Anyone tried SSDs?

[Mike Hughes]

has anyone tried using SSDs in their PC yet? They seem to be promising much better system startup, application launch and system responsiveness and are getting to point where the price is quite reasonable.

Anandtech have a detailed article with some performance figures here http://www.anandtech.com/storage/sho...px?i=3631&p=23.

With prices coming down each year, the technology getting better and Windows 7 supporting the TRIM function (to keep them clear for fast data writes) I was wondering if anyone had tried them yet and whether there was any advantage when running actinic.

I suspect I'll give them a try myself once the technology has settled down a little. Maybe next year.

Mike

[george]

I've tried an STD?

[Duncan Rounding]

I've tried an STD?

Did it affect performance?
Did you pay for it?
Was it worth the money?

[Duncan Rounding]

has anyone tried using SSDs in their PC yet? They seem to be promising much better system startup, application launch and system responsiveness and are getting to point where the price is quite reasonable....

I'd be very interested to see how soon they come standard in laptops. The small 4Gb one in my EEEPC performs well but I can't judge it against anything to assess speed.

[george]

Did it affect performance?
Did you pay for it?
Was it worth the money?

Not at the time. Caused some hesitation afterwards though.
I guess I did (in the end).
Doesnt everyone try stuff on a suck it and see basis?

[Benjamin Dyer]

has anyone tried using SSDs in their PC yet?

I sure have, last year bought an SSD for my MacBook. First reactions were impressive, it really is noticeably quicker and quieter but hotter! However my biggest gripe was the price / size equation. As it was only a trial to see what they were like I didn't spend a fortune hence I ended up with a relatively small disk, which was always full!

In a previous life I worked for a Storage and Test OEM to the HDD industry, the long term failure rates of SSD v's traditional HDDs is similar. The biggest problem still is capacity creep, continued writing to an SSD slowly degrades it capacity. Many OSs aren't smart enough to detect this so you still think you have 500Gb spare but wondering why your disk is always full.

I sold my MacBook after a year so I didn't encounter any of these things

Would I buy one again? Yes, but not till the prices come down.

If you are thinking about buying one (or a traditional HDD I should say) make sure its Seagate or WD, I know first hand the test procedures they go through, by far the best in the industry.

[pinbrook]

i purposely chose SSD with my asus netbook (xp/ssd) mainly for robustness whilst travelling and battery time.

its only 16gb but coupled with a 16gb SD card i've got sufficient disk space (yes i run actinic on my netbook) TBH is only music and photos that take up disk space so i have NAS and online storage for that. Nowadays i tend to store more stuff online and use webapps so my requirement for a large disk is no longer there. Makes it easier when rebuilding or buying new pcs.

I know its not really what you are asking about but i love it...

I'd probably look to buy external SSD as i am fed up with big NASs failing.

[Mike Hughes]

I think we're close to the point where SSDs are becoming attractive. The manufacturers are driving down the cost to the point where a cheap 64GB SSD is now £100 ( http://www.trustedreviews.com/storag...Series-64GB/p1 )

My PC here has a 160GB HDD but only 32GB is being used. Yes, HDDs are now pushing 2TB but I don't really need that kind of space. Smaller and faster would be better for me.

HDD haven't really fallen in price that much either. The manufacturers just manage to squeeze more data into them and make them a bit faster each year. The cheapest HDD you can buy is still @ £50.

SSDs on the other hand should follow the typical Moore's Law. As the chip geometries shrink they can squeeze more chips onto the same size wafer so the cost of each one drops. This is why flash drives and RAM are now so cheap. If they can ramp up the production of the flash chips used in SSDs then the cost will drop below those of HDDs meaning in 2-3 years they'll probably be standard equipment in all PCs (possibly with a second/external drive for mass storage).

Mike

[Benjamin Dyer]

This is why flash drives and RAM are now so cheap. If they can ramp up the production of the flash chips used in SSDs then the cost will drop below those of HDDs meaning in 2-3 years they'll probably be standard equipment in all PCs (possibly with a second/external drive for mass storage).

The problem is the cost of manufacture is (or was) considerably higher. Platters are cheap, even the test facilities are a snip compared to the requirements of SSD.

I agree however, in our cheap consumer kit SSD will rule the roost in the coming years. However server tech which is by far the largest HDD market wont adopt SDD any time soon.

[OllyBug]

Personally SSD are only good for gamers when hard drive access has to be fast. Vista will start in about 25 seconds on an ssd but to be honest, is a few second less really worth the current price of SSDs - I think not! A well configured XP/Vista install should start and run quick enough for any office user without the use for an SSD. However, if they do halve in price in the next 12 months (doubtful but you never know), as a gamer, I will certainly buy one!

[pinbrook]

the main advantage to me SSD v HD is portability/robustness i can chuck my laptop around the room and not care one iota if its SSD.

Servers can keep HD as far as i am concerned as you never move a server.

[Mike Hughes]

in our cheap consumer kit SSD will rule the roost in the coming years. However server tech which is by far the largest HDD market wont adopt SDD any time soon.

I guess that makes sense. At the same price, HDDs have about 50 times greater capacity than SSDs and it could easily take another 10 years or so before they reach comparable capacities (if even then). For file servers and the like HDDs will dominate for a long time.

On the consumer side it's the cost that will drive it. Intel's already making the 34nm flash chips at about $1 per GB which allows them to sell the 80GB SSD for around £150. Kingston have a 64GB SSD at the £100 mark. Within 2-3 years we're looking at 128GB (or larger) SSDs going below the £30 mark which is where I think the HDD manufacturers have no way of competing.

All this though assumes the production capacity is there. The flash business is still relatively small ( I read somewhere that in 2008 Apple were 13% of the entire market). I wouldn't be surprised if prices don't fall as quickly as they could for a couple of years because the demand will outstrip supply. Soon after that though lots of new production capacity will come on line and prices will drop like a stone. So maybe 4-5 years instead of 2-3.

Mike

PS. please excuse me going on about this. I have first hand experience of the chip industry and love new technology. Every now and then I like a chance to think about other stuff.