SSD or mSATA

Hey guys I recently ordered a Gigabyte P34GV2 laptop and I was thinking of either installing a larger mSATA drive or a normal SSD drive. The laptop comes with a 128GB mSATA drive and a 1TB hard drive. Should I just get a bigger mSATA drive or replace my hard drive with a larger SSD drive? Would I get better battery life one way over another? Also does one configuration run cooler? Thanks.

 

Which mSATA is it? That will help to figure and compare battery life too. What is your usage scenario? Cooling will have a lot to do with Gigabyte's implementation, where the mSATA slot is in relation to other heat generating components(CPU, GPU). mSATAs don't have the built in heatsink of the case that 2.5" drives have. What do other Gigabyte owners say with your set up or cooling in general?

 

Which mSATA are you asking for? The one already in the laptop? On the suppliers page where I ordered it from it says "Gigabyte specified SATA3 6Gb/s 128GB mSATA SSD" so I am not 100% sure. If you're talking about the one i'm thinking of buying is maybe a samsung one with around 500GB space. And for my usage scenario I will probably just use the laptop to write notes, surf the web, download some movies/music, and play some games. Supposedly the P34GV2 runs in the 80s for temperature on load.

 

Yes, I meant the one that's already in it. I'd like to know what it could do before any recommendation to replace or not to replace. I wouldn't recommend buying 128GB size, too small in this generation of SSDs (2.5" or mSATA) and poorer performance than larger models. But we are talking replacement.

Generally, the 2.5" SSD is faster than the mSATA. Controller channels and parallelism is usually less in mSATA vs 2.5" in the same product family. In your described usage scenario (light) this may not ever be noticed.

EDIT: The "Gigabyte specified SATA3 6Gb/s 128GB mSATA SSD" probably means whatever OEM brand they have on hand at the time of the build from their supplier.

 

Which setup would use less power do you think? Just a 2.5" SSD or a mSATA with a HDD?

 

Depends how frequently you're spinning the HDD up to access data on it, and how quickly it will spin down and park the head.

I don't think you'll see much of a noticeable difference in battery life, especially when compared to other strategies (like reducing screen brightness, turning wifi off, or avoiding extended CPU loads).

 

It also would depend on which mSATA or 2.5". I'm not talking idle power consumption. In this 1TB test, Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD Review - The New Performance King - Benchmarks - Notebook Battery Life Samsung has lower idle power consumption and uses less power while operating but better battery life is achieved in a SanDisk because the time it takes to complete IO tasks lets SanDisk consume less power getting to low power states quicker. This second link, 256GB size class, includes limited power and an easier to read first test graph. Intel SSD Pro 2500 Series 240GB Encrypted SSD Review - Benchmarks - Power Testing

 

But any SSD has lower power consumption that a HDD correct? Right now im thinking of either buying a 500GB 2.5" Samsung EVO, Crucial M500/Crucial M550. Or I could just upgrade my mSATA to a 250GB Samsung EVO/Crucial M500 and keep my HDD. Would a SSD+mSATA combo work? Which of the brands I listed would you suggest? I enjoy having a 1TB HDD cause of the space but could do with a 500GB 2.5" SSD+128GB mSATA.

 

It depends. The difference is probably negligible. I'd go with the combo setup (250 SSD + current HDD). OS/Programs on the SSD, downloads/media/user files on the HDD. Best of both worlds. Is 2 min. of battery life really going to change anything?

 

Ya thats true. So a mSATA+HDD is what I should go for? Not the mSATA+SSD? I can get a Samsung 840 EVO 250GB mSATA for $165 CDN. I can also get a Crucial MX100 512GB SSD for $225.