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I've got an older laptop, and I figure once 7 hits RTM (~october) I'll be doing the upgrade dance.

I figure since I'll be wiping my disk, it would be a good time to take the SSD jump as well.

I've done some initial research, but there appears to be a bunch of new players in the drive game (e.g., Transcend) I'm not familiar with.

What 2.5" SATA SSD drives out today are considered good quality for a good price?

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  • Closing this out because most ssd's are SATA II, so older laptops are basically scrizzewed on the ssd front.
    – user939
    Commented Aug 13, 2009 at 11:54

6 Answers 6

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The best one out there right now is the Intel X25-M. It gives the best over all performance of all the MLC SSD's. The SLC SSD's are MUCH more expensive.

Here is a link to NewEgg's Product Page for the Intel X25-M.

Here is a link to TechReport's Review of 6 SSD Drives.

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  • It's even better now that they've released the 34nm version of the drive. This new version sports 10-40% better performance in random-read and random-write (the only stats that matter for standard-use). They're also a lot cheaper. These will re-ship on August-28th or thereabouts.
    – Brian Webster
    Commented Aug 13, 2009 at 7:25
  • @hamilin11: Sweet! Thanks for the updated info!
    – JFV
    Commented Aug 13, 2009 at 11:41
  • and if you bought this a while ago don't forget to apply the latest firmware which addressed some earlier issues. downloadcenter.intel.com/…
    – dove
    Commented Sep 12, 2009 at 21:29
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Are you sure your "older" laptop has a SATA connection to the hard drive, and not an old-style parallel ATA (44 pin) connection?

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  • Yes, and I'm a bit disturbed you got 3 ups for this. -1 (not because I hate you, but to give the real answers room to grow). The question is targeting 2.5" sata (yes not ata and not sata2).
    – user939
    Commented Jul 20, 2009 at 12:20
  • IMO unfair. You made no specific mention that your laptop has SATA - describing it as "older" - only that you'd been looking at SATA SSD drives. I simply wanted to double check that you'd considered all the aspects of your problem.
    – tomfanning
    Commented Jul 20, 2009 at 15:20
  • I thought "What 2.5" SATA SSD drives out today" was clear enough. My bad.
    – user939
    Commented Jul 20, 2009 at 19:00
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Just do it and buy a OCZ Vertex or Intel X25-E SSD. Make sure you read this state-of-the-art article on Anandtech about SSD.

Scott Hanselman wrote a blog post some days ago about upgrading his latop with an SSD drive and the performance improvements he measured.

The difference between an SSD and a regular Hard Drive is the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing it.

He upgraded his laptop computer with a OCZ Vertex 250GB SATA II Solid State Disk (SSD). The perfomance benchmarks are impressive.

My MacBook Pro runs an SSD and I'm very satisfied with the performance. Boot and shutdown times are insanely good and I don't miss the sound a spinning harddisk makes.

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  • SATA II not SATA
    – user939
    Commented Jul 20, 2009 at 19:08
  • Do not buy X25-E. Get the X25-M (preferably the 34nm version that re-ships on August 28th). It outperforms the X25-E and is significantly cheaper.
    – Brian Webster
    Commented Aug 13, 2009 at 7:27
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Are you sure the laptop is worth the investment? Since a "cheap" SSD often isn't much better than a normal hard disk (though this might only be true for desktops) and are you sure your hard disk is the performance bottleneck?

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  • Yeah. Its the biggest one. XPS 1210, core 2, 2gb, and slooooow disk.
    – user939
    Commented Jul 20, 2009 at 12:22
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    I would like to see the price of a "decent" SSD as a percentage of your laptops price/worth, since if it's something like 30% you have to wonder if it will give you the same calue in return
    – Ivo Flipse
    Commented Jul 20, 2009 at 21:53
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The OCZ Vertex has just come out, and its getting rave reviews. Definitely worth a look if your considering the Intel.

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  • SATA II not SATA
    – user939
    Commented Jul 20, 2009 at 19:07
  • The performance per dollar of the OCZ vertex is nowhere near the X-25M which just dropped significantly in price. They like to advertise sequential write/read stats... but those stats don't matter in standard operating system use. anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=1
    – Brian Webster
    Commented Aug 13, 2009 at 7:29
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All high-end SSDs are SATA II, since all that means is SATA with a 3Gbit/s transfer rate, and it uses the same connection and power cables. Hd usage is usually the last bottleneck you hit though, and SSD speeds are restricted by the motherboard anyways, unless you unlimit/oc them.

That said, X25 was dominating till OCZ's Vertex and newer Summit series enetered the market. Its pretty much personal choice at the moment, Summit uses the Samsung controller vs the Vertex OCZ controller (I think) and thats pretty much the only difference. You could probably go to the cheaper line of OCZ's SSDs (Apex/Core/Agility) if you don't care about the speed too much, theyre still pretty fast though.

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