Solid State Drives vs. Hard Drives

R

rob_golf1

Q-School Graduate
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
941
Location
Birmingham
Visit site
One for the techno geeks....

I am looking at upgrading my laptop and have the option of installing a 250GB SSD (solid state drive) over a 1000GB hard drive.

I need a high performance machine as I do a lot of Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and CAD/Rendering, along with using a graphics tablet.

I don't store any 'work' on the machine, (this all goes on an external drive), so all I store on the laptop are my programmes.

Is it worth changing to a SSD, as its an extra £130, and cash is tight at the moment. I'm graduating in May, and my current laptop has gone really slow and old (had it for around 3 years now...)

Thanks...
 
Absolutely worth it Rob. I have converted most of my work pcs and laptops this pas year. The difference in the machines is measurable evrn in just the lack of pauses when opening programs nevermind iimproved boot speeds and write speeds. Do it.
 
brendy said:
Absolutely worth it Rob. I have converted most of my work pcs and laptops this pas year. The difference in the machines is measurable evrn in just the lack of pauses when opening programs nevermind iimproved boot speeds and write speeds. Do it.
Click to expand...

What sort of programmes are you running??

The laptop I was looking at upgrading to has an i7 processor, 16gb RAM, and a 2GB Nvidia 850 Graphics Card
 
rob_golf1 said:
What sort of programmes are you running??

The laptop I was looking at upgrading to has an i7 processor, 16gb RAM, and a 2GB Nvidia 850 Graphics Card
Click to expand...
My laptop for example is an hp probooks 4740s (last of the proper brushed metal range) it's an intel core i5 with 8gb ram, AMD 7650m 1gb graphics running w7 64 bit on a Samsung 840 pro 128gb (upgrading to 850 pro 250gb due to lack of space) and run everything from remote management software, basic cad software to open step files and photoshop cs4.
The drive should not cost you more than around 100 for a Samsung 840 EVO 256gb though. The samsung 840/850 pro/evo series are great. I have bought in samsung, transcend, Kingston hyper x3k,
OCZ and Crucial. The last two have had issues with a few of them where the first 3, I have bought dozens with no issues and are all pretty similar in performance.
id buy thr laptop withvthe regular drive then buy the ssd seperate ly from the likes of ebuyer then get someone into it to use a cronies or similar and transfer the contents to the ssd then keep the 1tb as a spare/backup.
 
Last edited:
If you don't plan to fill it with photos and videos it is more than worth it.

I have 4 SSDs in my desktop and one large HDD for photos and other similar files.

The SSDs are full of open world simulators and similar games. I also have programs such as photo editors and image manipulators on there as they usually have lots of files (ie textures and objects) to load after initial startup (where the benefit is mostly).

Startup and shutdown are both generally improved.

If anyone who has played a flight sim and has experienced lag as the scenery loads in the distance, SSDs really help reduce that when loading object heavy environments.
 
Just got my girlfriend a Macbook Air with an SSD hard drive, and the difference in speed between her machine, and my Macbook Pro is huge. The Air is absolutely rapid at loading stuff up.
 
As SSD's get cheaper and increase in capacity, it is only a matter of time before they are going to be seen in mid priced laptops.

Not only are they far quicker than a standard hard drive, no moving parts = less power use leading to increased battery life and less heat, so its win win
 
Just to add, I have changed my mind about going for the 850 pro 256gb and get the Crucial M550 256gb as its substantially cheaper than the 850 at £109 inc vat yet faster than my existing 840 pro.
 
SSDs are great, make sure you have everything you need before you migrate to the new drive.
 
SSD any day.. however PC being slow may not be entirely down to the HDD. Uncluttered, uninstall and get all bloatware off... Maybe reinstalled the OS.. way cheaper than newhard drive..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

virtuocity
(Another) Laptop buying advice thread
Replies
9
Views
992
williamalex1
williamalex1
Top