Cheap ways to add SSD

Hi guys - I am a guy on a limited budget and normally buy a notebook around 400 euro when I need a new one. My current one has i3 dual core bought 3-4 years ago, but Logos 5 is really slow with my 4.5k books. I would like to be able to run Logos 6 but general consensus is you need SSD. I'm considering buying a new one but laptops with enough SSD (i.e. 40Gb and above) cost around 1000 euro for me based in UK or Italy. Surely I don't have to spend twice my normal budget just to get Logos to run at a decent pace? Any ideas of how to get around this?

Thank you,

Paul

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Lynden O. Williams

How much memory does the computer have? Also, do you clean the system use a registry software like ccleaner and defrag your harddrive?

Yes a Ssd would make a big difference. I am thinking of adding it to the current computer.

NB.Mick

Hi guys - I am a guy on a limited budget and normally buy a notebook around 400 euro when I need a new one. My current one has i3 dual core bought 3-4 years ago, but Logos 5 is really slow with my 4.5k books. I would like to be able to run Logos 6 but general consensus is you need SSD. I'm considering buying a new one but laptops with enough SSD (i.e. 40Gb and above) cost around 1000 euro for me based in UK or Italy.

There is a consensus that Logos (5 or 6) is greatly enhanced by a SSD and I personally would recommend it very strongly, but there's no requirement to have it. L6 will normally not run slower than L5 - maybe even faster (they're working on startup in the current beta).

The solution for your scenario is perhaps to not buy a new laptop with SSD, but to replace your HD with an SSD (they go for around 100 Euro in Germany)

Tes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/717663#Comment_717663

Thanks for the good advice from the Forum members such as NB Mick. I had a very slow computer, I bought SSD with 250GH. I am very satisfied with it Logos and other programs, which I have installed run faster as well. I bought it €115.00 in Germany from Amazon. So, I think SSD is a good solution.

Dan Langston

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/717672#Comment_717672

Logos has not been slow on my SSD for 4 years using a 2010 macbook air, it certainly has eliminated a lot of frustration.

Mark Barnes

I'm considering buying a new one but laptops with enough SSD (i.e. 40Gb and above) cost around 1000 euro for me based in UK or Italy. Surely I don't have to spend twice my normal budget just to get Logos to run at a decent pace? Any ideas of how to get around this?

Buy an ordinary spec laptop, and then an SSD separately, if you need to. Prices in the UK are £40-45 for 120GB, around £75 for 256GB, and around £150 for 512Gb. I recommend eBuyer.com

For Logos, I'd recommend 8Gb RAM plus an SSD.

Dave Hooton

I'm considering buying a new one but laptops with enough SSD (i.e. 40Gb and above) cost around 1000 euro

You can't survive with 40 GB or 64 GB for Windows OS and Logos 6 (let alone other apps and media!). Minimum is 120 GB, but I recommend 180 GB and above for longevity and consistency (SSD's slow down as they fill, and 80% is the maximum you should use).

Paul Chatfield

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/717925#Comment_717925

Thanks Mark and Dave for your specific comments. I like your idea Mark of getting a basic one and then upgrading the hard drive - that seems the best way forward - at least then I'll only spend an extra £150 for 500Gb SSD.

Fred Chapman

I purchased this one for my laptop last year

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/transcend-ssd320-512-gb-internal-solid-state-drive/1311444132.p?id=mp1311444132&skuId=1311444132

Besy Buy says this one is also popular

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-850-evo-500gb-internal-serial-ata-solid-state-drive-for-laptops-black/1662009.p?id=1219507980756&skuId=1662009

I don't know if the is a discount electronics store where you are offering something similar. Perhaps online ordering through Best Buy and having it shipped would be an option.

David A Egolf

We attempted to migrate my work Windows 7 laptop to an SSD for a different reason than Logos. Our company PC support guy installed the SSD by moving an image of the drive. He followed some detailed instructions which involved making changes to the file system which were necessary due to differences in SSD's. (Our folks are quite cognizant of SSD behavior. We built and released an SSD based database server last year.) It took about a week for the system to become unusable.

The moral of that story is that if you intend to use the SSD as the root drive of the system, then INSTALL directly on the drive. This allows the installed OS to choose the appropriate drivers and put the correct management policies in place.

