Opinions on Solid State Drives ( SSD )

[viking33]

Not for immediate use but I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience with SSD technology?
Right now, they are somewhat more expensive and limited in ( large ) capacity. They DO seem much faster than the HDDs we all have. Faster boot up and app loading. Internal mounts are available. No mechanical components.

I'm not really in the market for one now but I am interested in their potential. As with anything new, the prices are up there and wait and see is the watchword. I'm sure that with time, the capacity and price will adjust properly.
Comments?

[HansV]

I don't have personal experience with them, but my boss recently bought a USB3 SSD drive (his laptop has USB3) to create backups and he's impressed. Backups are very fast. He doesn't use it as a regular hard disk though.

[JoeP]

You can get very impressive boot, resume from sleep/hibernation & program load speeds. Most comments that I've read have users loading the OS & programs only on the SSD. Data is on a legacy HD. You are correct in that SSDs are expensive per GB compared to rotational HDs. Prices will continue to decrease but not necessarily at the speed that HDs seem to. The memory used in SSDs in much more expensive than the ingredients in HDs.

Joe

[jonwallace]

I suggest you DON'T get one of these...

[viking33]

I suggest you DON'T get one of these...

You are so right!
It does show that it doesn't take too long for someone to try screwing around. Even put in two nuts for convenience!

[Timelord]

We are using SSD for our convention machines. Since these have to be shipped all over the US and sometimes world we always found that at least one drive would be dead upon arrival. With SSD that is no longer a problem.

[Argus]

No personal experience. As Joe mentioned, I've seen some white box builders selling desktops with a combination of a smaller SSD (well not that small, nowadays, say 100-120 GB) for the system partition and a 1 TB HDD (or even larger). But they are still at the top of the spectrum; usually high end CPUs, some good quad core etc. Guess that makes sense, i.e. using the SSD for the OS. Maybe in the next desktop, perhaps, or with the next OS.

You could put a large bunch together. (Wacky and some tests are not that interesting, but still quite fun).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96dWOEa4Djs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[viking33]

Good information from all. Very interesting.
Keep them coming.

[BobArch2]

Keep them coming.

Hi Bob,
Coming in a bit late... but for valid reasons. I'll be posting a separate message concerning my experiences building a new system but since I included an SSD in the build, thought I would provide some comments to your request.

I acquired an Intel 510 SSD to function as my system drive connected via a SATA III port. With a complete new build, the system start up from power on / POST / to loading all start-up apps is under 2 minutes. I think it is closer to 1 minute... but will test it again and post back later with the actual results.

When I decided to go with the SSD, I was torn between the Intel and OCZ offerings. I knew I wanted the drive to operate under SATA III and the Intel 510 and OCZ Vertex III were the only viable products. At the time I was ready to buy, the Intel 510 was on the market and the Vertex III wasn't going to be available for another 3-4 weeks. My youngest son who lives and works in Northern California in the IT industry convinced me to go with the Intel and not wait for the OCZ. Aside from the delivery time difference, it was his and his fellow techs opinion that OCZ had a past history of problems with the Vertex II and there was nothing to indicate that the Vertex III would resolve the performance issues. Spec wise, the OCZ Vertex III appears to be better while the Intel product was deemed to be more reliable.

Regarding cost... YUP, she's not cheap. The 120GB Intel 510 cost Cdn$299. When I consider that my new build included 3 x 1TB WDC Cavair Black HDDs at a cost of Cdn$85/each, then yes, SSDs are costly. As a side issue, I do remember my very first HD... it was a Trustor 10 - 10MB external unit weighing about 5 pounds cabled with a 1.5 pound heavy duty ribbon cable connected to an internal HD controller. The cost of that unit bought in the early 80's was Cdn$1,595.

Anyway, back on track. SSDs never have to be subjected to a defragmentation process. One of the first things when installing the hardware and O/S is to stop any auto-defrag process in the O/S. Does the unit become fragmented? Yes, but there are no moving parts and thus no need to defrag. When files are deleted in an SSD, they do remain and are part of the indexing process. Products like the Intel have a software app called TRIM that flags the deleted file(s) to truly free up the space. The TRIM process is recommended to be run on a weekly basis.

The Intel app also contains diagnostic features that can ensure that the unit is operating under peek efficiency. It also checks to ensure that Superfetch and Fetch is turned off in the O/S as related to the SSD since those functions serve no purpose.

Anyway (2), just a few thoughts. If I think of anything else, I'll post the information. When I do get around to sharing my experiences with the new build, I'll include timings for various tasks. The one major downside of the new build is that I can no longer start brewing the coffee while the system is starting. I really blame that on the SSD!!!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edited to add start-up time: With a powered off system, pushed the power-on button; at the 10 second mark when POST started displaying; at the 30 second mark, the Starting Windows logo was displayed. By 1 minute 12 seconds the system was available for use having loaded 85 tasks and performed the boot-up ESET Nod32 virus scan.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[StuartR]

Just as an additional data point.

I bought a new PC in October 2009, with a 120GB OCZ Vertex SATA2 SSD system disk. The time it takes this Windows 7 PC from when I click the restart button in Windows to when the entire login process is complete is less than 2 minutes. This includes the time it takes to shutdown, restart, me to enter the password, and the login to complete.

[BobArch2]

Just as an additional data point... The time it takes this Windows 7 PC from when I click the restart button in Windows to when the entire login process is complete is less than 2 minutes.

Bet you don't regret the addition of the SSD or the expense involved!!!