X200s Upgrades

[zdriver]

I am considering upgrading the ram to 8gb & replacing the stock 160gb HD with a 120gb Kingston HyperX SSD drive.
All from Newegg.com

This is the ram I am looking at ...... Crucial or Kingston kit. Cannot find any detailed specs on the Kingston TP 1066 ram.

Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory Model CT2KIT51264BC1067
Cas Latency: 7
Voltage: 1.5V
ECC: No
Buffered/Registered: Unbuffered
Model #: CT2KIT51264BC1067
Item #: N82E16820148276
$49.99

Kingston KTL-TP1066/4G
204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM
Capacity 4GB x 2
Speed DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500)
$26.99 x 2

The SSD drive is Kingston HyperX SH100S3B/120G
2.5"
Capacity 120GB
Interface SATA III
Controller SandForce SF-2281
Height 9.5mm
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820139601

Can anyone confirm which ram would be the better choice or any thoughts on the HyperX SSD in this machine.
The bios is up to date & the OS is windows 7 Pro 64 bit.
Any input is appreciated ....

[ZaZ]

I doubt there's much of a difference in the memory for real world usage. I'd ask what you're doing where you need 8GB of memory. A SSD will put some spring in your step, but I don't know much about the Kingston drives.

[Atreides]

As Fred said most people don't need 8gb of memory, but if you like to multitask A LOT then 8gb laptop kits are so cheap nowadays there's no harm in going for 8. Just choose the cheapest PC3-8500 kit.

I've been looking around at SSDs a fair bit for my own X200s, so I can tell you what I've learned. The HyperX is probably overkill for what you need. You're paying a premium for a SATA 3 SSD, but the X200s chipset is SATA 2 so the drive is going to be capped at 300mb read/write possible throughput anyway. I'd recommend looking at either Kingston's cheaper offerings or Corsair's Agility line is pretty well reviewed, Intel and Samsung make great SSDs as well, although theirs are a little bit pricier than the other manufacturers (they use their own controllers).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820147124

This is what I'm probably going to get, it seems to have the lowest power consumption of any SSD and most of what I've read says its just as fast as the Intel SSDs. It's important to remember that with SSDs the synthetic read/write speeds only tell part of the story, and a drive that appears slower may actually be faster in real world usage.

[zdriver]

I occasionally use this machine to run a DVR video review application (up to 32 camera's at a time).
4GB handles it, but ram is so cheap now, its tough to resist maxing out the capacity. Also, sometimes it tends to go up in price as it ages & the demand drops off. Just don't want to kick myself a year from now if I go to upgrade the ram and find out its doubled in price.

Thanks for the SSD info Atreides ...
I understand your point on sata2 vs sata3. When you move up to the 128GB variety, the price comes very close to the Hyperx drive (on sale now with the kit for $228 with the rebate). I was also thinking of the future, if I upgrade the notebook & move the drive over.

[ZaZ]

8gb laptop kits are so cheap nowadays there's no harm in going for 8.

More memory can lengthen hibernation and resume times if that's an issue.

[zdriver]

Update

Went with & installed the Crucial 8GB ram kit - easy upgrade, ran memtest86 - no issues - Windows score remained the same at a respectable 5.8

Next, installed the HyperX SSD 120GB drive, dramatic performance boost, also a smooth install.
My original 160GB 7200rpm drive now resides as a backup in the Kingston supplied external USB case.
Windows score rose from 5.3 to 7.7 Running stable with no issues for 3 days, we will see ....

[anarti77]

I have upgraded X200s with previous generation Intel X-25M 160GB ssd. What a boost. Everything is runing so smoothly. I do not actually feel that my X200s is only 1.6Ghz Core 2 Duo low voltage processor as it performs so nice at the moment. I was thinking of upgrading this laptop to X201 as they dropped price on ebay but...there is no points doing this as it performs very well.

Personally I have never even considered more RAM than 4GB as this is even more than enough. I've got 6GB ram in my T410 and even running VM or doing photo edition RAM usage never goes above 5GB which is great (on Linux of course).

Just one question, does your X200s have very dark screen even on the max brightness? My t410 is at least twice brighter at max settings that X200s. I've got CCFL screen with 1280x800 resolution.

[zdriver]

Glad to hear the transition to the SSD drive has worked out well. If you have run any benchmarks on it, I would be interested to see how it compares to the Kingston drive. The Intel 160 was my 2nd choice.
Newegg here has the 8GB ram kit for $43, so it was a great upgrade with the SSD (no windows swap file)

My machine has the LED SXGA+ screen which is quite bright. Maybe someone with the same display as yours will chime in for a more accurate comparison.

[anarti77]

zdriver - I do not use windows, and do not have any benchmarking tools. It's very very fast I would say. I checked it's speed once but can't remember any results. I think Intel SSD drives are the only choice for me, I wouldn't even consider anything else in that matter.