SSD...Worth it?

[DodgerKing]

I am looking into getting a solid state hard drive for my desktop and eventually my laptop. Is it worth the cost? I don't need a lot of storage. I will use it for the OS and the software. All of my files will be stored on my current drive which I will use as a secondary drive.

 

[meStevo]

I don't have one, but I've been told by a number of people that once you go SSD you won't ever go back, and it's one of the most worthwhile upgrades you can get for a PC.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

What is the average life of one of these drives?

 

[TheForce]

I use software that requires large C drive space for temp file builds so until they make a 500Gb SSD I'll be waiting. I have applications installed to 170Gb so there isn't enough room on the current 240Gb size to handle the temp files.

 

[DodgerKing]

What is the average life of one of these drives?

That's what I am wondering as well. Since they haven't been around long enough, I don't think they have an accurate answer yet

 

[rockymtnhigh]

That's what I am wondering as well. Since they haven't been around long enough, I don't think they have an accurate answer yet

From what I have been told, the early ones were really bad in terms of wearing out quickly, but the newer ones are much better. I have no real desire for one right now.

 

[Ilya]

I use software that requires large C drive space for temp file builds so until they make a 500Gb SSD I'll be waiting. I have applications installed to 170Gb so there isn't enough room on the current 240Gb size to handle the temp files.

They do make 500GB SSD drives already (rather expensive though) or you can have two 256GB drives in RAID-0.

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[John Kotches]

I've used ssds in my personal laptops since 2008.

one failure, but that is what backups are for.



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[isaacmorseMI]

The speed on the SSD's look great but the price and iffy reliability is what has stopped me from purchasing them. Once the price comes down a bit I will probably start buying them.

 

[navychop]

I think this is still one of those technologies where we see folks with arrows in their backs.

I'd hate to spend major bucks and end up with something that fails early.

 

[John Kotches]

The speed on the SSD's look great but the price and iffy reliability is what has stopped me from purchasing them. Once the price comes down a bit I will probably start buying them.

price is on a Moore's law curve, with prices down from $2+ gb and now into the $1.30/gb range.

with the spike in spinning rust drive pricing, it is not as bad it used to be with the pricing differential.



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[DodgerKing]

Interesting topic about Moore's Law was being discussed on Science Fantastic today. Michio Kaku stated that Moore's Law has pretty much reached its end as there is not much more you can do with Silicon. Basically you cannot make it much smaller without compromising its integrity from the heat that is generated passing electric currents through it. It will probably become stagnant within five years (it has already slowed from doubling every two years to doubling every 3 to 4 years within a short period of time). He said the future will be in nanotechnology

 

[tstolze]

I have been using SSD's in my laptop and a desktop for 6 months now. I love the way they perform, not to fond of the price/storage ratio yet. I had some customers asking about them, so I figured I better get to know the particulars. The laptop does get used on the road on occasion when I get out storm chasing, so this seems like a good fit with the bumps/bruises from some of the roads I travel. The desktop is used for anything from surfing to website building and HD video editing.

As far as waiting on the reliability, I feel that is an excuse, failures happen on any storage, if one has a good backup plan then they have nothing to worry about.

 

[navychop]

Except the $s lost.

Gallium arsenide is faster than silicon. And there are other possibilities. Again, it's a matter of $s.

 

[diogen]

SSDs are good at a particular task: squeezing that last bit of performance out of a system.
Regardless whether new or old. After the CPU/RAM are maxed out.

As a system drive (only!) it's worth it. Any other - it isn't.

Diogen.

 

[navychop]

In my experience, the HDD is the bottleneck, slowing the system long before the CPU approaches maxing out.

 

[JAG72]

In my experience, the HDD is the bottleneck, slowing the system long before the CPU approaches maxing out.

It truly depends on what is happing on the system at that time. I have seen plenty of bottle necks in all of the areas.

 

[Magic Static]

I've been useing a pair of 120g SSDs in RAID 0 for my C drive for about 18 months now. WEI on Win 7 started at 7.0 for HDD and has dropped to 6.8 after a few months and stayed there. They are fast, and so far reliable. One downside is windows does not see past the RAID controller and recognize the SSDs for what they are and treat them accordingly.

 

[DodgerKing]

In my experience, the HDD is the bottleneck, slowing the system long before the CPU approaches maxing out.

It truly depends on what is happing on the system at that time. I have seen plenty of bottle necks in all of the areas.

I am not having any slow down or bottle neck issues which is one reason why I am not in a hurry to jump on the SSD.

When I run the windows performance index everything is in the 7's except the hard drive at 5.9 (the highest possible score a hard drive can get)

 

[diogen]

As Anand's posts over the last two years showed, nothing is black and white in the SSD space.
Without TRIM (1st gen) they were mostly garbage. Hard drive benchmark tools were mostly unusable.

It has been cleaned up since.
Different drives are optimized for different workloads.
Just like some of the WD RE (RAID edition) drives for years.

SSDs best demonstration was and remains boot-up time. Nothing coming close. The rest is debatable.
A good high-density platter 7200rpm drive will be as good as an SSD in 90% of average (!) computer tasks.
Specialized workstations/workloads? There are SAS dirves for that, too.

Diogen.