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So, you want the fastest possible Notes client start up - SSD

Darren Duke  December 8 2009 07:13:21 AM
Yesterday I lost the hard drive in my trusty Lenovo Thinkpad T500. Luckily I had my LS10 presentation on Quickr *wipes brow*.

Anyway I decided to replace it with a solid state drive (SSD). Specifically, after a modicum of research, I replace the faulty drive with a 128GB Torqx SSD from Patriot Memory. It was available at the local Micro Center so off I toddled to boldly go where I had never been before, credit card in hand.

So I replace the 160GB SATA drive with the 128GB SSD SATA drive and reinstalled Windows XP. I was going to go to 64 bit Windows 7, but the lack of Quickr Connectors prevented that.

Windows installed pretty fast (I think) but I was far from blown away. Hopefully this was due the the CDROM being the bottleneck. This drive ain't cheap!

Once Windows XP was up I really got to test this puppy out:
  • Windows XP SP3 upgrade (full exe, not the crappy Windows Update bootstrap version) took 4 minutes flat
  • Notes 8.5.1 with designer and admin took a smidge over 5 mins to install
  • Windows boots incredibly fast

Not too shabby!

Next, Lotus Notes cold start time. As outlined in a previous blog post 8.0.2 Lotus Notes Relative Performance I can take up to 40 or so seconds to start Notes from a cold start. Admittedly this is a slightly different laptop running 8.5.1 but it is close enough for comparison. With the SSD Lotus Notes started in less than 4 seconds.

Yes, a Lotus Notes 8.5.1 Standard client (the Eclipse one) from cold in just 4 seconds!

The future looks rosy, the future is SSD and Lotus Notes.

If anyone wants to donate a few of these I can test out server performance too :)

Note, I purchased this drive and Patriot in no way paid, gave or otherwise even know about this "almost" review.
Comments

Gravatar Image  1Flemming Riis  12/8/2009 8:12:46 AM  never anything else

i added 4 Intel X25-160 to my test server best investment ever , chickend out and put then in a R5 but it should be mandatory for everything.

Gravatar Image  2Tim Tripcony  12/8/2009 9:28:24 AM  Loving my SSD

I replaced my HD over the weekend with a Kingston 128GB SSD. Everything's snappier now... even web pages load faster (well, except for GMail, of course). It's also nice having a silent drive. My only minor nitpick is ironic: the drive is actually so light that the only significant weight source is now the battery... which doesn't matter when the laptop is on the desk, but actually causes the whole thing to feel just a tiny bit unbalanced when it's on my lap.

Gravatar Image  3Darren Duke  12/8/2009 9:56:59 AM  And another thing

I would expect the battery life on the Thinkpad to be extended too. As there are no moving parts in the drive, there should be less power consumption. I have yet to test this yet, but a long flight should prove that. Hopefully it will be significant.

Gravatar Image  4Darren Duke  12/8/2009 10:15:22 AM  How to even out the weight

@2, that is funny. I'm sure a dollop of play-dough attached to the bottom of the laptop will help ;)

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