SSD upgrade on Envy 14?

Hey there NBR, I'm thinking about getting a SSD for my envy 14. Before I buy my SSD, has anyone done it before? If so, would you kindly show me some benchmarks? I don't know if its true, but I heard there are problems with running SSDs on HM55 chipsets.

 

I just got my Envy 14 yesterday and put in a Intel X25M 120GB SSD and had no issues with it so far.

 

Installed an intel X25-M 120gb drive as well about two days ago in my envy 14 too. No major issues here either.

The problems that you have heard regarding the HM55 are definitely present here though. My benchmarks are relatively poor wihout any of the tweaks as others have seen... I have applied the tweaks and seen much better numbers but I'm not really willing to sacrifice the battery life/temps/stability/turboboost which are all at risk with the available "tweaks." Honestly, you will not be able to tell a difference. Microsoft word will open in maybe 1.2 seconds compared to 1.1 seconds. Who cares? Point is, even with the 'issues' the drive is STILL as fast as you could hope for typical use. If you were constantly copying many gb's of files all the time I might advise you otherwise...

 

Are you able to turn on TRIM on your E14? I do know that SSDs need to be set to AHCI mode through the BIOS, but the E14 BIOS is locked from such advanced settings.

 

form what i've read, AHCI is the default for e14s

trim was automatically enabled for my drive

FYI i'm seeing about a 15% increase in battery life with the SSD- and yes, I'm being quantitative with BatteryBar

 

I can show you a benchmark of my SSD on my Envy 17 3D. However I'm currently having issues with the whole SSD setup... I havn't got everything tweaked right.

The drive I have is set up for SATA-III and the Envy's only support SATA-II which makes me want to cry and/or throw it out the window.... And because HP locks our BIOS settings its near impossible to properly set everything to fully utilize the power of an SSD.

Don't get me wrong... my computer still boots up in under 7 seconds, and everything is lightning fast, plus no heat generated by the SSD, and no noise. However, it could be faster. A lot faster. I just need full access to my computer, which I don't have because HP decides to screw us.

Anyways... I'd say go for it. Going with an SSD is the best thing I've done. In a laptop they don't produce any extra heat which helps to save your whole rig, they're 500x faster than normal HDDs, they draw less power so it saves your battery, and they make no noise. Added to the fact that you can slam the drive against the wall, drop it numerous times, and it will still work just fine. It's not so fragile that you're afraid to handle it like traditional HDs.

The only downside I have with them are #1. They're expensive. For an average SSD you're going to be paying around 300 dollars for 128 gigs. For an above average or excellent drive, you're going to be paying 400 or more for 128 gigs. And that brings up #2. They're small. Most HDDs now are in the Terabit range for just a small amount of cash. I'm not 100% sure what the largest SSD available currently on the market is, but I'll make a fair bet its no where near 1TB... and I'll also bet you have to have some deep pockets to own it. So it's always good to make your SSD C:\ and have it be your boot drive, as well as contain any of your games that are demanding for better performance, and have a traditional HD to keep everything else on. Or if you're like me, use a 1 or 2 TB external HD to lessen the amount of heat generated by your gaming laptop.

The one I have Windows rates at 7.7 and has good Tech support and good firmware updates.

 

I am considering getting a 120gb x-25m for my envy 14, however with G3 ssd's around the corner, will this be a worthy investment or you guys reckon i should wait and check these g3's out?

 

It seems to be that everyone here is getting Intl X-25M G2 SSDs. From what I heard, the newer Indilinx and Sandforce SSDs like the OCZ Vertex 2 are much faster. I'm not an expert on SSDs can anyone provide some further explanation, and which one should I get?

I narrowed my choice to these 4 SSDs: Newegg Link
Though I'm strongly leaning to OCZ Vertex 2 mainly because they have pretty good SSD support and its own forums.

 

I agree with your general post, but I just wanted to point out that SSDs are now about half of what you posted. I just bought a 120GB Sandforce SSD for $199 shipped from Newegg. My plan is to use it as the boot drive and WD 1TB HDD for the storage drive - it was just $100 and is the biggest regular drive around atm. Now if only my Envy 17 would arrive... (should be here in a week!!!)

 

Am I correct in assuming that the 14" envy will only support 1 drive?....not 2 like the 17"?

 

I don't know much about the 14"s but I would assume they only have 1 drive bay. There is only so much room in the things.

 

Wow, where did you get a 120GB sandforce ssd for $199? I can't find it on newegg.

 

the envy 14 will only support 1 drive unless you get an adapter that lets you replace hte optical drive with another HD. in any case, you will not be able to run multiple drives in a RAID configuration.

Sandforce VS Intel: Sandforce is faster. Intel is more reliable. (these are both undebatable staements). I chose intel. Why? Not only is reliability more important to me (the sand force drives have a much higher failure rate), but the difference in everyday use (opening applications, saving files, etc.) between the two is essentially negligible. If anything, the intel trumps the sandforce drives in the 4kb random read/write speeds which are suposedly the best indicators of how quick a drive will be under typical conditions. The SF drives will win in the competition of "who can copy the 20gb file to the drive the fastest" which never happens in real life.

You have to look out for good deals on the SSDs..... they pop up occasionally. I got my 120gb intel for $169 after rebate AND a $25 bonus gift card from Newegg.com . On black friday, Fry's had a 120gb sandforce-based patriot inferno drive for $150 after rebate. Yeah, these drives typically are found for around $230ish, but if you're patient you can get them near $150

 

Best upgrade ever! My Vertex 2 scores in my Envy 14:

 

Here. Although it seems to have gone up to $219 +$3 shipping. It also shows out of stock until this Tues (1/4).

 

holycrap nice write speeds!