HP Solid State Laptops - am I missing something?

[wutang112878]

I'm lobbying to get a solid state laptop because I run a 25GB SQL server database on my machine and this would be a huge upgrade for me over the traditional hard-drive situation I have.  Its ridiculous but I have to order it through Software House International because they are our preferred hardware supplier and I want to get an HP because its a brand our IT group will actually support.  
 
So I'm looking at a few options:
 
  [tablegrid= HP ]Model SHI Part# Monitor Memory Storage Processor K4K45UT 29351764 17 inch 8GB 256GB SSD 2.8ghz L9H60UT 30183929 15 inch 16GB 512GB SSD 2.6ghz F1M39UT 29351801 15 inch 16GB 256GB SSD / 1TB HDD 2.8ghz K4K46UT 29351765 17 inch 16GB 256GB SSD / 1TB HDD 2.8ghz K1M77AW 29489766 17 inch 8GB 256GB SSD 2.8ghz [/tablegrid]
 
As far as I can tell beyond the specs I noted above these laptops are all basically the same, except for the L9H60UT which doesnt have an optical drive which isnt a big deal.  What strikes me as odd is the difference in price between the K4K45UT & K4K46UT, the K4K46UT has 8GB more of memory which I can just buy an install for like $100 and also a 1TB HDD as well and I plan to get an external drive which would take care of that.  But is there anything else I am not seeing here?  Also, I cant figure out what the difference is between the the [SIZE=14.3999996185303px]K4K45UT and the [/SIZE]K1M77AW besides the 8GB of memory
 
Also, does anyone have any experience with HP SSDs or SSDs in general?  I've read some promising stuff but I'd like to hear what others have thought about them.

 

[Marceline]

Also, does anyone have any experience with HP SSDs or SSDs in general?  I've read some promising stuff but I'd like to hear what others have thought about them.

 
My work laptop is an HP with SSD and it's been great...no issues at all from that perspective. And it takes a beating because they install about 50,000 programs that all run in the background all the time. I've had my current laptop (8460p model) for 3 years - it uses an Intel SSD.
 
SSDs are a must at this point IMO - faster, more reliable, much less prone to failure.

 

[wutang112878]

 
SSDs are a must at this point IMO - faster, more reliable, much less prone to failure.

 
I think this would be the biggest benefit to me because I hear that thing churning all the time.  When I update my database it churns through like 50GB of data so the hard-drive is getting a really good workout moving all that data around and I know I'm shortening the life of my HDD.  Whereas with the solid state I have to believe that churning through that same amount of data wont be nearly as taxing because its just like shuffling data in and out of memory.  

 

[Couperin47]

 
I think this would be the biggest benefit to me because I hear that thing churning all the time.  When I update my database it churns through like 50GB of data so the hard-drive is getting a really good workout moving all that data around and I know I'm shortening the life of my HDD.  Whereas with the solid state I have to believe that churning through that same amount of data wont be nearly as taxing because its just like shuffling data in and out of memory.  

 
Much faster, much less battery draw (but as you already know this class of laptop is more of a luggable desktop replacement and they kill the battery very quickly anyway). Current SSDs have been torture tested and virtually all routinely exceed their lifespan specs by easily 180% ...you can run them continuously for years.. the only caveat is don't fill any SSD much past 75 or 80% of capacity or their 'wear leveling' algorithms can't operate properly and that seriously impacts lifespan. HP doesn't make SSDs, what will be inside is one of the main brands..all good: Intel, Crucial or Samsung most likely.
 
1. You didn't give us prices or links.
 
2. Newegg sells the K4K46UT for $3,977, does not carry the other...  HP sells the K1M77AW Online for $3,902 so the price differential is minimal...if you're seeing a big price differential at Software House, it's their own pricing eccentricity.
 
3. The K4 has Nvidia K4100M video, the K1 has K3100M video, functionally this probably makes zero difference, but tells us the K4 is the newer model.
 
4. Otherwise they do see functionally identical, BUT the pics tell me one thing: the older K1 seems to have a trackpad with REAL KEYS, the K4 seems to have gone to the new fashion of only virtual button areas on the trackpad...at best this is only slightly annoying... at worst it will drive you to mindless rage.

 

[Blacken]

the only caveat is don't fill any SSD much past 75 or 80% of capacity or their 'wear leveling' algorithms can't operate properly and that seriously impacts lifespan

This is not true and has not been for years. Modern SSD controllers use unmapped flash for wear leveling and dynamically remap in the LBA table on change.

 

[wutang112878]

So here are the prices and links:
 
K4K45UT - $2,602 link
L9H60UT - $2,444 link
F1M39UT - $2,725 link
K4K46UT - $3,948 link
K1M77AW - $3,962 link
 
I'm just baffled by the difference in the K4K45UT and 6UT price difference of $1,300 just makes zero sense to me.
 
Video card wise, yeah I'm doing work not gaming so I will never even notice that.  I also never, ever use the trackpad they drive me bonkers so thats not a big deal.
 
Assuming all of these models are in stock (still waiting to hear back), I'm sort of struggling to choose between the K4K45UT and F1M39UT.  If I buy 8GB of memory for the K4K45UT then the only differences are that the K4 has a 17 inch screen and only the SSD whereas the F1M has the 15 inch screen plus the 1TB HDD.  90% of the time I work from home and my laptop is connected to a monitor, but now that you mention only using 75% of the 256GB that means that I do need to keep a bunch of files off the SSD which would lead me back to the F1.  But I'm actually thinking if I just also get an internal 1TB HDD for ~$100 in memory and $100 in HDD I've functionally turned the K4 into the F1 and have the 17 inch monitor as well.  That seem logical?  

