Should I buy a SSD or HDD

So I have a laptop with a failing hard drive, 250 GB. It is a dell inspiron 1545
2.30 Ghz Pentium dual core processor with 2 GB or RAM. I mainly use this laptop at home. Right now I have 2 partitions, one with Windows 7 and one with Windows 8. I also have an external hard drive.

I have heard that SSD's make a laptop run way better. And so I was wondering what people's opinion was. I am looking to spend about $120. Would a SSD drive make a big difference? I mainly use my laptop for the web and watching movies and listening to music.

Also I'm new, was looking for a good online tech community so I apologize if I posted in the wrong forum.

 

I my Opinion I don't see much difference between

SATA
PATA
or A
SSD

I don't see much as long as the RPMs are 72,000 or higher i guess that is the only difference i see is the Speed of the HD.It mainly depends on you motherboard really on how fast it can access the Data.That And your CPU Speed really has nothing to do with the HD.As far as i know HD's are there just to store information is all.

As a mater of fact the two fastest are PATA and SATA but if any body eles wants to add that's fine bye me.

 

Thanks sounds like an hdd would be best then for the money. Do you know what should I look for when buying a new one? I haven't bought a new one before and I want it to last. I bought my laptop new and its barely been like 2 years and the hdd is going bad.

 

Ok tell us what kind of mother board you have use this program to search the info its free.
http://majorgeeks.com/Speccy_d6358.html

 

Theres alot of varibles on deciding if you should go ssd, if you need big storage, then ssd is not your best bet. If your system is fast enough, you will notice a huge difference between sata or ide or ssd hard drive speed. The fastest drives are ssd, not sata or pata, sorry golden but your wrong. However in this case, i would stick with a normal sata hard drive, as your intended use wouldn't warrent the ssd's extra performence, and with the price per gig ratio of ssd, your gonna get way more storage out of a sata hard drive. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136835 Has been my default replacement drive for laptops these days, and never have had a complaint with a WD drive that was the black model, the greens and blues haven't had good luck with for what its worth. FYI i can shave off 32 seconds of my boot time on windows seven when i had the ssd installed. However, i was testing it for a friend and saddly had to let it go back to them.

 

Manufacturer Dell Inc.
Model 0G848F (Microprocessor)
Chipset Vendor Intel
Chipset Model GM45/GM47
Chipset Revision 07
Southbridge Vendor Intel
Southbridge Model 82801IM (ICH9-M)
Southbridge Revision 03
System Temperature 56 °C
BIOS
Brand Dell Inc.
Version A14
Date 12/07/2009
PCI Data
Slot PCI-E
Slot Type PCI-E
Slot Usage Available
Bus Width Unknown
Slot Designation PCIE Slot 0
Slot Number 0
Slot PCI-E
Slot Type PCI-E
Slot Usage Available
Bus Width Unknown
Slot Designation PCIE Slot 1
Slot Number 1

 

Yeah I was thinking my laptop is pretty basic compared to what is out there nowadays, and more RAM would probably make a more noticeable and cheaper difference right? For me the laptop is just fine, not really looking for any upgrade since I don't play games or anything. Just wanting a reliable replacement to my hdd

 

Yes ram is generaly a bigger upgrade, id look at any 2.5 black wd drive, for performance reasons, and they seem to be better built. Good luck in your replacement.

 

I don't see much difference

I have Both SATA and PATA i really don't see much difference i don't even if the HD is bigger.

