Windows 7 SSD Stackup

[kemical]

Solid state drives are nothing new. But until recently, large capacity drives were extremely rare outside of high performance servers and embedded industrial applications due to their astronomical cost. Fortunately, flash prices have dropped to the point where large capacity SSDs (big enough to store operating systemLink Removed + many applications) are within reach of enthusiasts.

Our article today focuses on flash-based solid state drives (hereafter referred to as SSDs for simplicity). Specifically, we will be looking at those in the 2.5" form factor. SSDs are essentially many flash devices connected to and managed by a controller chip, which then presents this to the system as a typical storage device.

To read the rest of the review go here: Link Removed

 

[whoosh]

SSD drives for now are way outside my budget . Like every other expensive innovation they will in time come down in price .
One reason for there coming down in price is the fact Windows 7 natively surports them
So for me a few years down the line and they may well be within my reach . For now no .
Also like all technology improvments will come with time

 

[john3347]

How about longevity?

I have heard since SSDs came into discussion that they have a finite number of read/write cycles. Of course, due to the moving parts that make them work, current conventional disk harddrives also have a finite life. Now we know that the life of a conventional harddrive is longer than the typical useful life of the computer in which it is installed, thereby making harddrive life span not a critical consideration. Does anyone have information as to the expected lifetime of a SSD that is big enough a capacity to be practical for serious computer use? "No moving parts" doesn't mean infinite lifetime; especially concerning SSDs. Is this life short enough to be a consideration when looking at SSDs?

 

[kemical]

I can't give you any exact figures John, but do know that it's rapidly improving. I read a few articles on this subject a while ago, I'll see if I can find them..

 

[kemical]

An article which may prove helpful is this one: AnandTech: The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD

 

[john3347]

Thanks kemical

An article which may prove helpful is this one: AnandTech: The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD

Thanks for the link here. It led to some additional links to give someone a bit more information into the current "state of affairs" of SSDs. This is an area that seems to be changing more rapidly than it had for several years. Conventional harddrives are also currently undergoing many changes with "green" drives, "black" drives, "blue" drives, etc. Some new models have various coatings on the disk (some of which seem to be pealing prematurely). All these changes really muddy up the water when making a parts list for a new computer. It is no longer a simple decision of how big and whether you prefer Seagate or Western Digital (or Maxtor).

 

[textureDnB]

From pondering John's question while reading these articles i have come to a conclusion/theory. It seems like a peripheral benefit of all this wear leveling technology combined with the overall way that NAND flash wears out is that we should see almost no abrupt, catastrophic failures of SSD's. These devices seem, because of the basic design of the technology, like they should always fail in an organized predictable manner or at the very least only partially destroying data when they fail.

Can anyone confirm if this is an advertised feature of SSD's ? It's seems like it should be a major selling point for the technology.