Hey

I have Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB ST9500420AS in my Lenovo W520. It's been reviewed and got good opinions, but for me it doesn't work this way. Perhaps it's different in desktop systems, but in my laptop it's often the only thing that I can hear unless I launch CPU/GPU-demanding apps. Most of the time, this computer runs passive and at first I thought that even with fan at "0" profile it was still spinning and high RPM, but it turned out it's the HDD. You can't hear it in noisy office, but when I'm back home (especially in the late evening), it could be much quieter. Even when fan starts spinning at lower profiles, I can't hear it over the disk.

I'm looking for SSD anyway, and at first I wanted to get 120GB OCZ Nocti to install in mSATA bay to work as system drive + keep HDD for storage, but now I'm considering a bigger investment. I also don't want to increase laptop weight too much. I don't mind HDD doing its noise when intense apps are running - the fan will be way noisier.

My options are:
1) Get 1.8" mSATA OCZ Nocti 120GB
* move system and frequently-used apps to it
* keep this Seagate HDD
* pray that HDD will get suspended when idling

2) Get 240GB SSD, eg Agility 3
* move as much as I can from HDD to SSD
* live without too much storage
* get HDD bay for some rare occasions

3) Get 480GB SSD, eg Agility 3
* move everything from HDD to SSD
* pay much more than I think is reasonable
* live with feel of guilt when copying movies & music

4) Maybe you'll suggest something better?

This HDD has rubberized tray, but I can still hear it more than what I'd like, and I don't think I earn enough to dump $700 on 480GB SSD.
+ I live in Poland, where the storage options are quite limited compared to US market.

Well, you didn't give any details but I suspect you're wasting a lot of space. If you want to go SSD and have a small budget, you should really try to trim down your install and keep only the stuff you actually use on your laptop.
Most people would really be fine with a small SSD but waste inordinate amounts of disk space so they keep wanting larger drives.
If you explained what your disk space was used for (there are utilities which can help you determine that), we could maybe offer tips.

You should know that there are hard drives which make less noise than yours. It's possible you have a particularly noisy drive compared to the other 500G 7200.4s but that's not the quietest model to begin with. Probably there are also software settings you might use to get less drive noise.

And is your mSATA bay on top of the Ultrabay and the regular drive bay? So you could have three drives on a W520?

First of all, thank you for the reply.

I use my computer for both work and every-day stuff.

Regarding drive usage:
I need around 80GB for system, dev tools, and other work-related utilities. This way 120GB system SSD should work. However, there are some bigger programs + virtual machines that we use for testing, and depending on project, they can take quite a lot of space. If I wipe all media files and leave just a couple of games, along with system it will be around 160-220GB (depending on project). Yeah, I know that people waste a lot of space, and it's one of the reasons why I have 2x2TB drives in my stationary rig at home. I even made some tools for reclaiming wasted space for my company. But here 240GB disk will be barely enough - I'd have to choose what I put on it.

Regarding 3rd drive:
Yes, I can have 3 drives grand total. There's standard 2.5" bay, 1.8" mSATA under the keyboard, and I could get UltraBay HDD enclosure. I don't use optical drive too frequently, but keeping this bay empty (with just travel bezel) would save some weight, as I carry this lappy a lot (too bad that they sold it only with 9-cell battery, 6-cell is pricey over here, and power brick isn't the lightest one).

Budget:
It's "limited" - theoretically I can buy 480GB SSD, but I'd rather like to spend that money on something else. The great advantage of 3rd option with such drive would be zero noise, and great overall performance along with low weight. However cost-wise option 1 with mSATA SSD wins as it costs the least amount of $$$, and I don't need huge speed for these VMs or games. This set of guides also makes it the really appealing: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=56495. Option 2 is the most limiting for me, however with HDD in UltraBay I could keep quite a lot of stuff on cheaper media. The disadvantage of such solution is mostly weight and limited flexibility in case I needed to use DVD (shuffling, copying ISOs etc).

Why not go with a 120GB mSATA SSD and also replace your noisy 7200rpm HDD with a quieter 5400RPM HDD? Use the SSD for OS/App speed and the HDD for slow/large data.

