Benefits of the Solid State Drive (SSD)
Not many people really get the benefits of solid state drives (SSD) – and how much they differ from the conventional hard disk drives (HDD). You’ve seen us use these acronyms countless times in this blog. So here’s an overview of how SSDs are different, why they’re awesome and what their flaws are.
You can thank my dream netbook the Sony Vaio P’s new 256 GB SSD for this post 
Note: there are a couple of (Dell) notebooks that utilize 256GB SSDs, and Toshiba is experimenting with a 512GB SSD (!!!!) in Japan; Sony isn’t the only fish in the sea.
Differences
- Don’t have movable parts – Unlike hard disk drives (HDD) which have moving parts, nothing moves in solid state drives (SSD). See benefits.
- 256 GB is astounding - Like walking on the moon! Not really. But 256 GB in solid state device is the creme de la creme of solid state storage capacity. Most netbooks come with 8, 16, 32 and – wait-for-it – 64 GB SSDs. So three digit storage capacities are a very huge deal.
Benefits
- Better performance - Since there are no movable parts and they drives don’t have to spin like HDDs, SSD-based systems tend to load faster. Seek time for the files is also quicker. If you own a PC, you must be used to carrying out routine (annoying and time consuming) Disk Fragment processes. With SSDs, you don’t have to worry as much about file fragmentation.
- More power efficient, longer battery life – No spinning parts, therefore less power consumption. If portability is a high priority for you (and considering this is a netbook blog, it probably is), SSDs are a great option.
- No spinning sound - ’cause there’s no spinning parts! Ain’t life awesome Seriously though, how many times have you been on a Skype chat or had a video meeting in which the other party could hear your hard drive spin? I used to have a high-end Vaio notebook, and hard drive spin was a huge problem for me. Therefore I assume you know what I’m talking about!
- No more “hard drive” crashes - One of the basic rules of extending your notebook/netbook life is to put your display down and wait for your hard drive to stop spinning before you move your device. How many of you actually adhere to this? How many of you have had sleepless nights because your hard drive crashed? Since there are no moving parts in SSDs, you don’t have to worry about sudden movements destroying your precious hard drive. Which also means you no longer need hard drive protection software. See, SSDs even help you free up your RAM! Isn’t that awesome.
- Take up less space – I’ll admit hard drives are occupying far less space now a days. But I just had to throw this point in here!
- Less critical failures - This part is a little tricky to grasp. With HDDs, failures tend to occur in the read phase. These tend to be brutal as they result in data loss. With SSDs, failures tend to occur in the erase phase (phew! eh), and the write phase. But the beauty is that your data is still saved — it is simply stored in a different location (which doesn’t affect the data overall).
With SSDs, you’re basically receiving a more secure stable drive where your files and data are well – safer… well, for a year or two. Read the drawbacks for more on this.
Drawbacks
- Tend to ‘burn’ the disk – This isn’t the technical term for the phenomenon but makes it easier to visualize and understand. I tried explaining this to a very tech savvy friend of mine, and it took him a relatively long time to understand this, so bear with my over-simplification.
When you edit a file, the SSD stores it in the same place time and time again, thereby wearing out that physical part of the drive. This is especially crucial for files such as Windows logs – or Norton Anti-virus logs – which are updated on a daily basis.
The solution is to periodically spread your data out and save it in different parts of the drive.Sounds like too much work? The good news is that manufacturers are beginning to take this into consideration for consumer-intended SSDs and are designing the drives to diffuse data more appropriately – called wear leveling. Realistically, this problem shouldn’t affect your for the first year or two of owning your device. When it comes to year three, you ought to look into it to ensure your data is safe.
- Expensive – A couple of years ago, you had to pay around $1,000 for a 64GB SSD. In 2009 in particular, prices have dropped by up to 30%. For instance, you can get an Intel 80GB SSD from Amazon at $314. It was originally priced at $636. (Compare to $50-$100 hard drives with the same capacity.)
- Less capacity – A.k.a., companies are working on it. Toshiba’s experimenting with 512 SSDs. But unless you’re rolling in the dough, you’re more likely to see 32GB and 64GB SSDs around you. But this is changing
- Not so Windows XP & Vista optimized – This is true of all previous versions of Windows. Things are changing with Windows 7 which is the first edition to be optimized for SSD.
Bottom line
Solid state drives are ideal, and will probably become more mainstream as prices continue to drop and capacity increases. Don’t scoff and wait for this to happen (2010 perhaps?). If you’re going to invest in a device you may as well go all the way. Especially in the netbook market in which SSDs seem to be far more prevalent (than the notebook market at least).
The little details – faster, better performance, improved battery life, omission of hard drive failures and crashes – will go a long way in improving your computing experience. We’re in 2009. You DESERVE faster smoother computing.
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Filed under: Netbook Analysis, Netbooks