to ssd or not on a dv8t...cant make up my mind

My dv8t should arrive thursday. It has the 320 7200rpm hd in it. I've been sitting on the fence on purchasing a ssd as a boot drive for it. I have narrowed the ssd's down to the 30gb OCZ vertex drive on newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227393 for $99 + $45 hd cage from new modes http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?...1296b4225ceffd = $150 for the setup.

So, I'm asking myself if by doing this, I will notice a tangable difference in the computer performance, or if i should just wait awhile and see where the prices and speeds go in the next few months. If the upgrade will make a noticable difference, then I think i should buy it... but if its something that will just increase benchmark scores, then its something that i can hold off on.

what do you guys think?

 

I would say, wait until march.
Things will be heated up by then knowing new systems will have reached the market.
The performance boost is amazing from what ive just discovered here.
Tough choice, but 30 GB is too small and isnt worth 150.. just so u can get that bootup boost.
Trust me.

 

Owning 4 OCZ Vertex SSDs, the performance boost is much more than just boot up speed. It increases overall system speed significantly.

30GB might be too small. Depends on how you use your computer. You can store your data on SD cards or USB flash. Though I would recommend no lower than 60GB.

However, since were talking about a DV8, 30GB would be fine since you have a 2nd HDD bay. SO one would install the OS and other frequently used software on the SSD. Keep DATA, Music, movies, Games on the 2nd HDD.

 

In my experience the major benefit of SSD is increased battery life. More so then performance compared to 7200 drives.

 

Are SSD worth it?
Hell yeah in my eyes.
Like Mr 2.0 I installed a Vertex OCZ 120GB in my laptop ( Not a HP ) and once you get over the price you pay ( I got one for a steal at $250) it is well worth it.
Improves performance and produces no noise at all.
I would only say get one if you can live with spending a good amount of money for one.
Personally I would never go back to a reg HDD and prices should start getting more affordable as time goes on.

 

thanks for the advice. i just ordered the hd caddy. now im just deciding on how much to spend and what to get. Any idea's if i might be able to raid 0 two of the 30gb ssd in the first hd bay and retain the 320gb platter for bay 2? This is the thought im at atm. once i can figureout if i can raid the ssd's to a single bay, I will beable to make he decision.

 

because i need storage more than a performance boost, im waiting until they make 500gb ssd drives for $100 before i purchase 1 or 2

it all depends on ur needs. if you want the latest and greatest and need the speed while sacrificing storage space, then go for it. you really gotta decide how you intend on using your machine.

i went from having dual 320gb drives in my dv7t to dual 500gb drives - both of which are 5400rpm. this has worked fine for me. i cannot imagine moving to ssds and getting less storage than the 1tb i have in my box. again, this is my experience and my thoughts on it.

 

storage isnt a issue for me. the single 320gb drive will be fine for games and whatnot and an external hd works for music and movies. I just want to figureout if i can raid 2 ssd's into one drive bay

 

I have OCZ Vertex 60GB and I love it

 

^^^ lol - i have seen your screenshot more than i've seen my notebookreview login screen! LMAOOOO!

just for fun, im going to time the bootup and shutdown times on my dv7t tonight.... i just want to compare. i am running win 7 x64 on my dv7t - the specs are in my sig.

as for the drives, im running dual 500gb western digital 5400rpm drives.

 

Yes, 1st gen SSDs were all that in terms of performance.

Current generation SSDs are siginficantly faster than 7200 RPM drives it two respects. They are many hundreds of times faster in seek speed. That alone makes a huge difference. Then they are 3 to 4 times faster in transfer speed.

On my HDX, I have a 120GB Vertex SSD and a 320GB 7200 RPM HDD. I can boot off of the 2nd drive (HDD) by using a USB stick that has grub on it. When I boot win 7 x64 off the HDD, everything is so sluggish by comparision.

Battery life on my tablet with a 60GB VErtex SSD has increased by about 20 to 30 mins. The tablet has a AMD turion ZM 82 (2.1ghz) CPU and 4GB RAM. When I first had it with a 7200 RPM HDD, it was at times disappointingly sluggish. I would always sleep it for fear of having to reboot. Now with and SSD, it's as if I dropped in a faster CPU. Apps, menus, and databases blink up. ONenote flies without any slowdowns.

I could never go back to a HDD for the OS drive.

 

No, you can't RAID them that way. They are the same form factor as a standard 2.5" 9.5mm HDD.

 

thanks again. just as i saw your response, I found like 3 other thread on various websites stating that even thought the dv8t has 2 hard drive bays, the bios doesn't support raid. i planned on getting them to fit via removing the ssd boards from their enclosures and trying to make a enclosure that would fit both....but that point is mute now.

anyways, I ordered a 30gb vertex to act as the boot drive and will wipe the 320gb hd to use as storage. hopefully i can figureout how to do this without killing myself or my laptop.

just have to wait for it to arrive from alaska

 

Good deal then.

To get the most out of your drive, visit the OCZ forum about Vertex. I learned a lot from this forum.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=186