Intel SSD 310 80 GB: Little Notebooks Get Big Storage Flexibility

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Great article!

Been rocking an SSD for about a year now, and there is no going back to mechanical drives, SSD for the laptop segment makes even more sense. I think most of us however would like to see price drops a bit faster though, my 120GB OCZ Vertex Turbo cost me over 500 dollars.
 


I believe the last report I read mentioned close to 60% of all SSD purchases are mobile related. SSDs can really mark up a notebook's price, so I'm right there with you on prices. We need price drops, more of them, and in quicker succession.

Cheers,
Andrew Ku
TomsHardware.com
 
It's high time they came up with the ROM or CMOS chip that has the capacity to just store the OS on it and a few other programs, that itself will make the system really very fast..... then they could go over for a change to the 6GBps SATA drives and make them work at that speed..... Really, we already have ample RAM and expandable slots for them, why not get a little more creative and just get the job done instead of going all the way round and trying this approach.
We have fast, extremely fast drives but at prices that touch the sky, wouldn't it be better to just have loaded or embedded the OS straight onto the mobo.... cheaper until it's capable of handling the high data flow rates offered by SSD... yet not being able to saturate the SATA flow rates or capacities.....
 
Newegg Daily Shell Shocker has a 128GB Kingston SSD on sale for $119.99!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

History has been made. SSD's are finally starting to hit a dollar/GB. Keep those prices dropping!
 
Although I of course would enjoy having 120+GB SSD on my laptop or home desktop, only true photo/video professionals or gamers with ample games need that much fast storage! I am able to squeeze Win7 and several Valve games within my old 30GB OCZ Vertex SSD, and I would feel quite comfortably with having 64GB SSD just to have more breathing space. You do NOT need more than that unless you're processing a lot of photos/videos. 120+GB is only if you include movies and music. You don't need 20,000 IOPs or 250MB/s seq.reads for your movies and other sitting junk! 😉 Just buy a cheap external 2.5" HDD and store all your movies/music/photos on that, and this solution is quite mobile if you drag your laptop everywhere!
 
[citation][nom]druids84[/nom]Although I of course would enjoy having 120+GB SSD on my laptop or home desktop, only true photo/video professionals or gamers with ample games need that much fast storage! I am able to squeeze Win7 and several Valve games within my old 30GB OCZ Vertex SSD, and I would feel quite comfortably with having 64GB SSD just to have more breathing space. You do NOT need more than that unless you're processing a lot of photos/videos. 120+GB is only if you include movies and music. You don't need 20,000 IOPs or 250MB/s seq.reads for your movies and other sitting junk! Just buy a cheap external 2.5" HDD and store all your movies/music/photos on that, and this solution is quite mobile if you drag your laptop everywhere![/citation]
My Steam folder alone is 437GB. I have another 100GB+ on non steam games also. Then add my OS and etc.
I currently enjoy the faster speeds of 4x500 RAID 0 with the OS on a 1TB. I would actually be running 8x500GB RAID 0 if my case was large enough, and my graphics card weren't so large (blocks 2 slots).

How does Toms feel about doing a showdown between $500 of modern HDD vs $500 of modern SSD? With and without a dedicated controller.
I know for my next build I don't know whether I want 4x 3TB or a 3TB with 2-3x SSD or 3x 3TB with a single small SSD, or is it better to go with, say, 8x 1TB or 4x 3TB in either RAID 0, 10, 5, 6, 50, 60 etc. :)
 
Well, just as I mentioned earlier, my point still holds: you DON'T need more than 120+GB unless you're serious gamer or professional working in multimedia business. And your setup sounds a bit like "gamer with ample games" case from my argument. 😉 I really can't see a way I could squeeze 4x RAID in ordinary non-gaming laptop, which is what many if not most of people use for actually doing their work.
So, if I would have to choose between old-school 500GB HDD, overkill 256GB SSD, or just simple 60-128GB SSD + external 2.5" HDD for a laptop, I'd go with the last one.
 
meh, when I added an SSD drive I did not notice much improvement. I have a raid 5 array of WD2003FYYS drives which use to be the boot drive 😉
 
[citation][nom]romulous75[/nom]meh, when I added an SSD drive I did not notice much improvement. I have a raid 5 array of WD2003FYYS drives which use to be the boot drive[/citation]
It is all relative. I have a 256GB SSD on my m15x laptop and I can tell it boots slightly faster then my desktop but loads apps about the same. My desktop has 2 velociraptors stripped 0 raid. I have no complaints with the desktop but would I like to replace the raptors with SSD's? Of course but it makes more sense to start with mobile since it really helps more on that.
 
Newegg Daily Shell Shocker has a 128GB Kingston SSD on sale for $119.99
Click to expand...

Yes but that is AFTER a $75 mail in rebate. Computer companies are not good with rebates, the last time I sent in a batch of them I received half of them back. I wouldn't want to gamble on a rebate that is 60% of the final cost of the product. And that is the old generation of Kingston drive, probably a closeout because they have new versions on the market now.

