G73JH SSD for a Newb

Yes, well, umm, err, Ok. My JH Needs an SSD.

So far this week I have had to reinstall my OS 3 times because of just randomness, things crash all the time, my burst rate is non existent, I ask it to load a couple of things and 30 seconds later they all load at once and crash the system, I am getting a lot of whirring sounds and HDD Tune gives me a quarter of the sectors red. I would assume my old boy 7200RPM that came with this laptop is shot. I would rather make a purchase this evening so that I can continue playing World Of Tanks because I have just got my Maus and now im stranded with constant lag. Luckily Firefox still works.

The bad thing is I have no clue at all about SSD's I am in the UK and I need one ASAP I doubt this hard drive will survive much longer and my spare is full to the brim with all the stuff I have salvaged from this depleted drive.

I understand with the JH I need a Sata II 2.5 inch etc I assume the JH cannot handle Sata III or show any gain from it due to not having a sandy.

I am looking for 100gb but rather 128gb if possible for the best price vs power but there are far too many on ebay to look from. Help. OCZ, Intel...

I dont mind spend out a bit to get the good stuff there is no point upgrading to an SSD for only a 50% gain over my 7200RPM I want at least double.

 

Intels are reliable but not the fastest on the market. But you're in SSD territory so a few MB/s less isn't much of an issue.

And no worries, any old SSD would more than triple the performances of your 7200rpm drives.

 

Pretty much any SSD will kill any HDD. Do want to get a SATAII or SATA III? II is your limit for the JH, but III would give you futureproof if you upgrade one day.

I had G Skill Phoenix Pro 120gb in my JH (same thing as a Vertex 2). It was a good drive, but the first was DOA. I would strongly consider a Crucial C300 or M4 (I own one of each and they are good). They are pretty much the same drive, but the C300 has better 34nm NAND, and the M4 has better firmware. Both have outstanding reliability, probably better than Intel. Check out newegg.com and see the reviews. Get a 120gb drive, 64gb drives are slower due to the lower number of devices per channel (except for sandforce drives like the phoenix pro or Vertex 2). I would stay away from the vertex 2 unless you can get the 34nm version, they switched from 34nm to 25nm last winter and tried to pass it off as the same drive.

I would get any of the following, C300, M4, Agilty/Vertex 2, Intel G2, Intel 320, or similar. Honestly most drives are very good. Performance differences in real world usage are not noticeable. Get what you can afford. If you buy used be sure the manufacturers warranty is still in effect, also check the health stats on Crystal Disk Info to be sure it isn't worn. Most manufacturers warranty for 3 years but only if you have the receipt.

 

If I had to do it again, I'd have gone with a sata3 drive like a M4 or Vertex3 for using it in a newer machine. AND for less degradation overtime. I see lots of recommendations for C300 (and what C400???)

I'd stay away from the Intel 320 for fear of Intel 320 8mb firmware glitch. Yah, when SSD's fail its catastrophic but still.

Still go for what you can afford and don't get smaller than a 120/128GB drive.

 

In my experience with my G73JW (essentially the same as your G73JH), I have tried OCZ Vertex 2 120gb and it was "good". Speeds are incredible, writes are incredible- overall speed is hands down, kills any 7200rpm and 10000rpm (3.5" desktop) drives. You're on a total different level with SSD's.

Now I say the OCZ was "good" (keyword there) because (and you will hear and read this everywhere on the OCZ forums) of the missing boot drive errors (along with the many hard locks/freeze). About 2-3 times a week (had the OCZ for a good 8 months), I would cold boot and would load up to the "missing boot mgr" screen and would have to hard shut down/restart my G73JW to boot into windows. BIOS recognized 50/50% of the time this would happen and would have to repeat the hard shut down/restart method to boot into windows. Finally I gave up on OCZ and after reading all the horror stories about it, I RMA'd it, got my replacement drive and just sold it.

