SSD's - Solid State Drives ?

Anyone using one as a system drive ?
Apart from being quiet and cool and booting quick, what are the benefits against the STUPID prices ??

Ta,

Marty.

No moving parts = less prone to failure, especially in a mobile device?

some stuff to read
http://www.anandtech.com/searchresults.aspx?keyword=ssd&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&submit=search

Thanks chaps, that anandtech site is a cracker, tonnes of great information.

I think I'll wait for the prices to drop, though I appreciate that they have in the last year.

The best I've seen in a 160gig Intel X 25M ( version 1 ) for £239 but that's still a LOT of cash.

There are some technical issues when they get a bit full up too, which is a worry.

MM.

Marty,


  there are big issues if you run a conventional drive too full too! Ideally, if I remember correctly, you shouldn't go over @80%



        very soon, the Clunky 3.5" drive will feel SO old fashioned! - - - - just not quite yet!



            Kindest regards,



                ANdyP

Anyone have one installed and using it as their systems drive and what is the minimum specs you can get away with? I heard some of the SSD drives are still not fast enough because of their read and write speeds.

Before the current crop came out, I used a flash-drive in a LOW-performance bedside machine, because I could make it utterly silent and more kick-proof.

The technology I used (CF Card) is normally for cameras and VERY slow about mixed read/writes. WinXP boots to a desktop fairly fast, then staaallllls over a minute while it dinks around inside the Registry to setup and update the behind-the-scene stuff. Altho the Geode 500MHz is not a speedy CPU, I sense that the CF Card is often the real bottleneck.

The current SATA SSDs are optimized for winchester type read/write, and far faster than an old CF, so this isn't much help. Except to point out that "it depends what you do". Once I get the slug fully booted, it plays Solitaire slick as any other.

A side effect: because power is low and has no surges, this machine often rides through short power blips which reboot the main PC and the microwave.

strangeandbouncy said:

Marty,
   there are big issues if you run a conventional drive too full too! Ideally, if I remember correctly, you shouldn't go over @80%
                ANdyP

Click to expand...

Good point Andy, which I'm aware of - I'd never fill a 500gig more than 350-400 !!

The issue is that these are between 60 and 160gig ( unless you're on football wages ) and so limit
what can be installed.

The anandtech site, cites the "Intel X25-M" as the star of the show - so far and it seems that general operation
WILL feel more "zippy" as all actions between board/drive/memory will improve, not SO much when writing data
but absolutely when reading it.
I'm VERY tempted just for a "what's it like" but jumping from a large bare drive @ under £50 to a small one at perhaps £350 is a shocker !!

MM.

They seem to work pretty well now, check out tests and reviews at tomshardwareguide.com

A bit dated, but very cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96dWOEa4Djs

And what to do with the old drive(s):
http://vimeo.com/1109226