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ImpldConsent
Scouts Out
Premium Member
join:2001-03-04
North Port, FL
·Comcast XFINITY

ImpldConsent

Premium Member

[Laptop] SSD or Mechanical *IDE* for laptop

Ask the internet about IDE laptop drives. Go on. I'll wait. (I love that commercial) - anyway. Still holding on to my deployment laptop (circa 2006 HP - survived 2 x IEDs - not kidding here - and the Panny Toughbook - toast - another story).

Anwyay, I max out at 2GB RAM, and old 1.86 Intel Centrino, it chugs along with (pick your favorite *nix Lite distro). On the 2012 deployment, I popped in an 80GB 7200 Hitachi drive. Works well'ish, but I need more capacity (I primarily use it for trips, GPS, upload pics, play music = poor man's iPoroid ... err ... Anpod).

Finding larger capacity is not easy - then the thought hit me ... native IDE SSDs? Yep, easy finds. A bit pricey, but I need the extra capacity without breaking the bank. Found Transcend TS128GPSD330 2.5" 128GB. I stick with the mantra - "ANY SSD is better than a spinner" - but all my experience has been with SATA drives.

The r/w numbers are not what I'm used to, but hey, limitation of IDE is my guess. Reviews are decent. I can't compare it to the Hitachi, can't find the r/w numbers on it.

Thoughts? Comments?
JoelC707
Premium Member
join:2002-07-09
Lanett, AL

JoelC707

Premium Member

IDE maxed out at 133 MB/s so accounting for overhead, those numbers are just about max you will get on that interface. As for IDE drives what I see on Newegg is they actually max out at 320GB for $230. Given the 128GB SSD is $180, the 320 is the better deal if you are more interested in capacity (particularly the cost per gig). There's 120GB and 160GB models available as well for about the same cost as the SSD. I agree the SSD would be the better route but in this case (and given my odd experience with an older SATA 150 laptop), I'm wondering if you will even notice the SSD's advantages.
zach3
Zach
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
Saint Louis, MO

zach3 to ImpldConsent

Premium Member

to ImpldConsent
I have an old HP Pavilion zd8000 Laptop computer that I purchased in 2006 that has had a Transcend TS64GSSD25M drive running for at least 4 years 24 hours a day with absolutely no problems.

I keep it by my bedside just in case I wake up in the middle of the night and want to research something I woke up thinking about.

It used to be my workhorse but now basically retired but still very useful and fully functional running XP Pro.

ImpldConsent
Scouts Out
Premium Member
join:2001-03-04
North Port, FL
·Comcast XFINITY

ImpldConsent to JoelC707

Premium Member

to JoelC707
said by JoelC707:

As for IDE drives what I see on Newegg is they actually max out at 320GB for $230. Given the 128GB SSD is $180, the 320 is the better deal if you are more interested in capacity (particularly the cost per gig).

Excellent, yeah, I didn't look too close - it was more of curiosity of if they even made such a beast. Yep, you're right. That 230. is the better deal per gig. Thanks!

norwegian
Premium Member
join:2005-02-15
Outback

1 edit

norwegian

Premium Member

An SSD is safer for not having that spinning stuff.

Seriously I've stopped putting mechanical drives in a laptop, one bang and the drive is damaged.
But if capacity is the concern and you understand the mechanical concerns in a mobile product, then getting a 320gb drive would be a winner after only 80gb.
Morris0
join:2011-05-14

Morris0 to ImpldConsent

Member

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Seeks are the largest part of latency related to hard drives. A faster transfer rate will help yet you will experience a large overall speed increase if you add a SSD. One issue you will have is that IDE dose not support TRIM and this will sometimes result in slower writes and possibly result in what is referred to as stutter when your SSD is not able to find fresh pages to write to as a result of not having TRIM which allows the OS to tell the SSD when to mark space as unused.