Cloning
The fair way to go about testing this was to clone my old hard drive so that everything would be in the same exact place, same software and startup items. If I did a clean install onto the SSD, it would hardly be a controlled experiment. I used a free software called Disk Copy 2.3 by EASEUS to do this. Unlike other cloning programs, this one does a true sector-by-sector copy. The download from their site burns to a bootable CD, which starts up a mini OS that detects all hard disks, including USB and Firewire ones. Since Windows isn't running during the cloning, you won't run into any permissions errors.
Stats
Cold Boot (powering on from the off state up to the logon screen)
45 seconds
Windows Start (logon until all startup items have loaded)
18 seconds
Photoshop CS (Photoshop startup & plugin load)
7 seconds
Conclusion
There you have it... same exact systems on 2 different hard drives. The SSD swap made a significant difference. There wasn't as big a difference with the cold boot, but that's because both tests went through the BIOS sequence, which doesn't occur on the drives. The Windows startup was unbelievably fast... 1 minute and 8 seconds to just 18 seconds!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Liam's 2nd Birthday
Today was a rare day that I wish I still lived in Manhattan. Liam's Birthday was 10:30am @ Inwood Hill Park... all the way at the Northern tip of Manhattan. I also had to time a pickup of an order of homemade lamingtons at 116th & Lenox. I was late to pickup the lamingtons because of construction on the 1/2/3 line, but somehow made it to the park @ just about 10:30. I also got off a stop too early.
I passed by Andrew & Joanne's apartment just as Andrew was about to head out, which was good timing because Joanne gave me a call to see if I could help Andrew with the rest of the food. We were able to stuff everything into a large box for the 2 of us to haul over. Liam was already there with a couple of his friends. As we arrived, I also saw some familiar faces in John, Francis Helen and Cary who I know through the Homework Help volunteer program.
A couple of days ago, the forecast for June 26 was intermittent thunderstorms. The forecast this morning moved the storms to 9pm and they never actually came. So we really lucked out with the weather. It turned out to be a perfect outdoor day for Liam's Birthday. The location by the lake was perfect and the ground was nice and dry for the kids to play on. It was a nice relaxing day of catching up with friends and playing with kids.
I passed by Andrew & Joanne's apartment just as Andrew was about to head out, which was good timing because Joanne gave me a call to see if I could help Andrew with the rest of the food. We were able to stuff everything into a large box for the 2 of us to haul over. Liam was already there with a couple of his friends. As we arrived, I also saw some familiar faces in John, Francis Helen and Cary who I know through the Homework Help volunteer program.
A couple of days ago, the forecast for June 26 was intermittent thunderstorms. The forecast this morning moved the storms to 9pm and they never actually came. So we really lucked out with the weather. It turned out to be a perfect outdoor day for Liam's Birthday. The location by the lake was perfect and the ground was nice and dry for the kids to play on. It was a nice relaxing day of catching up with friends and playing with kids.
Centrino SSD (Part 1)
Transcend 64 GB SSD
SSD (solid state drives) have been dropping in price, but not the PATA/IDE models for older computers. There was a Transcend model a few months ago on New Egg for $195. I thought that was an OK price and waited for it to go down as one of their daily specials. Instead, it got sold out. I put myself on the email alert, knowing I should've pulled the trigger on the purchase. I got the alert just last week and bought it right away.
Sager NP3750
My old laptop from 2003 is a 1.4 Ghz Centrino maxxed out at 1 GB RAM (shared memory architecture w/ 32 MB allocated to VRAM). It was the first widescreen laptop (yes... before Sony or Apple) and also first glossy screen released. Let me start by saying that I only spent this money for my own curiosity and knowledge and don't recommend this upgrade at all. Even if an SSD double my laptop speed, it's not worth $195 for a measly 64 GB. I could've gone with a 500 GB for under $100. But any computer or car enthusiast can vouch for the fact that we spend tons of money for slightest performance upgrade.
Stats
Cold Boot (powering on from the off state up to the logon screen)
1 minute 12 seconds
Windows Start (logon until all startup items have loaded)
1 minute 8 seconds
Photoshop CS (Photoshop startup & plugin load)
20 seconds
SSD (solid state drives) have been dropping in price, but not the PATA/IDE models for older computers. There was a Transcend model a few months ago on New Egg for $195. I thought that was an OK price and waited for it to go down as one of their daily specials. Instead, it got sold out. I put myself on the email alert, knowing I should've pulled the trigger on the purchase. I got the alert just last week and bought it right away.
Sager NP3750
My old laptop from 2003 is a 1.4 Ghz Centrino maxxed out at 1 GB RAM (shared memory architecture w/ 32 MB allocated to VRAM). It was the first widescreen laptop (yes... before Sony or Apple) and also first glossy screen released. Let me start by saying that I only spent this money for my own curiosity and knowledge and don't recommend this upgrade at all. Even if an SSD double my laptop speed, it's not worth $195 for a measly 64 GB. I could've gone with a 500 GB for under $100. But any computer or car enthusiast can vouch for the fact that we spend tons of money for slightest performance upgrade.
Stats
Cold Boot (powering on from the off state up to the logon screen)
1 minute 12 seconds
Windows Start (logon until all startup items have loaded)
1 minute 8 seconds
Photoshop CS (Photoshop startup & plugin load)
20 seconds
Monday, June 21, 2010
Macy's Cellar Bar & Grill
Location: 151 West 34th St., New York, NY 10001Cuisine: American
Hours: SUN (12pm-6:30pm); MON-SAT (12pm-8:30pm)
Phone: (212) 868-3001
Website: www.patinagroup.com
Prices: $20/person
Credit Cards: All major
Food: 9
Service: 7
Value: 7
Environment: 8
Frequency: Unique
We had a small SCAD CSA (Chinese Student Association) reunion today because Cathy was visiting from her new home in China. It was exactly a year from her last visit. It was also the first time since we were in Savannah, that everyone was able to meet at the same time... me, Lewis & Ning. Usually when Cathy comes, Lewis & I are able to meet with her at the same time.
Cathy was staying in the Penn Station area, so she showed us a food court are in Macy's basement that none of is locals really knew about. I've only gone into Macy's a handful of times because it's always overcrowded and a hassle to walk around in. The Cellar Bar & Grill is a great find though. It's a nice, comfortable place with good generic American food. It wasn't that crowded, so we ate comfortably without rush.
The food was nothing exciting, but tasted great. Service was pretty good. Lewis' diet is always a challenge, but the waiter was very helpful in getting him the right ingredients. I thought the prices were a bit high, but at least the portions were large. $20/person is a bit on the high side considering none of us ordered drinks and Ella Nio's order was a kid's meal.
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