Nutter - thanks for the GREAT post.
For people who are not yet familiar with SSDs ..
you are going to be VERY SURPRISED about some things:
THERE ARE THREE CRITICAL FACTS ABOUD SSDs:
(1) [Most] SSD DRIVES ****** ARE NOT RELIABLE ******* over longer periods of time. We have had to send back excatly 50% of SSD drives which we have bought - after about 1 to 2 months.
SSD drives have the famous "SSD spinning ball problem". AT FIRST they work brilliantly, BUT after they have been used for a long time, and there have been a lot of read write operations on a given area, they (can, sometimes) develop problems.
Once this happens, they change from being the fastest drive in the universe, to moving at a snails pace. You will basically have one last chance to move everything to an (old-fashioned platter) drive to save the data.
This EVEN HAPPENED TO US with a Mercury OWC (50gb model) which is fantastic and probably the "LEAST LIKELY" to suffer the famous "SSD decay" problem. It worked perfectly until it filled up to 32.5 gb ... after which it never worked again (other than at a snail's pace) and was sent back.
Indeed it is very likely, the reason Apple use the laughable Toshiba SSD drives .. is that they are (perhaps? we hope?) more reliable after a few months than actual fast SSD drives.
(2) SSD DRIVES ARE MINDBOGGLINGLY FAST. If you have not tried one yet, you will be stunned and feel silly once you try one! They are so fast you will weep. They are so fast they make processor upgrades seem silly.
(3) And thirdly, SSD DRIVES DIFFER VERY GREATLY ONE FORM THE OTHER. The fact is all platter drives are about the same, no big difference. SSD drives are wildly different from each other, huge differences, HUGE differences in speed, basic operational paradigm, reliability, power use, the "SSD Decay" problem, etc etc etc.
As someone said ..
"You've obviously never seen or used one of these new
SandForce SSD's. Forget about the Apple built-in ones.
They are atrocious."
This is true, if you have not used SSDs yet, and indeed not tried at least four different brands, you at this point know zero and you will be very, very shocked (in both good and bad ways) when you enter the SSD world.
Again the three very critical points ..
(1) "SSD Decay" -- SSDs have a horrible and well known problem where in some cases they simply stop working (other than at a snail's pace) after a certain amount of use
(2) SSD drives are so fast it is scary
(3) there are HUGE --------- HUGE ------------ differences between SSD technologies and brands. Indeed to be clear, SSD drives are as different one from the other as (say) a mac vs. a pc or a motorbike vs. a car or a sailing ship vs. a motorboat. The various SSDs are wildly different and perform wildly differently -- and have wildly different approaches to the horrific "SSD Decay" problem.
if you're ever using an SSD drive and once - just once - you get a spinning ball, you're buggered. The drive has had it, "SSD Decay" is here, it will just get worse and worse over the next couple weeks and that will be the end of it.
Something new .. (Aug 2010) ..We have not yet tried one of the brand-new hybrid drives,
http://www.macupgrade.be/product_info.php/cPath/124/products_id/443
but perhaps they are the future.
Again thanks for the fantastic post, Nutter !!
For people who are not yet familiar with SSDs ..
you are going to be VERY SURPRISED about some things:
THERE ARE THREE CRITICAL FACTS ABOUD SSDs:
(1) [Most] SSD DRIVES ****** ARE NOT RELIABLE ******* over longer periods of time. We have had to send back excatly 50% of SSD drives which we have bought - after about 1 to 2 months.
SSD drives have the famous "SSD spinning ball problem". AT FIRST they work brilliantly, BUT after they have been used for a long time, and there have been a lot of read write operations on a given area, they (can, sometimes) develop problems.
Once this happens, they change from being the fastest drive in the universe, to moving at a snails pace. You will basically have one last chance to move everything to an (old-fashioned platter) drive to save the data.
This EVEN HAPPENED TO US with a Mercury OWC (50gb model) which is fantastic and probably the "LEAST LIKELY" to suffer the famous "SSD decay" problem. It worked perfectly until it filled up to 32.5 gb ... after which it never worked again (other than at a snail's pace) and was sent back.
Indeed it is very likely, the reason Apple use the laughable Toshiba SSD drives .. is that they are (perhaps? we hope?) more reliable after a few months than actual fast SSD drives.
(2) SSD DRIVES ARE MINDBOGGLINGLY FAST. If you have not tried one yet, you will be stunned and feel silly once you try one! They are so fast you will weep. They are so fast they make processor upgrades seem silly.
(3) And thirdly, SSD DRIVES DIFFER VERY GREATLY ONE FORM THE OTHER. The fact is all platter drives are about the same, no big difference. SSD drives are wildly different from each other, huge differences, HUGE differences in speed, basic operational paradigm, reliability, power use, the "SSD Decay" problem, etc etc etc.
As someone said ..
"You've obviously never seen or used one of these new
SandForce SSD's. Forget about the Apple built-in ones.
They are atrocious."
This is true, if you have not used SSDs yet, and indeed not tried at least four different brands, you at this point know zero and you will be very, very shocked (in both good and bad ways) when you enter the SSD world.
Again the three very critical points ..
(1) "SSD Decay" -- SSDs have a horrible and well known problem where in some cases they simply stop working (other than at a snail's pace) after a certain amount of use
(2) SSD drives are so fast it is scary
(3) there are HUGE --------- HUGE ------------ differences between SSD technologies and brands. Indeed to be clear, SSD drives are as different one from the other as (say) a mac vs. a pc or a motorbike vs. a car or a sailing ship vs. a motorboat. The various SSDs are wildly different and perform wildly differently -- and have wildly different approaches to the horrific "SSD Decay" problem.
if you're ever using an SSD drive and once - just once - you get a spinning ball, you're buggered. The drive has had it, "SSD Decay" is here, it will just get worse and worse over the next couple weeks and that will be the end of it.
Something new .. (Aug 2010) ..We have not yet tried one of the brand-new hybrid drives,
http://www.macupgrade.be/product_info.php/cPath/124/products_id/443
but perhaps they are the future.
Again thanks for the fantastic post, Nutter !!
