# SSH vs HDD in Netbooks



## swimdude0614 (Mar 3, 2009)

I just checked Newegg for Netbooks again, and noticed that the cheapest Netbooks no longer offer SSDs as a choice. Do the HDDs perform slower? By "perform" I'm simply refering to boot-up time, opening programs, possibly web browsing (I've heard that uses the HD a lot due to caching?) etc.

Thanks,
David


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## Urbklr (Mar 4, 2009)

Most netbooks have slow SSDs, and XP runs extremely slow on them(unless formatted to fat32). I would take a HDD over an SSD netbook anyday. That's just me thou


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## mlee49 (Mar 4, 2009)

Dont most Netbooks that use 2-40GB of SSD anyways?  Its only the larger capacity hard drives(120GB+) that use normal HDD's.

The small SSD's are minimal preformance boosts.  Not the full fledged SATA SSD with MRLC(crazy fast read/write times)

Basically its like flash drive memory which is limited to the bus controller(ie USB) so I'm thinking that that the "preformance" wont be there.


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## ktr (Mar 4, 2009)

Actually, the mechanical hard drive is faster that the SSD equipped in netbooks. But it consumes more power than the SSD. 

Netbook SSD looks like this: 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





and it is *NOT* comparable to these type of SSD:


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## mlee49 (Mar 4, 2009)

ktr said:


> Actually, the mechanical hard drive is faster that the SSD equipped in netbooks. But it consumes more power than the SSD.
> 
> Netbook SSD looks like this:



What bus type is that?  I'm curious to know the transfer rate of those.


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## Urbklr (Mar 4, 2009)

I know in my netbook the HDD is S-ATA. I don't think the SSD version is S-ATA thou. About battery life, you gain about 20-30 mins from an SSD.


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## ktr (Mar 4, 2009)

mlee49 said:


> What bus type is that?  I'm curious to know the transfer rate of those.



It is both PCI-E 1x and USB 2.0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_Mini_Card

So PCI-e 1x is 250mb/s data rate...


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## swimdude0614 (Mar 4, 2009)

so, another netbook(ish) question:
i'm downloading Easy Peasy onto my 1gb flash drive right now, and about to try it on my desktop, just to see how quick i can go from unpowered to browsing the web. anyone know if it will work or am i just wasting my time?


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## mlee49 (Mar 4, 2009)

Some performance notes, the SSD flash memory will boot random access memory faster than sequential ordered memory.  So booting Vista will happen faster since it access it randomly, but extracting a 1GB file will take longer.

My opinion will be to go with a 5.4k Sata HDD.





ktr said:


> It is both PCI-E 1x and USB 2.0
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_Mini_Card
> 
> So PCI-e 1x is 250mb/s data rate...



Thank you, good stuff there.


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## swimdude0614 (Mar 4, 2009)

mlee49 said:


> My opinion will be to go with a 5.4k Sata HDD.



is this not the normal for netbooks? if i were to ever buy a netbook, it would be more because i can get a cheap laptop than anything else - so putting another $XX into would not appeal to me really.


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## mlee49 (Mar 4, 2009)

swimdude0614 said:


> is this not the normal for netbooks? if i were to ever buy a netbook, it would be more because i can get a cheap laptop than anything else - so putting another $XX into would not appeal to me really.



The HDD choice for netbooks is mixed currently.  Some cheaper ones go with cheap SSD HDD, which are just flash memory like a SD card.

My choice would be a smaller laptop screen(15.4"), decent HDD(250+GB), and 2-4GB DDR2 ram.


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## swimdude0614 (Mar 11, 2009)

Another question about netbooks:

I'm looking at getting either an Asus or Acer and I found the perfect model but I don't see ANY difference between the two in the specifications. So, the only thing I'm wondering is, do the Acers include a scroll bar on the right edge of the mouse pad? I know the Asuss do. Or is that nothing more than a change in the OS, in which case does Easy Peasy support the scroll bar?

Asus EPC1000HA
&
Acer AOD150


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