G73 Ssd

Hello, I was just wondering which ssd I should buy? my limit is around 200 bucks.

 

intel x-25 is a reputable brand in terms of performance and price. Depend on where you buy. But for me i paid exactly $300 USD for a NEW intel 160gb x-25 gen 2 on ebay. Normally it goes for $450-500. I guess i got lucky.

 

From what I hear, any SSD with the Sanforce chip in it is the way to go as far as performance. Even the Intel SSD are getting a run for their money performance wise. OCZ uses them exclusively now if I'm remembering right.

 

Intel X-25M G2 80GB.
Intels are the most solid drives at the moment with no more problems unlike some of the competition (some sandforce drives have huge slowdowns which cannot be fixed, bricked drives after short use or similar problems), and intel is the only one with software that allows a manual trim, so youre sure youve trimmed all the cells and completely restored performance unlike the competition where you have to rely on the automatic trimm, which already does its job pretty well, but not 100% - in some rare cases it misses to trim something here and there and those filled up cells will slowly accumulate degrading performance, and the solution to restore it than is not as simple as using Intels SSD Toolbox.
jpuff, there are a lot of sandforce SSDs out there, but they still have their quirks just as OCZ. I prefer to get a more stable drive instead of one with some more write performance (write doesnt matter that much to me). Read is pretty much the same with OCZ and Intel in the same price range - Intel also offers more capacity at the same price. But thats all up to personal preference.

 

ok I bought the intel x25m 80gb now how do I install it properly, I have the bestbuy version of the g73

 

You'll need a cage for the drive just like the other harddrive in there. I think though, some people just went ghetto with it and used tape or Velcro.

 

I think you can buy the cage from Asus parts or just call up a service center to order it for you.
And installing it is pretty straightforward. Take off the back panel and youll immediately see where theres room for another HD. You just have to slide it in and secure the cage with 2 screws and put the back panel on again. Easy.

 

Thank you

 

One last question about the ssd, I got everything installed and everything seems to be working correctly, I can access steam and all my games that are stored on the second hdd but whenever I start a game it's not reading my save files from my second hdd

 

still stumped :/

 

Move the save files? They are in the wrong spot, they usually go into my documents or shared files on the OS HDD. You need to match it exactly how it was before.

EG if they were on the OS drive -> My Documents -> Games -> Fallout 3 -> Saves they need to go back there.

 

I've got a Supertalent Ultradrive ME (now GX) 128GB. I used it in my desktop where I reached up to 210MB/s reading rates, extremely sweet
Now I've put it into my G73jh where I "only" reach 160-165MB/s. I guess the S-ATA is limited to this speed because it's a laptop.
I've actually seen that also in other laptops, it's usually done for power saving reasons and can't be disabled/changed by the enduser

But yeah, it's still WAY faster than the stock 500GB Seagate drive!

pato

 

I don't really want to move all my games and save files over to the ssd if I don't have to but no matter what game I start be it dirt 2, gta4, bioshosk it just never pulls up my save games always wants me to start a new game.

 

I recently install an Intel 80G SSD in my G73. Didn't do any benchmark, but it feels way faster than the 7200rpm drive.

My question is: Is there any windows setting or Bios settings I am suppose to change for the SSD drives?

 

Did you move your My Documents/etc properly over to the secondary drive? It'll then see My Docs as it normally would, and since most savegames end up in there, should work fine. Does for me.

 

what would be the proper way to move over my documents to the second hdd?

 

You have to do each folder individually. Set up a destination folder for each on your data drive.. like "My Documents", "My Pictures," etc. Then point each user folder to the folder you made one at a time as show below with the "Move" button.

The folders will be referenced as the same but the files will all be on your data drive. Its also a good idea since the files usually safer on a separate drive in case the windows OS fails on the main drive, or the main drive fails. The data drive would still be safe.

 

Windows 7 recognizes SSDs and adjusts settings accordingly.

In BIOS I would set the drive controller to use AHCI mode, not IDE mode.

For optimal long term performance you want to deal with TRIM functionality. This Intel SSD Optimizer whitepaper explains why.

Since the whitepaper above was published, Intel has updated its drivers to provide the TRIM functionality automatically on Windows 7, eliminating the need to run the SSD Optimizer periodically. I recommend using the latest Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver.

 

You the man aramis! thanks