And so I have a new 256GB SSD Crucial drive in my CF-31 now! :D

It's MUCH faster. More importantly, it's not sensitive to drops and what not!

Comparing the WD2500BEKT (7200RPM/16M cache, SATA 3.0) VS the Crucial C300-CTFDDAC256MAG

I used Parkdale to measure read and write times. I took the averages of 3 runs each using 4000MB file size and 1MB Block size:

Reads/writes on new SSD:
196M Write - Shared video
218M Read - Shared video

200M Write - Dedicated video
219M Read - Dedicated video

Reads/writes on the old drive:
61M Write - dedicated video
62M Read - dedicated video

Boot times:
42 seconds with normal WD drive
33 seconds with SSD in ATI dedicated video mode
30 seconds with SSD in Intel shared video mode

Battery life:
4:40 - dedicated video with 550 nits brightness driving 2 displays
5:40 - shared video with 550 nits brightness driving 2 displays

I'm not as happy with the boot times as I thought I'd get out of it. No, I will NOT tweak the bootup any more than I already have as I have programs that I WANT booting with the system.

Overall system performance is MUCH greater with this drive and I traded in my old drive so I only paid $140 for this drive WIN!

Thanks

 

Nice SSD Rob!
I replaced my stock HDD with an Intel 320 SSD, 600Gb.
What I still notice every day is the speed at which applications start. outlook with 30.000 mails in the inbox, onenote and also Acrobat are instantly there. Great!
enjoy your nice SSD, it's a good speedy one.

 

and your boot times are ?? My CF-30 is 26-30 seconds using a Intel 320 SSD 120Gb. I took about 10 seconds off the boot time with a little tweaking . The SSD Review SSD Optimization Guide . Right now I am using Intel 320 SSD's in my 30MK1 , 52MK1/2 and have one on the way for my 19MK2 .

 

My boot times are in the original post man... Did you not read it??

 

Boy...I guess I was tired when I got out of work this morning...don't even remember reading it

anyways your boot times do need some work. By installing the SSD in my 30 I took 25 seconds off my boot time.

 

Once you use an SSD there's no way going back to a spinner. What made you pick the Crucial, just curious???????

 

My guess it was the price. Myself it's Intel all the way

 

Intel or Samsung for me. Never have had any issues so I stick with what I know works.

 

I got some in for sale... And it was the best deal I could find. They go for $465 new and I paid LESS THAN HALF that...

 

+1
Had a samsung for a year and a half, worked perfect, used it heavily in my daily machine.
Now have an Intel 320 600Gb and it's really nice as well, I just have one "problem"; what to do whit all that space?!
Well, I can use some redundancy, 1,33tb host writes in a good month is quite a lot.

 

That 600gb version is insanely expensive. How much did you pay for it ?

After the power loss/8MB capacity bug, I lost quite a big chunk of confidence in the Intel 320 series.
I did manage to get a new X25M (G2) 160gb with just a few more $ than the coresponding 320 one, purchased last autumn.

We'll see how they compare on the long run.

 

My oem 31 HDD booted in about 30 seconds in XP. I put in an intel SSD and it booted in about 30 seconds in 7. I went through the tips and tricks in the link and now it boots in... about 30 seconds. I understand win 8 is going to be nearly instant desktop (5 seconds or something).

 

Paid €300 for it. New in the antistatic bag, but second hand. So I got it for an absolute bargain. Guy had bought one, got the next day one from his work. I didn't mind.

The long run is always a question. We'll see. But I have to say the software that comes with the Intel (intel ssd toobox) is much better than I got with my samsung (nothing).

I went from 1min45 seconds on average to under 30 seconds. That was both in 7, so I think thats a better comparison.

 

wow ! now THAT's a bargain ! If you hear about another one (300gb or 600gb) please let me know

I have a G2 80GB as my dual OS drive, Win7 ~22s boot, Linux ~6s) in my desktop, for over 2yrs. I'm already at 1.4TB host writes and 2200hrs, and no issues at all.
I should mention those boot times are from loader menu (Grub).
And before that, from power-up, it takes at least 15s for BIOS, 3w HW Raid (4drives spinup), onboard AHCI init.
So, suspend to RAM is really helpful in this case, as Hibernate takes more than normal OS boot (16GB) and still waits for all those inits.

The SSD Toolbox is quite nice.

 

I have 3 more available for sale. PM if you are interested.

Thanks

 

If I find one I will let you know. But I had been looking for months with a bot on a kind of Craig's list and just tumbled onto this one, so don't hold
Your breath!

As for the hibernate, I prefer my laptop to power off after some time sleeping instead of hibernating. It doesn't use much power, hibernate, but it takes ages to wake. Certainly after you get used to SSD boot times.