Uograded my ASUS K52F from 3GB RAM to 8GB RAM, slight improvement but will a SSD really make much dofference? Crucial M4 ANY GOOD?

Hi,

My laptop - ASUS K52F3 , Core i3 M380 @ 2.53 Ghz, 320GB HDD,
running windows 7 home premium 64bit but may upgrade to windows 8 64-bit

i upgraded from 3gb RAM to 8GB Crucial RAM and have noticed some slight improvement in speed and moderate improvement in multitasking,

but if i changed from HDD to a SSD would i see that much improvement in speed? seeing as the 8GB RAM upgrade hasnt improved speed dramatically
i only use the laptop for web browsing google chrome (12 tabs open at once) , itunes, notepad, MS Word/Excel, movies, streaming youtube
all open at once would be my max usage

I was originally going to buy an Intel 330 240 GB, but have seen the Crucial M4 on sale for £117 on ebuyer,
But i read the crucial m4 has slow write speed for the price, would others agree?

Is the Intel 330 or Samsung 830 noticeably better than the Crucial M4?

i can get a Intel 330 240gb for £103 from sourcetech, http://www.sourcetech.co.uk/240gb-2-5-inch-sata-6gb-s-25nm-mlc-330-ssd.html?utm_source=froogle

Samsung 830 256gb for £140,
although there is 16gb less memory in the intel, i will only be using 100gb max,
i wouldve gone for the 180gb intel but people suggest it would run faster if i had more free disk space

is the intel 330 240gb a good price at £103?

besides hotukdeals. wheres the best sites to check for these ssd's on sale?
thanks

 

You would be best off if you purchased either a Samsung 830 SSD or a Crucial M4. I would personally go with the Samsung 830, it's a solid SSD. If you're interested, the ones I'm using are for sale on eBay.

 

A SSD would do you wonders... also I've noticed you mentioned the Intel 330.

TBH, the difference between the M4 and 330 isn't big, benchmark wise and number wise it is, but overall not really, I've got a 120GB Intel 330 in 2 of my working machines and a 256GB M4 in my gaming desktop replacement not much difference

 

Having tried, the Mushkin Chronos Deluxe, the Intel 320, Crucial M4 (3 of those + 1 mSATA variant) and Intel 520, I can say that there isn't much difference for the average Joe type of usage. The 320 feels a tad slower at times, but still screams fast compared to a HDD and the 320 is a rather old model by now.

 

You basically have slightly better version of what I have (U30Jc i3 350M 8GB RAM and SanDisk Extreme 240GB SSD).

The problem with those Arrandale platforms is that they're too laggy for my taste.

To alleviate that 'lag' I have:

1) Installed Win8x64.

2) Bought the 'best' 8GB RAM I could for the system (made a noticeable improvement in 'responsiveness'),

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...m-full-speed-help-screenshots-appreciate.html


3) Use the unpark cpu core utility from coderbag.

See:
Coder Bag: Disable CPU Core Parking Utility


5) Installed the SanDisk Extreme 240GB SSD leaving ~50% 'unallocated'.


Even with all the above upgrades, improvements and tweaks it still doesn't hold a candle to an IB based platform setup.

Why do I still use it? Because I only need it as my 'digital notebook' and because the battery life is up to 9 hours (depending on what I use it for specifically).


I would recommend you download and run PerfectDisk Professional 12.5 (trial) and run an offline (boot time) and online Smart Placement run (at least a full two times each - and finish with a final online run...).

An SSD will give you a noticeable 'responsiveness' improvement (as will Win8x64 too) - but without disabling the core parking and possibly getting the 'best' RAM you can - it will still feel laggy and far behind what a current platform is capable of (with regards to 'responsiveness').

For your usage patterns: see if the trial of PD12.5 doesn't give your system a noticeable boost?

I would even go so far as to 'shrink' the C:\ to less than 80GB and create a DATA partition for your personal files.

If you did as much of the above without getting an SSD first - you may be impressed enough to leave the SSD for your next platform (where it will perform as it should - not in the gimped SATA2 restricted, core parked suffocating atmosphere that Arrandale is and always will be).


Good luck.

 

Thanks for sharing this info,
as i have limited knowledge withcomputers, that article on disabling cpu parking consfused me,
i downloaded the 2 programs and ran Manage Parked CPU's and 'checked status' which returned 3 values all parked, but i dont know whether i should unpark them or leave them as they are - in order to speed up the laptop?

i will try and do this step before moving on to the others
thank you

 

That's easy: unpark them!

See if it makes a difference for you. GL.

 

thanks for letting me know,
as i only use my laptop for web browsing (12 tabs) itunes, movies, and MS Word/Excel, i guess i come under the average joe type of user

so what would be the lowest end sata 3 ssd you would suggest i go down to?
as the best price i can get a 240gb intel 330 for is £103,
so if the cheaper brands/models would give similar benefit based on my usage, i could save a bit of money,

thanks

 

so ive now unparked them, havent noticed much if anything but there was only 3 parked on the list

i also downloaded PerfectDisk 1.5, ran boot time defrag and wasnt sure how to run online smart placement, so just click the 'defragmenttion ' tab then clicked Start, it ran for about 30 minutes,
how do i start the online smart placement?


also what are your thoughts on me buying the cheaper 250gb sata iii ssd's, based on my limited usage?

also what version of Win 8 would you recommend for my kind of usage?
i'll make i get 64-bit win8

thank you