Solid State Hard Drive

[Gnosis]

I have recently heard that solid state drive are much more affordable now, and perform really well. What are the pros and cons of solid state? Does Hitachi make them? If not, what is a quality brand?

I am tired of these oversized and glitchy Seagate drives from China. I only need about 30 GB, if that. I have way more harddrive than I will ever need. It is such a cliche, and an inefficient one at that.

Please enlighten me. Thanks.

 

[Nikos]

I want to hear this answer too.

 

[HeffeD]

As far as I'm aware, the only drawback with SSD's are their limited write cycles. Although admittedly, I'm not in the market so I haven't done any research into how their lifespan compares to a standard HD. It might be close enough to not be considered a drawback.

 

[Vixo]

Pros, off the top of my head, incredibly quick, silent, compact and efficient.
Cons, none with the price you can buy them at now, the writes they can take is more than you or I could achieve in say 10-20 years at which time I can safely say you'll want a new drive regardless.

Samsung 830 or Crucial M4, don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

 

[Nikos]

I though OCZ were the best SSDs, no?

 

[Vixo]

Speed wise maybe but not reliability, one issue that springs to mind is the blue screen problem with the Sandforce driver which OCZ use. In terms of reliability the Samsung 830 and the Crucial m4 can't be beaten, at the speeds both of those drives are capable of you're not going to notice any difference moving to a 5% "quicker" OCZ drive. The Samsung is the slightly quicker drive out of the two I mentioned.

 

[McLovin]

As far as I'm aware, the only drawback with SSD's are their limited write cycles. Although admittedly, I'm not in the market so I haven't done any research into how their lifespan compares to a standard HD. It might be close enough to not be considered a drawback.

I have the same, don't and can't really afford it at the moment, but as far as I know you can't keep formatting it. Once it has Windows on you can't defrag it. Their great in any gaming machine and I guess if you do a lot of video editing.

 

[Vixo]

That was true maybe for the first generation of SSD's but now they can take a hell of a lot write wise, on another forum they are testing the write endurance of SSD's and as of Yesterday the 256GB Samsung 830 has taken 3,989,792GB of writes, let's just say it won't die because you reformatted it.
You aren't supposed to defrag it with Windows 7, that's correct and there's no reason to either. In Windows 8 this won't be the case, defrag will be a "general optimization tool" for SSD's.

With the prices as they are now it's a great time to get your first SSD, if you have the money there's no reason not to get one. It should be the biggest priority upgrade wise for any PC user, it offers a huge difference you probably won't see upgrading anything else.

 

[McLovin]

With the prices as they are now it's a great time to get your first SSD, if you have the money there's no reason not to get one. It should be the biggest priority upgrade wise for any PC user, it offers a huge difference you probably won't see upgrading anything else.

Hmm, well have to look around here then. It is true, everything will be faster, which also means that I can render videos faster too

 

[MetalShaun]

Speed wise maybe but not reliability, one issue that springs to mind is the blue screen problem with the Sandforce driver which OCZ use. In terms of reliability the Samsung 830 and the Crucial m4 can't be beaten, at the speeds both of those drives are capable of you're not going to notice any difference moving to a 5% "quicker" OCZ drive. The Samsung is the slightly quicker drive out of the two I mentioned.

That my friend is incorrect , Intel has the lowest failure rates in the industry. ALso you get a 5 year warranty with Intel, Crucial and Samsung give you 3.

TBH, You won't go wrong with any of the modern ssd's they all very similar, and even the most unreliable SSD will be much more reliable then a Hard Drive.

Some helpful vids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hxBN-aMTaA&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot9hHnUgPMU&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on3-b4ePZYQ&feature=plcp

 

[iPanik]

Getting an ssd is the best thing you can do for your computer. Everything becomes much snappier. for example, i cut more than a minute off my boot time (from power button to open browser).

Intel, Samsung, Crucial and OCZ all make great (and expensive) drives. But if price is a concern, then i recommend SandForce based drives from some of the smaller companies. The firmware problem with SandForce controllers is solved, so they are as reliable as the others. My Sandisk ssd has a lifespan of 2.4 million hours so it won't be dying any time soon

EDIT: Another example of the speeds we are playing with here: a typical quick scan in MSE of around 100.000 items takes 45 seconds

 

[Vixo]

Speed wise maybe but not reliability, one issue that springs to mind is the blue screen problem with the Sandforce driver which OCZ use. In terms of reliability the Samsung 830 and the Crucial m4 can't be beaten, at the speeds both of those drives are capable of you're not going to notice any difference moving to a 5% "quicker" OCZ drive. The Samsung is the slightly quicker drive out of the two I mentioned.

That my friend is incorrect , Intel has the lowest failure rates in the industry. ALso you get a 5 year warranty with Intel, Crucial and Samsung give you 3.

TBH, You won't go wrong with any of the modern ssd's they all very similar, and even the most unreliable SSD will be much more reliable then a Hard Drive.

Some helpful vids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hxBN-aMTaA&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot9hHnUgPMU&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on3-b4ePZYQ&feature=plcp

I never mentioned failure rates specifically, Intel although improved over the OCZ version use a Sandforce controller. Maybe things have changed for Sandforce but you won't find too many people who disagree with me that the M4/830 is the best choice.
Although as you said you can't really go wrong now with any SSD model/brand.

 

[Gnosis]

Getting an ssd is the best thing you can do for your computer. Everything becomes much snappier

I am there partner. I like it smooth, esp. in the virtual world. I am very impatient with technology and like it "snappy".

 

[DeadDrop]

Check out Amazon, Picked up a brand new Sanddisk 480 GB SSD for $360!

 

[DeadDrop]

I'll add some more info... The best brand of SSD are as follows: Intel (5 year warranty) , Crucial M4 & above, Sand-disk (best bang for buck SSD's, Corsair (good drives), Plextor (fast drives), Mushkin Chronos (good performance).

OCZ Vertex & Agility have many issues I wouldnt buy one if you ask me.

There is some rubbish SSD drives out there so be careful when buying one. Always check reviews.

 

[muhammadariif]

I heard Samsung makes all things inside the SSD itself and has a good looking too.

 

[Nikos]

Wha do you mean when you say Sand-disk?

 

[Ink]

It's a brand, SanDisk name.

Not to be mistaken with Sand.

Wha do you mean when you say Sand-disk?

 

[Nikos]

"Sand-disk (best bang for buck SSD's)"

What does that mean?

 

[Ink]

Best value at that price for SanDisk SDD's.