Secondly, I wanted to say that I employ Logos 6 on a desktop and two laptops. None of them have SSD drives and I find Logos 6 to be fine.

Thirdly, I will say that Logos contributes significantly to the memory load on the system. I don't believe that 2GB is viable for Windows and even 4 GB is somewhat constraining if, like me, you tend to leave a lot of applications open at one time. On the other hand, I have an 8 GB laptop. My typical use case is to have Firefox with 40 tabs, MS Outlook, at least one IDE like Eclipse, MS Lync, XWin 32 with 2 - 3 windows, 3 or 4 Acrobat files open, and an Excel spreadsheet open. Adding Logos to this is no particular problem. So 8 GB of memory covers a multitude of "sins".

So I would suggest that some folks who thought they needed an SSD might have been satisfied with more memory. It's certainly a cheaper solution.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/718131#Comment_718131

So I would suggest that some folks who thought they needed an SSD might have been satisfied with more memory.

The thing is that you could have 16+ GB of memory and still provide a noticeable boost for Logos with an SSD. Memory is for multi-tasking and more operating system resources without paging to virtual memory on the hard drive.

You can image an SSD on the same OS with today's cloning software and it will take care of file system alignment. The only problem I had was getting the laptop to boot, but that was quickly rectified with a (Windows 7) Recovery disk.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/718131#Comment_718131

We attempted to migrate my work Windows 7 laptop to an SSD for a different reason than Logos. Our company PC support guy installed the SSD by moving an image of the drive. He followed some detailed instructions which involved making changes to the file system which were necessary due to differences in SSD's. (Our folks are quite cognizant of SSD behavior. We built and released an SSD based database server last year.) It took about a week for the system to become unusable.

I've migrated three PCs to SSDs, and each time had difficulty, the first time being stumped for a couple of days. But nowadays good SSD drives will come with cloning software that will sort all these problems out. My issue was that I was trying to use free software, which wasn't really good enough. Take care to check the support section of the manufacturer's website for their cloning software, before beginning.

Fred Chapman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/718277#Comment_718277

I have cloned two drives using EZ Gig by Apricorn. It has worked well both times. Total time spent cloning and swapping hardware is 30-40 minutes each time.

mab

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/718337#Comment_718337

I'd suggest cleaning some room on your current setup. Windows 7 and 8 have a disk cleanup utility that can get rid of GBs of backup junk.

Cost is zero. Then run the defrag. You might be surprised at how much better it will be..

Mark Barnes

Paul,

For the next 24 hours, eBuyer is offering a 240Gb Kingston SSD for less than £60 including delivery. That's a great price!

http://www.ebuyer.com/daily-deals

Deacon Steve

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/718846#Comment_718846

I have a related question for the group. Is there some diagnostic software that I can run that can tell me if I have a SATA III interface?

I have an HP laptop about a 1.5 years old with a 3 Gen Intel i3 processor in it (Win 8.1). It didn't have a datasheet that came with it and I can't find one on-line anywhere that gives that level of detail.

Any help is appreciated.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/718867#Comment_718867

I have an HP laptop about a 1.5 years old with a 3 Gen Intel i3 processor in it (Win 8.1). It didn't have a datasheet that came with it and I can't find one on-line anywhere that gives that level of detail.

If you look at Technical Details on the website they usually state 'SATA' only, but you can safely assume it is SATA III for 2 year old products (for the same reason it wouldn't be the outdated/slower PATA interface).

But you could install the free version of something like this program run its Mainboard module and look for Disk Controller, where SATA150 = SATA I, SATA300 = SATA II and SATA600 = SATA III. Alternatively just browse for "find sata speed"

Deacon Steve

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/718879#Comment_718879

That's a nifty program, Dave. Thanks for that. I wanted to paste over the result for you to see, but I needed to run the program from the admin account and I wasn't able to get the results copied over to my user account.

Basically, the system appears to be SATA III (G3 / SATA600) capable but that section of the report a couple of lines later indicates there are 2 channels: one channel is SATA300 and the other is SATA150.

I think I have laptop that is "dumbed down".

Thoughts?

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/718915#Comment_718915

No, you have a SATA III machine. If you connect a SATA III hard drive it will run at that speed. A SATA II device will be run at SATA II speed, etc.