X201i with 64GB SSD and SDHC Class 10 Setup

hi guys...

I have ThinkPad x201i 3626-G46 and I'm planning on replacing my Hitachi 250GB 5400 HDD with 64GB SSD (yes..my budget is tight, and SSD is still expensive here in Indonesia, 64GB SATAIII is still in $90-100 range)
SSD i have in mind are Crucial M4 64GB, Intel 330 60GB, or OCZ Petrol 64GB

As you know, x201 doesn't support mSATA SSD and only support SATAII SSD, the setup for x201 is very limited.
I'd really like to experience the performance boost that SSD give but as stated above i'm in a tight budget.
My OS installation plus working apps only take ~20GB on C:, so I think 60-64GB would be enough
i'm not a gamer, i only run office at works, constant browsing and downloading (this is my biggest concern as downloading involves huge write-rewrite activities in SSD that in turn accelerate wear level on SSD)

Since x201 came with 5-in-1 media card reader, i came up with an idea that i would put 16GB SDHC Class 10 microSD with adapter of course (can be bought merely $15) and redirect my download manager temps and download folder to that drive. The microSD drive would also act temps drive for everything else, beside the OS itself, and 16GB of additional storage wouldn't hurt me..

what i'd like to know:
- is the setup doable?
- should I go ahead with this setup? If I do, what SSD (brand) would be best for my scenario?
- would this setup take a performance hit due to the microSD card transfer rate and reliability?
- should I wait until SSD price drop a bit further and get 120GB instead?

Any thoughts and comments would be appreciated..

Thanks in advance...

 

I have an Intel 320 series SSD, which I have had to return because of the "Bad context" bug which renders the unit useless - users can't access any data and can't repair it in any way. The only thing to do is to return it and get a new one. I had a new SSD in hand very quickly for free, but sadly my data was gone.

Consensus: Some SSDs might be unreliable, read up on it.

As long as you have enough RAM so you can skip the pagefile (also disable prefetch, superfetch etc.) most people say you're in the green with SSDs. I think a SD card will be even more unreliable and prone to failure than the SSD.

If you however decide to use an SD card, why not choose a full size one? I can't see the advantage in using a micro SD plus adapter, if you don't already have a micro sd lying around that is. The full size SD-cards can reach 25mb/s, and that's still quite slow for use as an internal storage device.

 

SD cards usually have much simpler controllers than SSD drives, and are simply not built to withstand as many random writes. Performance will be in a different league too, worse than most, if not all, HDDs.

 

I would not recommend an SD card, as stated they are awfully slow and will wear out in no time.

TBH I would try to get an older SSD, like Intel X25-M G2 or 320 series, they are pretty cheap on eBay, biggest "issue" is to find a seller that does international shipping.

 

i've read that failure rate on SSD is still high and $/GB is much more expensive than HDD
the reason i use microSD is that i can use it later on for my mobile device (BlackBerry) if it's proven worse performance-wise than using HDD on the laptop

well, older SSD would still be expensive if you get those from abroad (ebay, etc) as you add shipping cost and taxes.
it may be more reasonable to me to just wait for a price drop or discount for larger capacity SSD... however the idea of using SSD is still intriguing

thank you for your suggestions and comments
you guys rock!!

 

Don't disable pagefile -- it is still needed (regardless of much RAM you physically have) by 32-bit apps that have lousy memory management.

See how much space you actually need. I worked with 64GB SSD for quite a while until I needed to install a bit more stuff.

Don't worry about wearing the SSD out, unless the disk is used in a server. However, I would definitely get something with warranty.

In case you need more storage, it may be better to just use a mechanical hard drive in the dock station if you have one, or just put your current hard drive in an enclosure and use it through the USB.

Lastly, if you can wait and the prices are dropping in your country that's also a good idea.

 

thank you for your suggestion..

so, from what I've learned so far, to optimize SSD and reduce its wear, would be:
- disabling scheduled defragmentation
- disabling prefetch
- disabling indexing
- disabling hibernation
- disabling system restore
- enabling pagefile (I only have 2X2GB RAM installed anyway)
I believe Windows 7 Pro x86 I'm using is SSD aware, right? So by default it would fine tune those settings above...