In the process of the OCZ RMA, I bought 2 Intel 320 series 160gb SSD's and love them (apprx ownership so far= 2 months). Feels just as fast the OCZ and loads just as fast as the OCZ and not one single boot error or hard lock yet. Easy to maintain software (intel toolbox) and honestly, you don't hear that many horror stories because of the reliability of intel. Yeah, on paper, the spec comparison between the OCZ and Intel are pretty close in read but write comparison the OCZ wins. But overall, I do not notice a difference in the write comparison between the 2 SSD brands.

So you gotta ask yourself 2 questions:

1) Do you want faster read? Or write? Because thats what it boils down to. But honestly, you won't see the difference because which ever SSD you get, it will be freakin fast compared to mechanical drives.

2) Storage space- figure out your most used programs and tally up the space required to install those programs and tailor your decision based upon the install space, then shop from there. Keep a mechanical drive for scratch, media, and cache (if you prefer) in your 2nd bay and then you wouldn't have to worry about space as much.

In my opinion, the reads and writes are insanely fast compared to mechanical drives that once you start dipping into the 200mb barriers with SSD's, you just won't really notice the difference on anything faster than that, maybe 250mb barrier will shave a 1/10 of a sec but your eyes won't notice that.

I would go with reliability over the failure rate- I chose Intel and glad I did and there are just as many claims/blogs/word of mouth/statements to justify that.

 

I agree with previous post. Sandforce is nice and speedy chip(It's used in OCZ, Team group...) But after migrating to Intel 320 series SSD, I happy at last. 320 series SSDs are very reliable ones.

 

Yeah, really good points here. After the 320-8MB-Bugfix the Intel is still recommendable.
Crucial's (C300 & M4) are a bit touchy on some systems.
You won't feel any difference between a good Sata II and III SSD at normal notebook usage (OS workflow, starting games).

 

All good information at the moment but there is a lot of conflicting information it seems people have had different experiences.

I am pushed towards the C300 but it comes with a hefty price in the UK and the OCZ seems to have very good speeds. I can get the OCZ Vertex 2 with 100Gb for £100 which seems like a very good deal.

Pretty good deal going for £125 or $200 for a brand new C300 on Ebay with a reliable seller. Still in the sealed bag from purchase.

Good deal ^^? 3 years warranty.

Will this fit in my normal HDD caddy?!!

 

Yep, Vertex 2´s are cheap, here´s why:

The OCZ Vertex 2 Conspiracy: Lost Space, Lost Speed? : Is There A Problem Here, Sir?

I had a 60 G Vertex 2 as the OS drive on my PC, it died after 2 weeks...

From the OCZ Tech forum:

Support Question New (2 weeks old) Vertex2 80GB Dead

IMO they are unstable, get the Vertex 3 instead... or Intel.

 

Had to make a purchase and thank you for all the warnings it prevented me making a bad choice for a lot of money I just have no need for that much space and the price for one new was just too much so I made my decision.

96Gb Kingston V+100 Read 230MB/s Write 180MB/s

30gb OS and 60gb games.

New with 12 months warranty £80 total bargain if you ask me and all the review I have read say its a good mid range SSD and reliable. I cannot afford another £100 just for 32gb more and faster speeds.

This compared to my 7200RPM should own will update once I get it. Thank you for all your advice will be adding rep shortly.

 

You'll love the feel and response all the same.

Do you mean 30gb+60gb on the same drive? Even if it had that much space open you'll realistically want to have 20-30% free space left. Or V+100's totally foreign for me and don't work anything like a vertex2.

 

Its a 96GB drive but I heard that I may only see 90GB from an SSD once formatted? Is that right?

It will be more than enough space 30gb I will use for my OS and 60gb for my games. Happy days got to make my failing momentus last till friday though will it fit in my stock caddy that has my momentus in?

 

Yes it will fit your stock caddy.

Honestly, I don't know much about the Kingston SSD as I've never considered that brand in my choices. Doing some quick researching on them, I see that many people are very happy with them and though they are not the quickest SSD out in the market, they are number one for value.

