Solid State Disk Drives

[norway]

I know some people have been on here talking about replacing their HDDs in their desktops and laptops. So, here's the deal on solid state disk drives or SSDs. They are a lot lighter than a hard disk drive. They are faster, more energy efficient (allowing for longer battery life in laptops, produce less heat), and more reliable. These drives have no moving parts which is why they are more energy efficient and more reliable. According to all the research I have done in the past few weeks, a company called Mtron makes the fastest SSD on the market. They are supposed to be releasing an even better model here in a few weeks which is supposed to be 20 % faster. (120 MB/sec. read and 90 MB/sec write). I just ordered a 2.5" 32 MB PRO from www.neostore.com, which has had the best prices thus far. I just wanted to pass this on, because I know I've talked about them w/ a few of you before...so check it out.

[Champ]

I just ordered a 2.5" 32 MB PRO from www.neostore.com, which has had the best prices thus far. I just wanted to pass this on, because I know I've talked about them w/ a few of you before...so check it out.

I assume you meant GB.

What kind of profession are you in that warrants a $1,200 hard drive? I hope the company picks up that bill.

[norway]

haha...yeah, I meant GB! I just got it in the mail today. I'm actually a graduate student, so I picked up the bill.

[Gvlax]

Solid State Drives are definitely the future but 64GB for 2G's? 64GB doesnt go as far as it used to, most people can not justify that cost with the little amount of space it offers. When the sizes go in the 100+ gbs and price goes down to the mid 500's, then you will see the mass growth of the SSD.

[norway]

You are right, but it is like every new technology. The price sensitive buyer will not purchase this technology for probably 3 yrs. Also, only the computer savvy even know about this thus far. There are better priced SSDs, but they are not as fast or reliable as the Mtron drives. Mtron has a 5 yr warranty on the PRO series models. This product will be somewhat similar to the Plasma TVs. The first yrs of plasmas were around $10k per unit and are now somehwat affordable. This will be a hot item very soon.

[Champ]

haha...yeah, I meant GB! I just got it in the mail today. I'm actually a graduate student, so I picked up the bill.

Crazy you paid for that yourself! What were your reasons? Are you just trying to be ahead of the curve for fun? (Just curious, I might just be missing some big reason to spend the money. For now it looks fairly wasteful.)

I'd rather just back up my data once a day if you were that worried about it... For the money you could have bought a very nice desktop to hold all your sensitive data you are worried about losing due to hard-drive failure. The software exists as well to do this automatically - you wouldn't even have to do anything.

[norway]

I wanted my laptop to be more efficient. It has the fastest read speed. It's actually a really cool technology. You don't have to wait for files to open. Everything opens instataneously. It's awesome. And yes, I want to be ahead of the curve. These drives last forever unlike the standard HDD, which need to be replaced almost every 5 yrs. HDDs are the main components that fail in laptops. You could practically take this SSD and throw it on the ground, then put it in your computer and nothing is wrong with it.

[horn17]

I wanted my laptop to be more efficient. It has the fastest read speed. It's actually a really cool technology. You don't have to wait for files to open. Everything opens instataneously. It's awesome. And yes, I want to be ahead of the curve. These drives last forever unlike the standard HDD, which need to be replaced almost every 5 yrs. HDDs are the main components that fail in laptops. You could practically take this SSD and throw it on the ground, then put it in your computer and nothing is wrong with it.

I obviously wouldnt recommend doing that....the real test of time with solid state will be determined on whether or not they corrupt, and just because it doesnt have mechanical parts doesnt mean it wont fail...

Just make sure your still backing up, but Im sure you are...

[stickdoctor]

These drives last forever unlike the standard HDD, which need to be replaced almost every 5 yrs. HDDs are the main components that fail in laptops. You could practically take this SSD and throw it on the ground, then put it in your computer and nothing is wrong with it.

