SSD or not SSD - that is the question. (1 Viewer)

[elsmandino]

Thanks so much for all that - I have gone and ordered a Crucial M4 64, which should be here next week (based upon loads of reviews, this the SSD to get at the moment for this size).

This has now got me thinking - should I consider replacing my Acer Revo Aspire's Hard Drive with a cheap SSD? This would give me a new 500GB HDD that I could put in my server (which is good, given how pricey they still are) and might speed the Revo up a little, as it can be a little sluggish at times loading up.

What do you reckon the minimum advisable size I should go with for a Windows 7 installation with Mediaportal and a few basic programms such as itunes?

Do you reckon I could get away with say 32GB comfortably?

 

[Spooky]

Good choice . Though make sure that the latest firmware is on it.

 

[jonm]

I don't think I'd waste the money on upgrading the Revo to SSD. I did, and it was still rubbish. It's a faff to do, as well.

 

[porky996t]

I have a 30Gb SSD on the bedroom client running Win7 and MP... also has iTunes on it (with networked file locations of course) and I have about 9Gb spare drive space. The MP on this client has Moving Pictures, TV Series and Showtimes as plugins and manages to hold the fanart etc quite comfortably.

 

[elsmandino]

Thanks for the heads up on the Firmware Spooky - I shall double check that straight away.

Jonm - so a SSD made no difference? Do you think that the bottleneck on it is the processor itself? My Revo is ultimately usable but can hang for long periods every now and again. I note that you use the past tense so assume you got rid of the Revo - what did you get instead?

Porky, I note that your client PCs are a bit punchier than the one I am using, how are they generally in terms of every day use?

Shame that a SSD won't do much for the REVO, given that 30Gb would do the trick. There are some real bargains out there at the moment at this size.

Has anyone have any experience of this:

http://www.saverstore.com/product/20216710/7725665/Kingston-SSD-Drive-32GB-SSD-Now-mSATA

Would seem perfect in a small MP client.

Thanks again.

 

[jonm]

Yeah I got rid of mine, just too slow, and couldn't do HD TV. I replaced it with an AMD based system, Gigabyte E-350 or something, made it up myself, mobo with cpu on it was just 89 quid, built in ati graphics and does HD TV perfectly. Way better than the Revo. That's not to say an SSD won't improve the Revo, but for me it didn't improve it enough - the ION graphics just ain't up to the task of HD TV and deinterlace - the ATI is.

 

[jonm]

Gigabyte GA-E350N-USB3 Onboard E-350 Dual Core Processor Onboard VGA DVI HDMI 7.1 Channel Audio mITX Motherboard
Qty: 1 Cost: £74.99

...that's what I went for - recommended... Apologies if this is slightly off topic!

 

[porky996t]

Porky, I note that your client PCs are a bit punchier than the one I am using, how are they generally in terms of every day use?

I find that they are great. To me, they both seem more reliable than the main HTPC in the lounge. The SSD's make such a difference to these Zotac units.

I have to say that Jonm suggestion above seems a real bargain though.

 

[elsmandino]

I agree - I am very tempted to either buy or build something a bit faster for my bedroom now.

This might be a very stupid question (probably is coming from me) , but does anyone know whether it is possible to both install and run Windows 7 from a USB stick? I have tried to look this up on the web but it keeps bringing me back to installing Windows from a USB stick, which is not what I am after - maybe I am phrasing the question wrong in google.

I suspect that, for some reason, this is not possible, otherwise people would be buying super cheap 32gb USB sticks for£20 and using them instead of SSDs instead.

What do you think?

 

[jonm]

You can certainly install from a USB stick, but I have no idea about running Windows from one, I suspect it would be slow, their performance is not on a par with SSD drives.