I prefer clean installing Windows and my current installation only takes about 20GB of C:, and I plan to put enclosure to my stock HDD, so storage-wise, it should be enough space..

but then again, I should probably wait a little longer until the price becomes reasonable for me to grab a larger capacity SSD..

 

It would do some of them. Disabling hibernation etc. does not make a lot of sense anymore with modern SSDs with smart controllers, and you don't really have to worry about wear. In workstation use, or laptop use particularly, SSD is more likely to fail for completely different reasons, not because of excessive wear. And in 3-5 years 64-100GB SSD drive will be probably as outdated as 64-100GB HDD is today.

In fact, SSD is the perfect device for hibernation, as it's one of the few uses that can noticeably benefit from 200MB+/sec read/write speeds.

Still, 64GB SSD is way too small. Enough for OS initially, but you'll spend a lot of time fighting the system down the road, moving files to the noisy & vibrating HDD etc, searching for space hogs/temp files/moving user profiles etc.etc. It will also make the system less reliable (if one of the SSD/HDD pair fails, system is unusable).

IMO, if you can't get at least 80-120GB SSD, stay with the HDD until you can. Perhaps, with a fast USB drive plugged in, for ReadyBoost. SD cards, and particularly microSD, are only good for cases when writes are relatively rare, and are sequential (like in ROMs, cameras use, MP3 players, phones etc).

 

very well put bro..
what I don't really understand is although SSD technology's been around for a while, it seems to me that it's not mature, as failure rate is still high and the price is still way up there

 

SSD controllers are hideously complex and do a lot of work under the hood. There was a very good write up in Solid-state revolution: in-depth on how SSDs really work | Ars Technica explaining the basics.

As to price, I think it's already at very reasonable level, and going down fast. 512GB SSD can be bought in the USA for less than $350. 450GB 2.5" WD Velociraptor HDD is $250+. Reliability wise, especially in a laptop (that can be dropped or shaken, even ignoring the heat/noise issue), I'd much prefer the former.

 

That's a great article, I read it recently. I do agree things can get tight with 64GB SSD, but again it depends highly what you do on a computer.

I use external drive (2TB) for my downloading needs and storage so when I used 64GB drive I had my OS, regular apps that I use daily like Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Office, Mathematica, Matlab and other small stuff. On top of that I had 1 game (League of Legends) which was few GB folder and it was fine. Moving to 128GB drive for me was like moving to a bigger apartment. I have more space for mp3s and stuff, but at the moment I still have about 40GB free.

The failure rate isn't THAT high. But the worst thing is that the common failure with mechanical hard drives is bad sector -- so a part of the drive is unusable and while not so great, you can still access the rest of the data. With SSD, when it dies that's pretty much it. It's gone. To give you some feeling here's how many I bought (a lot of them for my friends):

2x OCZ Vertex 2 120GB (both still work) ~1.5 year ago
2x Mushkin Callisto 64GB (one failed) ~ 1.5 year ago first, ~1 year second
1x Mushkin [not sure which model] (works) ~ 2 years ago
1x G.Skill PhoenixPro 120GB (works) ~1.5 year ago
1x Samsung 830 120GB (works), few months ago

In any case, whether it is an SSD or a mechanical HD I would super-strongly suggest always having backup copies (I just can't stress this enough). Whether it's going to be documents synchronized through cloud service like Dropbox, or a backup on another drive - it will just save you so much time in the long run.

 

A lot depends on the brand too. Intel and Marvell controllers are more reliable than others. How Intel 520 is going to manage with its SF-2200 controller (although, according to reports, custom firmware developed and tested for years) reliability wise is to be seen.

That said, out of 3 WD Velociraptors drive I had over the years, 2 failed on me within warranty. One with clicking-sound-of-death = all data gone without warning. I'm yet to see a failed SSD (mostly Intel X25/320/520 and Crucial, plus one Toshiba sold by Lenovo with T410).

While it is probably somewhat easier to recover data from a failed HDD in a lab, provided plates are not damaged, cost of such recovery is prohibitive to most consumers. So yes, nothing is cheaper than periodic backups in the long run, regardless of the storage technology