Crucial M4 512GB or 1TB 5,400RPM HDD?

[Prodo123]

I'm looking to upgrade my computer once again, and it has come down to this.
I currently have a Seagate Momentus XT 500GB. There's not quite enough space, but with cleanup I'm sure I can manage. I have around 380GB filled, with more to come.

So, I'm left with:
Crucial M4 512GB - Huge performance gain, no storage gain
1TB 9.5mm HDD - No/little performance gain, huge storage gain

I also heard the M4's garbage collection sucks without TRIM on. How will TRIM enabler perform on the M4, and what effect will 380GB of data have on the M4?

And most of all, which one should I choose? I'm thinking of using Newegg promos in conjunction to Cyber Monday for huge discounts.
Thanks!

 

[thundersteele]

I would always go for the SSD. So the crucial it is.

How about a 256 GB SSD and a 1TB external drive? The 512 GB SSD will not be enough for you eventually, so why not save some money and store part of your data externally?

 

[ZMacintosh]

idk with HDD prices the way they are at this date, maybe get a nice SSD 256-512 range and a data-doubler? 750GB 7200RPM or 5400RPM 1TB

No sense in carrying around an external HDD if your primary resource is storage and perhaps not optical media.

 

[intelliot]

idk with HDD prices the way they are at this date, maybe get a nice SSD 256-512 range and a data-doubler? 750GB 7200RPM or 5400RPM 1TB

Are you saying that HDD prices are low, or high?

I think they doubled when the floods in Thailand occurred..

 

[Spadoinkles]

Are you saying that HDD prices are low, or high?

I think they doubled when the floods in Thailand occurred..

They're still ridiculously high. They are over here in New Zealand anyway.

If you aren't desperate for the upgrade (and you really shouldn't..) I'd wait until Thailand eases up and hdds start to flow again. At your rate you'll always run out of space, so externals are inevitable; why not pick one up to tie you through anyway (since you'll be needing one eventually, and the prices are reasonable)..

I wouldn't know what sort of data you have, but if they don't require rapid read/writes (say if they're mostly music/movies etc) you wouldn't benefit as much from an SSD and should otherwise go for the larger 1TB.

 

[Prodo123]

They're still ridiculously high. They are over here in New Zealand anyway.

If you aren't desperate for the upgrade (and you really shouldn't..) I'd wait until Thailand eases up and hdds start to flow again. At your rate you'll always run out of space, so externals are inevitable; why not pick one up to tie you through anyway (since you'll be needing one eventually, and the prices are reasonable)..

I wouldn't know what sort of data you have, but if they don't require rapid read/writes (say if they're mostly music/movies etc) you wouldn't benefit as much from an SSD and should otherwise go for the larger 1TB.

It depends on your definition of music. My music is all lossless (meaning 300MB per 10 songs), movies are all 1080p (~9GB per each), have lots of documents, etc. so they might require fast reads.
I was thinking more of the physical aspect of the SSD than the speed, though. Less noise, less power consumed, less heat, less weight, more durable. I considered OCZ, but SandForce is too unstable.

And speaking of the floods, since the demand for SSDs and HDDs haven't changed much in a couple weeks while HDD price has been nearly doubling, shouldn't that drive the SSD price down? Also, It's urgent because Cyber Monday could give massive discounts otherwise, there are no other reason as to why I would consider a SSD.

 

[polbit]

Since I got the M4, you know what my suggestion will be. The performance upgrade is so great that I can't ever imagine running the OS off of a mechanical HD again. I would think of it this way - what will you notice more, the overall snappiness of the system, or the occasional need to hook up an external disk to offload/archive some files.