I should probably get an SSD. The current 2.5" is < a year old and gave up this morning. I suspect hitting the laptop in frustartion this morning is what killed it

I should probably get an SSD. The current 2.5" is < a year old and gave up this morning. I suspect hitting the laptop in frustartion this morning is what killed it

 

 

Good news being that an SSD won't be affected by such an act lol

Mines been showing this much life left since I had it 

ssd.JPG

 

Wow - thanks!

Having now entered the realm of OAPs, I'm "sweating" my IT assets as far as laptops are concerned.

 

After having previously  upgraded the memory  to 1Gb (! - yes its that old), two years ago  I upgraded a (then) 10 year old Packard Bell laptop with a 60GB IDE SSD (! - Rom chip pre SATA) after the existing fujitsu disk gave up the ghost. I also replaced XP with Windows 7 (32 - rom software doesn't support 64 bit),  and the machine is still going strong.

 

The disk change had the most surprising consequential effect, in that a previously unserviceable on-board modem came back to life. It appears that this refurbished ex- PC World machine had a hardware conflict between the disk and the modem, even though, as far as I could see from the original disk serial number and spec, this  exact type of fujitsu disk  conformed with the  manufacturer's original equipment  specification !

 

Post upgrade most of the Windows experience index elements showed marked improvement, all except the on-board graphics which didn't improve at all and therefore pulled the overall rating back down to its level.

 

However, despite the "Paper" performance figures,mMy user perception is that the execution of programs is much faster than previously. Particularly for MS Office, VAG Com. But obviously intensive graphics aren't much better and I feel there still could be room for improvement with the speed of delivery of internet web pages, that is despite swapping the existing BT plug-in wi-fi  "G" standard flash card ( That's how old it is) for a USB "N" model - this put  through put up from 54Mbs to 130Mbps. Presume there's no reason why I couldn't use an AC model when I come to swapping the Home Hub.

 

For the £60 it cost to do this, I think it was worth while.

 

Given that my laptop is only now very occasionally used, then, I think I've got good VFM, in that 've possibly given the machine a further 5 years of life.

 

 

Nick

Edited 23 April, 201412 yr by Clunkclick

SSD drives do have a limited life span for writing, but then spinning rust also has a limited lifespan. The good news is that this only effects writing, it will still read fine.

 

The ONE thing you MUST NOT DO with an SSD is try to defrag it with a normal defrag tool/Windows built-in defragger, it will almost certainly kill the drive; SSD makers has their own special tools for managing the data on the drive that help reduce the chance of wearing out one part of the drive prematurely.

 

There are two types of SSD flash drives, MLC and SLC.

 

SLC uses a single cell to store one bit of data. MLC memory is more complex and can interpret four digital states from a signal stored in a single cell. This makes it denser for a given area and so cheaper to produce, but it wears out faster.

So, an MLC cell is typically rated at 10,000 erase/write cycles, while an SLC cell might last 10 times that before failing.  (Computer Weekly.com)

 

An unpowered SSD will hold its data for about 10 years, so dont go using them for long term storage.

Article on SSD worst-case write lifespan: http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/4178/10/hardwareinfo-tests-lifespan-of-samsung-ssd-840-250gb-tlc-ssd-updated-with-final-conclusion-final-update-20-6-2013

 

for the TLDR: 

 

If we take the 764 TiB and an average of 10 GiB of writes per day, we arrive at a lifespan of 214 years.

Hi All

 

Many thanks for your various inputs on my laptop upgrade questions; I've learned a great deal - and most of it useful

 

Key points for me are:

 

1. Ergonomics: I hadn't fully appreciated before how much the ergonomics of the screen & keyboard (and the touchpad to a lesser degree) are important to my use of a laptop.  This factor has done much to influence my decision to keep the 6910p and upgrade it, rather than go for an affordable replacement at the moment.

 

2. Available memory, as browsers - especially with multiple windows open - are memory hogs.  Orifice-type programs (whether Mickysoft or LibreOffice) are also memory hungry.

 

3. Peformant swap space (memory swap file on disk) is also important as when longer documents are involve orifice-type programs scroll to & from disk.

 

4. Fast disk will make a big difference overall so ssd or quick hdd are a must-have, but see the new thread I've started on mass storage options (http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/313950-laptop-mass-storage-hdd-ssd-or-hybrid/).

 

5. Gigabit network and USB3 are nice to haves but I'll just have to live with 100Mb/USB2 as they're built-in.

 

Regards, Mike

USB2 is rated at 480Mbps, so if you need an ethernet connection and only have a 10/100 port, buying a USB to ethernet converter might be an idea.Only of any use of course, if you have a decent fibre internet connection