Asus Gt50vt-a2 installing a SSD? Help!

G50VT-A2

General
Operating System
Windows Vista Home Premium
CPU Type
Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 2.53G
Screen
15.4" WSXGA+
Memory Size
4GB DDR2
Hard Disk
640GB
Optical Drive
BD Combo
Graphics Card
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GS
Video Memory
512MB DDR3
Communication
Modem, Gigabit LAN and WLAN
Card slot
1 x Express Card
Dimensions
14.6" x 10.43" x 1.35 - 1.6"
Weight
6.17 lbs.
Tech
Intel Centrino 2 Processor Technology

CPU
CPU Type
Intel Core 2 Duo
CPU Speed
T9400(2.53GHz)
CPU FSB
1066MHz
CPU L2 Cache
6MB

Chipset
Chipset
Intel PM45

Display
Screen Size
15.4"
Wide Screen Support
Yes
Display Type
Wide SXGA+
Resolution
1680 x 1050

Operating Systems
Operating System
Windows Vista Home Premium

Graphics
GPU/VPU
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GS
Video Memory
512MB DDR3
Graphic Type
Dedicated Card

Hard Drive
HDD
640GB
HDD RPM
7200rpm
HDD Spec
2 x 320GB

Memory
Memory
4GB
I know it's old but will still be good to use it instead of keeping it in the basement. Can i install a SSD to this laptop? If so any recommendations? Not very bright on these gadget compatibles any help or suggestion will be appreciated!! Thanks in advance

 

Yes you can install an SSD, just don't worry about SATA III, because your computer doesn't support it. If you buy a SATA III/6Gbps drive it will run at SATA II/3Gbps (they are backwards compatible).

Personally I would go with whatever is cheapest per GB in the capacity you want. Your machine isn't going to push an SSD to its limit, and whatever you get will make it seem 10 times faster than it was. You can't go wrong.

 

Thanks for the quick reply! :hi2:
Then for your suggestion, i should just get a 128gb one to run it, since originally i was thinking of getting at least 250+ to run temporarily until i get a new laptop and swap it in. But like you say this current only does not support SATA III even if do, i will not get the best performance out of it. If so any particular brand or model will fit this well? Thanks again!!

 

Yeah, they are all the same 2.5" form factor, and you don't need to worry about drive height in the G50V.

I say get the cheapest per GB because the SSD market is moving pretty fast. By the time you eventually buy another machine, a new batch of SSDs will be out and the pricing will have changed.

 

alright, thanks for the help!

 

Well you want the cheapest from a reliable brand, it sucks if it just bricks itself and looses all the data.

 

True, but I haven't seen any horror stories like thee was during the Vertex 3 era. That said, Intel and Samsung are at the top of my list in terms of reliability. Crucial used to be there, but the latest firmwares for the M4 have caused issues for a few people.

 

just a FYI: Was getting load stutter a lot in Diablo3 with 5.03 fw for Corsair Force 3 120GB and Intel RST 11.7.x. Had to resort to using USB stick workaround for MPQ dir. Today I updated to 5.05a + 12.6.1028 RST and all my load stutter is gone on my G73JH. (which btw, is 3 yrs old this month)

 

I got this off Amazon considering the cheapest price tag. ADATA USA Premier Pro SP600 2.5-Inch 64 GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive ASP600S3-64GM-C After installing it, i am only getting 276mb read and 24mb write? Is that normal? The Window Index is at 5.9, but i guess because i cloned it from my old HDD.

 

That's quite low, I assume you used a propper HDD to SSD tool that ensures alignment right?

 

I used EaseUS todo backup free to migrate my original HDD to the new ssd

 

It's worth checking your alignment.

 

How do I check alignment? I have tried to reinstall using USB boot drive, installing a new os to my c drive and delete the" old window" inside it and same problem. And I also read off other sites vista have no TRIM may that decrease its performance?

 

TRIM won't matter much on a fresh drive, until you fill it. How much free space is on the drive, and what utility are you using to benchmark the speeds?

 

I used AS ssd benchmark, and the ssd have at least 40gb remaining.

 

Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model ADATA SP600 ATA Device
Bytes/Sector 512
Media Loaded Yes
Media Type Fixed hard disk
Partitions 1
SCSI Bus 0
SCSI Logical Unit 0
SCSI Port 0
SCSI Target ID 0
Sectors/Track 63
Size 59.62 GB (64,017,354,240 bytes)
Total Cylinders 7,783
Total Sectors 125,033,895
Total Tracks 1,984,665
Tracks/Cylinder 255
Partition Disk #0, Partition #0
Partition Size 59.63 GB (64,022,900,736 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 4,096 bytes

I assume this is aligned?

Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model ST9250421AS ATA Device
Bytes/Sector 512
Media Loaded Yes
Media Type Fixed hard disk
Partitions 1
SCSI Bus 4
SCSI Logical Unit 0
SCSI Port 2
SCSI Target ID 0
Sectors/Track 63
Size 232.89 GB (250,059,350,016 bytes)
Total Cylinders 484,521
Total Sectors 488,397,168
Total Tracks 7,752,336
Tracks/Cylinder 16
Partition Disk #1, Partition #0
Partition Size 232.88 GB (250,057,064,448 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 1,048,576 bytes
This is my storage HDD

 

Looks aligned, 64GB sandforce drives would struggle with non compressible writes.

 

Yes and I feel like my old HDD feels faster, make me feel like upgrading to this ssd feels like a waste.

Read and write speed comparing HDD and SSD

HDD 120/90mb. And the SSD 270/25mb overall estimates.

 

I am thinking of that this SSD have some serious problem or maybe defect? I have updated everything and its moving sluggishly sometimes even the browser itself freeze a few intervals.

 

Do you have another machine you could test the SSD on? Sometimes there are BIOS/chipset/motherboard compatibility problems between SSDs and specific laptop models that are hard to know about until you find them.

 

Also check you are in AHCI mode.

 

I don't have a laptop to check this SSD out, and yes AHCI is ENABLED. I may return this SSD to Amazon. Will a SATA II SSD be more compatible to this machine?