My key interest in solid state drive for notebook is to replace (when needed to) the internal 2.5" hard drive for reason of LIGHTER in weight. Just want to do this for certain long trips. Can you shed some light on the raw weight difference of the two respective drives? Thanks.

It would help if you could advise the manufacturer of your SSD HD, btw...

My research also indicates that the Intel version is the best one, without many of the problems plaguing the other manufacturers, such as OCZ's...

SSDs seem about the same weight as a similar hard drive - at least not so different as to be noticable. I can't imagine that replacing the HD would change the weight of your laptop much they are pretty light as it is.

I bought a Sony VAIO laptop back on March 2006 (model VGN TX250P/B, an ultralight with 11.1" diag. screen) and the SSD on my laptop has always performed much better than any other non-SSD drives to date.

When I mean "performance", I mean that Windows/Linux start-ups are lightning fast (even with overheads such as .NET and Java runtimes loaded as well as other software development tools that autoload themselves).

Also, I have been able to achieve up to 7.5 hours of battery life per full charge. This has been a real life saver to me as it allows me to watch one or two movies stored on my SSD on many a boring LAS-EWR (red-eyes, when they still had those flights) and EWR-LAS flights on US Airways.

If you can afford an SSD, I'd say go for it! It is well worth your money.

Please post your SSD manufacturer, if possible.

I was also wondering what SSD's were available in 2006 - only the esoteric types, right? 32GB and under, correct?

Well, the next time I get around to cleaning out my laptop (probably in a few weeks), I'll let you know by PM. I believe that it is a Sony-made proprietary SSD HD, but then again I could be wrong.

As for the size, it was not quite esoteric at 80GB. But, compared to today's average laptop HD size, it's nearing the lower end.

A bit off topic: I heard that NewEgg.com is selling a certain 16GB USB drive for US$19.99 after rebate right now. If this price is any indication on NAND drive pricing, then I think that the prices on SSD HD's are sure to drop soon as they will eventually become standard issue on all laptops.

Haven't notice that so far. This computer is mainly used for web browsing. Not a lot of stuff on it are critical.

Sony is offering a 250GB on the TT, the successor to the TX (the TZ was recalled).

I have a TX 670 myself so I'd really like to know how you swapped the hard drive since it doesn't seem there is an access door in the bottom (unless I'm missing something).

The last time I went looking for a laptop HD I found I had to pull the optical drive (easy, one screw and slide it out) and then the HD was visible peeking out from behind a shield underneath it. 4 screws to remove the shield and the drive could come out.

I've got a Samsung mmcqe28gfmup 128MB SSD as OEM in my new Vaio TT. Absolutely love it. Hard to tell if there's a performance difference that's not related to the processor, but it is spooky quiet (obviously, I guess).

I have a Dell m1330 with the 128gb.The only reason I got the ssd is because I had a 30% coupon. Mine is super quite too. As for performance the battery does last a very long time but there is no noticeable decrease in start up times. Maybe this is because of vista but it just doesn't start up as quick as others.