HDD or SSD?

vraiblonde

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
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It's time to replace my laptop. It's 7 years old and starting to get wonky. I'm stuck in indecision because A) I hate setting up a new laptop; and B) I'm torn as to what to get.

I'm not that person who needs the biggest and bestest. I just need a reliable machine that will do its job efficiently. A couple weeks ago I didn't even know SSD existed - David told me about it (he's the person who likes the biggest and bestest). So I read up on it a bit and there are conflicting opinions. Those who are into new stuff and toys insist that SSD is the way to go; regular users say that HDD is more reliable in the long run.

Opinions?
 
PeoplesElbow

PeoplesElbow

Well-Known Member
An SDD will make any laptop seem 3x faster. It is especially important in laptops because their HDDs are made for low power so they spin slower than desktop HDDs and therefore transfer data even slower.

SDDs will also cut your power consumption significantly and therefore give you longer battery life.

I bought a $700 laptop a couple years ago and replaced the HDD myself with an SDD, the boot up time went from 30 seconds to well under 10, the time to launch Microsoft Office went way down as well.
 
GWguy

GWguy

*
If you had asked this a few years back, I would have told you to stay with HDD. SSD had reliability issues more than HDD, and when they failed, they failed fast and hard. No recovery. HDDs have a chance of being recovered.

More recently, SSD reliability meets or exceeds HDD reliability. I had one in one of my laptops, but that was the one that got stolen, so can't give you a reliability testimony. My current laptop is HDD, Western Digital 500Gb, and has been incredibly reliable, 5 years old now.

It's a coin toss.
 
stgislander

stgislander

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
I have to say I prefer the speed of the SSD. I don't think the reliability issue with SSD is as big a concern now as it was when they first hit the market.
 
Yooper

Yooper

Up. Identified. Lase. Fire. On the way.
SSD. Hands down.

However, they can be finicky. Especially if you're moving your system from an HDD to an SSD (and not starting with a new install or new laptop). For example, hibernate and/or standby often won't work (or works infrequently). I have one machine where the Hib works but SB doesn't, while on another it's the opposite. And on a third, all good.

Crucial and Samsung (I've had excellent experiences with both) both offer utilities with their SSDs to help.

Bottom line, if the cloning is done correctly, you should be good to go.

--- End of line (MCP)
 
stgislander

stgislander

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
Yooper said:
SSD. Hands down.

However, they can be finicky. Especially if you're moving your system from an HDD to an SSD (and not starting with a new install or new laptop). For example, hibernate and/or standby often won't work (or works infrequently). I have one machine where the Hib works but SB doesn't, while on another it's the opposite. And on a third, all good.

Crucial and Samsung (I've had excellent experiences with both) both offer utilities with their SSDs to help.

Bottom line, if the cloning is done correctly, you should be good to go.

--- End of line (MCP)
Click to expand...
Crucial is the only after-market memory I use in my company and personal PCs.
 
GURPS

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Yooper said:
However, they can be finicky. Especially if you're moving your system from an HDD to an SSD (and not starting with a new install or new laptop). For example, hibernate and/or standby often won't work (or works infrequently).
Click to expand...


Clean install ftw
 
GURPS

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
McCheese said:
I have my OS installed on SSD and really works faster compared to HDDs
Click to expand...

My last build 2x 256 gn NVMe SSD's - Samsung Evo 950s in a striped set .... boot times were measure in seconds from POST to Surfing Reddit.

A few tweaks / software installs Windows Updates later Boot times are still bloody fast ... just not as fast.
 
vraiblonde

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Good grief - you wouldn't believe what I went through to finally find the right laptop. I'll spare you the details, but it was really annoying.

What I ended up with was a Dell Inspiron with 256G SSD, 8G RAM, an optical drive, and Intel i7. Finding a laptop with an optical drive was a ridiculous challenge, but I have super old versions of software (Photoshop, Office, etc) that are obsolete and cannot be downloaded, and I don't want to rip them to flash, nor do I want to purchase new software. Nor do I want to store everything on the "cloud", but thanks for the nerd tip, Staples guy.

It will be here Tuesday and I hope I like it. I'm dreading loading software and transferring my files. But the good news is that all the old crap that I no longer need but have been too lazy to clean out will be out of my life, as will remnants of downloaded software mistakes and other bric a brac.

I hate new stuff, I really do. I want my old stuff to stay in working order.
 
GWguy

GWguy

*
Too late now, but did you consider getter a laptop without an optical,, and purchase a USB optical? I've been doing that for almost 10 years. When I need to read a disk, I plug in the drive, when I'm done, it goes back in the bag. Makes your laptop choices much better.
 
GURPS

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
stgislander said:
You can never have enough RAM.
Click to expand...


32 gb ... my system supports 64 gb

I never touch the paging file anymore

136866
 
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