I would say that you have made a good choice anyhow. You are trying new technology and you got it at a really good deal. You seemed a bit worried at first but since you are not making a huge investment on newer technology, this will be something easier to swallow if the SSD is not to your liking (which I dont think that will be an issue).

 

Indeed, as I first mentioned HDD are never really something I have taken much interest in and most recently I moved from a 5400RPM in my previous laptop in Raid 0 to 2 7200RPM HDD's in my G73 and didn't really notice much difference, which makes sense because the difference is minor.

I have been meaning to get one for a long time but had no reason to and finally my old girl has packed up its a great reason to upgrade and I think something like this is better than one of the more advanced SSD's on the market for double the price especially considering if I manage to blow it up it wont cost me an arm and leg.

Space, Price, Performance, Reliability, Reviews. Hit every requirement for me and considering my current Read speed is a dismal 76mb/s which I believe is because of my momentus packing up triple the speed for only double the price bargain.

 

The bottom line: it works I have a 128GB Vertex 1 and it performs just fine.

 

Exactly I just want to get into this SSD crowd because if it makes as much of a difference as everyone claims I could finally be happy and leave my laptop alone for a while...But I could do with a 1080p screen now

 

Oh it does make a world of a difference. In my book (and amongst others) SSD upgrade>processor upgrade any day.

 

It depends on the drive, NAND, and controller. The vertex2 34nm that I have shows 111gb fully formatted while the 25nm nand would show 106 or 108gb (Based on OCZ forums).

This is reserved space for the garbage collection known as trim. Each controller is different. vert2 is a sandforce based controller; 1220 I think.

It'd probably be best to find out from other users of the same drive to know how much is available to partition off if your worried about space.

 

Na not really too fussed can easily handly it shaving off the 6gb or a bit more to be honest as I only really need about 60gb for my games the rest can just be used for the OS and obviously page file etc, I have my other 500gb for general storage and I will sacrifice the busted HDD to the Alienware God.

Here is the spec:

Specifications
MLC NAND flash memory
Form factor — 2.5"
Interface — SATA 1.5Gb/s and 3.0Gb/s
Capacities 2 — 64 GB, 96 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB
Dimensions — 69.85 x 100 x 9.5 mm
Weight — 128 - 151 grams
Storage temperatures — -40 ~ 85°C
Operating temperatures — 0 ~ 70°C
Vibration operating — 2.7G
Vibration non-operating — 20G
Sequential Read Throughput 3 — 230 MB/s
Sequential Write Throughput 3 — 180 MB/s
PCMARK® Vantage HDD Suite Score 4 —
64 GB – 35,046
96 GB – 34,971
128 GB – 35,073
256 GB – 34,795
512 GB – 34,697
Power specs — Active - 3.4W (TYP)
Idle - 0.05W
MTBF — 1,000,000 Hrs

 

She has arrived time to find out what all this SSD fuss is about if I dont return something has gone badly wrong will bring a review with me.

My current Momentus Seagate has 18 bad sectors on a health check 400+ reallocated sectors and 2.4% register red lol! Boom!

EDIT: Ok SSD's....... ahahahahahahahaahahhahahahahahahahah boot time. Just disgusting speed increase.

 

I told you didn't I

Best upgrade, together with the almighty XM of course

 

Welcome to the SSD+HDD master race. My only problem with the setup is space is limited. My HDD only has 60GB left <.<

 

Its a great place to be thats for sure

Yeah space has never been a problem for me I only really hog blu ray rips of movies and thats about it thanks to Valkeriefire for giving me a wall of text and advice + tips which has free'd up a lot of space and I have gained some speed.

Still updating before I can bench out some results but initial scores where 190mb/s read 150mb/s write which seems a little low? 7.2 HDD W7 experience score. It is running ACHI as well made sure and firmware is up to date.

Not complaining though this thing is super fast

My last upgrade to 1080P probably wont happen, its an extra £100 I dont really need it and it might be best to hang on to 900P for the intensive games on their way out soon. Asus better pull out a better model for their next release because I can see me on the prowl early 2012

 

Which SSD did you get? Mine gets a 7.8 in the Windows scores.

