SSD or P9700

Ok, so I'm starting to save up for my first upgrade in my new P7805u (1920 LG!) and I either want a 128 GB G.SKILL FALCON SSD or a P9700 processor...
So they're about the same price, but which would give me the most noticeable increase, mainly for gaming.
And I'm not interested in another processor or SSD before you start pitching them I've spent a few months researching which ones I want, just not sure which to get first... THX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231256

http://www.excaliberpc.com/592201/intel-aw80576sh0726mg-core-duo-p9700.html

 

Its as simple as this, the HDD will increase you general computing speed and load times. The CPU will increase your FPS in games and give a smaller boost to general computing/ load times

 

lol Get the SSD.

 

you would be better with the ssd, then just save for the processor, ull love the ssd for the speed that it can open things at, especially that gskill falcon ssd, i read the review its fast, in most tests faster than the ocz vertex.

if u game tho, the processor would be the most important for u, it will help overall performance, ssd willnot for games, it will just increase load times, not gameplay

 

you'll benefit much more from the SSD. things will be more snappy and open/load faster by upgrading your storage solution. it's hard to saturate the CPU, even in gaming because this will depend more on the graphics card. and since you already have a good processor in there, the difference felt will be even less if you're going to upgrade the CPU. now with the SSD, you'll constantly be taking advantage of the (almost) zero seek time, even when doing the most basic things.

 

lol you know that the falcon and vertex are the same exact drives right? same NAND chips and same controller, but just rebranded.

and when you gaming, you mean SSD's will decrease your load times. just correcting this in case OP didn't catch it and read the literal meaning of every word

 

I've got a 128GB G.Skill Falcon already installed in my p7085u. Wonderful piece of hardware. Highly recommended. Just ensure to perform all the usual SSD tweaks to prolong its lifepsan and ensure that it doesn't undergo unecessary "wear n tear".

The only disadvantages of owning a G.Skill Falcon are that its support forums are severely lacking and the firmware upgrade procedure is troublesome (requires SSD to be set as disk0 and flashed via another OSboot drive). Luckily, given that the OCZ vertex and G.SKill Falcon are essentially the same hardware - as previously mentioned - you can just visit the OCZ forums for help etc. One reviewer even said something about flashing the Falcon with OCZ vertex firmware (voids warranty naturally!) and then you can then use OCZ firmware updater which carries out the procedure via Windows; no need for another OSboot drive and ensuing hassle etc. I personally stuck with G.Skill's own method of updating; I just used my 2nd HDD in the p7805u and installed Windows on that to perform the update. I have no desire to void my wrranty at this stage.

I even downloaded an app made by one of the OCZ forum members called SSD tweaker which basically does all the tweaks for you! Saves a lot of time.

Cant say much about the p9700 cos i got a X9100 in mine but it will obviously run a lot cooler. Performance gain from stock p8400/p8600 to p9700 will be noticeable but not as noticeable as the load time for EVERYTHING once you upgrade to the G.Skill SSD.

 

Yea, I was leaning towards the SSD, and even though it's all the same internals as the vertex I've read like 20 something reviews and everyone of them said that it was consistently faster, so i guess it's something in the G.SKILL firmware so I wouldn't flash it. But yea I think that's what I'll do. @Hello Moto Do you notice any increase in battery life? Does it run much cooler? Is it lighter? sorry

 

my p7805u is essentially my desktop replacement so i cant really comment on battery life as it's almost always plugged in but i would imagine that battery life would be improved (coupled with CPU undervolting) over stock HDD.

Notebook doesnt feel any lighter with the SSD installed but it certainly is quieter (no spindle spin-up/spin-down humming etc.). For some odd reason, I cant seem to read temps on the G.SKill Falcon using HWMonitor or Lavalys everest but i can say that if my hand is laid on the p7805u palmrest, I can feel a very noticeable temperature difference between the 2 drive bays where my Falcon SSD and stock (2nd) WD scorpio HDD reside respectively.

WD scorpio idles around 37C so presumably the SSD will be far cooler.

 

SSD can considerably boost the activities that work with a lot of tiny files, like the Windows boot.

 

Hmm, I really wanted to now about the battery life increase. Oh well. It probably doesnt feel lighter cause it has an actual metal casing instead of the plastic one on the vertex and most SSD's. Oh, you also kept the scorpio so yea... lol

 

i kept the second scorpio so that i could offload all downloads/TEMP/TMP/Firefox Cache/page file ie. operations that involve a lot of random read-writes onto it, as opposed to unecessarily stressing the Falcon SSD.

I initially was just going to have the SSD on its own but after some research, decided to pursue this course of action.

 

Yea I did that research and decided the same, and now feel really dumb for asking abt the weight differences lol

 

Guess you've pretty much decided on the SSD. Personally the LG WUXGA was my first upgrade too, but I went for the X9100 next because it works wonders for video rendering. An SSD will be my third addition. I guess to each his own.

PS, when installing the lcd, getting those damn latches off is a pain. The only way around it is to get a plastic spledger. I learned the hard way, trying to pry them all off by hand, twice, because I misinstalled it the first time. They make loud noises when they come apart, but none of mine broke, so they seem pretty resilient. Also you'll have to use the inverter from the old screen, and it wont fit in the mount the new one is in, so just let is lay underneath

 

I vote CPU!! Too late?

 

Ssd Ssd Ssd

 

well i'm not gonna be ordering for a while, I move in to college on saturday so I'll have to wait a few months just wanted to decide which to save up for.

 

Yep SSD for the win. The whole computing experience is generally better when everything is instant access

 

With regard to screen installation, there was (what i can only describe as) a industrial strength magnet located next to the latch on the top right corner of the front bezel. Once i managed to get it apart, the rest of the latches popped off very easily with the help of a plastic card; just run it along the edges.

There was some double-sided tapes holding down the bezel along the bottom edge but it wasnt too difficult to remove.

 

make sure to put that magnet back in. if you forget, like i did, youll get some pretty annoying rattling goin on.

popped off easily? i got like 80degrees of torque on the bezel each time before one of those latches would pop off. i even tried a credit card and just mangled it in the end. i thought the plastic would turn white and crack with the amount of force i was putting on it. heh, lucky you. enjoy the new screen! the viewing angles are far better and youll definitely notice a richer color when you watch movies.

and in case you were wondering, you can get like 35 fps in crysis at full res in DX9 on high settings (except for the shaders)

 

SSD will be a much bigger upgrade unless you are actually using your current CPU to the limit.

 

Where does the SSD go?

 

In one of the drive bays..

 

Got a Samsung screen in mine; bleeds quite a bit on black blackgrounds but viewing angles etc. and colours are far superior to my stock AU Optronics WXGA screen. Then again, I'm not a LCD connessieur so it doesnt bother me that much.

I'm guessing the LG model will trump my Samsung screen by far. It's hard to source the LG ones in the UK and i was wary of buying for US ebay sellers just in case i got stuck with custom taxes. It didnt help matters that US sellers arent as willing as HK/China hardware sellers to mark items as "gifts" lol.

 

Yea, I've been debating taking my dual scorpios out and replacing them with SSD's, but I want to wait for more second gen drives to come out first. SSD all the way, you can put the drive in your next (i7) laptop.

 

What other second gen drives are you waiting for?

3rd gen drives will be out soon...

Obviously when the 3rd gen drives are mainstream the 2nd gen drive's price will fall, but I don't see the point in waiting for MORE 2nd gen drives.