20 replies to this topic

[Pyro699]

Alright, so for those of you that don't know SSD's (Solid State Devices) are the 'new' wave of hard drives coming to the market. (By new i mean they are a progressing technology). By comparison your typical Hard Drive Device (the ones with the spinning platters) have an average write speed of about ~4-5mb/s depending on your BUS (Sata, IDE, etc...); the new SSD's have a write speed of anywhere from ~200-400mb/s (number from the top of my head). From that you can tell that things will load A LOT faster; especially during windows boot sessions. What I'm anxious to know, is should i cave in and buy one now (about ~300$ for a 120GB) or wait a few more weeks/months >> My current HDD is a few years old and i can get this 'vibe' from it that its about to catastrophically fail; don't ask how, me and my computer have a very close relationship . Im just curious as to how some of the techies here feel about them.

Thanks
~Cody

[Kway]

If you really want it, then get it.

While Solid State Drive's speeds are much higher, it has a set expiration data based on usage. Flash memory can only to be written to so many times and become unusable so depending on what you use your 120 GB SSD for, it might not last longer than other HDDs of the same price but you will probably upgrade to a bigger SSD or HDD long before it fails.

Also, what are you going to do with 120GB? My laptop is currently using 400 GB and constantly grows on the main HDDs and about 800 GB on my 1 TB external for backups and long-term storage.

[iargue]

Well. SSD is at 300 dollars. Whereas a terabyte for normal hard drives is only 80. Its all your choice.

I have a 32gb SSD for my Os partition simply because I got sick of the bottleneck. XD. I have 2tb for data though.

[Kway]

Well. SSD is at 300 dollars. Whereas a terabyte for normal hard drives is only 80. Its all your choice.

I have a 32gb SSD for my Os partition simply because I got sick of the bottleneck. XD. I have 2tb for data though.

I would do that but I really don't want to sacrifice one of my laptop's 2 drive bays. I'm planning on getting 2 1TB HDD for a RAID0 which would be enough of a performance boost for me but I'm too lazy to order the HDDs right now.

[ShadowLink64]

I was thinking of setting up a RAID 0 array in my next computer. I'm just wondering though, do the on-board motherboard RAID controllers work well? Do people buy separate RAID controllers just for more drives or more capabilities or something?

[iargue]

I was thinking of setting up a RAID 0 array in my next computer. I'm just wondering though, do the on-board motherboard RAID controllers work well? Do people buy separate RAID controllers just for more drives or more capabilities or something?

Onboard ones are better actually. Given that they are not completely cheap.

The onboard ones have direct access to the motherboard, and thus have less overhead.

[Pyro699]

I already have several TB dedicated to storage; i was just curious as to if you speculated a decline in the prices as xmas approaches. Plus i want to do a reformat and i may as well do it on a new hard drive xP

~Cody

[iargue]

I already have several TB dedicated to storage; i was just curious as to if you speculated a decline in the prices as xmas approaches. Plus i want to do a reformat and i may as well do it on a new hard drive xP

~Cody

Speculation is stupid. There is no way possible to know when the prices will drop, and by how much they will drop. Obviously they will go down, and it might be in a month, or a day, or a year, or a century. Who knows. Thats something no one can determine but the person who sets the prices.

[Pyro699]

So, i was browsing NewEgg... and came across a PCI Express SSD that really sparked my interest... Most of the ones i saw in the first stages were thousands of dollars... but this one seems rather promising, its only 300$, 80gb, 500mb/s write speeds... well.. just look at it i guess xD

http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16820227597

~Cody

[CyberMew]

use this http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16820167031 for your os drive. anything else into a 2tb data drive

Edited by CyberMew, 16 October 2010 - 10:56 PM.

[sircomflix]

I use an SSD for my OS and I definitely think it's worth it. If you have the money and are interested, it's worth the investment. You could wait for prices to lower, but you really could say that about any computer part.

[Pyro699]

I use an SSD for my OS and I definitely think it's worth it. If you have the money and are interested, it's worth the investment. You could wait for prices to lower, but you really could say that about any computer part.

Good point Im ordering this tomorrow

[Kyle]

Good point Im ordering this tomorrow

Do PCI express cards work in the same fashion that a typical Sata drive does? Meaning performance and such

[Noitidart]

Close relationship with your comp? Nice
I need one of those.

[Pyro699]

Do PCI express cards work in the same fashion that a typical Sata drive does? Meaning performance and such

god no...

PCI Express 1x	250 MB/s
PCI Express 2x	500 MB/s
PCI Express 4x	1000 MB/s
PCI Express 8x	2000 MB/s
PCI Express 16x	4000 MB/s
PCI Express 32x	8000 MB/s

SATA	 150 MB/s
SATA II	 300 MB/s
SATA III 600 MB/s

That hard drive is PCI Express 4x so it has a potential to be 1000MB/s but its limited to the physical properties of the hard drive... the SATA SSD drives are around 200-300MB/S where this one is 540MB/s

I think... xD

And yes, i have a very close relationship with my computer :3 I love it, and it loves me

~Cody

[Mr. Hobo]

How long will the average ssd last with heavy usage? I'm guessing a lifespan is really hard to calculate because there are so many factors?

[Pyro699]

How long will the average ssd last with heavy usage? I'm guessing a lifespan is really hard to calculate because there are so many factors?

The site said 2 million hours which is about 230 years xD So... im assuming that its good to go

[Mr. Hobo]

Kway made it sound like they don't last too long

[sircomflix]

The site said 2 million hours which is about 230 years xD So... im assuming that its good to go

Running under ideal conditions yeah, but once you factor in the thousands upon thousands of rewrites it's going to do, and running at some hotter than optimal temperatures, that life dwindles down quite a bit, but not to the point where it's really a huge factor compared to traditional disk platter hard drives. That'd be awesome if items actually lived up to their MTBFs :3

[Pyro699]

True... but if you even wanna factor 230 years down by 90% that's still 23 years... so.. unless they are WAY FUCKING OFF... they should stop using monekys to calculate MTBFs and actually say "this product will fail within 1 year of continuous use" or some bullshit like that xD

[Faval]

But then their product wouldn't sell

So naturally they would put it in ideal situations and put up the longest MTBF they can get

I'm still waiting on the new intel ssds to come out before thinking about buying a small one for my OS..

Edited by Faval, 21 October 2010 - 06:35 AM.