I think you have to figure almost $2 per Gb to get a quality drive with good performance, and that is after searching for sales.

Reliability is still questionable though. The reliability ratings for good hard drives are still much higher than they are for SSD's.

I have 3 laptops that need upgrades so I really do need to see some big price drops.
 
Newegg Daily Shell Shocker has a 128GB Kingston SSD on sale for $119.99!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

History has been made. SSD's are finally starting to hit a dollar/GB. Keep those prices dropping!
Click to expand...

That's AFTER rebate. Read the not-so-fine print. It's $180 before rebate. It's not really the same thing as saying prices are almost at 1$/GB. The $/GB is still getting better, but not by as much as most were hoping. I think SSD prices will gradually get lower from the spring to the fall, where I would expect them to take a more significant dive in relative cost. You see some good deals, but nothing crazy good. If you want a relatively spacious drive you will still have to pay for it. Its not going to get really cheap out of nowhere. The Intel x25-V is still about the same price, and the same speed as it was at launch. A 60GB SF drive is still round $120, the same price as the 60GB Idilinx drives they replace. SSDs are still way better and cheaper than they were 2 years ago. Just don't expect any miracles any time soon.
 
[citation][nom]druids84[/nom]Well, just as I mentioned earlier, my point still holds: you DON'T need more than 120+GB unless you're serious gamer or professional working in multimedia business.[/citation]

What if I am traveling and I want to throw a few blu-rays (25-30gb each)from my media center to my netbook to watch on the plane/in the airport etc... I know you can use an external drive and all that, but it is a pain to get it out and have it wired to your setup while you are on the go.

The point is, it will be awesome when we can have a 40 or 80 GB SSD for OS/apps along with a hard drive for media in ultraportable devices...

Im really excited about these new mSATA devices that intel is producing. I just purchased a HP Pavilion dm1z netbook based on AMD's Fusion APU and it looks like it has an open SATA in addition to the HDD, although I have not been able to find out if it supports mSATA...if anyone knows it would be awesome to post it here...
 
"The 310-series marks the entry-point of mSATA for the masses."

Well, I guess if the Samsung and Toshiba products that preceded it don't count. And in Tomshardwareland, anybody who buys a Macbook Air must not be "the masses"...
 
[citation][nom]superflykicks03[/nom]What if I am traveling and I want to throw a few blu-rays (25-30gb each)from my media center to my netbook to watch on the plane/in the airport etc... I know you can use an external drive and all that, but it is a pain to get it out and have it wired to your setup while you are on the go.The point is, it will be awesome when we can have a 40 or 80 GB SSD for OS/apps along with a hard drive for media in ultraportable devices...Im really excited about these new mSATA devices that intel is producing. I just purchased a HP Pavilion dm1z netbook based on AMD's Fusion APU and it looks like it has an open SATA in addition to the HDD, although I have not been able to find out if it supports mSATA...if anyone knows it would be awesome to post it here...[/citation]

Well, of course, a future hybrid solution would be optimal, since dragging that external drive is a pain for all of us, but that's wishful thinking about the rosy future rather than an option right now and here. So either live with your slow HDD, overpay for huge SSD, or endure the agonizing pain of standing in line for check-in, baggage drop, security check, boarding, getting into your seat, and those never-ending additional 60seconds of attaching your dedicated "Movies/music&other junk" ext-HDD. 😀
Besides, watching raw Blu-Rays on an everyday laptop while on a plane is like listening to FLAC or raw PCM through a gramophone or your phone speaker. :) Come ohn! Encode in decent codec and it'll be less than 4-7GB, most laptop screens are well below FullHD res anyway, so what's the point?
 
[citation][nom]druids84[/nom]Well, of course, a future hybrid solution would be optimal, since dragging that external drive is a pain for all of us, but that's wishful thinking about the rosy future rather than an option right now and here. So either live with your slow HDD, overpay for huge SSD, or endure the agonizing pain of standing in line for check-in, baggage drop, security check, boarding, getting into your seat, and those never-ending additional 60seconds of attaching your dedicated "Movies/music&other junk" ext-HDD. Besides, watching raw Blu-Rays on an everyday laptop while on a plane is like listening to FLAC or raw PCM through a gramophone or your phone speaker. Come ohn! Encode in decent codec and it'll be less than 4-7GB, most laptop screens are well below FullHD res anyway, so what's the point?[/citation]

The 40 GB version of this device can be had for $100 (albeit a bit slower). How much does a decent external drive cost? 40-50 bucks at the minimum? I would rather have one of these and keep the 320GB HDD in the laptop. Then you get speed and capacity--for what a $50 premium? Hybrid solutions like this are imminent,not too far off in the rosy future. And .mkv playback sounds rather IMHO nice on a decent pair of headphones.

