Buying an SSD

GottaGetGatt

I have a Dell Inspion 1721 laptop and the current hard drive has only 40gb left. Lucky for me there's a second SSD slot inside the laptop. The current hard drive is 160gb Western digital make and i was wondering does it matter if use a different make of SSD in the second slot.

Here are 2 that look fairly good and reasonably priced in comparison to ebay and amazon.But if someone knows where i could get them in Ireland without paying too much for postage

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/12891172/art/samsung/ssd-840-series-basic-2-5.html

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/9760816/art/crucial/m4-2-5-internal-ssd-128-g.html

Just wondering what some of the tech guys on here reckon?

apachedropout

If you have two bays in the laptop then having a different make ssd wouldn't really matter.
However, just a word of advice regarding Pixmania- I would steer clear of them. I've had very bad experience with Pixmania and if anything goes wrong they are impossible to deal with. Amazon often has good offers on SSD's and if you buy directly from them postage should be free.

Torqay

You'll want to use the SSD as the first hard drive. You want the operating system on that drive, adding a SSD just for storage is a waste of money.

GottaGetGatt

Torqay wrote: »

You'll want to use the SSD as the first hard drive. You want the operating system on that drive, adding a SSD just for storage is a waste of money.

Would the laptop run better if used 1 of the above SSD's or would that really matter?
Secondly, could i simply transfer everything from the old hard drive to the new one and use the old one as a storage ?

Torqay

GottaGetGatt wrote: »

Would the laptop run better if used 1 of the above SSD's or would that really matter?

Most definitely, not even the fastest platter hard drive can match the performance of a solid state disk, never mind a slow laptop HDD.

Since your laptop has two HDD bays, two SSDs in a RAID-0 array would be just the icing on the cake.

GottaGetGatt wrote: »

Secondly, could i simply transfer everything from the old hard drive to the new one and use the old one as a storage ?

Yes, you can clone the hard drive onto the SSD but I wouldn't recommend it.... better install the OS from scratch, to make sure the partition is properly aligned and TRIM is enabled and since disk space is a scarce commodity on solid state drives you really don't want to carry over the garbage of an old Windows installation.

GottaGetGatt

Torqay wrote: »

Most definitely, not even the fastest platter hard drive can match the performance of a solid state disk, never mind a slow laptop HDD.

Since your laptop has two HDD bays, two SSDs in a RAID-0 array would be just the icing on the cake.



Yes, you can clone the hard drive onto the SSD but I wouldn't recommend it.... better install the OS from scratch, to make sure the partition is properly aligned and TRIM is enabled and since disk space is a scarce commodity on solid state drives you really don't want to carry over the garbage of an old Windows installation.

The current OS is Vista and the installation cd doesnt look like its in good knick or would it be a waste to install vista on it?
My only concern would be losing everything i already have on the old hard drive in terms of games,files,songs etc

Could i keep the old Hard drive inside the other slot and somehow assign the new one as the main harddrive?
Im tempted to get this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Series-250GB-Solid-State/dp/B009LI7C9Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360102558&sr=8-1

Torqay

GottaGetGatt wrote: »

The current OS is Vista and the installation cd doesnt look like its in good knick or would it be a waste to install vista on it?
My only concern would be losing everything i already have on the old hard drive in terms of games,files,songs etc

Could i keep the old Hard drive inside the other slot and somehow assign the new one as the main harddrive?

Games and other software you will have to reinstall, backup your personal stuff (docs, photos, music, etc).

Of course you can move the original drive "as is" to the second bay, but I'd rather back it up, format it, then copy the files from the backup back onto it and add the folder to the respective libraries.

Unlike Windows 7, Vista do not support the TRIM command. Not the end of the world though.

GottaGetGatt

Torqay wrote: »

Games and other software you will have to reinstall, backup your personal stuff (docs, photos, music, etc).

Of course you can move the original drive "as is" to the second bay, but I'd rather back it up, format it, then copy the files from the backup back onto it and add the folder to the respective libraries.

Unlike Windows 7, Vista do not support the TRIM command. Not the end of the world though.

So i need to back up the files i want songs,videos etc.Remove the old hard drive and insert the new SSD and then reinstall vista using the cd?Will the computer start up properly in the first place with the nothing at all on the ssd?

Torqay

It will, if you put your Vista DVD into the DVD drive. This will start Windows Setup.

GottaGetGatt

Torqay wrote: »

It will, if you put your Vista DVD into the DVD drive. This will start Windows Setup.

Just wondering would a 7200rpm HD yield better results in terms of performance?.The HDD installed is a western digital 5400rpm. Camme across this one.If you have any suggestions yourself of what kind of hard drive would be good, i'll like to hear?

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/250GB-SATA-WESTERN-DIGITAL-HDD-2-5-/290857823556?pt=UK_Computing_HardDrives_RL&hash=item43b87a2d44#ht_500wt_1156

Torqay

GottaGetGatt wrote: »

Just wondering would a 7200rpm HD yield better results in terms of performance?

Compared to a solid state disk? Not a snowball's chance in hell, as I said above, there is no platter hard drive that will come anywhere close to a SSD.

Compared to your old HDD? You might see some improvement indeed, but do keep in mind that 7.200 HDDs are noisier and draw more juice from the battery... if that is a concern.

Your laptop does support RAID. So if you're using two 7.200 rpm drives in a RAID-0 array, they're even faster. Of course, the same "trick" works for 2 SSDs.

Bottom line, if performance is what you want then there's no way around a solid state disk.

Last but not least, SSDs greatly add to the robustness of a laptop as they don't have any moving parts.

GottaGetGatt

Torqay wrote: »

Compared to a solid state disk? Not a snowball's chance in hell, as I said above, there is no platter hard drive that will come anywhere close to a SSD.

Compared to your old HDD? You might see some improvement indeed, but do keep in mind that 7.200 HDDs are noisier and draw more juice from the battery... if that is a concern.

Your laptop does support RAID. So if you're using two 7.200 rpm drives in a RAID-0 array, they're even faster. Of course, the same "trick" works for 2 SSDs.

Bottom line, if performance is what you want then there's no way around a solid state disk.

Last but not least, SSDs greatly add to the robustness of a laptop as they don't have any moving parts.

Edit: I just found out that the brother has a copy of windows 7, should i install this know or wait untill i get the SSD?

Torqay

GottaGetGatt wrote: »

Edit: I just found out that the brother has a copy of windows 7

Has he now?

Unless it is a retail copy of Windows 7, the license key not yet activated on another computer, it is rather useless.

OEM licenses live and die with the machine they have been supplied with.

A retail license can be used on another computer, provided it has been uninstalled from a computer it has been used with previously.

GottaGetGatt

Torqay wrote: »

Has he now?

Unless it is a retail copy of Windows 7, the license key not yet activated on another computer, it is rather useless.

OEM licenses live and die with the machine they have been supplied with.

A retail license can be used on another computer, provided it has been uninstalled from a computer it has been used with previously.

Yeah product key wouldnt work,i still have 30 days to enter one