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Why do you need a SSD HD?

It's arguably, the single most effective upgrade for performance that you can do to ANY computer. Just makes things faster (a lot).

But, a good 5200 drive is fine if you already have a fast machine

Of course it will make an already fast machine scream like the dickens :D
 
ABadSanta said:
Actually isn't it a myth that SSDs use less power? I remember hearing they use about the same amount of power as a regular spinning hard drive.
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Depends on many circumstances.

Here are some examples:
59303.jpg

http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=59303
 
sporadicMotion said:
I've had 3 HDD's fail from a little too much travel time. One too many bumps can result in a ticking drive. SSD = no more issues.

If you're laptop has minimal travel time, then I'm sure this is negligible.
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2.5" Laptop hard drives are specifically designed for travel with no limitations. I travel with mine everyday. In and out of the car, client appointments, stopping at Starbucks to check email, and on and on.

It sees very heavy usage and a lot of boot ups and shut downs, (I don't travel with it in the sleep mode) and after ten years of this, with either a PowerBook or MacBook Pro, I have not had a single hard drive fail. That's a pretty good record.

In my company where we are using both PC and Mac laptops, hard drive failures are rare, and none of these are being used on the desk, they are all being used by our sales force in the field.

Over the last three years I've spent a lot of time and money on SSD's just because I could, and I wanted to see which ones worked best and fit my needs.

After a few thousand dollars spent on top of the line SSD's I can say that yes, they are indeed faster for _some_ but not all tasks one does. Boot time, apps launch faster, etc. However considering the cost, if one is on a budget, it's my opinion they are not worth it.

Perhaps in the next year or so they will not only come down in price enough to be justifiable for all.
 
Thanks for the comments. I happen to work in an environment where I get to see some very interesting facets of PC use from video rendering to realtime crucial life saving needs where system failures are compensated by multiple redundencies, that's why I ask the question. In all these applications (several 100's of them), I've not seen one SSD installed in them...so I ask the question..

I've only experienced multi block failures on one hard drive since my days on a i386sx 20mhz....and it was a quantum Fireball. So I'll keep my eyes open... Afterall, the SSD is a relatively new development and I'm sure we'll figure out it's niche in the market place...
 
redbrick said:
Afterall, the SSD is a relatively new development and I'm sure we'll figure out it's niche in the market place...
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As others noted, correctly in my opinion, no one "needs" SSD. They provide undeniable advantages in boot and application launching speed, but at a very high relative dollar cost per GB.

I can't quite decide if SSD pricing is going to decline as sharply as HDDs did; mainly because it appears that people and services are pushing storage needs to the cloud. My best guess is that pricing will continue to decline but not as quickly as proponents would hope.
 
redbrick said:
Thanks for the comments. I happen to work in an environment where I get to see some very interesting facets of PC use from video rendering to realtime crucial life saving needs where system failures are compensated by multiple redundencies, that's why I ask the question. In all these applications (several 100's of them), I've not seen one SSD installed in them...so I ask the question..

I've only experienced multi block failures on one hard drive since my days on a i386sx 20mhz....and it was a quantum Fireball. So I'll keep my eyes open... Afterall, the SSD is a relatively new development and I'm sure we'll figure out it's niche in the market place...
Click to expand...

Remember it's not so new, and you and if you call notebooks a niche, then yes it's found it..
 
maclaptop said:
2.5" Laptop hard drives are specifically designed for travel with no limitations. I travel with mine everyday. In and out of the car, client appointments, stopping at Starbucks to check email, and on and on.

It sees very heavy usage and a lot of boot ups and shut downs, (I don't travel with it in the sleep mode) and after ten years of this, with either a PowerBook or MacBook Pro, I have not had a single hard drive fail. That's a pretty good record.

In my company where we are using both PC and Mac laptops, hard drive failures are rare, and none of these are being used on the desk, they are all being used by our sales force in the field.

Over the last three years I've spent a lot of time and money on SSD's just because I could, and I wanted to see which ones worked best and fit my needs.

