335 or 520-series for home laptop?

[mv8]

My name is Mike and I need to replace the family laptop's hard drive.

We have a circa 2009 laptop.

I will re-install Windows 7 on the new drive (replacing the one that just broke).

We primarily run the Office suite and internet on it.

Some video, but no too much.

The laptop only has 3 Gb of RAM.

I am leaning to an SSD drive over a traditional drive.

A friend in IT recommended Intel over the competition.

Looking at MicroCenter's website, I see two comparable drives... the 335- and 520-series.

It looks like the 520's primarily a bit quicker... but is that speed worth the $30 (sure, "only" $30, but I ask to better understand the technology).

And while these are the two on MicroCenter's site... both 180GB...

http://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?N=4294945779+4294964566&cat=Intel-:-Solid-Stat... http://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?N=4294945779+4294964566&cat=Intel-:-Solid-Stat...

(individual drive pages:

http://www.microcenter.com/product/383872/520_Series_180GB_SATA_60Gb-s_25_Internal_Solid_State_Drive... http://www.microcenter.com/product/383872/520_Series_180GB_SATA_60Gb-s_25_Internal_Solid_State_Drive...

http://www.microcenter.com/product/408640/335_Series_SSDSC2CT180A4K5_180GB_SATA_60Gb-s_25_Internal_S... http://www.microcenter.com/product/408640/335_Series_SSDSC2CT180A4K5_180GB_SATA_60Gb-s_25_Internal_S... )

Would I be better off paying extra for the 240 GB 335-series - http://www.microcenter.com/product/400663/335_Series_240GB_25_SATA_6Gb-s_Solid_State_Drive_(SSD)_SSD... http://www.microcenter.com/product/400663/335_Series_240GB_25_SATA_6Gb-s_Solid_State_Drive_(SSD)_SSD... ?

Which should we get?

Thanks,

Mike

[Jose_H_Intel1]

Hello Mike,

Perhaps this one on one comparison of the two mentioned Intel® SSDs will give you more information in order to choose between them:

http://ark.intel.com/compare/71527,66249 http://ark.intel.com/compare/71527,66249

Please note two things: the Intel® SSD 335 listed above is higher capacity, the 180GB is not available for that comparison in ark.intel.com but the rest of the specifications should be the same as you can find in the product specifications linked below. Secondly, the price may not be accurate as it may vary according to the seller or authorized distributor.

http://download.intel.com/newsroom/kits/ssd/pdfs/Intel_SSD_335_Series_Product_Specification.pdf http://download.intel.com/newsroom/kits/ssd/pdfs/Intel_SSD_335_Series_Product_Specification.pdf

Finally but not less important, we do not recommend using an Intel® SSD for legacy systems (older than 4 years) since compatibility issues or unexpected behavior may be encountered. We encourage asking the system manufacturer for a list of validated models.

I hope this information helps.