Not sure it's worth the cost to me to upgrade to an SSD, but I fully expect the next laptop I buy to have one fitted as standard.

I don't do anything tasking on my PC except occasional game of Counterstrike (is that even considered tasking these days?) but I hate slow responses from pcs. Things like startup/shutdown, starting programs, switching windows etc. must be near instantaneous otherwise I get really frustrated. SSD makes my pc super responsive and now I go mental when I have to use a pc without ssd and 6gb+ ram.

I bought my 80gb Intel two years ago for £180 and it was the best computer purchase I've ever done.

EDIT: Oh, and I've never had a single issue with it so reliability is pretty good I guess.

I'm thinking about upgrading the drive in this laptop to a 750GB one.
I don't want to think about the cost of a 750GB SSD.

Mark

Have one - A 64Gb model and will install it as a OS drive as soon as I get some free time

You do get used to them very quickly, and you expect that immediacy all the time. So, for me, every time I'm on my spare machine or one of the kids' laptops, I get a stark reminder of just how much difference an SSD makes. Bear in mind, that the laptops all have Seagate Momentus 7200.2 drives, and my spare machine has a Spinpoint F3.

As Dan says, game load times are much improved, as is boot time, virus scans, or anything disk-intensive really. Above all that, an SSD just makes the whole computer that much more snappy and responsive.

Yes, they cost a fortune compared to mechanical drives and they are very poor value. Your only real justification is performance and, for that, there really is no contest.

Two years ago, I paid around £230 for my 128GB drive. Three weeks later, demand had pushed the prices up by 50 percent!

Now, you can get a faster drive, with the same capacity, for around £130.

Okay, you guys really are bastards and have twisted my arm.

I want one.

Question is which one to go for? I presume it's still a case of 2.5" drives for laptops (why are there 1.8" drives?)?
What size should I go for? Currently have used 75GB of a 250GB partition of a 500GB HDD. Do I still need to worry about page files and free space?

EDIT because the fekkin thing posted without me clicking: What should I install on there other than OS and software?

Netbooks and iPods. IIRC the vast majority of SSDs are 2.5" drives but you can get caddies that allow you to fit a 2.5" SSD in a 3.5" drive slot.


I wouldn't worry that much if you've only got 75GB of data. And, tbh, if you're going to throw down cash on an SSD, I'd spend a bit more cash and buy some more RAM, so you're paging as little as possible anyway.

Jon

I've got 8GB. Think that'll do for now.

You can get away with a 64GB drive, as an OS drive in a desktop machine, because there is usually room for a big storage drive. However, I think it limits you a little. If you have a laptop, or you're a gamer and want to benefit from faster load times, you'll want plenty of room on the SSD for games; so, I would opt for a 120/128GB drive.

There was a bit of paranoia about using page files on SSDs, because NANDflash has a finite number of writes. In reality, the wear levelling algorythyms coupled with MTBF rates of 50,000hrs+ mean you would have to thrash the drive 24/7/365 for at least five years before it wore out.

I don't know about anybody else, but I get more excited by "not upgrading" than I do about chasing the latest technology. The longer I can wait before taking the plunge, the more awesome the difference is going to seem. I'm quite content to let others pay the premiums for research and development, I'll just wade in when the prices come down. I don't think I'll ever get the absolute bleeding edge technology again - my next PC will constitute what the best value for money equipment is at the time - high end, but not top end. At the moment SSDs are still in the "premium luxury" category IMO.

I am running on 6gb of ram and I have disabled my page file. You can try doing the same and see if it is stable. I only have OS, programs and one game on it taking up 50gb.

If I was you I would get 60gb, put OS with some most often used programs on it and see how it feels. If you like it/can justify running it you can always get a second one and have OS on the first one and all other programs and games on the second one. This way you won't have to splash out big bucks at the start and still have the option get more space if/when you want to. Just a word of warning though, some models are slower in small sizes compared to bigger sizes (eg Crucial).

Well the laptop has only two spaces for HDD, unless I sacrifice the ODD.

Will splash out for Xmas. Just bought winter tyres and that's hit the wallet hard.

Given you can get a laptop size USB DVD writer for about 30 quid these days, I think that would be worth considering.

Jon

ODD is a blu-ray writer.

thinking about buying a 128GB Crucial M4 to install Win7 plus a few choice games on, but until Steam allow different games to be installed on different drives (no point installing Peggle and Solar 2 to an SSD ), its still a tricky thing to justify.