Anyone put a SSD in their G51j?

I'm torn between a fairly basic Sager 8690 (just an upgrade to 4gig ram and 320gig hard drive) vs a nicely equipped G51j (Blue Ray player and 1st HDD being an 80gig SSD). Anyone put a SSD in their machines or have any performance/boot time numbers they can post? Thanks in advance!

 

What Brand / model of Optical Drive will work in these? I will be installing an SSD in the New Year!

 

I have a 64GB SSD in my G51vx-A1. Never timed it, but Windows 7 boot time is 20-30 seconds approximately.

 

What brand/model of SSD do you have? There's so many options out there and I've heard that some are not-so-great while others excel.

I'm running out of ideas for my wife to get me for x'mas and this was one of the couple of things that I would kind of like to have. lol

 

I've got the original Hitachi ....but as I said...what Brand / Models fit / work in these Notebooks?

 

I'd probablly be buying from xoticPC, so the 80GB Intel X25-M Solid State Drive (SSD Serial-ATA II).

And 20-30 seconds doesn't sound all that pheonomenal compared to regular boot times with 7, not as quick as I'd hoped anyway.

 

Don't really understand why ppl chased in to this first/second gen ssd-s.
They expensive and slow. Have to check out real world speed test not the raw data read/write/access tests.
For me storage space > speed.
80Gb wouldn't even enough big for my base windows programs, already at 140Gb and not everything installed (my games are on external and on 2. hdd)

 

You haven't used an SSD, its pretty clear. No writing about it will convince you, you have to use one to understand. People try to eek out a tiny bit of extra performance by overclocking their ram, cpu, gpu, etc... all when their HD is, by far, the slowest component in their system. Upgrade the speed of that and the entire system feels...well, you'll see when you finally upgrade to a boot/program SSD.

 

If I would want the fastest and $$ to waste then might as well go with pci-e ssd

 

I installed an Intel 80GB G2 SSD in my Primary Rig...bots into Windows in 12 sec!
They are expensive////but one of the best upgrades you can throw money at....as for 80GB..yes..small, but you've got an additional 320 GB HDD so ...?...I most certainly will be replacing my 320 GB Seagate Drive for either an Intel 160GB G2 or a Vertex 120 GB..!!

 

Thanks for the responses guys! 12 Seconds isn't too shabby, plus I've heard they really help with load times on games and whatnot. I'm really torn right now, that 280m on the Sager is quite tempting, but man, the SSD and blue ray, it's tempting.

 

i say get a wd velroptaraptor and take off the head things and place copper blocks on it for cooling

 

^^^^ With SSD's becoming more "Manstream..Raptor Drive days are "done"...noisy...hot...power pigs..etc etc etc....Thats what I replaced in my Primary Rig..an SSD for a Raptor..through the Raptor in my wifes Rig (Secondary Rig)....now I hear from her.."Whats all that noise I hear?"

 

Please forgive my ignorance here...but it's stupid question time.

If I were to get a SSD for my G51J to make it the OS drive, would I just be able to use the Windows 7 disk that came with my laptop? Or would I have to get a completely seperate OEM or Retail version of Windows 7? Thanks in advance.

 

That's not a dumb question at all. My original assumption was yes, but that's not really a given, depending on ASUS...

Anyone here used their "recovery dvd" to install to a new hard drive on the machine?

 

a3rox on this forum has used the vista recovery DVD, and then done a clean install with his win7 upgrade disc.

 

Use ssd as external .. mirror os to it with boot cd .. swap ssd with internal hdd .. should work.
Unless some old crap ssd that needs driver to even work.

ps.: On my netbook got linux os booting from usb keychain that is as close as I go to ssd
More ram > hdd space > hdd/ssd speed. Maybe my pc boots 10s slower big deal.

 

Again, its clear you've never used an SSD. Why you think its just windows boot speed is beyond me... *EVERYTHING* you do with your laptop will be substantially faster. Not one thing, everything. But again, without trying one, how would you know? So, I kinda don't blame you your bias. Don't mislead others though as a good SSD makes a world of difference, far more than more ram or hdd space.

More ram < hdd space < hdd/sdd speed.

 

lol...it depends on the situation. if u are trying to suggest going from a 80GB 5400RPM/1GB system ---> 80 SSD/1GB, that is a big no! if it's 4GB RAM/320GB 7200rpm (laptop has 2 HDD slots btw) ---> 4GB RAM/80GB SSD boot-drive+320GB secondary, that is a WIN situation assuming u have the cash to burn on it.

sama98b point isn't correct but he does have one thing true, the amount of speed gained by the price you pay isn't worth it right now. sure if u have the money go ahead and buy it. im like sama98b, though i do think SSD are good. the ONLY problem is getting two 256GB SSD (i need at least 1/2tb for storage ) is simply too much for me to spend just for HDD. im happy with a RAID'd 320gb 7200rpm hdds

 

i love noise, i remember i had a cpu cooler that spun at 3000 plus rpm and I had it turned up always at full and it sounded like a dust buster and i loved it.... i hate it when a laptop or desktop is quite. nose = power

i even had fans under the rapitor 74gb i had to keep it nice and cool.

also ssd are still not as fast as the current valpsaraptor

 

Well of course it depends on the base config... but the topic of this thread is "Anyone put a SSD in their G51j?". I assumed thats what we've been talking about the entire time, putting an SSD into our G51J's. In this situation, it makes the best sense of all.