After a few thousand dollars spent on top of the line SSD's I can say that yes, they are indeed faster for _some_ but not all tasks one does. Boot time, apps launch faster, etc. However considering the cost, if one is on a budget, it's my opinion they are not worth it.

Perhaps in the next year or so they will not only come down in price enough to be justifiable for all.
Click to expand...


That's really great! Wish I hat that kind of luck. :) They're designed to be tough but they are definitely still susceptible to physical impact and other physical stresses. Everyone of the drives when removed, you could physically hear the platter(s) rattling. It was always after that last good bump. Never sustained any damage to a laptop, just the HDD's.
 
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seong said:
This :D I love how you mentioned the 2GB usb going from 100 euro to almost nothing. I hope the SSDs will replace the HDDs in the near future for all laptops.
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To be honest, I can't see it going any other way. There is no advantage (other than capacity and cost both of which will change - probably surprisingly rapidly - with time and technological development) to a HDD over a SSD.

Economies of scale, and technological evolution will make the SSD the norm, not the exception, or expensive experimental luxury they were even three or four years ago. To all extents, they have become the norm with the iPod; I expect them to become the norm, within a few years, for laptops, too.

Cheers
 
....I remember when CDRoms were launched and we all looked on in awe - wow so much space; we'd never fill it, and they were slow....

SSD's are growing up fast now and they are just another step on the path of progress.

Do most people NEED them? well probably not. I could live with longer boot times (on those rare occasions when I switch OS) and apps loading a bit slower? not the end of the world for most, but it sure is a nice-to-have. In the future its likely that SSD's will replace HDD's for most applications. Thats just how it goes. for now they are still a premium option for those that must have the snappy load times or transfer rates or purely like to have higher-end things (a bit like one of my cabbie friends who drives a 2.5l V6 auto - not necessary even with the 4-fat-bar-stewards and luggage scenario; but she likes to have the best and is happy with it).

The adoption of SSD's by those that can afford them or simply must have the fastest they can get their mitts on is like many of the early CDRom buyers I remember: 'oooh shiny...gotta have it!' - they didn't NEED that kind of high capacity media capability, but because of them they became more widespread and so cheaper and so the ball rolls on.....

in the end all users will benefit from newer, faster technology because of the gotta-have crowd.

Thats my little opinion shared, now I can get back to my coffee and sit back happily as one of those early-adopters :)
 
comparing my new 2011 quad 2.2 w/ SSD to my late '08 w/ 7200rpm, haven't noticed that much of a performance difference. my 3d software actually loads slightly faster on the 2008 machine. although once open, the new computer definitely tears through renders! but thats more a function of the cpu, i'm guessing.

booting is 16 seconds, but honestly who reboots (vs sleeps) their computer often enough anymore for that to matter?

i mostly like that its quieter and has no moving parts for mobility. its a nice upgrade, but its not the mind blowing experience i think some people make it out to be (unless they're all coming from 5400rpm drives)
 
I can't wait till SSD's beat out HDDs. That will happen. As unbelievable as it sounds....I recently found it rather expensive to acquire a 5-1/4 floppy drive because they are a rare items these days.....seems there's no market for them anymore...wonder why????? :D oh, how the days go by....
 
I agree, I don't think anyone "needs" them. If I wasn't able to get a deal on a 256GB SSD for $199, I'd have stuck to my HDD. I rarely shut down, so booting benefit is rare, and after a few weeks of using the SSD, the wow factor was not that big a deal. I can wait a couple of extra seconds for Photoshop to open. It's really not life or death for me.

When I was using a 96GB SSD, the benefit was much more neutralized because it was so little space, and I didn't want to go the optibay route. Now that I have 256GB, it's a lot nicer, and I really appreciate having one. I just think at the current regular price point per GB, it's a huge tradeoff for what you get.
 
I don't need one which is why I returned mine and got a 750GB Scorpio Black. Sure it is slower, but I get the extra space without having to carry my external wherever I go. That is what I really want. A 750GB SSD!
 
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