deeveus 81 Report post Posted August 20, 2012 Link's broken. Yeah actually come to think of it, my current laptop was from there and they took forever to have it repaired! Is an SSD going to give me real performance increases? Or is it just going to be faster to start up the computer, load saved files and save new files? Looks like their site is down. They are normally very good with turn around times. SSD is going to give you faster startup /shutdown times or any software that requires higher demand, multiple multiple programs open, otherwise normal internet browsing won't see any increases in performance if that's what you're after, great for gaming. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mrad01 0 Report post Posted August 20, 2012 Looks like their site is down. They are normally very good with turn around times. SSD is going to give you faster startup /shutdown times or any software that requires higher demand, multiple multiple programs open, otherwise normal internet browsing won't see any increases in performance if that's what you're after, great for gaming. I've moved all my employees and all my server/laptops/workstations to SSDs over the last 2 years - and the boost in performance is great. Everything get a boost - even browsing because access to browser cache files (read/write) is insanely quicker. I've had side by side laptop test which show the results. On "why" it is faster overall and why they are important when you want performance. Modern operating systems use virtual memory to map physical RAM to your disk. Even if you have a ton of RAM, they still create a VM file and map memory to it. Machines with 8GB of physical memory have enough for general use, but when you start pushing the memory limits, swapping out to an SSD for VM is crap-loads faster than swapping out to those horrible record player disk thingies. Sorry for the computer science lesson [its my background] Anyhoo, yes your apps will launch faster, yes your machine will startup quicker, yes your machine will be more reliable and yes, under load, your machine will keep running fast (like when you have a lot of apps open) On life, a good SSD (Crucial M4 or Intel) will give you 5+years before you *start* to get near its write limitations. All good. Nothing more to see. A fast machine is not just about a stinking fast CPU - it is about I/O balancing. No point having an i7 if your 750GB record player disk drive can only deliver 30MB/sec. Spread your money around all components and you'll see a generally faster machine than one with just a fast CPU. Get 8GB RAM, and 256GB Crucial M4 SSD, maybe a fast i5. The SSD and *enough* RAM is the key. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
antil33t 90 Report post Posted August 20, 2012 You'd actually be surprised how much difference an SSD makes to an Older Machine, My desktop is an old Core2, and I threw an SSD in in it, and it's 10 fold nicer to use, Apps, Boot up.. ect all fast. Even going to sleep is faster. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JaseNZ 53 Report post Posted August 20, 2012 I bought one of these Visit My Website from these guys here Visit My Website Way over the top in spec for what I use if for but for 1k it was a really good deal. The place I got it from do really good deals if you want to save a buck. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
deeveus 81 Report post Posted August 21, 2012 I bought one of these Visit My Website from these guys here Visit My Website Way over the top in spec for what I use if for but for 1k it was a really good deal. The place I got it from do really good deals if you want to save a buck. See that rig although nice (I don't do Acers but that machine is spec'd well bar the HDD), will be bottleknecking like a mofo. A 5400rpm HDD is quite slow. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JaseNZ 53 Report post Posted August 21, 2012 See that rig although nice (I don't do Acers but that machine is spec'd well bar the HDD), will be bottleknecking like a mofo. A 5400rpm HDD is quite slow. It has two hdd bays, I replaced the boot up bay with a 120gig ssd and moved the 750 to the second bay Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sascha 17 Report post Posted September 6, 2012 Ok so I have been leaning towards an i7 HP Probook, but then this came up on trademe : Visit My Website Thoughts on this? I guess this guy built it himself, is it a bit of a risk to buy one that's been put together by someone else? Whilst the build quality of the body doesn't look too exciting and I'm sure the screen is probably nothing special, but it seems like great value for the specs and might just do until I can afford something flasher. Thoughts? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