 

Having a boot time of as little as 12 seconds sure does sound good, but dammit these things are so expensive. $300 for an 80 gig SSD....ouch.

Can anyone speculate how long before they come down in price to maybe around half of what they currently are?

 

Half a century?

Kidding. SSDs are still relatively new and aren't mainstream yet, though that's slowly changing. Hmm. Couple of years, maybe.

 

That's what I was afraid you might say. lol

I'll just have to talk myself into it sometime. After doing my usual amount of research (month minimum in most cases) to see what's out there and what is the best for me...then maybe I'll give in and get one.

 

I don't. Personally, I don't do speed-sensitive tasks, and taking a little longer to boot up into Win7 doesn't justify the cost for me. I wouldn't say no to an SSD, but at the price they currently go for (GB/$), it's just not worth it to me.

Other people might need the snappiness, though.

 

OK GUYS LISTEN UP!

If you don't own a SSD you don't really understand the benefits. None of you seem to have the whole picture here. I've been using a Crucial 256GB SSD in my G71 for about 2 months now.

1. SSD's are NOT made equal so do some research. Anything with an Indilinx controller is good right now. I decided to go with the Crucial because I felt like they had the best balance of transfer speed and access times. Intel are ARGUABLY the best but will cost you more.

2. A SSD will speed up a LOT more than boot time but will not speed up "everything". Simply put, working on your computer will be much more ENJOYABLE. Programs will open MUCH faster and multitasking is what it was always meant to be. However, a SSD will not improve framerates in games or video encoding in most cases, or anything limited by your CPU or GPU.

3. Putting a SSD in low spec system would not be a waste because it makes your virtual memory BLAZING fast. I installed 2 of my RAM chips incorrectly so that I had only 2GB instead of 6GB. After 2 days of heavy use I didn't even notice until I opened my system properties and saw the RAM spec. My page file was so fast that I didn't realize I was using about 1.5 GB.

4. There are no driver issues that I've come across. Your computer will see this as a regular hard drive unless you are using Windows 7.

5. You can install using your recovery disks. I have done this. I've also used an upgrade disk to do a clean install to Windows 7. I do not recommend an upgrade. I had multiple issues until doing the clean install.

The state of SSD trim firmware is still in question somewhat so it's something to look into before you flash and possibly brick your drive. If you don't know what "trim" is then you need to read Anandtech's articles about SSD's. They have at least 30 pages of articles on SSD's that are extremely informative.

 

But loading screen times are shorter with the SSD right?

 

'everything' will indeed be faster because every single program has to load and access data after its loaded. Will it make your framerates higher or anything like that? Of course not, I never said any such thing. But every single program, game, utility or piece of software on your system will load much faster and, once loaded, continue to access its data much faster from an SSD. It makes your system feel completely different. Its a fact.

 

You should be a sales rep for SSDs, you're quite good at getting somone excited about them.

 

i have the g60 from best buy and i cant figure out were the second mini pci slot is. I can only see the one with the wifi card on it. The g60 is really a g51 but with a 16" display....

 

I am very much sold on mine.

When you say everything, to me that means framerates, etc too. Every program will be affected in some way but if a small program like DVD Shrink opens in 1 second instead of 2, that's not going to blow me away, especially since the encoding speed is the same.

But when Photoshop opens in 8 seconds and IE opens in less than 2, that's pretty impressive to me.

 

I certainly get what you're saying.. but to me, even that half-loading time for DVD Shrink multiplied by every single program you run makes a huge difference. I wouldn't single out one particular app, but everything combined is what makes using one so much better. Its funny because you pretty quickly get used to the experience and don't notice it very often (if at all). That is, until you have to use a machine without one, then the difference is absolutely blaring.

Not trying to 'sell' anything... I'd praise any technology that improves something as much as an SSD does.

 

Ya, Anandtech said the same thing that you really notice when you go back to a normal hard disk. I haven't really tried that yet but I do notice that my G71 is simply the most enjoyable computer I've owned. Some of this is certainly due to the nice package Asus has put together but I know without a doubt that a lot of it has to do with the SSD.

 

One of the first things I did when I received my G51j was swap out the boot drive with a 32GB boot drive. I ran the system restore disk to put the os on the ssd.

I have to say that with that one upgrade this became the fastest computer I have ever used. It has yet to put even the smallest stutter in anything I throw at it.