 

Woah that is a huge score. Back up a page and see it was a bargain deal so I picked it up especially in the UK £80 delivered in fact it was only £70 because they knocked off a tenner for delaying the delivery.

Kingston 96GB SATA II 2.5 V+100 230mb/s read 180mb/s write

 

Kingston always makes good products, their SSD's are good realible drives. Mine is a SATA III 355mb/s read with 140mb/s write so that's probably the difference in the scores. Not a bad choice though, let's see some benchies. >:3

 

Still they are running too low from my initial benchmark. Any ideas? Going to run some tests now.

 

Did you apply the SSD tweaks?

 

Yup all of them and they increased the speed a little but I am getting extremely slow speeds on my OS partition of my SSD. My second partition seems pretty much ok.

C: Operating System - D: Empty



HELP!

Still loving my XM more at the moment

 

Maybe it's because of the partition? I don't know why it would affect it though, try removing it.

 

Surely not I was told having a partition on an SSD is totally fine. Even so it makes little difference by removing it anyway.....booooooooooooo SSD.

 

Strange but since I did a restart and installed all of my gadets and rainmeter my OS drive is now running at 215mb/s read 180mb/s write so im happy.

 

Nice work , glad to here you got it working to your satisfaction Dallers.
Any chance you could post a link to the tweaks?
I used this guide on mine The SSD Optimization Guide - The SSD Review

 

Yup applied all of them but will go over them again.

Dunno why but it is still not giving me very good W7 results and the read is hanging around 200mb/s but I suppose it is a mid range SSD and my write is high at 180mb/s so I might as well just accept it still a bargain for 70 quid. I will fiddle though.

 

These are the tweaks I was talking about:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...-intel-series-4-5-965-chipsets-jjb-tweak.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...-series-4-5-965-chipsets-stamatisx-tweak.html

The second disables Turbo boost for me so I don't use it.

 

I will apply the advice in this one and see if this helps. Good call

 

just wondering, did you buy a hard drive caddy for your ssd or did you just go the 2-sided tape route?

edit: oh wait...did you replace your original HD with the SSD? then i guess this question doesn't apply

 

You do really need a caddy but suppose you can just tape it but its not very secure.

I used one I nicked from my old G70S before selling it and it fit perfectly, you should be able to get one for around five bucks.

 

What do you guys think about this? Little on the expensive side for my taste, but I am considering it. Also, gonna clone everything over, so I need at least 100gb

Newegg.com - SanDisk Ultra SDSSDH-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

Or this? Ive always liked Crucial (as well as Sandisk) but this one seems better for the money (yes I know my JH can only do SATAII, but that means the SSD will just go into SATAII mode correct?)

Newegg.com - Corsair Force Series 3 CSSD-F120GB3A-BK 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

The SATA II (back a page) is not bad to be honest and good speeds I would not say that is expensive for a 120GB SSD as it is only slightly more than my 96GB here and 280mb/s read and 270mb/s write for SATA II is tidy. Best thing to do is to find out if any problems exist with the SSD you buy and if a firmware update is going to be required, one of the reasons I bought mine as it was plug in and go I didnt have to do anything to get it working.

Yes if you buy SATA III it will just work at SATA II speeds and the good thing is if you buy a new laptop which is SATA III later on you can just take your SSD with you.

 

Yea the Sandisk is nice, 10 year warrenty, its been out longer and so I can find out more on it, everyone seems to like it, but its more expensive.

The crucial, while being more future proof, only has a warrenty of 3 years, hasnt been out as long so I cannot find out much about it, but newegg reviews are mixed as usual, it is also cheaper.

Since neither of these come with cloning software, I suppose I would have to buy that seperatly (Acronis??). Both are supposed to have the latest firmware, and are plug-n-play. Oh descisions :/

What do you guys think??

 

I enjoy using Acronis. When I installed my SSD in my desktop, all I needed to do was move my Steam install over to my storage partition, and then used Acronis to clone it over. Worked perfectly.