If you want to improve the performance of your modern (SATA II) laptop, consider replacing the mechanical hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD). Unlike a regular hard disk drive (HDD), an SSD is very rugged and has no moving parts. Other benefits: reduced power usage, reduced noise and reduced heat generation. And Buy.com has rebates through 18 June 2010.
Moreover, with modern processors, productivity can be increased dramatically by reducing the read/write time by a factor of 2-4 times and access time as much two orders of magnitude:
The fastest consumer hard drives take 7 milliseconds to read data off of a platter. The fastest consumer CPUs can do something with that data in one hundred thousandth that time. (source)
Here’s an in-work table of solid state drives (how they work) and benchmark data that I’ve found from reviews. I pulled this data together to help me decide which drive to buy; maybe it will help you, too!
Note: as of this writing, only Windows 7 has TRIM support for data management (no other Windows OS and no Mac OS). One of the reasons I’m trying the Kingston 80 is this review of the Kingston 30:
And if you’re running an OS without TRIM support, Kingston’s drive appears to be the most resilient of the bunch.
| Drive | Sequential Read/Write | Pros-Cons | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| HDD For Benchmarking | |||
| Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 HTS725050A9A364, 7200 rpm, 500GB |
Test: 82.7 MBps, read average; 83 MBps, write average; Read Access, 15.9 ms |
3-year warranty | $95.99-OWC $78.09-Amazon |
| Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD7500BPVT, 5400 rpm, 750GB |
Test: 74.1 MBps, read average; 73.1 MBps, write average; Read Access, 16.2 ms |
3-year warranty | $199.99-Amazon |
| Indilinx Controller | |||
| OCZ Agility EX /64GB OCZSSD2-1AGTEX60G | Spec: 255/195 MBps
Test: |
3-year warranty
Only 64GB |
$161.99-Amazon |
| Intel Controller | |||
| Intel X25-M / 80GB SSDSA2M080G2 |
Spec: 250/70 MBps
Test: |
TRIM support; 3-year warranty
Introduced in 2009, but firmware updates have addressed performance issues |
$219.99-NewEgg $219.99-ZipZoomFly $224.99-Amazon |
| Samsung Controller | |||
| Corsair Performance CMFSSD-64GBG2D |
Spec: 220/120 MBps | TRIM support; 3-year warranty; 128MB of cache memory No public firmware updates |
$174.99-Buy.Com (+$30 rebate thru 6/30) |
| Kingston SSDNow V+ SNV225-S2/64GB |
Spec: 220/140 MBps
Test: |
TRIM support; 3-year warranty No public firmware updates |
|
| Many OEM Drives | No public firmware updates | ||
| Sandforce Controller | |||
| Corsair Force F100 | Test: 284/277 MBps w/ATTO |
TRIM support
No public firmware updates |
|
| OCZ Vertex-2/100GB OCZSSD2-2VTX100G |
Test: 233/235 MBps w/ATTO |
93.1GB accessible TRIM support 3-year warranty |
$353.99-Buy.com (+ $30 rebate thru 6/18) $360.50-Amazon |
| OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE OWCSSDMXRE100/100GB |
Test: 286/276 MBps w/ATTO |
TRIM, SMART, and RAISE support; 5-year warranty
No USB Mini-B |
$399.99-OWC |
| Patriot Inferno – PI100GS25SSDR/100GB | Test: 286/277 MBps w/ATTO |
TRIM, SMART, and RAISE support; 5-year warranty
No public firmware updates |
$369-NewEgg $407.99-Amazon |
| Toshiba Controller | |||
| Kingston SSDNow V SNV425-S2BN/128GB |
Spec: 200/110 MBps Test: 214/190 MBps w/AS SSD |
Notebook bundle includes cloning software; TRIM, SMART support; Second Gen 119GB accessible on 128GB drive |
64GB drive: $159-NewEgg $147.83-Amazon $144.95-Buy.com (+$35 rebate thru 6/18) 128GB drive: |
| Kingston SSDNow V+ G2 SNVP325-S2/128GB | Spec: 230/180 MBps
Test: |
TRIM support; 3-year warranty
No public firmware updates |
$329-NewEgg $315.15-Amazon |
