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    SSD or 7200 rpm HDD for T400

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by curiouspeter, Aug 22, 2008.

  1. curiouspeter

    curiouspeter Notebook Enthusiast

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    The current T400 promotion is hard to beat. I have much of the spec figured out (T9600, WXGA+ LED, HSDPA). However, I am not sure if the 64GB SSD offers significant I/O performance over a 160GB 7200 rpm HDD.

    I do mostly software development and the IDE software likes to "cache" many little files. Responsiveness is very important to me because sluggishness disrupts my chain of thought. :)

    Storage space is unimportant and I normally use less than 25GB.

    (Lenovo does not show the SSD option with Vista 64 selected, which is in turn required for 4GB RAM. In effect, they do not seem to let me get a 4GB system with SSD.)

    Thanks!
     
    curiouspeter, Aug 22, 2008
    #1
  2. yuio

    yuio NBR Assistive Tec. Tec.

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    call lenovo and ask about it, it could just be a qlitch on there website... (it took them 2 weeks to change the canadian site to DDR3)
     
    yuio, Aug 22, 2008
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  3. vengance_01

    vengance_01 Notebook Deity

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    OCZ just launched there new Core SSD line which offers decent performance at much cheaper prices. The main thing about SSD is access times, plain and simple.
     
    vengance_01, Aug 22, 2008
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  4. sean_nj

    sean_nj Notebook Guru

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    OCZ Core series SSD is MLC based, which has a life time about 1/10 of SLC based SSD.

    Sean
     
    sean_nj, Aug 22, 2008
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  5. vengance_01

    vengance_01 Notebook Deity

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    very true, but with how much SSD drives will change, most will only keep them for a year before upgrading to a much better SSD drive.
     
    vengance_01, Aug 22, 2008
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  6. pufftissue

    pufftissue Notebook Evangelist

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    I had heard that the latest 5400 rpm drives from Seagate perform equally to the old 7200 rpm drives.
    I am not sure that the latest 7200 rpm drives are out en masse yet.
     
    pufftissue, Aug 22, 2008
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  7. yn1997

    yn1997 Notebook Guru

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    For the price SSD isnt a good choice now,but I think by the end of this year the price is going to drop to $1/mb which is affordable. IMO, just go 160mb 7200rmp then jump to SSD in the future if needed.
     
    yn1997, Aug 22, 2008
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  8. sfrohman90

    sfrohman90 Notebook Geek

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    $1/mb? so a 100 gig SSD would cost....$100000? hmmm
     
    sfrohman90, Aug 23, 2008
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  9. miro_gt

    miro_gt Notebook Deity

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    what about the access times ?!?!?! ... it's like 20 times faster than the fastest HDD that you can put in a laptop these days, lol

    the main thing is reliability, plain and simple :D
     
    miro_gt, Aug 23, 2008
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  10. curiouspeter

    curiouspeter Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks for your recommendations. I think I will stick with SLC drives for now, if I am to pick one. The prices are quite high. :(

    Which one would you pick? 2.8 GHz CPU with 7200 rpm 100 GB HDD or 2.4 GHz CPU with Samsung 64GB SSD?
     
    curiouspeter, Aug 23, 2008
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  11. yn1997

    yn1997 Notebook Guru

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    sorry for the typo, I meant $1/gb you know it. lol
     
    yn1997, Aug 23, 2008
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  12. sfrohman90

    sfrohman90 Notebook Geek

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    haha im just yanking your chain...you say $1/gb? wow that would be great, id probably buy one if they get that affordable!
     
    sfrohman90, Aug 23, 2008
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  13. Echothedolphin

    Echothedolphin Notebook Enthusiast

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    Samsung upped their production of SSD's by a huge margin about a month ago. Actual cost of the drives to retailers will be pretty close to that, but we'll probably see a decent markup on said 1$/gb (compared to today's prices, still a significant drop though)

    We probably won't see anything close to platter drive retail price in an SSD for another year or so =/
     
    Echothedolphin, Aug 23, 2008
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  14. yn1997

    yn1997 Notebook Guru

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    now ocz's 64/128gb SSD are selling at 250/500,which is already half price of 6 month ago. Thats why we can say $1/gb is closer to us.
     
    yn1997, Aug 23, 2008
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  15. ColMaki

    ColMaki Notebook Consultant

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    I think that today prices are just two high. Order with a 160 GB drive and switch to SSD in a year maybe. Than you will have the option of using the older drive as a backup drive.
     
    ColMaki, Aug 23, 2008
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  16. curiouspeter

    curiouspeter Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yeah, if I use only the first 20% of the drive and defrag it often the transfer rate of a 7200rpm HDD should be pretty good, right. :)

    I am not sure if fast access time matters to me. Is there a program (something like perfmon) I can run to analyze my usage pattern?
     
    curiouspeter, Aug 23, 2008
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  17. miro_gt

    miro_gt Notebook Deity

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    2.4 ghz with SSD will be faster :) ... but SSD is not at the level where it should be yet, so if you'd like to give it a shot, go for it.

    or how about buying 2.8 gig with HDD and later switch to SSD ?
     
    miro_gt, Aug 23, 2008
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  18. curiouspeter

    curiouspeter Notebook Enthusiast

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    I think I am going to do just that. Thanks!

    Too bad Lenovo does not offer a 320GB 7200 rpm HDD yet. I don't need the space, but that thing is going to be fast. :)
     
    curiouspeter, Aug 23, 2008
    #18