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    Adding a second hard drive (SSD) for Windows 7

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by eastx, Oct 15, 2009.

  1. eastx

    eastx Notebook Geek

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    I currently have a 7200 RPM 320 GB HDD in my Sager 5796 notebook. I was thinking of replacing my optical disc drive with a SSD hard drive and installing Windows 7 on it. Would that significantly increase performance?
    And if I only wanted to put the OS on the SSD drive, what's the smallest size that would work?
     
    eastx, Oct 15, 2009
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  2. Krane

    Krane Notebook Prophet

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    As I understand it, W7 will already be significantly faster in boot time than Vista which is notoriously slow. In any event, I think investing in a SSD soley for the OS would be a waste.
     
    Krane, Oct 15, 2009
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  3. jessea510

    jessea510 Notebook Consultant

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    i would put the ssd inside your laptop and put the 320 GB HDD in the optical disc. Their would be an increase of performance if you put the operating system and programs on it and data/files/games on the HDD.

    I would recommend the Intel x25-m 80gb generation 2. You can buy them as cheap as 244 on amazon. But i would not pay more than 250 since a lot of places are marking up the price because of hot demand. 80GB is enough for the operating system and program. You don't want to completely fill it up because performance will decrease. I recommend keeping it at under 70% or 50GB.

    However, if you dont have any huge programs you may be luck enough to fit everything on a 32Gb SSD if you dont have money for the Intel
     
    jessea510, Oct 15, 2009
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  4. eastx

    eastx Notebook Geek

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    Jesse, any reason for moving the 320 GB HDD out of the laptop and into the optical spot?

    I guess you're right that running programs in addition to the OS would be a good idea. I suppose Photoshop would load much faster that way. $244 isn't as bad as I thought they might cost, either.
     
    eastx, Oct 15, 2009
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  5. Kallogan

    Kallogan Notebook Deity

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    Personally speaking, the increase in performance was spectacular. Far more obvious than a processor upgrade. So i'd say go on !!!! When i sometimes boot on my old 5400 RPM HDD , it's so painful lol. It's like night and day.
     
    Kallogan, Oct 15, 2009
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  6. eastx

    eastx Notebook Geek

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    Thanks for the words of encouragement.

    Is there any performance difference between the Intel x25-m 80gb generation 2 and Corsair 128 GB CMFSSD-128GBG2D? For the $100 difference, I am tempted to go ahead and get a larger drive.
     
    eastx, Oct 15, 2009
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