SSD as primary drive in laptop

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i just got a dell studio 17 and afaik i can hold a second hdd, i was looking at putting in a smaller ssd in as the primary just for windows and some programmes and the other 500gb hdd just for storage and such. i use it for CAD modelling and rendering. but got a few questions..

would i see a significant performance gain?

would i be better fitting a ssd or upgrading the memory from 4gb to 6gb?

would i still be able to install windows via the restore disc or would i need another copy?

does fitting another hdd void the warranty?

thanks
 
I'm running a 64GB drive as the only drive in my Dell XPS M1330.

Performance gain is significant, much better buy than upgrading from 4 to 6 GB RAM. It eliminates a lot of slowdows especially if you multitask a lot. After a while you get so used to your computer working smoothly that using a non-SSD computer is painful. If you've ever suffered a Vista machine on 512MB ram or less, that's what non-ssd PC's feel like afterwards.

Not sure on warranty, but as long as you don't need to break any seals to get at the drive bay you could always just put the old drive back in if you had a problem.

As long as you have the windows product key, you should be able to install. If your restore disk isn't a full copy of windows just download the appropriate windows ISO and use your key on it. You can always just clone your old drive over anyway.
 
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"would i see a significant performance gain?"

To the laptop yes; especially on bootup. You'll have everything ready to go within thirty seconds or so. For your applications, not so much. They might start faster if you put them on the SSD, but you won't see much, if any, improvement once they're running.

An SSD powered laptop is a zippy joy compared with watching the dreaded timer attached to your cursor when using a 5400rpm HDD...



"would i be better fitting a ssd or upgrading the memory from 4gb to 6gb?"

You'll only see a benefit to the extra 2Gb of RAM if you work with lots of large files open at once, along with lots of multitasking apps, etc. For everyday laptop activities you won't notice it at all (and, of course, unless you're using a 64bit OS the lapdog won't even see RAM beyond about 3.25Gb)



"would i still be able to install windows via the restore disc or would i need another copy?"

I was able to install Windows onto my SSD from my Sony Vaio restore discs just fine. Don't know for sure about the Dell, but I'd bet you can (the SSD is pretty much just a hard disk as far as Windows is concerned).



"does fitting another hdd void the warranty?"

Possibly - but you can check your warranty easier than the rest of us.



This is a great plan if it works. There's bound to be Dell users who have tried it, so I'd get searching online to tap into their experience.
 
cheers lads. i currently have a 500gb 7200rpm 2.5" hdd.

as i said i use it for uni work which involves a lot of photoshop, solidworks for CAD and renderings.

do you reckon 64gb ssd is large enough for windows 7 home premium 64bit and programmes?
 
64GB might be a bit smaller with all those apps you mentioned. Me, I'm just done replacing a Dell Inspiron HDD with a 128GB and after installing W7, Office 2007 Pro, CS4 and other stuff including my files, videos, music and photos, it sums up to about 57 GB. You need at least 20% of the SSD space free to help with the wear levelling of the nand.

I used Vertex 2 and C300 on my Desktop and I used a Corsair P128 on the lappy. When not benching, you won't notice any difference but they're definitely much better than a regular HDD and runs cooler too.

If your lappy is capable of holding 2 drives, then, 64GB would be fine. Just move your Temp file, IE file and Office archives to the HDD. Disable System restore and Recycle Bin. If you have loads of RAM, you can also disable Paging file.
 
I have a Studio 1735 and it works perfectly with my 64gig SSD.

I did exactly what you want to do as it originally came with two 250gig drives. I took one of them out (dead easy to remove) and slipped in the ssd.

Windows 7 took eight minutes to install, and it now boots to desktop in less than 10 seconds.
 
kardeck said:
I have a Studio 1735 and it works perfectly with my 64gig SSD.

I did exactly what you want to do as it originally came with two 250gig drives. I took one of them out (dead easy to remove) and slipped in the ssd.

Windows 7 took eight minutes to install, and it now boots to desktop in less than 10 seconds.
Click to expand...

niice, so it doesn't void warranty?

think i'll get one, can always revert back if i don't like i i suppose
 
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