This is a yes and no statement - SSD's are not subsceptible to mechanical failure as your typical hard drive is with it's spinning platters and moving heads are. However, they do have a limited lifetime of read/write cycles. This is called write endurance - it is only in the last little bit that write endurance specs have reached levels where concerns about short lifetimes for SSD units could be addressed. In the early days, an SSD could measure it's lifetime in weeks if improperly utilized (and perhaps even properly utilized. Now, however, in an application like a laptop or even a desktop, it is pretty much a non-issue.

Prices will probably come down very dramatically in the next year to two years as the price of flash memory is just falling through the floor.

[Champ]

I wanted my laptop to be more efficient. It has the fastest read speed. It's actually a really cool technology. You don't have to wait for files to open. Everything opens instataneously. It's awesome. And yes, I want to be ahead of the curve. These drives last forever unlike the standard HDD, which need to be replaced almost every 5 yrs. HDDs are the main components that fail in laptops. You could practically take this SSD and throw it on the ground, then put it in your computer and nothing is wrong with it.

More power to you then for spending boat loads of money now so I don't have to later.

Interesting you noted average life. If I were to hypothetically replace my harddrive every 5 years (your figures) with the more expensive units available today ($100, some drives available for <$50), to equal the cost it would take over 50 years for your drive to pay off. I could replace it yearly and it would still be cheaper over the course of 10 years.

That's not even taking into account most laptops probably aren't used for 5 years.

But like I said earlier, kudos for you for being the early adopter so I don't have to

[horn17]

These drives last forever unlike the standard HDD, which need to be replaced almost every 5 yrs. HDDs are the main components that fail in laptops. You could practically take this SSD and throw it on the ground, then put it in your computer and nothing is wrong with it.

This is a yes and no statement - SSD's are not subsceptible to mechanical failure as your typical hard drive is with it's spinning platters and moving heads are. However, they do have a limited lifetime of read/write cycles. This is called write endurance - it is only in the last little bit that write endurance specs have reached levels where concerns about short lifetimes for SSD units could be addressed. In the early days, an SSD could measure it's lifetime in weeks if improperly utilized (and perhaps even properly utilized. Now, however, in an application like a laptop or even a desktop, it is pretty much a non-issue.

Prices will probably come down very dramatically in the next year to two years as the price of flash memory is just falling through the floor.

I hate to say WRONG...so I will say, you aren't 100% informed...

These SSD devices have flash media, which requires chips sets for memory storage, as well as writing/reading files.... These can and do fry....chipsets can be come corrupted, just as easily as a read write head can cause a head crash, and the ill fated click of death...

The goal of them is to get away from a physical head crash...when flash memory chips go south, not only is it a much more difficult recovery solution, but it can much more time consuming - I have seen thumb drive flash drive "chip sets" take up to 3 weeks to read on a specific device for just pulling data off, where as I can get a hard drive to image, sector by sector with head crashes in about a week....

But they wont have nearly half the mechanical failures that I see everyday...

[norway]

wow...and i thought everyone on here was only sarcastic and critical about lacrosse. yes, it's expensive. My laptop will be lighter, more enrgy efficient, and operate faster once I put it in. If those are things you value, then you don't mind spending the money. For me, I do everything on my computer. Again, this drive has a 5 yr warranty, so I have full faith in this product.

[Champ]

What's the actual weight difference?

[agentogden]

I wanted my laptop to be more efficient. It has the fastest read speed. It's actually a really cool technology. You don't have to wait for files to open. Everything opens instataneously. It's awesome. And yes, I want to be ahead of the curve. These drives last forever unlike the standard HDD, which need to be replaced almost every 5 yrs. HDDs are the main components that fail in laptops. You could practically take this SSD and throw it on the ground, then put it in your computer and nothing is wrong with it.

What are you opening that normally takes long enough that you weren't satisfied? I open 500MB - 1 GB files, 5 at a time and wait only a few seconds. Put some RAM in your dinosaur you can open whatever you want. 64GB -- I'd have to spend about $10 million to have enough storage for my files.

There are 2 hard drives -- 1 that has failed and 1 that will.

[horn17]

There are 2 hard drives -- 1 that has failed and 1 that will.

Word.....