I have no desire to re-encode my entire blu ray collection (i ripped them in native format for optimal quality and to serve as a true backup) using a dual core Athlon II chip just so it will fit on a SSD.

I'm not trying to start a war here; mostly im agreeing with the point of the article, and that is a hybrid solution will be the next big step in mobile computing. The point I was trying to make is that needing more than 128 GB is not so "un-average" these days: I'm not a serious gamer, nor a professional graphics/video/content creator etc. But by the time you use up the space required by windows 7, your software suit, 7-8GB of music etc...etc...etc...its not as uncommon to use up 120GB of space.
 
best use for SSD are for laptop, there no moving part in SDD therefore using less power. as for desktop, i dont think waiting 3sec longer in game or running application would kill me.
 
SSD Rules in Laptops. I have been using a 120 GB G-Skill for the last year as system drive with Windows 7 64-bit (boot in less than 30 seconds, launch outlook in 2 seconds or less).

The Dell M4400 (15.6" screen) and other dell models allow for removing the CD-ROM drive (no tools required) and replace with a second hard drive or battery. So a 750 GB Western Digital mechanical drive is also in my Laptop.

The finishing touch is a 48 GB File-Mate (Win-Tec) PCI-Express SSD Card that I use for running Virtual PC's. Total of 3 "spindles" in a 7 pound Laptop.

This is for sure a High End setup, but the replacement for the CD-ROM drive is $50 plus the drive you add, everyone can get 750 GB extra for under $150. The enclosure is available for most Dell Latitude and Precision Laptops.
 
Hi, Can someone please explain the advantage of mSATA over miniPCIe ?

The article complained that two manufacturers produced non-standard devices using miniPCIe connectors, but did not explain why they thought they needed to do this. It complained that the market was fragmented, but adding yet another 'standard' using the same connector seems to also fragment the market. As the article points out in the Lenovo specs, it confuses the market since the connections look the same.

The article showed a diagram where the pink PCIe/SATA signal conversion is either on the motherboard or on the card. In theory, this would mean the motherboard is more expensive with mSATA, and the SSD is more expensive with miniPCIe.

But it seems like that is not the case on the SSD side: mSATA SSDs are currently more expensive than miniPCIe SSDs. Since miniPCIe SSD drives are cheaper, some people are claiming to save money by modifying/rewiring the connections on the miniPCIe SSD so they work in mSATA sockets.

So why not use miniPCIe instead of mSATA ? What did I miss?
(I hope there is a technical rationale I've missed. Or is this simply an industry marketing maneuver to fragment the market so each card is less of a commodity, and drive up profits?)
 
remember Intel "Robson" TurboMemory as fitted to select Fujitsu & Lenovo ultraportables - internal - used intel raid driver?

is it possible to substitute Intel 310 ssd for Robson TurboMemory?
 
Hi, Can someone please explain the advantage of mSATA over miniPCIe ?

The article complained that two manufacturers produced non-standard devices using miniPCIe connectors, but did not explain why they thought they needed to do this. It complained that the market was fragmented, but adding yet another 'standard' using the same connector seems to also fragment the market. As the article points out in the Lenovo specs, it confuses the market since the connections look the same.

The article showed a diagram where the pink PCIe/SATA signal conversion is either on the motherboard or on the card. In theory, this would mean the motherboard is more expensive with mSATA, and the SSD is more expensive with miniPCIe.

But it seems like that is not the case on the SSD side: mSATA SSDs are currently more expensive than miniPCIe SSDs. Since miniPCIe SSD drives are cheaper, some people are claiming to save money by modifying/rewiring the connections on the miniPCIe SSD so they work in mSATA sockets.

So why not use miniPCIe instead of mSATA ? What did I miss?
(I hope there is a technical rationale I've missed. Or is this simply an industry marketing maneuver to fragment the market so each card is less of a commodity, and drive up profits?)
Click to expand...

You can't do a miniPCIe unless you use a bridge chip (read page 3). mSATA is native SATA signaling. it creates a formalized standard that everyone can follow. This means that SSDs won't be specific to a particular notebook model. The reason why miniSSDs are cheaper (now) is because they are limited in use. Production of the old miniSSDs has virtually stopped because the new notebooks don't support them.
 


Nope. Purposes are different. Read page 3. Different signaling used.
 
"The 310-series marks the entry-point of mSATA for the masses."

Well, I guess if the Samsung and Toshiba products that preceded it don't count. And in Tomshardwareland, anybody who buys a Macbook Air must not be "the masses"...
Click to expand...

If you read the tech docs and follow iFixit, then you know that isn't mSATA on MacBook Air. It is another proprietary standard like other miniPCIe mutants. Samsung and Toshiba have hardly produced mSATA in any large quantity. When I say masses, I mean I want to be able to punch that product into Google and get a store link. Samsung first proposed mSATA, but we are just starting to see it trickle into the market.
 
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