The SPCR tested 2.5" drives are halfway down this page.

I suspect you don't need anywhere as much actually.


If you actually need to to put VM images someone else built on a local drive, there's not much which can be done about that. I assume you're already using sparse files (manually regenerated on a regular basis if need be). In that case compression won't help if they unthinkingly put loads of crap on the images.


These are going to make your laptop noisy anyway, right?


I suspect you don't know half of it. I'm talking about about a different order of magnitude of waste, like the waste caused by a default install which will never come close to the T range, not the more obvious waste caused by keeping random DVD rips around.


Yes, that makes the most sense although I don't think you need 120G. As CA_Steve said, also replace your drive by a slower one if you want less noise.
But don't pray: if you reconfigure or get rid of silly programs, your drive will be able to spin down. If you're running Linux, look into laptop-mode-tools for a reasonable configuration which can keep the drive spun down even if you write some stuff to it.

Are you sure that this OCZ drive is any good though? I'd be wary...

Whatever you do, pick different SSDs. While Sandforce SSDs have improved greatly with firmware updates, they are still not 100%. One of the areas they still have issues with is standby, specifically not resuming after sleep. Not a good thing for a laptop.

My suggestion is get an Intel or Micron based (ex, Crucial C400) mSATA drive and either sleep your existing drive or swap it for a 5400 as CA_Steve suggested.

Well, I think we could stop the discussion about if I need or don't need 80GB or less, as it points to nowhere. Getting drive smaller 80GB would be just silly for me and only 120GB would offer some comfort. I've already explained game-related noise, so we can sort it out too.

The important thing that I learned from your answers would be driving me away from getting 480GB drive in favor of keeping HDD (probably other, quieter one), while adding mSATA SSD.
I'd also like to thank you for warning me about SandForce sleep issues. I'll have to read a bit more about whole problem as I wasn't aware of it. I don't need absolute max performance possible - it's not benchmarking/e-peen laptop, and Vertex 1 SSD in my stationary machine is just fine. SSD that is in that performance range or a bit faster is what I want, and anything extra would just just a nice bonus. Any SSD since first Indlinx times offers performance in different order of magnitude compared to HDD and I'm fine with that.

I mentioned OCZ Nocti as it's the only 120GB mSATA SSD that is easily accessible over here. One can get 80GB Intel and that's all. I might eventually try to get one from Germany or United Kingdom.

Exactly! Virtually any SSD performs much better than HDD. The difference in between SSD's is neglectible; it's impossible to notice the difference for the average user.

I would wait for Micron C400 mSATA (128GB) SSD or the Samsung PM830 SATA 3 256GB mSATA SSD, niether is out on retail but should be soon, if you go msata route you can keep the hdd or change it for 5400rpm drive like Samsung SpinPoint SATA 5400rpm 8 MB Cache 1 TB 2.5-Inch Hard Drive (M8 HN-M101MBB)

Or if you want to go full ssd, i would go with Crucial 512 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT512M4SSD2

Oh, thank you!

I didn't know that they plan to release mSATA version of Samsung 830. And your reply would also explain why I couldn't find c400 mSATA anywhere
To be honest, after reading some reviews I started considering regular 830 240GB as the best option (motly because of good performance and great power efficiency; for some reason 480GB version eats >3x more power according to AnandTech review), but mSATA version might be even better. Too bad that I have SATA 3 only in main HDD bay and UltraBay, and mSATA is just SATA2, but it shouldn't matter that much.

Such 240GB mSATA option would offer the greatest flexibility at (I hope) reasonable cost.

Regarding 512GB m4 - I was reading a bit about it and it looks really cool. The problem is price - the cheapest I could get it over here is around $700, or even a little more. Buying one would definitely hurt, especially as I intend to get GTX 680 for my stationary rig, which isn't cheap either. Compared to Newegg price, that is quite a lot. I'll have to think about it... I don't need super-performance for just media storage, and if I could put my hands on that mSATA 830, especially 256GB version, that would be so sweet. I would be able to disable HDD and keep it just on on-demand basis.

Once again, thanks for your input. You helped me a lot and it appears I'll have to delay the purchase for quite a bit.