5amchris 45 Report post Posted September 7, 2012 Its a very nice system, I would think the only thing he would have added himself would be the Ram and SSD, If you get it for anything close to your budget i would be surprised. I have the MSI GT60 - more the gaming model but was $2900NZD Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DrphTa 5 Report post Posted September 7, 2012 Why do you guys want so much grunt on a laptop, you use them as your main computer obviously? The new Asus Ultrabooks are nice Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sascha 17 Report post Posted September 7, 2012 Its a very nice system, I would think the only thing he would have added himself would be the Ram and SSD, If you get it for anything close to your budget i would be surprised. I have the MSI GT60 - more the gaming model but was $2900NZD Oh yeah sweet, I'll keep an eye on it and if it goes for within my budget then I'll go for it, otherwise I'll go for something like a Probook. Why do you guys want so much grunt on a laptop, you use them as your main computer obviously? The new Asus Ultrabooks are nice Yeah, it'd be my main computer. I don't currently have a suitable place to set up a desktop, and I don't have the funds for two computers! The Ultrabooks all seems really nice but just not really powerfull enough. If it was just as a second computer I would definately look into them. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sascha 17 Report post Posted October 2, 2012 Bit of an update, after borrowing an old HP that burns my lap every time I use it, I've picked up a cheap Toshiba off trademe, see here. Cheap enough to still leave some money for the e30! My only worry is the fact that the only inbuilt drive is the 64gb SSD, and the 640gb HDD is external. Now I'm wondering if any of you guys are handy enough with laptops to put the HDD in the place of the optical drive, like the seller explained here? I don't need an optical drive very often, can't remember last time I used mine on my old laptop. Maybe it could be put into some kind of case to use as an external drive with a usb cable? Anyway, let me know what if any of you can help out, not sure how big a job it is? Happy to reimburse you for your troubles. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
antil33t 90 Report post Posted October 2, 2012 you would have to find an adaptor to do it nicely... this would be model specific. as for the drive.. probably not you can buy a USB Optical drive for under a hundred bucks brand new. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sascha 17 Report post Posted October 2, 2012 Ok sweet thanks for that. The seller's being a real pain in the ass about arranging a pick up time, and has now (after me suggesting three or four pick up days in the next week and her just saying "I'm too busy") called me a time waster and relisted the auction! So I don't know if this will be happening any more. Just another reminder that trademe is full of timewasters who don't honour their auctions! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Top Secret 2 Report post Posted October 2, 2012 Check these out mate: GP Forums Also, troll the buy and sell on this forum. Tonnes of good stuff go for sale on here, at prices generally under TM prices, and the sellers tend to be knowledgeable and GCs. Once I sell the purple BMW, I'm in the market for an Asus Zenbook UX32VD from the states. Google it, and drool. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
M5V8 337 Report post Posted October 2, 2012 I benchmarked my Dell 15z with a HDD vs my mate's identical spec one with SSD. I'd had mine longer and it had more crap on it as well. Mine boot to the login screen a split second before his. Loading programs / writing to the SSD there are performance advantages. But not apparently in the boot times. (i was as surprised as my mate was). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hybrid 1043 Report post Posted October 2, 2012 SSD read and write limitations are about 5-7 years normal use. Which is about the same as a HDD. Very few daily used HDD last more than this without problems. So its really the same. I have just bought an 8TB drive array and connected it to my laptop's docking station over eSata. 150MB/ps data rates thank you very much. The SSD is just an application drive now, all big data goes to the array. 250gb SSD is enough for anyone on a laptop. 8GB is a good amount for a win7 x64 environment and will give you some headroom to play with. I'm looking at replacing my music studio PC with an i7 32GB mem win7 x64 and SSD boot drive. However I'm running monster instrument librarys which require it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sascha 17 Report post Posted October 13, 2012 Alright, all sorted now. Picked up an HP Probook 4730s, with an i7 2630QM and 8gb RAM, no SSD though. Seems ok and wasn't too dear. Thanks everyone for your input. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
antil33t 90 Report post Posted October 13, 2012 mmm Probook. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
