SSD for Latitude D620. Am I crazy?

[bigmable22]

I am looking to breathe some new life into my latitude D620 by adding a Corsair SSD for @$300. My current latitude is pretty standard

Dell Latitude D620
Core 2 @ 2.00 GHZ
2GB RAM
XP Pro

I can't figure out if the SATA connection that I am using is going to bottleneck a new SSD. I would greatly appreciate any thoughts on problems that I may encounter.

http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfb/notebooks/latit_d620/pd.aspx?refid=latit_d620&s=dfb&cs=28&~section=specs#tabtop

Best regards

 

[photonboy]

Your SATA connection will either be SATA1 or SATA2. That's either 150MB/second or 300MB/second.

You could ask DELL which one you have. There's a good chance it's SATA1.

You need to be very picky about what SSD drive you get. There are very few good ones. Many have issues. Make sure to read reviews.

Personally, if I had about $300 I would get this drive:

OCZ Vertex 120GB (Read 200MB/second, Write 160MB/second)

If you have SATA1 it will max out your connection, if you have SATA2 it will be a little faster but this drive is awesome. Even with SATA1 it's awesome.

The most important things are:
1) Quality of build
2) Longevity
3) Speed
4) No stuttering

Again, read reviews. 90% or more of the drives on the market have major issues.

 

[rcpratt]

If you're willing to spend that kind of money, I don't know why you would compromise for anything less than an Intel X25-M G2.

Still looking trying to figure out if you have SATA I or II.

 

[bigmable22]

Thanks for the advice. I actually talked to a dell "tech guy" earlier today and he thought throughput was "2.5". I had to explain to the gentleman that 2.5 was the form factor. I'm 99.99% sure I have SATA1. I'm just trying to decide If a SSD is going to give me more life for the laptop or If I should just buy a new laptop in 6 months with Win7 and SSD.

Also I'm the default "tech guy" at our small biz (accounting) and I like to geek out and build computers.

My biggest complaint is that we all use docking stations with dual monitors at work and Dell has conveniently decided that the new generation of their workforce laptops will use a new version of the docking station that will be incompatible with our D620's.

 

[bigmable22]

If you're willing to spend that kind of money, I don't know why you would compromise for anything less than an Intel X25-M G2.

Still looking trying to figure out if you have SATA I or II.

I agree the Intel's seem to be a really good drive right now. I'm looking at this one

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-X25-M-Mainstream-2-5-Inch-SSDSA2MH080G1C5/dp/B001F4YIYY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1248819242&sr=8-1

I'm just wondering if I'm throwing away cash with a SATA I connection. I hope I'm wrong and have SATA II. I just haven't seen any documentation that explicitly says so.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[rcpratt]

Even if it is SATA I, you're still going to see enormous performance gains. The only thing you'll be bottlenecked on is sequential reads, and sequentials rarely take effect.

I would check out some of these articles before you make a decision on an SSD. They're lengthy but awesome reads.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3403
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3535
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3607

edit: What you linked is not what you want. That's a G1, you'll want the G2. The G2s are all out of stock for just a week or two, Intel is fixing a minor bug with a firmware update. The 80GB retails for $225 and outperforms the G1.

edit2: Type fail.

 

[sama13]

I agree the Intel's seem to be a really good drive right now. I'm looking at this one

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-X25-M-Mainstream-2-5-Inch-SSDSA2MH080G1C5/dp/B001F4YIYY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1248819242&sr=8-1

I'm just wondering if I'm throwing away cash with a SATA I connection. I hope I'm wrong and have SATA II. I just haven't seen any documentation that explicitly says so.

Thanks so much for your help!

Hi guys, I wanted to know if you were able to make it, i have the same laptop and want to do the same thing as you, wanted to know what did you get to do the install or is it PNP.

 

[Sieruken]

I am looking to breathe some new life into my latitude D620 by adding a Corsair SSD for @$300. My current latitude is pretty standard

Dell Latitude D620
Core 2 @ 2.00 GHZ
2GB RAM
XP Pro

I can't figure out if the SATA connection that I am using is going to bottleneck a new SSD. I would greatly appreciate any thoughts on problems that I may encounter.

http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfb/notebooks/latit_d620/pd.aspx?refid=latit_d620&s=dfb&cs=28&~section=specs#tabtop

Best regards

I've installed SSD Drives on 3 Laptops now and the performance gain is ridiculous. By far the most responsive and cost effective upgrade around. I sync most of my files so I only needed 60gb drives which you can find on sale for about $60 after rebate from micro center.

2 Laptops were Dell E1505 Duo Core 1.66 - Sata II (max)
1 Laptop was a Toshiba Satellite - Sata III

I tried the OCZ Vertex Agility 3 - 2 failed drives, http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0364779 doesn't seems reliable and I've read that before purchasing.
Ended up with 3 PYRO 60gb sata 3 drives. http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0370701 I had one failure and returned it immediated but overall the performance is wild. All 3 laptops are being used, no problems.

Battery Life Increases
Performance overall increases about 35-40% in Sata II, Sata III about the same.
Make sure you are running using 4gb memory
Boot times are between 9-12 seconds from Bios Post to Using Windows

According to Dell, http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins6400/en/om/specs.htm my E1505's have the Intel 945 GM or Intel 945 PM chipset which do support Sata II. Best thing you can do is buy from a place you can make an easy return and then test with Disk tools for your SATA mode. Or Use disk tools now so see what mode you're running if your current non SSD drive supports Sata II. That should give you an answer.

I would second guess upgrade if I could only run in Sata I Mode. Sata II is by far worth the investment, they are like new computers and have never performed better.

Cliff