The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    How "YOU" Properly use your SSD's

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by helmetface, Aug 31, 2011.

  1. helmetface

    helmetface Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    138
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Okay guys, the world of SSD's is upon us..and while incredibly expensive still I'm teetering on the idea of throwing a small one in my new laptop..trying to increase load times etc...

    But many questions come with this, this is in regards to those who use a SSD to speed up applications and save all the other BS on a regular HD

    What all gets saved on the SSD? OS? Games? Photoshop and the like? And thats it? What else would you save on it?

    Would RAID configurations be worthwhile between a SSD and regular 7200RPM drive?

    Any known problems with SSD?

    My biggest interest would be to know if installing an OS on it would make sense and secondly, if games would make a difference, in particular Online games.

    Thanks
     
    helmetface, Aug 31, 2011
    #1
  2. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    4,879
    Messages:
    8,926
    Likes Received:
    4,701
    Trophy Points:
    431
    The limitations of what can be "saved" on an SSD are limited only by your imagination and the capacity of the drive itself. But usually the OS and applications go on the SSD while media and games are typically better served on a traditional HDD.

    No. Best to keep them separate.

    The biggest problem with an SSD is that, should it fail, it's basically guaranteed that you will lose all your data. At least with a traditional drive, there's a chance you can recover items from it should it get damaged. Be sure to maintain regular backups, and you'll be fine.

    The OS, absolutely. Putting games on an SSD will help with load times but will not improve frame rates.
     
    saturnotaku, Aug 31, 2011
    #2
  3. helmetface

    helmetface Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    138
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Thanks Saturn! Great reply!

    I'm thinking of getting an 80 GB and just throwing Win7 and likely Ubuntu on there..then whichever games I am currently feeding on..maybe one or two..but likely an MMO as I enjoy them most.

    So I figure an 80 GB would be fine.

    And I've never been one to crazy about back-ups, because, well I've never had an HD crash (*fingers crossed*) how would one go about backing up their OS?

    Thanks again
     
    helmetface, Aug 31, 2011
    #3
  4. chimpanzee

    chimpanzee Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    683
    Messages:
    2,561
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    80G is very tight and I have no games on my systems.
     
    chimpanzee, Aug 31, 2011
    #4
  5. helmetface

    helmetface Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    138
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Also, I just realized that most manufacturers are offering "3 gb's" and "6 gb's"

    The jump to a 6 gb's setup is quite steep on top of an already steep price..would the 3 gb's already be a great improvement over normal 7200RPM HD's or would it come down to 6 gb's or bust kind of thing?

    Thanks
     
    helmetface, Aug 31, 2011
    #5
  6. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    4,879
    Messages:
    8,926
    Likes Received:
    4,701
    Trophy Points:
    431
    saturnotaku, Aug 31, 2011
    #6
  7. helmetface

    helmetface Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    138
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Ugh this is all true..I guess the technology is still a bit out of budget for me..

    The 6990m was already hard enough to swallow but I know I'll be happy with that.
     
    helmetface, Aug 31, 2011
    #7
  8. afhstingray

    afhstingray Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    351
    Messages:
    4,662
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    105
    i have my OS plus frequently used programs on my mSATA SSD, 80gb

    and regarding drive failure/reliablity.... a backup is ESSENTIAL for a drive of any kind, solid state or not. unless you dont value your data.
     
    afhstingray, Aug 31, 2011
    #8
  9. fred2028

    fred2028 Sexy member

    Reputations:
    196
    Messages:
    2,205
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    I have my entire drive as an SSD so everything, Windows, programs, files, etc. Going strong and almost 2 years.
     
    fred2028, Aug 31, 2011
    #9
  10. helmetface

    helmetface Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    138
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Ya through readying about the r/w times of an SSD I am becoming more interested and I am considering dropping my 6990m to a 560m to free up some money for an 80 gb SSD to which I'll just run my OS from

    Oh the decisions.
     
    helmetface, Aug 31, 2011
    #10
  11. afhstingray

    afhstingray Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    351
    Messages:
    4,662
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    105
    i'd get the better graphics card. its easy to chuck in an ssd later on
     
    afhstingray, Aug 31, 2011
    #11
  12. helmetface

    helmetface Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    138
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Ya I see what you're saying, that probably is the smarter choice. Wait for the SSD's to come down in price, buy the HDD rack - optical bay swap out thing and throw the SSD in then reformat my OS and apps to it.

    Hrm
     
    helmetface, Aug 31, 2011
    #12
  13. afhstingray

    afhstingray Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    351
    Messages:
    4,662
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    105
    well hopefully your laptop has an mSATA slot. then you can easily add an ssd
     
    afhstingray, Aug 31, 2011
    #13
  14. helmetface

    helmetface Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    138
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Ah, hadn't thought of that. I would actually need to replace the main HDD slot with the SSD, if I were to do so and throw the larger HDD in the optical bay slot.
     
    helmetface, Aug 31, 2011
    #14
  15. afhstingray

    afhstingray Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    351
    Messages:
    4,662
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    105
    mSATA is the whole reason i have an ssd lol. i need at least 256gb of storage and the 256 drives are crazy expensive. i wouldnt have been able to afford an ssd otherwise. if you havent already bought the laptop maybe look for a model with mSATA.
     
    afhstingray, Aug 31, 2011
    #15