SSD for a G51

Trying to decide what SSD would best augment a G51VX-X1A without breaking the bank.

I had pretty much convinced myself that I should pick up one of the 2nd gen Intel X-25x dubbed the G2 when they become available again late this month; but today the Egg has a deal almost too good to pass up on an OCZ Summit SSD. I would be giving up 80GB (Intel) for 60GB (OCZ)but for a savings of over 40%.

X-25 G2 80GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167016

OCZ Summit 60GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227451

Any experience or thoughts. Also how much HD space will Win7 take up?

Thanks in advance

 

I am planning to do the same thing as you, regarding an SSD in a G51.

Personally, I am going for the Intel X-25M 80gb G2, when it is released because for my needs, I feel it would be faster. Is the gain worth the price I pay? Maybe, or maybe not, but I want the best I can get, and the increased price is not too much. I spent a good chunk of cash on the G51 and feel it worth to spend an extra few dollars (few in comparison to the laptop itself) to get the best.

Here is a good source article to read (Anand Tech):
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3607&p=4

(Note: This compares the 256 GB OCZ Summit, but performance should be similar, or slightly worse than what is listed.)


If you are trying to stay cheap, I would recommend the OCZ Vertex as its performance is significantly better than the Summit, at a similar price point, though close to the Intel X-25M G2, which is still the winner in my eyes.

OCZ Vertex 60GB $190:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227394

Here is the review of the Vertex (with the latest firmware):
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3535&p=3


Note:
My needs are just to run the OS and some key applications I use constantly. Intel's SSDs were designed with this in mind, maximizing random read/write, which is what OSes do most of.

OCZ has focused on "larger" numbers, and by that they have focused on sequential read / write, which OSes do not do most of, but gives great performance on writing / reading large files (i.e. single files in the 1+ GBs).



Numbers for you:

Random Read:
X-25M G2: 58.5 MB/S, .2s latency
Summit: 24.7 MB/S, .473 latency
Vertex: 34.9 MB/S, .34 latency

Random Write:
X-25M G2: 34.5 MB/S
Summit: 1 MB/S
Vertex: 6.47 MB/S

Sequential Read:
X-25M G2: 257.5 MB/S
Summit: 207.4 MB/S
Vertex: 255.9 MB/S

Sequential Write:
X-25M G2: 78.1 MB/S
Summit: 177.3 MB/S
Vertex: 135.3 MB/S


~snake

 

Unless you're looking for scorching fast read times, I'd personally just save up and wait until the new i3/i5/i7 processors come out and Intel drops the prices on the higher end T and P series processors. You'll see a bigger performance increase.

That's not to say I don't see the draw of read/write speeds THAT fast, though. It would definitely make moving BluRay movie faster.