To SSD or Not To SSD?

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback237.html' target='_blank'>http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback237.html</a><br /><br /></div><em>&quot;The looming arrival of solid-state hard drives (SSD) for notebooks seems like a rather exciting development at first blush. Unlike their mechanical counterparts, which have spindle motors, rotating platters and read/write heads, solid-state drives typically consist of flash memory chips and have no moving parts whatsoever. The benefits that these drivers offer compared to a mechanical drive are numerous, and include lower power consumption, improved performance, increased durability, less chance of data loss (no heads to crash into the platters), no noise and no heat output.&quot;<br /><br /></em>I don't think the cost benefit equation works right now for most uses.&nbsp; If you are using a small drive, it won't break the bank, so it seems to work for something the the Asus Eee.&nbsp; Also, if you are trying to work the performance angle, I guess you could use a small one as your boot/application drive and store all your data elsewhere.

[Jason Dunn]

I think SSDs are great, but they're too expensive and not high-capacity enough for my needs. Mid to late 2009 is when I expect to see SSDs in the 100+ GB range, for not-insane dollar amounts.

[Jeremy Charette]

My biggest concern with SSD is the limited number of read/write cycles flash memory can tolerate. Not sure that SSD is all that well suited to daily use in a PC, particularly a Windows PC which uses the hard disk for memory paging.

[onlydarksets]

My biggest concern with SSD is the limited number of read/write cycles flash memory can tolerate. Not sure that SSD is all that well suited to daily use in a PC, particularly a Windows PC which uses the hard disk for memory paging.

The SSDs that would be hard-drive replacements have controllers that vary the writes. Although I believe SSDs have a limit of 100k writes or so, by moving it around, the effective life is many years. I guess if you're using a laptop to do video editing, that could be a problem (since you're filling up the drive), but for most users hopefully it won't be an issue.

[onlydarksets]

Here come the 160GB SSDs!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/macworld/20080312/tc_macworld/intel160gbsolidstatedriveswillbeunveiledsoon_0

[Jason Dunn]

Here come the 160GB SSDs!

Nice! As capacities ramp up, it will put pressure on the smaller drives - so the 64 GB SSDs should drop in price, big time.

[Gordo]

In posts I have read about the life of a SSD the drive will outlast the devices usefulness. One article is talking about ten years life with frequent use. I don't know about any of you, but I don't have a laptop that is that old, and the hard-drives on my laptops usually die before 10 years.

http://www.esacademy.com/faq/docs/flash/lifetime.htm
(http://www.esacademy.com/faq/docs/flash/lifetime.htm)

I have the EeePC and am not worried about the SSD life.