Manufacturer Seagate
Form Factor 3.5"
Interface SATA
Heads 16
Cylinders 16383
SATA type SATA-II 3.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA8-ACS
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 133 times
Power On Time 59.8 days
Speed, Expressed in Revolutions Per Minute (rpm) 7200
Features S.M.A.R.T., AAM, NCQ
Transfer Mode SATA III
Interface SATA
Capacity 156GB
Real size 160,041,885,696 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
01 Read Error Rate 117 (099 worst) Data 0009370FC5
03 Spin-Up Time 098 (097) Data 0000000000
04 Start/Stop Count 100 (100) Data 0000000105
05 Reallocated Sectors Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
07 Seek Error Rate 075 (060) Data 00022F6505
09 Power-On Hours (POH) 099 (099) Data 000000059A
0A Spin Retry Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
0C Device Power Cycle Count 100 (100) Data 0000000085
B7 SATA Downshift Error Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
B8 End-to-End error / IOEDC 100 (100) Data 0000000000
BB Reported Uncorrectable Errors 100 (100) Data 0000000000
BC Command Timeout 100 (099) Data 0000000007
BD High Fly Writes (WDC) 100 (100) Data 0000000000
BE Temperature Difference from 100 078 (053) Data 0018150016
C2 Temperature 022 (047) Data 0000000016
C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 072 (058) Data 0009370FC5
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
C7 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
F0 Head Flying Hours 100 (253) Data 00000006A0
F1 Total LBAs Written 100 (253) Data 00581ECEC4
F2 Total LBAs Read 100 (253) Data 00B1DBCE93
_____________________________________________________________________
Manufacturer Seagate
Form Factor 3.5"
Heads 16
Cylinders 16383
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA/ATAPI-7
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 550 times
Power On Time 592.8 days
Features S.M.A.R.T.
Transfer Mode Ultra DMA/100
Interface PATA
Capacity 78GB
Real size 80,026,361,856 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
01 Read Error Rate 114 (088 worst) Data 0008D8E161
03 Spin-Up Time 098 (097) Data 0000000000
04 Start/Stop Count 100 (100) Data 000000021E
05 Reallocated Sectors Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
07 Seek Error Rate 084 (060) Data 0010DD35D4
09 Power-On Hours (POH) 084 (084) Data 0000003792
0A Spin Retry Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
0C Device Power Cycle Count 100 (100) Data 0000000226
BB Reported Uncorrectable Errors 100 (100) Data 0000000000
BD High Fly Writes (WDC) 100 (100) Data 0000000000
BE Temperature Difference from 100 074 (049) Data 001E19001A
C2 Temperature 026 (051) Data 000000001A
C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 070 (063) Data 000B1BF01E
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
C7 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C8 Write Error Rate / Multi-Zone Error Rate 100 (253) Data 0000000000
CA Data Address Mark errors 100 (253) Data 0000000000

 

First this should be a new post instead of on this thread. Second, smart data isn't speed data, more of how well is my functioning, 3rd, run a real speed tool to get an acturate measure, like hd tach, or disk bench.

 

SSD's are now the way to go with portable machines & desktops. There is still a place for disc based hard drives, but their time is growing very short, with the way that SSD technology has jumped by leaps and bounds in the past two years.

 

Listen, I've gotta' jump in and say one VERY important thing:

The performance upgrade granted by an SSD is HEAVILY dependent on what version of SATA the mobo is capable of. That is, 1.5 GB/s, 3.0 GB/s, or 6.0 GB/s.

As far as general performance, you will notice an increased battery life, and less heat from the hard drive.

Remember that if you install a high performance drive on SATA v. 1, the "bottleneck" in the system will remain, i.e. data transfer rate. It improves with SATAII, and shines with SATAIII. Most platter HDDs bench out at 150 MB/s at the most, and using RAID is not likely in a laptop.

If your "bottleneck" will not improve over a platter drive, that is, you have a generation one SATA board, don't spend the money on an SSD. If you stand to see a later generation speed increase, go for it.

Just choose wisely on the specs of the SSD. Don't go expensive for SATAIII 500 MB/s performance, when you will only get half with a SATAII, and 25% with a first gen SATA.

:major

 

This is a solid drive, even read/write and the price has come down ALOT:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706

:cool

 

to Goldenskull:

Where can I get one of those 72,000RPM HDDs? rolleyes
(Believe you meant 7,200 on post 2)

 

Sure let me find my little jet engine yes i did add one zero i was tired that day.