next mod... Solid State Drives for Toughbooks?

Is anyone using SSD drives in their toughbook yet? So far the seem like a match made in heaven for the toughbooks.

Pros:
1. SPEED (approx 100X faster than standard laptop HD)
2. Longevity (1,000,000 to 5,000,000 hour MTBF (time between failures) rating) ~3X that of normal spinning disk
3. Much more rugged (no moving parts) so impact performance much better than normal HD - likely even in our padded caddy
4. Wider operating temp range (consumer (cheaper) (0 to 70C) while industrial (wide temp) models operate from -40C to 85C (-40F to 185F))
5. Much less power hungry than normal spinning disk
6. Come in normal IDE (plug and play for our toughbooks I would guess) and SATA

Cons:
1. Cost (right now most reasonable price is 32GB ~ $250)

Other than cost, it seems like the SSD's are hands down winners for a match for the Toughbooks, and likely why many new laptops are now being delivered with SSD drives.

There are drives now available up to 250GB (but cost is SO HIGH)

 

SSD are going to replace HDD, but most people will have to wait for the price to fall from OH HOLY CRAP to EXTREMELY HIGH.

 

Lets just wait till the price come down.

 

That's what I was waiting for... The price would kill me.

Though, I don't really need a huge drive in my laptop... I do have a terabyte of drive space in my desktop.

 

I have been seeing the 32GB for over $400... $250 isn't bad for the solid state. I may have to try one. I'll do a little shopping today to check prices.

 

Toughbook, newegg has an 32GB ATA Samsung SSD for between $250 - $300. If you do a bit more searching, you can get them right around $250. As soon as I can figure out how to live with 32G, or rig up some CF storage (8GB for $50) for read only files, I plan on trying the SSD drive.

My gain would be battery performance, and much faster pagefile (since memory is a bit limited on these with XP).

Sorry for the knock-off on your sig -- you know what they say, emulation is the highest form of flattery...

 

Count me in... I am VERY interested in anything that will add more TOUGH to the Toughbook as well as anything that will speed up performance and help reduce battery drain.... sounds like a PERFECT item to add to the toughbook...

I will require more than 32G though, perhaps we can find a way to Raid 2 or more together (extras in the battery bay?)

Wait a sec... now that could get a little expensive right now!

I'm in though when someone finds a good deal!

Gratefuldeadbolt!

 

How about this one guys? I know it's not bigger but it is cheaper. http://www.impactcomputers.com/08k9564.html Forget that one I should have read more thoroughly before posting.

 

I am sort of thinking 8GB on CF using a PCMCIA adapter ($70) for storing read only data. The downside of CF is very limited read write cycles will kill it fast if you read and write to it, but I think for read only, it will be very fast, and should last quite a while (just don't put a pagefile or anything like that on it).
Coupled with a 32GB SSD for all the other stuff. That would give me 40GB, which should be find for my needs (navigation maps + music + OS).

That should put the cost somewhere around $350 for the upgrade, and could even reduce the need to upgrade memory (if anyone has not already bumped up to 768).

 

Yes its an IDE SSD...

 

Here's the same IBM/IDE 30 gig solid state drive for USD $99. That's getting pretty reasonable. I could sure function with a 30 gig drive just fine (that's what in my CF-28 now). That would be perfect for my idea of a permanent wardriver.

I am poor folk, but here it is for the active modders.

http://store.luluusa.com/08k9564.html

I can't recommend these people at all, don't know a thing about them, just found them in searches.

edit:
Holy Cow, here it is for USD $45! http://www.acsoutlet.com/08k9564-ThinkPad.aspx

I'm just searching on the IBM FRU, I would verify that they all are solid state.

 

I'm not sure that those are SSDs though, because they usually come in sizes divisible by 4 (Just like RAM).

 

The description on the first one says:
IBM Hard disk drive (30.0GB), SSD - 08K9564

 

You might want to do ALOT of research before spending the money on an ssd. I'm here in dtown (Dell) & happen to be working with the dude who is head of the r&d dept. at dell. His particular specialty happens to be hd's. He can talk for days about ssd's. They are really trying to go in that direction in a big way. I am not going to attempt to convey what all he has told me about them, and he is a BIG fan & advocate of ssd's. But it seems at this time that the minuses outweigh the pluses in the ssd world. Although for someone with expendable money, and especially the Toughbook mod. crowd, why the hell not? I will say that they suffer degradation over time, have a limited shelf life, and have a common number of rotations before failure.

 

Some of the descriptions for that are saying 4200rpm, so it may very well be a mechanical drive. Perhaps SSD is just part of the model number.

 

In this case IBM SSD might stand for their Storage Systems Division?

 

Most of my research has been via the net, Toms Hardware did quite a bit on the SSD drives comparing different manufactureres, as well as comparing them to normal spinning disk. So far, evertying excpet prices seems to be in favor of the SSD's.

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures -- the holy grail of support organizations) is by far longer (read better) for SSD's than spinning disk -- I mean, how often do you get failed processors in your computers vs. how often do you need to replace a failed disk?

I know that some folks are equating CF memory with SSD's, but they are not the same.

If I can scrape up the cash, I plan on moving to SSD.

Now, anyone want to buy a spare CF-28?

 

Deadskunk, PM me or Toughbook. One of us would be interested for sure in another book

 

Here's a review of a laptop with a solid state drive. My thinking on SSD was based on the older NAND flash which had limited write cycles. This still does, but it's MTBF is very impressive, up there with mechanical drives.

 

Here are several reviews with different SSDs from this site if you wish (below)...
and Rockstarbus...

I would really like to know who your Dell contact is as he definitely had mixed signals from the people I have worked with in Dell, and remain in contact with on an almost daily basis. There are extremely few downfalls thusfar with respect to Dells implementation, the most noticeable being the low write speed of the Sandisk originally and the fact that they were creating lead times due to lack of availability as they sold so quickly. They have since moved to the Samsung for better capacity and performance and don't be surprised when you see 128Gb SSDs appear in the near future.

Quite frankly, Dell has become a driving force and leader in evolving SSDs in the industry.