Solid state drives: what's the delay?

Darkman · 8 Feb 2008 at 19:49

I'm confused. You can buy an 8GB microSD or M2 card for your phone now for less than £50, but a 64GB solid state drive will set you back more than 10 times that, and that's still only available in a 2.5" form factor.

Flash RAM is obviously much cheaper than it was, and I can't believe hooking it up to a SATA interface is going to cost much more than it would for a magneto-optical drive, so what's the issue here other than just volume bringing savings due to scale?

decto · 8 Feb 2008 at 19:52

Speed and longevity.

The tech used in flash cards / usb pens has a limited write cycle... not great for a HDD where data is written constantly. Also flash memory isn't all that quick as yet.

The current flash HDD's use an expensive tech

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helmutcheese · 8 Feb 2008 at 19:58

There is a SSD that does 100MB/read and 90MB Write, thats faster than any other HDD sold here.

Indy500 · 8 Feb 2008 at 20:00

helmutcheese said:
There is a SSD that does 100MB/read and 90MB Write, thats faster than any other HDD sold here.

Yes, the OCZ ones are quick, but still only 2.5" and very expensive.

helmutcheese · 8 Feb 2008 at 20:09

Size dont matter with them, you can fit it anywhere.

Price will be an issue for years, the fact remains they are not all slower as you put it.

Indy500 · 8 Feb 2008 at 20:12

helmutcheese said:
Size dont matter with them, you can fit it anywhere.

I don't know of a 2.5' SATA to 3.5' SATA adapter..

helmutcheese · 8 Feb 2008 at 20:17

Again its silent, and cool running so fit anywhere in case, even behind Mobo tray and keep Airflow unblocked for other parts.

Im sure there will be methods to get it to fit in the 3.5" or 5 1/4" Bays.

There are some 3.5" SSD's, and if my HDD cage and HDD's were 2.5" it would let my 8800Ultra fit better (for now removed HDD cage).

mosfet · 9 Feb 2008 at 00:02

sr4470 said:
I don't know of a 2.5' SATA to 3.5' SATA adapter..

Since there's no difference between the two...

helmutcheese · 9 Feb 2008 at 00:48

He means to house it in current HDD cage of PC case.

jhmaeng · 9 Feb 2008 at 01:51

There are some offset blocks that allow you to use the 2.5" in a 3.5" slot...

mosfet · 9 Feb 2008 at 02:46

There are plenty around, just not on the OCUK shop, by the looks of it.

decto · 9 Feb 2008 at 09:33

helmutcheese said:
There is a SSD that does 100MB/read and 90MB Write, thats faster than any other HDD sold here.

Exactly.... that's because it doesn't use cheap flash memory like USB keys and flash cards.

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helmutcheese · 9 Feb 2008 at 15:21

decto said:
Exactly.... that's because it doesn't use cheap flash memory like USB keys and flash cards.

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It still uses a type of Flash, possibly Nand Flash or such, and your statement was making out no SSD is as fast as a Mechanical HDD.

ByteJuggler · 9 Feb 2008 at 16:32

This is where the bleeding edge is at.

Darkman · 9 Feb 2008 at 16:53

Good link and info guys.

I can't wait for SSD to enter the frame at a realistic price point. Fast, silent and low power

Duke · 9 Feb 2008 at 17:26

Darkman said:
I can't wait for SSD to enter the frame at a realistic price point. Fast, silent and low power

Me neither. Traditional hard drives are quite out of date really.

Kamakazie! · 9 Feb 2008 at 17:30

I don't care about 64GB SSD's. I just want somewhere to stock the 4/8GB Samsung drives with SATA connections to use in a Media Centre PC.

Talrinys · 9 Feb 2008 at 19:09

Duke said:
Me neither. Traditional hard drives are quite out of date really.

Yeah, would be much nicer having something that makes no noise and that's a whole lot more reliable, it's annoying to know that your harddrive might die any day, at least with an SSD you have a timeframe.

Justintime · 9 Feb 2008 at 21:16

Would'nt be any big deal getting a 2.5 into desktop, SATA connectors are the same and its easy to physically fit it, can even use a busted laptops caddy and put it in somewhere.