Confused between SSD and 7200 rpm?!

[ananduthanan]

Dear Friends,

I have an Acer Aspire 5940G laptop, 2 GHz, 2G ram and a pathetic 4200 rpm hdd. Now I would like to upgrade my hard disk for speed. But I am not sure whether SSD or a 7200 rpm drive would be the best bet for me.

First of all, I am not sure whether this old lappy support SSD hard disk; even if it supports would it really give such performance as it boasts? Also, I may install only Windows 2K or XP (not Windows 7 as my webcam works really pathetic in Windows 7). But I heard, SSD drives works best with Windows 7 only (kindly ignore linux and other os variants).

Considering the above facts, kindly suggest me whether to go for SSD or a 7,200 rpm drive as the best upgrade for this laptop? Thanks a million in advance.

Warm Regards
Anand Uthaman

[aidanjt]

If XP is your only choice, then the 7,200rpm drive (or a 7,200/SSD hybrid) would probably be the better bet. You could still use an SSD, but without TRIM support the performance will degrade over time.

[kalniel]

Go for a drive with good OS independent garbage collection, like the Kingston SSDnow V+ range.

[planet436]

How much space do you need on your laptop?

I agree with Kalniel though on that Kingston drive. The Intel SSD toolbox works on XP also so you can get Intel SSDs as an alternative. I would take a good read through this.

[eyezpy]

Consider the Momentus XT, its a hybrid hard drive. The 500gb version can be had for £80 from scan and dabs. This drive have many great review about it.
Although not as fast as a SSD, but than you are not paying £90 / 60gb or £160 / 120gb.

[Behemoth]

Windows 2000 ? Hell on earth mate, there must be something seriously wrong with your webcam. I can't think of one instance where I would use Windows 2000 over Windows XP.

[kingpotnoodle]

If you need more than 80-120GB storage, buy a Seagate Momentus XT

If you need 80/120GB then Intel 320 SSDs are a good balance of power draw, long warranty, reliability and speed - I think the best for laptops, but some people prefer cheaper or the raw headline speeds of Sandforce based drives. It's silly money to buy the high capacity SSDs, the price of a new laptop for a disk is silly.

Also, sticking to an OS for the sake of a webcam is daft, unless it's the l33t35t webcam in existence then you can get a new one for not very much money. Buy a new one and Windows 7, you will thank yourself for it in the long run.

[Golden Dragoon]

Also, sticking to an OS for the sake of a webcam is daft, unless it's the l33t35t webcam in existence then you can get a new one for not very much money. Buy a new one and Windows 7, you will thank yourself for it in the long run.

Could be built in, and used often enough and in many varied locations, such that the op doesn't want to drag a usb cam with him all the time.

[AlphaVictor]

What is your budget for the upgrade? And what capacity hard drive would you be happy with?

[Machinegun]

Instead of investing in upgrading your HDD/Camera or windows if your laptop is that old ,you better consider replacing you laptop !
You can get a decent one for about the same money as replacing all that in your old one

[qinyanggl]

Get the SSD with Garbage Collection (for Kingston) or similar function, they work better for XP.

[qinyanggl]

SSD is the best upgrade you can get for a laptop BTW

[MSIC]

Dear Friends,

I have an Acer Aspire 5940G laptop, 2 GHz, 2G ram and a pathetic 4200 rpm hdd. Now I would like to upgrade my hard disk for speed. But I am not sure whether SSD or a 7200 rpm drive would be the best bet for me.

First of all, I am not sure whether this old lappy support SSD hard disk;

I will first of all highlight that Acer's website is truly poor - trying to get technical specs resulted in me being asked to provide details and a technician would "get back to me in 24 hours" - v poor!
Anywho...
This review (Expert Reviews) of the 5940G tells me that they are Intel 'Core i' based, first generation given the review date of Dec 2009, and so even if your particular laptop isnt a Core i7 (why oh why do Acer name their products so poorly?), it's going to be of that generation.
That means that 1) you have a SATA connection, and 2) i'm quite surprised to see you calling your laptop "this old lappy" - perhaps a term of endearement, rather than it actually being 'old'?

May I ask what OS came with your laptop? I am confused about your expressed intent to install Win XP (or Win 2k), since it almost certainly was designed to run either Vista or Win 7, and as such you could struggle to install all appropriate drivers, unless you can confirm the contrary. I would certainly echo other calls to avoid installing Win 2k on a moderately new system.

If however you do insist on wanting Windows XP, I would also recommend something like the Kingston V+100 SSD, or probably in truth something like a Western Digital Black HDD (£50 for 500GB).

Are you considering Ghosting your current image onto a new drive, or a new install? Also, have you considered if your licence for Windows allows you to install again?

[aonali6]

Dear Friends,

I have an Acer Aspire 5940G laptop, 2 GHz, 2G ram and a pathetic 4200 rpm hdd. Now I would like to upgrade my hard disk for speed. But I am not sure whether SSD or a 7200 rpm drive would be the best bet for me.

First of all, I am not sure whether this old lappy support SSD hard disk; even if it supports would it really give such performance as it boasts? Also, I may install only Windows 2K or XP (not Windows 7 as my webcam works really pathetic in Windows 7). But I heard, SSD drives works best with Windows 7 only (kindly ignore linux and other os variants).

Considering the above facts, kindly suggest me whether to go for SSD or a 7,200 rpm drive as the best upgrade for this laptop? Thanks a million in advance.

Warm Regards
Anand Uthaman

In the last one and a half years the SSD market has made enormous steps. Alongside constantly falling prices, the performance also climbs with each generation. The teething troubles are slowly cured and thus SSDs already put themselves forwards as alternatives to current HDDs in notebooks. How three current, affordable and fast consumer SSDs (Vertex, Torqx and X25-M) turn out compared with four 2.5" HDDs and an external SSD for notebooks..........!