My laptop is running like a pig. A reinstall of windows would certainly help, but I'm also thinking an SSD to replace the slooow drive that's currently in it.

I have a terabyte drive at the moment, currently using 617GB of that ( :S ), although I guess that a large chunk of it is downloads that could happily go onto a NAS of some sorts. Still wouldn't want to be constrained to a small drive though.

So looking at prices, I could probably manage a 500GBish* SSD for about £150, but what are hybrid drives like? There's a 1TB Toshiba on Ebuyer for £75. If it really can offer a decent performance, at a quarter of the price/GB then that'd be lovely. I'm guessing it's a bit of a con, though.

Hybrid: http://www.ebuyer.com/639067-seagate-1tb-2-5inch-9-5mm-sshd-stbd1000400


*480GB between 150 and 160ish, from Crucial, Kingston, Sandisk and OCZ. There's also a 512Gb Crucial for 160ish.
 

I looked into this a while back (might have even posted a m-d here at that point), concluding you are better off with an ssd than a hybrid (as it happened, I bought a spinny platter instead).

There's also the WD Black to consider. It's not a hybrid, but actually two drives in one. Basically, you get 1TB of spinning metal and a 120GB SSD in a single 2.5" chassis. Might be worth looking at. It's also cheaper than a large SSD, but also more expensive than a hybrid mind you.

Now that is quite interesting. I think I'd hate having to choose what to install on the SSD, though. Maybe if they could make the SSD bigger it would be more of a tempting offer.

Thought as much. I'm thinking 500ish gig ssd and a nas box to stick the old drive in.

It's pretty much the best way - that said, I have a two drive laptop and I use the non-SSD for all of my "storage" (Mostly work stuff, but my Steam stuff is also there) and use the SSD for all other software installations and the OS.

 

I'm pretty sure kine was meant to have two bays, but when I opened it up it's only one. My original plan was ssd + normal drive :-(

IIRC, the WD Black only runs on Windows and requires specific software running.

Might be mixing it up with something else, but I'm pretty sure I decided against it for something along those lines. (Which might not be an issue in this situation, but if anyone else is looking...)

Having been previously sort of opposed to SSDs I did a u-turn and got one the other day. Being on Linux means I don't have to choose between installing the OS or the apps on the SSD (since the two are kinda indivisible). So I just put everything on the SSD and will just install the odd large game to HDD.

My PC now boots from bootloader to desktop in 4 seconds. Which is ridiculous. (And not all that useful really).

Browser opens instantly which is nice.

Think I'll get a big one. Sick of 5 minutes plus to get a usable system. :(

I use that valuable 5 minutes to fetch and pour a cold beer. If I knew my PC was already up and running, it would destroy my enjoyment.

It takes you 5 minutes to get a beer? Armature :C

I'm easily distracted.

So am I. Normally by more beer.

2Y?

One thing, once you get an SSD you can never go back to mechanical drives for system drives ever again :)

Peter, I do not understand the question.

I can barely face them now, and I've never used an ssd before!

:(

> Having been previously sort of opposed to SSDs I did a u-turn and got one the other day

...

I need more help.