Is SSD really worth the extra money (for a 1TB drive) ??

[ahmadka]

Hi guys ... So I'm purchasing a new laptop after 3.5 years (Lenovo Y50), and I'm *seriously* considering buying an SSD. I'm specifically looking for a 1TB SSD because I have a ton of non-media files on my PC. My PC work mainly revolves around a lot of excel, word, programming work, web browsing and occasional movies ..

So because of so much data, I think I need a 1TB drive, but they go for at least $350 currently (I have a BF order on Amazon locked for Samsung 840 EVO for $350) ..

Question is, will it be worth it in the long run ? Will I really see an improvement in load times that will justify the extra money I'll be spending ?

Also, which 1TB (or 960GB) SSD should I get as my first SSD purchase ?

 

[Spungo]

Hi guys ... laptop

Yes SSD is worth it. I recently put an SSD in a computer that I bought around 2007 and it feels like a fast computer today. It wasn't even a fast computer back in 2007! You really need to experience it to understand what an SSD is like. The computer just works. There's no mysterious lag. It doesn't take 5 minutes to boot the computer. You don't find yourself looking at Task Manager and Resource Monitor, trying to figure out why the hell it takes so long for Outlook to open after booting the computer.

Would it be practical to keep your media on a separate drive? A USB 3.0 enclosure for a 2.5" drive is about $10, and a 1TB 2.5" slow hard drive for media costs about $80.
I would personally go for 2 hard drives. Most of my desktop computers now have this configuration. The OS and programs are on the SSD. Everything else goes on a secondary drive. They're internal for desktop computers, but they could just as easily be external. USB 3.0 is actually a lot faster than most hard drives, so the hard drive itself is the limiting factor, not the USB connection.

 

[ahmadka]

Would it be practical to keep your media on a separate drive? A USB 3.0 enclosure for a 2.5" drive is about $10, and a 1TB 2.5" slow hard drive for media costs about $80.

The problem is that my non-media data is quite a lot. My Dropbox alone is about 300GB at least, and it's gradually expanding. Until about 5 months ago, I was on a 500Gb HDD, and I struggled a lot with space running out constantly, so I upgraded to a 1TB HDD.

A second shared drive for media only is a good suggestion (since I have a Home Theater in my basement), but since my non-media files take so much space, I don't think it will help me, because I need to have all that non-media data with me when I'm travelling, etc..

Ideally, it would have been great if I wanted to get a laptop with two HDD bays, but I have my eye set on the Lenovo Y50, which sadly doesn't have it :/

 

[ahmadka]

Moving on, if I were to get a 1TB SSD for the next 2-3 years, which drive should I get ?

I'll mainly be doing things like excel/word editing, moving files around, coding/programming, heavy webbrowsing, using HDMI out for playback, etc..

But I use my laptop like 7-10 hours a day !

 

[Charlie98]

Moving on, if I were to get a 1TB SSD for the next 2-3 years, which drive should I get ?

If you can get that Samsung 840 EVO for $350, that would work! Others in the same price/performance range would be the Crucials (M500, MX100) and the Sandisk Ultra II. If you have money to burn, the Crucial M550 or the soon to be released Samsung 850 EVO, and possibly even the Plextor M6Pro

EDIT: Seriously, if you anticipate crowding a 1TB SSD, you really need to be looking at a laptop that takes 2 drives.

 

[ahmadka]

If you can get that Samsung 840 EVO for $350, that would work! Others in the same price/performance range would be the Crucials (M500, MX100) and the Sandisk Ultra II. If you have money to burn, the Crucial M550 or the soon to be released Samsung 850 EVO, and possibly even the Plextor M6Pro

EDIT: Seriously, if you anticipate crowding a 1TB SSD, you really need to be looking at a laptop that takes 2 drives.

I expect a 1TB drive to last me for at least 1-2 years, so I don't think that would be an issue. Would there be any other reason to consider laptops with 2 HDD bays ?

Also, how would the 850 EVO compare with 840 EVO ? I know that in benchmarks the first one has a moderate advantage over the latter, but would the end-user also feel the difference under everyday usage ?

 

[Charlie98]

I expect a 1TB drive to last me for at least 1-2 years, so I don't think that would be an issue. Would there be any other reason to consider laptops with 2 HDD bays ?

Also, how would the 850 EVO compare with 840 EVO ? I know that in benchmarks the first one has a moderate advantage over the latter, but would the end-user also feel the difference under everyday usage ?

Probably not, outside benchmarks, modern SATA3 SSDs are all very quick. One thing you may look at, if you think it's important to you, is power use. Although SSDs are efficient by nature, some are more than others. If you run on your battery much, that may be something to consider.

 

[mrpiggy]

If nothing else, your "work" related stuff sounds like a good candidate for enabling Disk Compression if space is an issue. "excel, word, programming work, web browsing" are all extremely compressible stuff. Being on a fast SSD, live disk compression (assuming Windows as the OS) is a nice option to save space, and you won't take the decompression speed hits like you would from a regular HD.

