pci flash drive vs ssd drive for cmp mid 2010

[Sossity]

I would like to upgrade the hard drive, but am undecided between the two types of flash drives; I am looking for the best performance and value, and something about 250gb minimum and preferably 512gb would be better.

are pci flash that much better than an ssd drive?

the hard drive would be the startup and hold my apps nly, I would keep documents on another.

 

[AidenShaw]

I would like to upgrade the hard drive, but am undecided between the two types of flash drives; I am looking for the best performance and value, and something about 250gb minimum and preferably 512gb would be better.

are pci flash that much better than an ssd drive?

It depends mainly on whether your workflow reads and writes huge files. Both are much, much faster than spinners.

A SATA SSD (AHCI) will run at about 250 MB/sec with SATA II (3 Gbps), and about 500 MB/sec with SATA III (6 Gbps). Spinners are typically around 100 MB/sec (raw speed on outer tracks can be higher, but any head movement brings it way down). PCIe is typically around 1000 MB/sec to a bit higher for lower end units.

Write a 20 MB file:

• spinner - 0.20 sec
• sata II - 0.08 sec
• sata III - 0.04 sec
• PCIe - 0.02 sec

Write a 20 GB file:

• spinner - 200 sec
• sata II - 80 sec
• sata III - 40 sec
• PCIe - 20 sec

For an OS/application drive, you probably won't see a huge difference with PCIe - all SSDs will be faster than a spinner because the OS/app drive usually has lots of small file operations, and eliminating the head movement delays is the big winner.