Sam
Moderator
Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
User status: Offline
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So I've got an old HP laptop with a fucked nVidia GPU (I actually sent it off today to have it reballed onto the motherboard), when I get it back I'd like to refurbish it and use it as my second laptop/laptop I take out and about with me when I'm on call (currently got a MacBook Pro).
It's got an AMD Athlon X2 64 CPU of some description (1.9GHz dual core I think), 2GB RAM (can't be upgraded any more than that), and a 120GB hard drive preinstalled with Vista... The battery is also knackered but I'll replace it when I get the laptop back from the repair place.
I am thinking of supercharging it a little by getting a 128GB Crucial SSD drive for it and installing Windows 7 on it.
Here is an Amazon link to the drive in question: click me
I can actually get it cheaper than that price, but anyways what are people's thoughts on this particular drive - are their SSD drives as good as their RAM (I assume they are)?
I want to get an SSD for my MBP as well and upgrade it to 16GB RAM  but I have to wait until later on the year when the warranty runs out. 
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Balling
Premium Member
Registered: 7th Apr 04
Location: Denmark
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Crucial SSD's are usually quite good. No idea about that specific model, but check some benchmarks to get a clear view of the performance side.
I upgraded the wifes 5 year old MacBook 1,83 GHz, 2GB RAM with a 64GB Toshiba SSD that was in my MBP from factory. The Toshiba disk is a fucking joke, but the performance upgrade on her machine is unbelievable.
SSD's are a very good upgrade, even on old laptops and even with mediocre SSD's.
Why is it that you don't want to use your MBP though?
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
User status: Offline
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Crucial SSDs are very good, and that model specifically is probably one of the best you can buy (i have two in a raid 0).
It is slightly cheaper on Overclockers thopugh.
What are you doing with your machines? 16GB ram sounds like overkill
[Edited on 02-05-2012 by Bart]
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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You'll soon get pissed off having to work between 2 machines, my advise is just spend the money upgrading the MBP
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Sam
Moderator
Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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I want to use the HP laptop for going out on site, plus there is less chance of a battered old HP laptop going walkabout on site than a shiny, expensive MBP I reckon (I get paranoid about leaving it out of site even if I'm in an adjoining office for example).
As for the MBP I use it for various tasks such as office applications, email, Internet, etc. but I want to start using it for development work and for running virtual Windows sessions (this is where the RAM comes in handy).
16GB RAM upgrade is about £100 from what I priced up, so I might do that first when the warranty runs out and if it still isn't fast enough for me I'll go down the SSD route for that also.
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Balling
Premium Member
Registered: 7th Apr 04
Location: Denmark
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Sam
16GB RAM upgrade is about £100 from what I priced up, so I might do that first when the warranty runs out and if it still isn't fast enough for me I'll go down the SSD route for that also.
16GB RAM will do nothing for load speeds. I would expect that 2GB RAM and SSD will have vastly better load times than 16GB RAM and mechanical drive.
If you have 4 or 8GB RAM today, don't bother with an upgrade to 16GB before an SSD.
Changing hard drive and RAM doesn't affect the warranty btw.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Balling
quote:
Originally posted by Sam
16GB RAM upgrade is about £100 from what I priced up, so I might do that first when the warranty runs out and if it still isn't fast enough for me I'll go down the SSD route for that also.
16GB RAM will do nothing for load speeds. I would expect that 2GB RAM and SSD will have vastly better load times than 16GB RAM and mechanical drive.
If you have 4 or 8GB RAM today, don't bother with an upgrade to 16GB before an SSD.
Changing hard drive and RAM doesn't affect the warranty btw.
As you say, RAM won't have any noticeable affect of loading times, however it'll help if Sam is using VMs. Although unless you're planning to run a few VMs at once, unlikely if it's just for Windows development, then 8GB should be sufficient (ie: Win7 with 2/3GB will happily run Visual Studio etc).
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Sam
Moderator
Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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My MBP has 4GB RAM at the moment, it struggles a bit with a VM session sometimes hence why I thought it'd be a good idea to upgrade to 16GB.
My Win7 VM is set to use 1GB RAM, anything more and everything grinds to a halt both in Windows and OS X.
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Dom
Member
Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Sam
My MBP has 4GB RAM at the moment, it struggles a bit with a VM session sometimes hence why I thought it'd be a good idea to upgrade to 16GB.
My Win7 VM is set to use 1GB RAM, anything more and everything grinds to a halt both in Windows and OS X.
1GB won't be great but Win7 should run, although ideally you'd give the VM 2GB+. However if you don't need Win7, then use XP as you can easily get away with 512/1024 VMs.
£100 is cheap for 16GB though; if you can it's worth while doing.
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