 

[ahmadka]

Probably not, outside benchmarks, modern SATA3 SSDs are all very quick. One thing you may look at, if you think it's important to you, is power use. Although SSDs are efficient by nature, some are more than others. If you run on your battery much, that may be something to consider.

I'm assuming you're suggesting that I consider power-efficient SSDs if I plan on using the battery ? Well my laptop laptop's battery is drained after years of use, so I'm used to battery time limitations upto 1 hour, but having more time will obviously be good. Which 1TB SSDs would you say are power efficient ?

If nothing else, your "work" related stuff sounds like a good candidate for enabling Disk Compression if space is an issue. "excel, word, programming work, web browsing" are all extremely compressible stuff. Being on a fast SSD, live disk compression (assuming Windows as the OS) is a nice option to save space, and you won't take the decompression speed hits like you would from a regular HD.

Thanks for the suggestion. To be honest the last time I tried Windows disc compression was like 8-9 years ago, and I remember running into some problems, so haven't tried it since then .. But yeah I'll try it out should the need arise .. Although it might have an issue with services like Dropbox, as then it might sync compressed files which might not load on non-Windows devices ..

 

[mrpiggy]

Thanks for the suggestion. To be honest the last time I tried Windows disc compression was like 8-9 years ago, and I remember running into some problems, so haven't tried it since then .. But yeah I'll try it out should the need arise .. Although it might have an issue with services like Dropbox, as then it might sync compressed files which might not load on non-Windows devices ..

It should not sync compressed files as decompression is on the fly and apps (including dropbox) should only see "uncompressed" files.

Win7/8 disk compression is a lot better than prior Windows versions. It seems much smarter and better about it. Coupled with fast SSD's and it's not bad at all. I know in the pre-SSD days it sucked as it made disk i/o really crappy, but with SSD's and "normal" usage it is pretty good. Assuming of course you're running a decent newer processor to handle the additional CPU load.

 

[Spungo]

If nothing else, your "work" related stuff sounds like a good candidate for enabling Disk Compression if space is an issue. "excel, word, programming work, web browsing" are all extremely compressible stuff. Being on a fast SSD, live disk compression (assuming Windows as the OS) is a nice option to save space, and you won't take the decompression speed hits like you would from a regular HD.

I do this on my solid state drives. It works great! The biggest problem with NTFS compression is that it causes an extremely fragmented hard drive. This is a problem with regular spinny hard drives because the drive needs to physically move to fetch the scattered pieces of data. This isn't a problem for SSD because the drive can't tell the difference between blocks. Bits of data scattered all over the place are the same as having bits of data all clustered together, so the fragmentation doesn't slow it down at all.

If you're in the 1TB range, it probably doesn't matter which drive you get. If you're spending $300 or $400 on a drive, it's probably going to be fast. The only SSDs you need to worry about are the ones that cost $30 on newegg. They're $30 for the same reason Best Buy can sell 16gb thumb drives for $3 - it's because they're slow as hell. Once you're in that $200+ range, you're comparing top tier items. Is a Ferrari faster than a Lamborghini? Does it really matter?

 

[ahmadka]

So Samsung 840 EVO would be a good investment as my first SSD ? I hope it won't leave me with 'what if?' questions in my mind ?

 

[Charlie98]

I hope it won't leave me with 'what if?' questions in my mind ?

What if... what? The 840 EVO is a reasonable consumer-level drive with reasonable performance at a competitive price.

 

[ahmadka]

What if... what? The 840 EVO is a reasonable consumer-level drive with reasonable performance at a competitive price.

questions like ...

What if I find its performance lower than other 1 TB SSDs, etc ..
What if I spent another $xyz and got something else ?

I know I may be running around in circles here, but despite the high cost, I want to buy something which I'll be happy with in the long run .. I hope that makes sense, if any

 

[OlyAR15]

If you are that worried, just buy a 1TB 850 Pro. Basically the fastest consumer SSD.

Having said that, for most normal users I doubt that you will notice that much difference between the different drives.

 

[ahmadka]

I think I'm settled for the 840 EVO which I have locked for $350. I think the advantages which faster drives have are minimal and not noticeable under normal use.

Also, I don't know the tech stuff behind the TLC vs MLC war, and I know MLC is better and that the 840 EVO is TLC. However, I'm assuming the 840 EVO should last me at least 3 years, right ?

 

[steve wilson]

Could an SSD and an external traditional HD for media work out for you? You can get some pretty small external hard drives nowadays that would fit in the laptop case easily. I would go for at least 500GB SSD even if you do go this route. I have a 120GB SSD that I bought a few years ago. My only grumble about it is, there isn't enough space.

