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General discussion

SATA vs Solid state harddrive

May 1, 2011 1:26PM PDT

A friend just built his first computer.
He put in a i5-2500 processor, 8 gig of ram, nice video card and and a 120 Gig SSD drive.
Other than it starting up faster, I don't see any speed advantage to the SSD drive or am I missing something?
He said he wasn't all that impressed with it either and bought it because of the hype about the SSD.
I am sure somewhere it must have it's advantages, but I didn't see any on his computer.
He said the price was about 3 times higher than a regular hardrive.
Has anyone here had any experience with a SSD drive?
Thanks.

Wayne

Discussion is locked

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Re: SSD versus HDD
May 1, 2011 4:59PM PDT

That would have been the correct description. They both (in this case) have a SATA interface.

The advantage of a SSD is fast random access. That's used when starting the PC or starting a program.
Other things (like speed of browsing, gaming or video conversion) aren't noticeably better, because accessing the disk isn't the factor that determines speed (that's the CPU, the amount of RAM, the video card and speed of the Internet connection). Those are the same. Using an SSD to store pictures or movies or music is an overkill. No need for speed in using those.
Buffering of disk data in RAM is quite effective in Windows.

The advantage of an SSD is a laptop is that it uses less power, so the battery lasts longer, but I assume we're talking about a desktop here.


I think this is mostly a case of wrong expectations.

Kees

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My own experience
May 1, 2011 10:33PM PDT

My own Desktop had 2 SSDs in Raid 0 format. This is on a system that is now 2 years old, so my experience stems from early generation SSDs. The situation may be different now.

Those SSDs suffered a fatal problem. They didn't delete files properly. This could be mitigated somewhat with an OS that allowed TRIM controls. My Vista didn't, but Win 7 does.

However when I moved to Win 7 I scrapped the SSDs and moved to a normal HDD. The SSDs under Vista failed regularly and often, resulting in factory wiping, (back to the manufacturer as normal formatting didn't work) and reinstall of the OS.

Like I say though, SSD technology may have moved on. I know that at the time of my use of SSDs Intel were testing software solutions on the SSD chips themselves, but I haven't kept up with the latest.

Not wanting to put you or your friend off, of course... Devil

Mark

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Quick points
May 1, 2011 10:45PM PDT

The SSD big advantage is speed. However, amongst the SSD's themselves there are variations that depend on speed, data xfer and I/O data storage in common areas. The wear&tear is minor overall, but the crux of it boils down to repeated use of same area, which makers spread over the SSD area to help reduce this. In that regard is where the failures come in, as formats don't really re-format or clear such areas even though it reports it did. The SSD run cooler and generally less power which is big plus for laptop users. of course, they cost too much for many. The best use for SSD is the OS being installed there and use a plain HD for typical data storage and/or general use.

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More Faster
May 2, 2011 3:44AM PDT

I just heard that it is more faster in terms of data transfer. And that the OS will load faster.

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Thanks All.
May 2, 2011 6:35AM PDT
For that information.
I see what the advantage is now.
I am going to be adding a 2nd drive to my desktop computer and will use a SSD.
I will probably be back here asking advise on how to set it up when the time comes.
I am going to wait a little to see if the price comes down as the price seems pretty high right now.

Thanks again.
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SSD advantages...
May 6, 2011 12:53PM PDT

1. Faster data transfer.

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Re: SATA vs. SSD
May 6, 2011 9:51PM PDT

I am not sure the benefits of a SSD in a desktop, but I specifically chose my netbook because it has a SSD. I made this choice because it should be less susceptible to failure from heat and shock and my little HP takes a beating. I know that the capacity vs. cost is a major weakness to current SSDs, but they make perfect sense for some users who are willing to trade capacity for durability and efficiency.