SSD drives and WinXP

[RejZoR]

Ok, here's the deal. I'm thinking of getting either 128GB Kingston V-Series drive or Intel 80GB G2. Both retail for slightly over 200 EUR. What i'm wondering is, how TRIM comes into play here?

From what i've read, TRIM works only on selected drives (Intel) and only under Win7.
So, under WinXP, it means the drive will just get slow over time and stay that way.

Or should i just get myself the fastest 2,5" drive and install it into my netbook.
Was thinking of WD Scorpio Black or some Seagate Momentus...

 

[newconroer]

Ok, here's the deal. I'm thinking of getting either 128GB Kingston V-Series drive or Intel 80GB G2. Both retail for slightly over 200 EUR. What i'm wondering is, how TRIM comes into play here?

From what i've read, TRIM works only on selected drives (Intel) and only under Win7.
So, under WinXP, it means the drive will just get slow over time and stay that way.

Or should i just get myself the fastest 2,5" drive and install it into my netbook.
Was thinking of WD Scorpio Black or some Seagate Momentus...

As with everything in life, there's a compromise. SSD has it's benefits, but can also have some glaring downsides.

A majority of them still have unacceptable read/write performance, only really accelling at burst data transfer.

Putting that aside, there's the other issue which you've brought up. And while TRIM is a way to alleviate that, it's only to some extent. The actual 'problem' will never go away.

If you're willing to fork out money for SSD, then I would find the best performing one, and forget about it's performance > lifespan relativity. If you have to buy another one, you'll have to buy another one.

If you cannot find a very specific reason for the SSD, then I wouldn't bother.

 

[newtekie1]

Wait...this is going in a netbook?

Just buy a big ass 5400RPM drive. I love the 500GB Momentus I put in my EeePC. I don't think netbooks are fast enough to notice a real speed increase by going with a faster drive.

 

[RejZoR]

Trust me, drive in netbook is slooooow (WD Scorpio Blue 160GB). With transfers below 50MB/s it gets really annoying even for just launching Firefox or any other program. So i'm looking for a way to speed to up a bit. 160GB is way enough forme, i just want more speed.

Velociraptor is 2,5" too right? Anyone tried installing it in netbook?

 

[lemonadesoda]

50MB/s is not the problem. Firefox is only a few MB so that really is not the issue. The problem is the seek time for loading lots of small files, gifs, dlls, checking the registry etc.

SSDs are all about "snappyness". Think seek times and random read/write. I upgraded my Atom netbook to a SuperTalent GX SSD and it made a big difference to how it interacted. Now all my Core2Quad and Xeon machines feel sluggish at the desktop. Clearly there is no comparison when doing CPU crunch stuff, but any process that requires (literally) hundreds of small files to seeked and loaded will be much faster with a SSD.

This issue is particularly relevant on laptops/notebooks that like to "park" their HDDs to save power, have smaller cache on the HDD, or are 4200RPM to save power and reduce noise.

 

[RejZoR]

I'm aware of that and i'm also aware that SSD's have nasty problems with random read/write, especially budget versions like this very Kingston V-Series. So even though SSD's sound great in theory, they aren't all what you might expect. And once you expect the drive to "grind" some more, it'll start to increase that latency from 0,14ms to 200ms which is not really great. And write performance goes down to 45MB/s.

As for the power consumtion, WD Scorpio Black was suppose to consume just as much power as 5400RPM models from other vendors. Read/write head is actually parked when not used to prevent collision with data disks on impact or vertical shake. Which is more common with netbooks and laptops. That's from where the clicking comes.

I think i'll just leave it as it is or buy a cheaper but faster 7200RPM HDD. After reading some more reviews, cheaper SSD's still have bad problems and relatively poor performance where better ones are just too expensive retailing at 350 EUR which is just too much.

 

[newtekie1]

Trust me, drive in netbook is slooooow (WD Scorpio Blue 160GB). With transfers below 50MB/s it gets really annoying even for just launching Firefox or any other program. So i'm looking for a way to speed to up a bit. 160GB is way enough forme, i just want more speed.

Velociraptor is 2,5" too right? Anyone tried installing it in netbook?

A Velociraptor won't work in a netbook or most notebooks. They require 12v power, and netbooks/notebooks only provide 5v power.

Readyboost might be a good idea, but then again not on XP. It might be worth the move to Win7, I know it sped up my netbook, especially once Readyboost was enabled with an SD card.

 

[3volvedcombat]

A Velociraptor won't work in a netbook or most notebooks. They require 12v power, and netbooks/notebooks only provide 5v power.

Readyboost might be a good idea, but then again not on XP. It might be worth the move to Win7, I know it sped up my netbook, especially once Readyboost was enabled with an SD card.

60gb SSD 2.5" drive will cost alot, but at end of the day you will have 120mb's+ rights with a quality 32gb-60gb SSD

 

[RejZoR]

Win7 doesn't work. Well it does, except that wireless just dies randomly, making it useless...

Any clue if WD Scorpio Black 250GB is a single platter (250GB/platter) or not (which model exactly if there are more)?

 

[RejZoR]

Ok, so i've finally decided to buy Kingston V-Series 128GB Notebook Kit. Read performance is very good and i'll compensate write performance with FlashFire. Notebook kit offers external case so i'll be able to use netbook HDD as external drive. Double value. Will report more about it later when i recieve the unit. Holding fingers crossed for good experience

 

[lemonadesoda]

IMO, it is better to get a SSD that has a slower read IF it has a faster write. Why? Because every time you do something on the PC, I mean anything, those registry hives getting hammered with storing all sorts of titbits, every file gets a last access stamp, every website has hundreds of gifs that are saved in the internet cache. A slow write demonstrates a few things:

1./ Poor cache management, probably too small
2./ Probably HIGH write amplification (look it up)
3./ Cheaper flash... and lower lifetime write-cycles
4./ A read 150mb/s write 150mb/s will be a MUCH MUCH snappier machine than a read 250mb/s write 50mb/s. Try to get a balanced system.

Change your order quick!

 

[RejZoR]

There are mysterious ways... now it turned out that i just ordered the last piece in their stock.
But it's not a Kingston drive. It's an Intel X-25M 80GB G2. Lol If everything goes well, i'll get it on friday. Sure it's much smaller but damn, 250MB/s is really impressive. Should be enough for netbook.