 

[ahmadka]

Could an SSD and an external traditional HD for media work out for you? You can get some pretty small external hard drives nowadays that would fit in the laptop case easily. I would go for at least 500GB SSD even if you do go this route. I have a 120GB SSD that I bought a few years ago. My only grumble about it is, there isn't enough space.

1TB is a confirmed buy for me now, question now is, which one ..

I have 840 EVO locked at $350, but maybe I can get 850 EVO in 10 days for $100 more .. But I don't know if it will be worth the slight difference in performance .. Plus, newly released stuff sometimes have terrible issues in them .. The 840 EVO itself is damn expensive for me (I can buy an Xbox One in the same amount!), so I really don't want to go over and above $350 ..

Decisions, decisions .. :/

 

[Puffnstuff]

The decision is really up to you and how you plan to use the laptop. I just installed a Samsung 840 pro 256 into my alienware laptop and considered using the stock Seagate 750gb drive for storage. You could just get a small ssd for the os and a few critical programs and then use the hd that is in the laptop for storage.

 

[mikeymikec]

NTFS disk compression will do virtually nothing for modern document types (e.g. ODF, MS Office 2007 document formats, JPEG, etc), because they're already utilising compression algorithms. It'll only do something for a file format that is inefficient in its space usage to begin with (ie. something that you can compress nicely with a normal compression format).

Furthermore, I don't think NTFS compression algorithms have been updated in years because it would break backwards compatibility. I think the last update came with Windows 2000? If I'm correct, they would have been designed for a completely different era of technology.

 

[steve wilson]

1TB is a confirmed buy for me now, question now is, which one ..

I have 840 EVO locked at $350, but maybe I can get 850 EVO in 10 days for $100 more .. But I don't know if it will be worth the slight difference in performance .. Plus, newly released stuff sometimes have terrible issues in them .. The 840 EVO itself is damn expensive for me (I can buy an Xbox One in the same amount!), so I really don't want to go over and above $350 ..

Decisions, decisions .. :/

There is an article on this site about the 850 evo just released a few days ago. I can't remember it all but it does list the advantages over the 840 evo I think. Might be worth a read for you.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8747/samsung-ssd-850-evo-review

 

[Greenlepricon]

Ever since I tried an ssd ~4 years ago, they've gone in every system I've owned since. There are very few cases where I actually notice a difference between my desktop (1Tb EVO), and my htpc (4 year old 120Gb kingston something+2Tb green drive).

I would personally stick with the EVO in your case, as I doubt there will be much of a difference in how the system feels. Just make sure to install the Samsung Magician right away and optimize to your preference. Make sure you're on the latest firmware as well so it doesn't slow down, as I definitely started feeling that one.

Really the biggest difference is switching to a modern ssd of almost any sort from an HDD. After that, it's not really noticeable unless you're running them side by side or benchmarking.

 

[Charlie98]

I think I'm settled for the 840 EVO which I have locked for $350. I think the advantages which faster drives have are minimal and not noticeable under normal use.

Also, I don't know the tech stuff behind the TLC vs MLC war, and I know MLC is better and that the 840 EVO is TLC. However, I'm assuming the 840 EVO should last me at least 3 years, right ?

You answered your own question.

Do not lose any sleep over the whole TLC/MLC write wear nonsense. Buy the 840 Evo, install it, live your life happy.

Personally, and I'm not trying to beat a dead horse... the whole speed/longevity thing with SSDs is a moot subject. Maybe a few years ago it would have been a issue when there really were differences in controllers and user performance... but not anymore. You could plug in 5 of the leading SSDs and, in normal usage, not see much of a difference. As far as the life of a drive, every use case is so different there is no way to predict anything outside of manufacturer's stated write cycles. Just use it...

 

[TemjinGold]

OP: The 840 EVO will last like 20+ years, not 3 years. Honestly, the only what if you should worry about is "what if I regret buying a laptop with only 1 HDD bay." Because that's a real possibility for you unless you only want that laptop for 2-3 years. Based on your work, the laptop should last longer.

 

[Spungo]

Furthermore, I don't think NTFS compression algorithms have been updated in years because it would break backwards compatibility. I think the last update came with Windows 2000? If I'm correct, they would have been designed for a completely different era of technology.

It's probably just .zip technology. zip kinda sucks and it's probably 25 years old but it's still used for everything.

They'll probably update it when they introduce some different type of file system. They introduced exFAT in Vista, so maybe there will be some NTFS2 at some point.

Do not lose any sleep over the whole TLC/MLC write wear nonsense.

Apparently firmware is your biggest enemy. If you read all of the negative SSD reviews on newegg, almost all of them are about firmware problems. Ghetto tech with good firmware is better than SLC with broken firmware.
The same is true for regular spinning drives too. Apparently those WD red and green drives have much lower reliability because they're always spinning up and down. It's like driving a car in stop and go traffic. The hard drive would rather keep spinning all the time, like driving on a highway with cruise control.