New W520 in mSATA vs. Seagate 750 hybrid?

I just got a loaded W520 locally with 3-yr accidental warranty. It is ridiculous. Brand new and it absolutely flies.

/excitement off

It has a factory 500gb drive. It's okay, but slow for my wants (not needs lol).

Should I get an mSATA or the Seagate 750 hybrid drive? I don't want to drop a fortune on a real SSD and both the Intel mSATA and Seagate are $179 shipped.

Thanks!

 

Here's my vote.

 

Wow, that's cheap! So the performance and reliability is at par or better than the Intel 310? $89 is a great price-point...

 

mSATA SSDs and SSDs in general are so new, how much can one tell about the reliability? I don't know what the numbers are, but Kingston's been around a long time and is a reputable company. People are too focused on the numbers anyway. The real benefit of a SSD is the near instantaneous seek times. Since they're all .1 ms, one drive won't be markedly better or worse than the next for most uses. As an example, I just upgraded my R60e from the 16GB Kingston S100 to the 80GB Intel G2. They seem exactly the same to me performance wise. It's just that I've got an extra 60GB on the G2.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the 310 series still uses Intel controller, Intel NAND, basically current gen mainstream Intel SSD, into a mSATA form factor. As ZaZ pointed out, .1 ms seek time gets you that instant snappy response for the OS, unlike the fastest mechanical drives which are 4+ ms, so SSDs are 40x more responsive. Along with flash NAND, there are no rotational parts, no heat, no noise, and much more durability against trauma. The downside as you have figured out, they are $$$ for little space, but just for OS and important apps, SSDs are fine.

 

Search the hardware forum, I believe nando put together a table with the different mSATA solutions. I'm very happy with my MyDigitalSSD in my W520. It's cheaper than the Intel and the Phison controller has shown to be a very capable performer.

 

Ok, I picked up a MyDigitalSSD (64gig) locally just now (somehow, I found one for sale locally!).

I plan on doing a clean install of Win7 on the SSD, then wiping the entire 500gb platter drive for file storage.

Installed it and booted up. I still have an install of Win7 on my original drive. When I go into disk management, this pops up (attached). Which do I select?

Also, is it recommended to remove the 500gb disc during Windows installation, then inserting after everything boots back up and re-formatting?

Thanks.

Edit: I went ahead and formatted using the choice selected in the photo. Should I just remove the 500gb disc, put in the Win7 DVD, reboot, set BIOS to legacy and install? I did backup my license as stated in Hearst's guide.

 

@hotsauce: When you booted up using your current HDD drive, Windows Disk Management alerted you that you had a virgin drive (the SSD) that should be formatted (logically structured) before it can be used. That's fine, in that scenario, but formatting the SSD was inconsequential to your subsequent installation of Windows on it.

I would remove the HDD from the main drive, leave the MyDigitalSSD in the mSATA slot and boot from DVD (with the Windows Install disc inserted). As a first step, Winsdows Install will ask you to choose the target drive, with an option to format it. I would select the mSATA and ask Windows Install to format it.

 

Thanks. I have Windows up and running on the mSATA SSD.

It's not THAT fast and I want to update the firmware. Which link is the right one? I have the 64gig MyDigitalSSD drive:

mSATA SSD | Solid State Drives | MyDigitalSSD.com (firmware link at the bottom of the page dated 10-10-11)

MyDigitalSSD mSATA, Half Slim, and 2.5 Inch SATA SSD Firmware Update | My Digital Discount (the Feb 2012 update)

Uh, I see that the firmware update will erase the SSD. What? Will it really erase the entire SSD drive every time it's updated??

EDIT: Just updated the firmware, which wiped the drive. Back to square one with my clean install :/

What's the easiest way to do this firmware update in the future? I cannot wipe my drive out each time - that's ridiculous.

 

if the performance of the seagate is as good as they say, I might just pick one up at this price for this many gbs it seems like an amazing deal.

seaagate-newegg

 

That one is 3gbps, the Hybrid is 6gbps. Not sure if that matters.

So after getting everything set up on the mSATA, I'm kind of doubting my choice. I did get the 64 gig version, but after Lenovo updates, Microsoft Updates and Office 2010 installed, I'm down to 24 gigs.

How do you guys install mSATA programs? All .exe's on the SSD or do you just keep the stuff you use most on it (OS, Office) and put everything else on the spinning drive? It just feels like I'm going to run short on space real quick making me wish I had gone the hybrid route.

 

I keep the OS and all programs on the SSD. 24GB left is reasonable for a typical install.