From Mechanical to SSD, from SSD to fast SSD

[JD]

Is this used only in your laptop? If so, I'd probably say it's not worth it, unless you're looking for more space then I'd surely spend a little extra for Sandforce vs the "cheap" Kingston (which I don't think is all that much cheaper?)

[AkG]

Does your laptop support Sata 6GB/s? If not...probably not worth going for either a SF2281 or C400 based controller drives. They need sata 6 to perform their best.

If it does not, instead of SF2281s or Kingston V lines...which are at the polar opposite of the performance curve...Loot at the Intel 320, its a good drive. OR look at the older Vertex 2/Force 2 drives. The SF1200's were very good drives and SATA 2 only.

[ipaine]

Well I have just switched from a Kingston V+ 128GB ssd up to a Corsair Force 3 240GB and I can notice a difference. This was just a straight clone so the OS and all junk and settings are exactly the same. I know the windows score went from a lousy 5.9 up to 7.9. That aside I do notice a more snappy system again, sure it is not to the same effect as it was going from hdd to sdd but it is noticeable in my case.

[JimboToronto]

Originally Posted by OJX

Going from a western digital black to a 64 GB ssd was a huge improvement in responsiveness (boot time, app launch, search, etc). Now how much improvement is one expected to notice going from a low-end kingston SSD to a newer 120GB Sandforce drive?

The biggest improvement will be in small file random reads and writes which will affect general system snappiness. Sandforce excels in this regard.

You didn't say which Kingston "low-end" SSD you have but presumably it's based on a Jmicron controller.

I feel it's safe to say that you'll see a visible performance improvement from a Sandforce SSD.

I've seen a visible speedup with every SSD upgrade, from my original 4x Vertex1 (RAID-0) array replacing my 4x Raptor HDD array in my old Q6600 system 2 1/2 years ago, to my newest Revo3 upgrade from a Vertex3 in my newer 2600K system.

The improvement may not be quite as dramatic as going from HDD to SSD but it should still be noticeable.