Need help Fast....please

Ordering a X201 today..does everyone think about the SSD drive vs the normal hard drive.


For normal computer use is it worht the exra money?


Thanks

 

Apparently, it boils down to two things: (1) Speed and (2) cost per gig of storage.

SSDs are fast. You will find many accounts that will describe how SSDs have helped in improving the response of machines. Often people opt to have a small SSD as the primary drive and use a HDD of larger capacity in the ultrabay. This way, they get the benefits of both worlds. Speed and storage capacity. Often folks here recommend that is probably better to install a SSD than extra RAM (above 3-4 GB) to speed up systems.

But SSDs come at a cost. They are relatively expensive.

There is a lot of info on SSDs here. You may wish to take a look at some of it - especially those posts that talk about costs, performance etc.

Good Luck!

 

Speed wise its much faster and better.
Space wise its very limited and costly.

So if you can afford one and need extra speed - get one.
If youre fine with using your laptop with HDD and dont want to shell extra money for expensive SSD, then dont get one.

 

"normal" computer use is a little hard to quantify and if you need a large amount of storage (>160GB) on the laptop, SSDs are very pricey.

it would depend on what SSD or price range, you were looking to get.

 

SSDs are a technology in its infancy with a designed-in finite lifespan and nothing beyond marketing statistics to accurately gauge what that is. I've seen conflicting "estimates" that put the time before one becomes unusable anywhere between 1 and 10 years. Also consider that I've hears manufacturers have actually shortened the warranties on some of their drives.

 

I think the biggest benefit other than speed it that your laptop will be more reliable.

The way I see people shaking around their laptops it's a wonder the hard drives don't fail more often, but with an SSD there are less moving parts so you're laptop will not only be faster, but should be more reliable with one.

 

Yeah...good point realwarder...no moveable parts in a SSD. But I hope the Active protection that comes with ThinkPads goes some way to protect a HDD.

 

@lineS of flight

I have a 500gb hard drive in my Ultrabay and an SSD in my mains. Lenovo's Airbag Protection System works fine for the ultrabay drive. I am using this on my T400.

edit: just noticed this was for an X201 which doesn't have an Ultrabay. Sorry peeps

 

Thanks. That's reassuring. I have a 500GB HDD as my main drive and no SSD and I would like to think that the APS is effective!!!!

 

I think 160GB would be sufficient for me, but I am wondering if in "real world" I will really notice the difference?
would the extra 320 bucks really be worth it just for internet usage andonline movies light word processing

Thx

 

Youll notice difference, thats what not only benchmarks but also people who have used them say.
You have to decide whether you want to spend 320$ for a thing that you could live without all these years?
Wait for year or a half and then get cheaper and better SSD's.

 

"I think 160GB would be sufficient for me, but I am wondering if in "real world" I will really notice the difference? would the extra 320 bucks really be worth it just for internet usage andonline movies light word processing"

No. Not if price makes a difference.

Renee

 

you'll see a difference in boot times for sure...speed returns w/other apps can vary and may not be as dramatic.

while i think SSD do have their strengths (in a narrow sort of way), i don't think a typical laptop user will get as much of a return back, as the initial outlay in cost. after all, does it really matter if you can boot to windows in half the time?! [real users never power down their laptops...hibernate, baby! ]

i'm not yet ready to climb on the SSD bandwagon. while they don't have moving parts, they don't have infinite lifespans and can fail. the technology is still too pricey per GB for my consideration and they can improve the power consumption.

ultimately...in the very long term, i may get an SSD (if they make one in 500GB) when it becomes more affordable to put in my dream portable, maximum battery runtime laptop, but that looks a long ways off.

cheers.

 

Another thing to consider is size... if you're just browsing the web, watching online movies and doing a little word processing, a small drive will suffice. Maybe even 40GB. Sounds odd I know

Unless you have a drive full of music/video or virtual machines, you don't really need a large drive. A small SSD would suffice. Maybe even an aftermarket one that costs less than $100.

Of course, only you know how much disk space you need.

 

I like my SSD for the quiet it provides, but they were oversold from a performance perspective. If you like to run in low power mode, which makes sense on a notebook, you'll take a significant performance hit. You can do the BIOS hack, but the battery life suffers a fairly large hit.

 

After having 500GB on my laptop for 1.5 years.. i found myself that I've been using only 50GB of entire space, so getting an SSD with 120GB was more than enough for me. I'm more than happy with the upgrade, noise and speed, cannot describe.

The real world usage depends on each user individually, however I think storing pictures (as a permanent location) and movies is not too wise, for economical and safety reasons, for now at least.