Finally an SSD for me!

**Gremlin** · 20th February 2012, 22:10

Been wanting one for a while in my work laptop... boss said no due to cost.

He's upgraded to an HP Ultrabook over the weekend (even got me to go and collect it, isn't he nice). Once he'd got the new one setup, out came the retro-fitted Intel X25-M 160GB and into my hot little hands.

Spent a bit of time this evening restoring a backup of my laptop onto it, and it's not perfect as the Win7 OS was built on IDE and not AHCI, but a bit of time optimising, and holy hell, it's freaken awesome! Loading bar for Windows 7 is pretty much one scroll and then a brief pause and you can log into Windows. That's with all required software installed etc.

I reckon restoring from hibernation on my old 7200rpm drive took longer than a cold boot on the SSD!

**sil3nt** · 21st February 2012, 15:23

Very nice. I was close to getting an Intel 320 over christmas. Managed to restrain myself though. Might have to use course related costs to pick one up.

**Maha** · 21st February 2012, 15:37

.......what?

**sil3nt** · 21st February 2012, 15:49

Originally Posted by Maha

.......what?

He upgraded from a GN250 to an S1000RR.

**Maha** · 21st February 2012, 16:31

Originally Posted by sil3nt

He upgraded from a GN250 to an S1000RR.

....for a moment there I thought it was some nerdy shit...

**SMOKEU** · 21st February 2012, 16:36

A SSD was by far the best value upgrade I've done on my computer. Do a fresh install of your OS soon onto the SSD.

**Brian d marge** · 21st February 2012, 16:46

Originally Posted by SMOKEU

A SSD was by far the best value upgrade I've done on my computer. Do a fresh install of your OS soon onto the SSD.

I have an MSI wind netbook that I would like to make a little faster...worth the cost?
I mean the size of the thing is lovely but its a touch slow, will throw some ram in .... but never thought of a SSD
the cost of computers is dropping . I mean the cost of improving the netbook is almost the same as buying a laptop now 20 k battery and ram , compared to a quite reasonable laptop with 15 inch screen...and
stephen

**Mental Trousers** · 21st February 2012, 16:55

Originally Posted by Maha

.......what?

Farken nerd mate

**SMOKEU** · 21st February 2012, 17:15

Originally Posted by Brian d'marge

I have an MSI wind netbook that I would like to make a little faster...worth the cost?

It's worth every cent if the laptop is reasonably modern. If it's an old computer then it's not worth wasting the money on, but if it was made in about the last 2 years then go for it. You can get a decent 60-64GB SATA3 model for around $180. My advice would be to go for a Crucial M4 or a Vertex 3, but the Vertex 3 has the SF2200 controller which has a reputation for being less reliable as the M4 which doesn't use the SF controller. The M4 is slightly slower than the Vertex 3 (around 420MB/s vs 550MB/s) but it's not something you'd notice any difference on unless you're benching. The Agility 3 is also worth looking at, and the performance is somewhere between the M4 and the Vertex 3.

If your laptop only supports SATA 2 then you can save some money by going for a Vertex 2 or similar which will still give sequential read speeds of around 250MB/s which is still going to be a fuckload faster than the 80-ish MB/s speed of a typical laptop HDD.

You can build a computer with the fastest CPU, best GPU etc and while it may bring impressive benchmark results and incredibly high framerates while gaming, the day to day performance will still seem slow if the HDD is causing a bottleneck. It's like building a race engine and putting shitty carbies on it which are too small.

**martybabe** · 21st February 2012, 17:20

Originally Posted by Maha

.......what?

Hahaaha, thank feck it's not just me, I read it twice in case I'd missed the translation code but Nah. Gremlin, I'm glad you're pleased mate, I have no idea what you're pleased about but onya mate. Enjoy whatever it is

**SMOKEU** · 21st February 2012, 17:33

Originally Posted by martybabe

Hahaaha, thank feck it's not just me, I read it twice in case I'd missed the translation code but Nah. Gremlin, I'm glad you're pleased mate, I have no idea what you're pleased about but onya mate. Enjoy whatever it is

Unplug one of the spark plug leads from your bike and ride it round like that, then plug it back in again. That's the sort of performance difference.