You end up having to watch the space on the C: drive because the system restore with all extra stuff is a good 22 gigabytes.

I will take some boot times and post them soon , very busy playing maxed out dirt 2, grid and using my laptop as a space heater.

edit: here are the times for booting
11.64 - bios
16.76 - starting windows
37.59 - done

My hard drive rating in 7 is a 5.9

 

Get the basic Sager.

 

That's still the direction I'm leaning, I'll have to see how all the budget stuff works out when the various income sources come in over the next week or so. Thanks for all the info!

 

I get a 7.8 disk rating in the Win7 experience rating if that's any help. I added an 80G Intel X25-M 2nd generation drive and updated the firmware to support trim. I did a clean install of Win7 Ultimate, adding the Asus drivers. I also have the G60J's 205 bios installed.

It's amazingly fast now. Couldn't be happier with the spend ($240 from craigslist for a new drive in the box).

 

^^^ Thats the same drive in my Desktop...but I won't be replacing a 320 GB drive for an 80GB....at minimum it will be a 120 - 160GB SSD, depnding upon whether I go Vertex or Intel.
Lets face it, with these Notebook 2 Drives is it, so choose wisely

Windows Ratings mean absolutely nothing! Realtime operation is what counts!

 

^^

Mine is a desktop replacement. I use Windows Home Server to provide 3TB of storage over a GigE network. I also have a 1TB eSATA storage array attached to the laptop directly. Storage is not an issue, so a 80GB boot partition works well for me, given the second 320GB drive in it as well.

As always, YMMV...

 

Love these prices :
Intel X25-E Extreme 64GB 2.5" SATA2 Solid State Drive $899.99cad
My win7 install wouldn't fit on 1
OCZ (OCZSSDPCIE-ZDM841T) Z-Drive m84 PCI-E MLC 1TB Solid State Disk $4,079.99cad
Might need to save up the price of the next 2 full pc build for that


Western Digital Scorpio Blue (WD5000BEVT) 500GB SATA 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" Laptop Hard Disk (OEM) $84.99cad

If ssd prices doesn't come down to ground it will die out like many tech did b4.

 

They've been way below those prices you just quoted for months. If those are recent price quotes from somewhere, I'd suggest you shop somewhere else. Even a cursory search of NCIX (Canadian of course) and without a sale of any kind can pick up a 32GB boot drive from Patriot or OCZ for $130ca. Hardly a deal breaker unless you're really broke (I'd hope not as you'd spend not much less for a standard HD). While thats a pretty small drive, something larger will bump that to around $200 for 60-64GB from the likes of OCZ and G.SKILL. And these are NON-SALE prices quickly looked up on a Canadian web site... hardly the massive prices you quoted, even in Canadian funds.

Yes, you'll still pay a premium for an SSD. But were talking about 100-200 for a great boot drive, not the 800-4000 you're quoting. Actual prices are reasonably attainable for those who spend $1500+ on their laptop I'd guess.

To each their own, of course.

edit: here's the link and what I quoted in case you need it:

NCIX

Patriot PE32GS25SSDR Warp 32GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD 1 Year MFR Warranty (PE32GS25SSDR) $129.99
OCZ Agility Indilinx 30GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD (OCZSSD2-1AGT30G) $129.99
OCZ Agility Indilinx 60GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD (OCZSSD2-1AGT60G) $199.99
G.SKILL FM-25S2S-64GB 64GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD * 1 Year MFR Warranty * (FM-25S2S-64GB) $225.12

 

http://www.canadacomputers.com/
Using because store is in walking distance.
When the prices go 1/4 then I will consider ssd, til then usb keychains only 4 me

 

today was an unfortunate day , my old 32 gb SSD died. I replaced it and did a system restore . The replacement was a 32 gb OCZ

It was this one -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...27393&cm_re=ocz_vertex-_-20-227-393-_-Product

I ran the system rating benchmark and got a 7.3 as my hard drive score.

Doing speed tests now.

 

My friend put in an Intel X25-M G1 80GB SSD. With ssd w7 loaded in about 30 secs. I was going to purchase his Asus G51j but then I found a forum with over 144 pages regarding the still unresolved BSOD issue so i'm waiting for the x version. Either way his windows experience score was a 7.6 with the Intel X25-M G1 80GB SSD see here. At first I thought putting 2 SSD's in raid 0 would give you the fastest score because isn't 2 workers doing the same job better than one. Anyways on a desktop configuration with a quad core OC setup - dual hard drive config in raid 0 with 2 transcend 160GB SSD's and the max score achieved on windows experience was a 7.2 see here . The intel x25 screams past that score 7.6 w/o a raid 0 config. I also found that the G51j does not have a raid 0 controller which sucks but in the end 7.6 is the best iv'e seen so far. Going to throw one of those in the Asus G51jx-A1.