Anyone considered solid state yet?

adam1v

adam1v

adam1v

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Im considering getting the Solid State hard disk for my main PC. Only the 16gb version, just enough to install Vista Ultimate on and maybe my most frequently used programs/games, and thus using my older SATA hard disk for everything else.

Is anyone else using one of these yet? Did you experience any problems installing windows?
Does anyone know of anything that I should know before buying one? £130 is pretty cheap I think.

Adam
 
The last time I heard was that they gave a pretty poor sustained data rate.

Is £130 really cheap when you can get a fast 500GB disk for £70?
 
I wasnt aware the SSD's we're that bad?
I was looking at the Raptors too for quick hard disks. I wasnt aware the 500gbs we're fast?
 
For all intents and purposes they're pretty fast, something to do with the density of the platters. I'm not trying to say SSD's are crap, just that there's not too much point buying in to it at the moment.
 
for taking all the credit said:
The last time I heard was that they gave a pretty poor sustained data rate.
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Raid 0 :).
No but really, what do you want, 33 mb/s or whatever it was sustained always no matter the usage or it dropping it down to 8 mb (or a lot less when doing too much at once) like most hdd's on a lot of small files?
I'd gladly take 2 solid states for raid 0 if i'd have the cash.

offtopic: Zefan, why have they changed your name lol?
:p
 
I know it's Tom's Hardware but here is a review of a drive that gets 68MB/sec sustained read speed: http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/08...rives_cometh/page7.html#data_transfer_diagram

The read performance of this product is somewhere between impressive and plain awesome. No other drive in a 2.5" form factor offers higher transfer rates, better minimum transfer rates or quicker access time. In addition, flash-based drives will contribute to extending battery run times on notebooks, as their power requirements are 30-400% below the energy consumption of traditional 2.5" hard drives. The time saved when launching applications such as Windows is reason enough for me to purchase one of these drives for my notebook soon. Indeed, real enthusiasts have no option but to invest in a SSD, because the performance is noticeably better than with any other hardware upgrade. For everyone else, I recommend waiting until these products become more affordable, because $400 for a 32 GB SDD is pretty much the cost of a 1 TB hard drive.
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It is comparing it to other laptop suitable HDDs, not normal ones, though. Compared to a 7200.10 or AAKS those numbers don't look so hot, and compared to a Raptor?

My prediction: Solid State will be in all high end laptops within a year, all laptops within two years and start spreading on to the desktop in about four.
 
Mr Jack said:
It is comparing it to other laptop suitable HDDs, not normal ones, though. Compared to a 7200.10 or AAKS those numbers don't look so hot, and compared to a Raptor?

My prediction: Solid State will be in all high end laptops within a year, all laptops within two years and start spreading on to the desktop in about four.
Click to expand...
Yes, for a laptop it looks very good, for a desktop maybe not so good.
 
adam1v said:
I wasnt aware the SSD's we're that bad?
I was looking at the Raptors too for quick hard disks. I wasnt aware the 500gbs we're fast?
Click to expand...

SSD have slower write speeds, but they have just as good read speeds (well the best ones do) and much better access times, which is what matters when loading programs and games.
 
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well i just ran a quick benchmark tool on my current machine and its telling me 44.9mb read and 54.5mb write. That doesnt seem that much different to SSD:
hdd.jpg
 
They're dead quiet, have extremely minimal seek times and they have impressive both read & write rates, close too 100mb/sec, i'd get one if i had the cash.
 
Talrinys said:
They're dead quiet, have extremely minimal seek times and they have impressive both read & write rates, close too 100mb/sec, i'd get one if i had the cash.
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Write speed isn't 100MB/sec, two high speed ones in RAID0 can get 76MB/sec write but that's about it.
 
Dutch Guy said:
Write speed isn't 100MB/sec, two high speed ones in RAID0 can get 76MB/sec write but that's about it.
Click to expand...

Well, you do get faster ones, but they're staggeringly expensive. For example, the Mitron SSD's can do about 100MB sustained read and 80MB sustained write, with 315MB/sec possible with 4 in RAID0 and 171MB/sec with 2 in RAID0. Their price? $1500 for the 32GB 3.5" SATA version. Eye-watering to say the least.

Edit: If the links violate the rules then please advise (I do not think they do, which is why I've posted them, but are not 100% sure.)
 
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lets not forget with ssd, the access times are as quick as ram so we are dealing in very quick response times, and also there are no moving parts, which means far less chance for a failure.

ssd is the future, if they get the 128gig drives under thr 100 quid mark. my laptop is dying to have one stuck in it.!
 
Also bear in mind, that from a data recovery point of view, we have been warned when we asked about a recovery off a SSD that when it fails, it pretty much takes all the data with it..
 
OK I am a newb to HDs, and most of those numbers don't mean a lot to me if I am honest, sorry, :-( .

I too am interested in learning more about these SSD drives, but to be totally honest I only want it for the fastest possible boot time into windows (and maybe Firefox too)....yes I am a boot-up whore..much to the derision of my mates.

Presumably booting into windows means that read speed (not write) and access time? is most important? Would such a drive be faster than say a 36gb Raptor for Windows boot time?

I don't like the idea of raid 0 (as it doubles the chance of failure), but then I said that about watercooling and I am now getting the itch for that!
 
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