Considering SSD for my laptop, but which one?

DejaWiz

DejaWiz

Fully [H]
Joined
Apr 15, 2005
Messages
21,825
Hello [H]orde!

I have an Acer Aspire 5741G spec'd as such:
-i5-430M
-4GB RAM DDR3-1066
-Radeon Mobility 5470 w/ dedicated 512MB
-15.6" 1366x768
-320GB 5400RPM SATAII
-Bluray/DVD±RW combo

I use this mostly for web browsing and email, but I do have a handful of games on it for entertainment when I travel:
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
GTAIII
GTA:VC
Star Wars: Jedi Academy
Half Life 2
...and a few others.

I'm thinking about getting an SSD for it, and my primary concerns are low idle/load power consumption and price.

I'm a huge Samsung 830 and Crucial M4 fan, but the higher power draw of these drives kind of concerns me. So far, it looks like the best ratio of cost/lowest power draw is the Kingston HyperX 3K. I'm not a fan of Sandforce powered SSD's, but I'm willing to overlook that if it's in a reliable drive from a reliable brand.

I'm wanting an SSD in the 240GB to 256GB capacity range.

Any recommendations and advice are greatly appreciated!
 
As far as I know, SSD's have the same amount (or thereabouts) of power-draw amongst each other & less than mechanical drives. I am assuming I will get better battery life in my laptop as I have also just ordered an M4 for myself.
 
Samsung 830

For most consumer applications, the SSD will be idle most of the time, and the Samsung 830 has one of the lowest idle powers.

For read and write, the applicable property is NOT power use, but rather energy per byte read or written. A drive that writes twice as fast and uses twice the power is just as efficient as the slower drive, since the faster drive will finish the write in half the time. You can measure energy efficiency as: Power (W) / Throughput (MB/sec) = Joules / MB

The Samsung 830 is a little better than average in energy efficiency, but as I pointed out above, the most important number for most people is idle power, and the Samsung 830 is among the best there.
 
JoeComp said:
Samsung 830

For most consumer applications, the SSD will be idle most of the time, and the Samsung 830 has one of the lowest idle powers.

For read and write, the applicable property is NOT power use, but rather energy per byte read or written. A drive that writes twice as fast and uses twice the power is just as efficient as the slower drive, since the faster drive will finish the write in half the time. You can measure energy efficiency as: Power (W) / Throughput (MB/sec) = Joules / MB

The Samsung 830 is a little better than average in energy efficiency, but as I pointed out above, the most important number for most people is idle power, and the Samsung 830 is among the best there.
Click to expand...

As an 830 fan, I would tend to agree with you. However, in the few comparison reviews I've read, they typically show the HyperX 3K as having faster read and write speeds with 50-60% lower load power consumption. I'm not sure I completely buy that the drive will be idle most of the time with all the Windows/system background stuff going on...but I'm admittedly not spectacularly versed in regards to all that.

Again, with my main concern being a low power consumption, it would seem that the 3K has a large advantage there. Please correct me if I'm wrong or not interpreting things accurately.
 
I have a Crucial M4 in my MacBook Pro and it has been great. I didn't have a noticeable change in battery life after I installed it, which was nice. It's a 2009 model so the battery isn't exactly in great shape.

I also have a Samsung 830 in my desktop and it's pretty damn fast. I actually planned on installing it in my laptop, but the desktop has SATA III and the laptop does not, so I put the faster drive in the computer that could actually use it.
 
A watt or two difference at load is nothing. man

+/- .5 watts at idle is definitely nothing.
 
May have a 256GB 840 Pro coming for Christmas...

I'll report back in a month and a half. :p
 
Your read and write speeds are going to be limited by SATA II anyway, so wouldn't you be better served getting a cheaper drive? Not much point in paying extra for a drive that gives 500 MB/s when your motherboard is limited to 275 MB/s anyway. Just pick up a used Intel 320 or something - either way the power draw is going to be way, way less than the spinning drive it is replacing.
 
The SSD I can reuse in my next laptop or put it in my desktop, so I don't much care about the port speed of my current laptop.
 
TBH, I would just pick up the least expensive Samsung/Crucial/Plextor/Intel SSD I could find. The differences are so negligible that isn't even a concern IMO.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top