 

[Couperin47]

 
So here are the prices and links:
 
K4K45UT - $2,602 link
L9H60UT - $2,444 link
F1M39UT - $2,725 link
K4K46UT - $3,948 link
K1M77AW - $3,962 link
 
I'm just baffled by the difference in the K4K45UT and 6UT price difference of $1,300 just makes zero sense to me.
 
Video card wise, yeah I'm doing work not gaming so I will never even notice that.  I also never, ever use the trackpad they drive me bonkers so thats not a big deal.
 
Assuming all of these models are in stock (still waiting to hear back), I'm sort of struggling to choose between the K4K45UT and F1M39UT.  If I buy 8GB of memory for the K4K45UT then the only differences are that the K4 has a 17 inch screen and only the SSD whereas the F1M has the 15 inch screen plus the 1TB HDD.  90% of the time I work from home and my laptop is connected to a monitor, but now that you mention only using 75% of the 256GB that means that I do need to keep a bunch of files off the SSD which would lead me back to the F1.  But I'm actually thinking if I just also get an internal 1TB HDD for ~$100 in memory and $100 in HDD I've functionally turned the K4 into the F1 and have the 17 inch monitor as well.  That seem logical?  
 

 
Completely: The specs say the quad i7 version has 4 SODIMM slots, even if the 8 Gig installed is in 2 slots, you have 2 more and that's bog stock standard speed DDR3L 1600:
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&N=100007609%208000&IsNodeId=1&OEMMark=0%2CN%2C1&bop=And&page=1&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=IGNEFL050715&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL050715&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL050715-_-EMC-050715-Index-_-L0L-_-Memory
 
Today, on sale,  they will sell you an 8 Gig pair for under $60 or a 16 Gb pair for under $110.
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145875
 
The HGST (a WD company) 1 Tb, 7200 rpm drive with 3 year warranty (retail box which eliminates issues with bad packing of bare drives) is all of $71.
 
and Blacken is correct, this generation of SSD, the only issue if you really fill an SSD is there will be some reduction in performance as TRIM and garbage cleanup struggle somewhat when they have little room to work with, over-provisioning has removed the lifespan issue, though brands vary in how much memory they reserve for this function, which is the main reason (along with how they count) that you see SSDs that are speced as 120 or 128 Gb and anywhere from 240 to 256.

 

[wutang112878]

Quick update.  I got the K4K45UT and the SHI specs were not completely accurate because it came with a 1TB hard-drive installed already (bonus).  Anyway, I put in 16GB of additional memory so the final key performance specs are: 2.8ghz Intel Core i7, 24GB memory, ~256GB SSD and ~1TB HDD so I wanted to test out the performance compared to my old machine.  Specs on my old machine 2.5ghz Intel Core i5, 16GB memory and ~300GB HDD, so the processors are really comparable and the big upgrade is the additional 8GB memory & SSD.  
 
So I ran a few queries on my database and it looked like my new machine would run them maybe 3 times as fast as the old one but those queries arent super resource intensive.  Then I ran my process that updates my 25GB database which takes ~4 hours on my old machine and (I've run it a few times now) on my new machine it takes 30 minutes.  I was really, really impressed.  I cant wait to kick my old machine to the curb because I want to drive the Ferrari full-time!
 
Thanks for all the advice!

 

[Couperin47]

Excellent. Sounds like you really need/use a laptop with desktop performance. I'd love to see just how the average i3 laptop with 4 Gig of ram and no SSD would handle what you do....

 

[wutang112878]

Well with my old computer with just 8GB of memory, running this process could take up to 6 hours and while it was running it completely took over my machine, it looked like it froze while it was running it and I'd have to reboot after the process was complete.  Whats really scary is that my machine, with 8GB of memory, is what my company hands out for all its CAD users which is a complete joke.  We are way behind the times and really cheap.

 

[wutang112878]

Stupid question and I'm 99% confident the answer is yes but I'm assuming that any 2.5" SATA hard-drive is basically going to fit into this machine right?
 
I asked to return the 1TB HDD that I had ordered and I was thinking of getting another SSD because I'm quickly filling up the ~250GB that it has installed.  The supply house is suggesting just HP drives which are way over-priced so I'm thinking of going with a Seagate or Crucial which is really a fraction of the HP cost

 

[Couperin47]

Stupid question and I'm 99% confident the answer is yes but I'm assuming that any 2.5" SATA hard-drive is basically going to fit into this machine right?
 
I asked to return the 1TB HDD that I had ordered and I was thinking of getting another SSD because I'm quickly filling up the ~250GB that it has installed.  The supply house is suggesting just HP drives which are way over-priced so I'm thinking of going with a Seagate or Crucial which is really a fraction of the HP cost

 
"Normal" 2.5" SSD drives came in 2 sizes: either 7mm high or 9 mm high, every current laptop will fit either, if you are replacing a HD with an SSD, you, obviously, have even more room, the issue may be finding a carrier/shim to fill the HD space. You want Crucial, Samsung 850, Intel, OCZ or Plextor for the other SSD...there have been serious sales on 480 and 960 Gb drives recently....Seagate is new to this market , avoid atm.  480/500 Gb drives from these brands have been seen as low as $170 - $180.

 

[wutang112878]

Cool, thanks!  I actually just ordered a Crucial 250GB, I had to get it through our supplier where I had the rebate so my pricing options were kind of limited.  
 
I'm pretty pumped to start using this machine.  All I have to do is get my IT group to stop dragging their feet and allow my computer on the network.  Its unreal, you do anything that isnt standard operating procedure and its like pulling teeth.