To Msata or not

I have just bought a t420 and am very happy with my purchase which is for law school, but I allotted $1500 in my loans for the purchase and it only ended up cost ~$1200. This means that I have $300 for a printer, another 4 GB ram card, and a msata drive. I found this one on newegg (where I am getting my memory from) and am curious if this is something that I should go ahead a purchase? I have until tomorrow to make this decision, as my receipts need to be turned in by Mon.

I have never had a SSD drive of any sort, so I do not know the difference in boot speeds. I have fully read the Msata primer and am stll confused. Im not sure what should go on the SSD other than the OS. I have already loaded MS office on to my computer, is there anyway to move that over to the SSD? Should my music (9+ GB) be on there? Basically, I am totally new to this kind of stuff, but I feel like if I have the money allotted for it, then I should take advantage right? Anyone else have a better way to spend $200 on a computer?

Thanks for the help!

 

Depends on your usage. Do you do constant reboots and tons of IO (reading and writing data)? If no, you would be perfectly fine with a normal drive. Just plain office work? No, but SSDs are nice to have.

You would need to uninstall Office and reinstall it on the SSD.

 

Well, especially with school starting Monday, I think this might be more pain than it is worth, especially since I will not have constant reboots or lots of IO.

Well, other than a full 8GB of RAM, is there anything else anyone can think of anything else for a T420? I have an extra $200 to spend.

 

how about an external monitor. It may help you with productivity when working from home/room

 

I think you should see how it goes. For most people 8GB is a waste of money. You can always upgrade later if need be. Same for the mSATA drive. If you feel the performance is lacking you can always upgrade later. I say save the money. You just never know when you'll get an unexpected bill. It's nice to have that cushion to fall back on.

 

Unfortunately, this isn't money that I get to sock away for a rainy day. If I don't spend it on the computer, then I lose it. That is why I want to do my best to "future proof" it as much as possible as this machine needs to last me at least 3 years if not longer.

 

If you're receiving a grant, then go ahead and spend it. If your money is a loan, then save it. You might have heard that lawyers aren't getting jobs these days. In fact, 2,600 American lawyer jobs were lost just this past June.

Take it from a recent grad of a top law school with good grades, jobs are hard to come by these days. Spending loaned money just because you can is foolish.

SSDs are pretty awesome though. Consider getting a regular 2.5" ssd and moving your HDD to the Ultrabay. That's what I do, and it works since I hardly ever use my DVD drive.

EDIT: Sorry ZaZ, I thought I was still on the acceptable side of the line there. Won't happen again.

 

Do you already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse you like?
Then maybe a docking station for when you are in your dorm room writing papers.
They are $175 through Amazon, and then an DVD 8X Sata Burner Ultrabay Slim Drive II (the ultra bays do not come with a CD/DVD-ROM), so you will at least have a DVD burner.
Some people can go all day with a laptop keyboard, but others cannot.

The SSD and extra RAM are nice, but you will likely spend a lot of time on MS Word and the Internet, in which case the extra RAM and SSD will not be of much help.

You should be able to get a very discounted copy of MS Word through either your student store or Microsoft's academic programs, if you do not already have Word.

 

If you want to spend that money, then I recommend following the advice of crispyJ, ZaZ and George Jetson:

- don't get 8 GB of RAM
- consider getting a large screen (+ keyboard etc, if you don't have that already)

Both of these points go well with law school. While you most likely you will never run any applications that use up 4 GB, it is quite likely that a large screen will help you with your work. Being able to edit a textdocument with other documents/webpages open is really, really convenient.
If you still have money left in the end, after a printer and whatever you choose to get, then by all means consider an mSata SSD - they are awesome, running fast and quiet. You might want to put off installing it till the next break, though.

 

I would either get the mSATA (amazing boot speeds, generally makes the machine more responsive) or get a docking station + monitor. But the latter option might be out of your budget.

 

i agree that 8gb ram is unnecessary.
I have an mSATA in my x220 and it makes the machine a lot snappier and nicer to use. but it is more of a luxury than a necessity.
the dock is helpful if you're in and out of your dorm a lot, which i am. and moniter is only useful if you have lots of windows open at once, not everyone does but it is handy when writing assignments.

 

Cheap monitors can be had at Newegg(many for free shipping), and depending on your state, it might even be sales tax free!

Assuming you do not already have a monitor.

 

I would definitely go for the mSATA. Using an SSD for OS and Programs makes the whole computer usage way faster (you notice the difference the first time you go back to a computer without SSD).

In terms of "how to spend your money": If you want to improve the speed of the laptop go for the SSD. If you want to increase productivity go for a nice big external display. I have the full package of X220, mSATA, external display & docking station and it is really very nice.

 

Msata is quieter (silent), slightly better on battery life and will make initial load times of things faster. Once a program is loaded most of the information it will use to operate is stored in memory (the ram) which is much faster than even an SSD. Imagine that every time you click on a program or start your computer it took half as long for the program/windows to get to a usable state, that's what an msata ssd would be like. The msata ssd will reduce the 1-2 second load time of programs and significantly reduce a windows boot time.

Most people install their operating system and programs on the ssd while using the secondary platter drive to store large files such as songs and movies.

 

Guys, please keep things on topic to OP's post. Again you need to ask yourself, what do you primarily do with your computer? True 200 dollars is a complete waste if you do not get anything, but find out what you do the most (viewing large documents, emails, etc) and we can find you the best option for an accessory or part for that remaining 200.

 

I love my mSATA for its quick load times for applications and documents. It's also fun to put a game or two on it to greatly reduce load times for gaming (keep in mind that reducing load times is about the only help it will be for gaming).

 

1)IMHO there would be no better use of $200 for an upgrade than replacing a HDD with a SSD - including mundane/business-type computing. Nothing speeds system/software performance like it. All software activity becomes noticeably quicker, not just boot speed. Plus it is vibration-free and creates less heat - it is silent itself and reduces fan use. For carrying around, you don't have to worry about the consequences of impact on a spinning HDD!

2) As for moving programs and data, it is just like moving to a new HDD - just create and disk image on and external HDD and clone back once the new storage medium is in place. Then you will need to adjust a few OS settings, because of different characteristics of a SSD. It is undoubtedly cleaner to install an OS and all programs from scratch, and then import the datafiles from a backup, but when I came to do the transfer I chose the quick/easy way, and never had a problem.

3) For incremental datafile backups the free Microsoft product Sycntoy is excellent Download Details - Microsoft Download Center - SyncToy 2.1.