Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

Currently Dell offers four SSD options on the E6400:

64GB Dell Mobility Solid State Drive
64GB Ultra Performance Solid State Drive
128GB Dell Mobility Solid State Drive
80GB Dell Mobility Solid State Drive, Intel

The first option is a first-generation Samsung MLC with sequential read and write speeds of about 90MB/s and 70MB/s and a random write speed of about 4MB/s. I personally think that this drive is currently the baseline for a good SSD; it's not the fastest thing on the market, but it doesn't have any problems like the JMicron junk.

The second option is a venerable Samsung second-generation SLC that gets about the same speeds as the above MLC. It's slightly faster and ultimately a very good entry SLC. This is probably one of the most proven and reliable drives available right now, though again, not the fastest thing out there. I'm using this drive myself, though I did not get it from Dell.

Third option is a 128GB version of the first option. All speeds exactly the same.

Fourth option I believe is the Intel X25-M.

All of these drives are frankly quite good. Some, like the Intel and Samsung SLC, better than others. Ultimately I think you'd be happy with any one of 'em; Dell honestly isn't going to sell you a junk MLC. These drives and the Indilinx drives rebranded by OCZ and Super Talent are good aftermarket upgrades as well, if you can find a good price.

 

I wouldn't call that favorable when i'm looking at the charts, especially the writing ones.


Thanks for the additions John.

 

We must be looking at different things . The sequential reads are excellent, compared to the numbers from the best desktop harddrive (WD VelociRaptor). The access times and the PC Mark Vantage are much better. Of course if you copy large files, the desktop hard drives are ahead. But for a laptop, the access times (random reads) and the sequential reads are more important than how long it takes to transfer large files.

I am debating whether to spend the extra 50% ($/GB) to get the Indilinx drives, or get the Samsung MLC now, or wait for the former to come down even more in price.

 

Actually, the Indilinx drives are only a little bit higher priced than equivalently sized Samsungs... The last time I checked you could get the 64GB Samsung MLC for about $150-$200 on eBay, and the OCZ Vertex 60GB retails at just under $200 (down to $180ish with the appropriate MIR). As much as I like Samsung, I'd actually say it's worthwhile to pay the small premium for the significantly faster Indilinx drive.

 

Well, the Samsung MLC is going for $135 for 64GB, or $2.11/GB. The OCZ Vertex was going for $190/60GB a couple of weeks ago, or $3.17/GB. Being in California, I have to pay 9.25% sales tax on top, too.

 

did our state raise the tax rate??? 9.25%???

 

mmm, no, i dont. and i just tested an external USB webcam, and it is having exactly the same problem. both report as working properly, but when you try to open the control panel for the external, it throws an error saying that another program may be using the webcam. any ideas? (i can't imagine what it would be)

 

Yes, since April 1, 2009.

 

Reinstall win7?

 

yeah, im thinking that is the best bet. maybe ill do it tomorrow, i have to back some stuff up to external first. too bad the OS installs faster than half my programs do.