Pros and Cons of the SSD option in the m1330

Just wondering what are peoples thoughts on getting the SSD drive with the new XPS m1330. Pros and Cons. Perhaps they will up it to 64gb in the future.

 

My personal thoughts are that the drives do offer some very nice things (faster access times, less heat, no mechanical parts)...it is still relatively new technology. New technology isn't always perfected, and magnetic discs are a proven technology that has a very low failure rate. They say SSD discs will last 5-10 years before dying...but no one has tested one for 5-10 years so I'm personally going to wait until the technology has been out there for a few years.

I need my data too much to risk it. Give me a regular hard drive and an external backup drive any day.

 

Also, they are prohibitively expensive at this point, especially for such small capacity.

32GB might be fine if all you plan to keep on your machine is Windows, Office and a few documents and have an external HDD sitting around somewhere, but when you come down to it, it's really not very much space. Also, they're not so great for handling large files or gaming.

Hold out for some better hybrid drives to come out instead.

 

http://www.storagesearch.com/ssd.html is a site with exhaustive information on SSDs although it is primarily targeted towards the enterprise end of computers.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=113578 has more laptop specific SSD information.

SSD as a technology is not at all new. Seeing it in the retail market is new.

 

I'm just curious what specifically about a SSD makes it less suited for gaming? Is the superiority of a good 7200rpm HDD in fact unambiguous in this matter? (Putting aside matters of cost and space that is.)

Also does anyone know if the SSD dell is offering is of the SATA variety?

 

I'd think they'd be less suited for gaming because as soon as you put Vista (8GB), music, and other necessary files on a 32GB drive, those 2GB games can start to fill it up real fast, leaving you with an expensive drive that's only good for holding an OS and a few games. Doesn't seem worth it, to me.

 

solid state sustained transfer rates aren't that impressive IIRC. Plus it's expensive and tiny. Go with the 7200 rpm.

 

I'll upgrade to a SSD when they have 80GB for a reasonable price

 

128 GB*

I saw a few benchmarks comparing 64 GB SSDs to regular 7200 rpms. Not impressed at all. Sure, it blows the regular drives away when it comes to finding where the data is on the drive, but doing pretty much anything else sucks. If all you do on the computer is hibernate and resume, get the SSD... if you actually use your computer, my advice would to stick with a "regular" drive.