Looking for a new desktop with an SSD
I'm in Ottawa, Canada and would like to configure a new desktop machine with a 3'rd gen I7, lots of RAM and an SSD to hold Windows and my programs. I imagine I'd want to upgrade the system to Windows 8 when it becomes available.
I've checked the Dell.ca and HP.ca websites to see if they have such a beast and came up empty handed (except for a $3000 Dell / Alienware box). I've also checked out other online retailers (BestBuy, FutureShop, Staples and TigerDirect.ca) but can't seem to find anything to my liking.
I've seen a couple of systems that boast a traditional high capacity hard-drive with an embedded SSD but I can't seem to find a system with Win 7 pre-installed (plus a low-cost upgrade offer to Win 8) on a 256GB SSD as the main drive and a 1TB HD as the secondary drive.
I suppose I'd be willing to build a system but in a perfect world, I'd like to simply be able to drive down to a place like FutureShop / BestBuy / Staples or a local Ma & Pa computer shop (if any still exist), plop down $1500 - $2000 (box only. no peripherals required) and walk away with a pre-configured system.
Does anyone have a suggestion for me?
Thanks.
I've checked the Dell.ca and HP.ca websites to see if they have such a beast and came up empty handed (except for a $3000 Dell / Alienware box). I've also checked out other online retailers (BestBuy, FutureShop, Staples and TigerDirect.ca) but can't seem to find anything to my liking.
I've seen a couple of systems that boast a traditional high capacity hard-drive with an embedded SSD but I can't seem to find a system with Win 7 pre-installed (plus a low-cost upgrade offer to Win 8) on a 256GB SSD as the main drive and a 1TB HD as the secondary drive.
I suppose I'd be willing to build a system but in a perfect world, I'd like to simply be able to drive down to a place like FutureShop / BestBuy / Staples or a local Ma & Pa computer shop (if any still exist), plop down $1500 - $2000 (box only. no peripherals required) and walk away with a pre-configured system.
Does anyone have a suggestion for me?
Thanks.
Some laptops ship with SSD.
SSD has a lot of challenges - most notably highly used parts of the drive can wear out. This results in many "SSD conversion and tuning" guides telling you to move your often used temp files to a standard hard disk. Of course it is these same files that benefit from being loaded from SSD.
You also have to keep a constant watch on your Windows partition.
I am running SSD as the primary drive on my 8GB machine and I can't say all the foibles and expense were worth the small speed increase over good 7200 RPM drives - or even a 10K RPM drive for that matter.
Windows 8 requires LESS hardware than Windows 7 because the "Aero" interface is basically being abandoned.
SSD has a lot of challenges - most notably highly used parts of the drive can wear out. This results in many "SSD conversion and tuning" guides telling you to move your often used temp files to a standard hard disk. Of course it is these same files that benefit from being loaded from SSD.
You also have to keep a constant watch on your Windows partition.
I am running SSD as the primary drive on my 8GB machine and I can't say all the foibles and expense were worth the small speed increase over good 7200 RPM drives - or even a 10K RPM drive for that matter.
Windows 8 requires LESS hardware than Windows 7 because the "Aero" interface is basically being abandoned.
ASKER
Thanks guys. As a developer, I will need a Win 8 machine with Office 2013 on it for testing and support purposes.
I was under the impression that an SSD would significantly outperform a conventional 7200rpm HD. I recall using RamDisks back in the DOS days and they were infinitely faster than hard disks at the time. I was also under the impression that the SSD issues of a few years back (Trim) had been addressed.
I was hoping the technology had come along to the point where I could buy an off-the-shelf solution. I'm not crazy about adding an SSD after the fact as it seems to me it would require an awful lot of work.
I was under the impression that an SSD would significantly outperform a conventional 7200rpm HD. I recall using RamDisks back in the DOS days and they were infinitely faster than hard disks at the time. I was also under the impression that the SSD issues of a few years back (Trim) had been addressed.
I was hoping the technology had come along to the point where I could buy an off-the-shelf solution. I'm not crazy about adding an SSD after the fact as it seems to me it would require an awful lot of work.
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If you really need win8, you could buy an extra license (not an upgrade), and install it in a VM rather than blowing away Windows 7.
>Certainly they out perform 7200 RPM HDs on benchmarks!
More than just benchmarks - SSDs outperform hard drives in real life applications all the time.
An SSD has random access rates more than 10x faster han a traditional hard drive, and boot times can be as quick as 30 sec for Win 7. That's a real life Corsair Force GT SSD boot time for my machine. For developing, the disk I/O is an inescapable occurrence, and an SSD will help there.
Adding an SSD after the fact is a no-brainer: you use disk cloning software to duplicate the entire drive (including boot sector) and then swap the new drive in. Make sure AHCI mode is set in the BIOS and TRIM is enabled in the OS, and that's it.
More than just benchmarks - SSDs outperform hard drives in real life applications all the time.
An SSD has random access rates more than 10x faster han a traditional hard drive, and boot times can be as quick as 30 sec for Win 7. That's a real life Corsair Force GT SSD boot time for my machine. For developing, the disk I/O is an inescapable occurrence, and an SSD will help there.
Adding an SSD after the fact is a no-brainer: you use disk cloning software to duplicate the entire drive (including boot sector) and then swap the new drive in. Make sure AHCI mode is set in the BIOS and TRIM is enabled in the OS, and that's it.
ASKER
I went down to my local big box computer store (FutureShop) and picked up an HP Pavilion Phoenix (h9-1183) . 3'rd Gen I7 with 12 GB RAM, 2 TB HD, 120 GB SSD and a Radeon HD 7770.
Windows is loaded on the SSD and it takes about 15 seconds from power-on to the login screen.
Visual Studio 2012 loads in 3 seconds. Visual Studio 2010 on my HP first generation I7 takes about 12 seconds to load.
Windows is loaded on the SSD and it takes about 15 seconds from power-on to the login screen.
Visual Studio 2012 loads in 3 seconds. Visual Studio 2010 on my HP first generation I7 takes about 12 seconds to load.
I told you an SSD would make a difference in real life...
ASKER
Yes. And thanks. My quest was to find something off the shelf.
It turns out that it is a perfect world. A couple of days after posting my question, I stumbled across the machine at the futureshop.ca website. It was $1399 and in-stock, so I drove down to FutureShop, plopped down $1600 (with taxes) and walked away with a pre-configured system.
:)
I suppose I'd be willing to build a system but in a perfect world, I'd like to simply be able to drive down to a place like FutureShop / BestBuy / Staples or a local Ma & Pa computer shop (if any still exist), plop down $1500 - $2000 (box only. no peripherals required) and walk away with a pre-configured system.
It turns out that it is a perfect world. A couple of days after posting my question, I stumbled across the machine at the futureshop.ca website. It was $1399 and in-stock, so I drove down to FutureShop, plopped down $1600 (with taxes) and walked away with a pre-configured system.
:)
Enjoy!
http://www.paragon-software.com/downloads/home/
Personally I consider Windows 8 a useless piece of OS and wouldn't consider "downgrading" a Windows 7 PC to that OS. It only makes some sense for a smart phone or tablet, and on those I'd prefer Android or Linux as the OS.