range of transfer sizes, a full scan should complete much faster. But my guess is you will still notice it.

 

1. I'm using the X25M Postville on T510. Initially the boot was just like in your video, the welcome screen was only visible briefly and Windows was ready right away. Meanwhile, I'm not sure what is responsible for that, the welcome screen needs a few seconds. The only thing I notice is that Skype login sound. So maybe other autostart stuff contribute to the delay. Any similar experience?

2. I'm still on CS3 and Photoshop needs about 5 seconds. That wouldn't be "bad" or something (it took at least 10 on my T42p), but it only matched your HDD. Hmm. Anyone else using CS3? Maybe CS4 is simply faster?