Any one here tried an SSD yet?

[norcal77]

So I needed a new hard drive and was looking at my options and came across this SSD type drive that they have out now. It was $100 for a 40GB drive as opposed to the 2TB I could have gotten instead. I don't typically keep lots of data and only use my PC for surfing and stuff so I figured I'd give it a shot..

It is a pretty cool device...so far what I have noticed...

-Windows boots in less than 10 seconds, from turn on until the desktop is ready
-It's extremely quiet (no moving parts), it's kind of strange watching that drive light go crazy on the PC and not hearing a single sound

All in all, I like it. If you plan on replacing your boot drive one day I'd highly recommend it, boot times are insanely fast as opposed to the older style drives.

I bought the 40GB Intel one but I hear Kingston makes a good drive also..

[stphnman20]

SSD = Solid State Drive

It's pretty much the same memory as the one the the Ipods have. Getting one for my Macbook for Xmas. It cost an arm and leg but I think it's well worth it.

[Merc1138]

Yes windows boots fast(then again, I rarely turn my computers off anyway, most of the time they're just in sleep mode, so I'm still in windows within 10 seconds of pressing a button on the keyboard.

Yes, they're fast drives and great for laptops because of the lack of moving parts.

However, SSDs aren't something I'd buy for a desktop computer due to cost. Still not under $1.50 per GB(I don't plan on buying for my main desktop till it's more like $1/GB). The storage capacity still sucks unless you're willing to pay astronomical amounts.

For a laptop they're great, for a desktop, still needs a year or two.

PS, those hybrid seagate drives are garbage unless all you like to do is run benchmarks all day.

[den888]

I have heard that they have a limited read/write cycle, which may contribute to a higher failure rate than HD's. But, the technology is relatively new compared with HD's, so the data may be insufficient to show anything significant.

I have one in a Dell netbook and it has performed well so far (since Feb 2009).

[DiscoBayJoe]

I went SSD a year ago and would never go back. There are a couple of OS tweaks you can make that will really make it fly.

[Gundam]

Easily the best performance value for computers. People spend hundreds of dollars to get a few hundred mhz difference, a few more gb of ram, or on aftermarket cooling so they can OC their chips, yet none will provide a dramatic difference like going from a conventional platter HDD to an SSD. The difference is night and day. My crappy netbook with its piss poor cpu will boot up windows and open programs in half the time of my my i3 based desktop running a 7200rpm HDD.

[Nose Nuggets]

There is a pretty wide range of performance on the SSD's right now. Intel seems to have the best ones (although i cant remember the model) while some SSD's have performance below that of a conventional platter and head drive.

We started ordering laptops with SSD when they started coming out and they have been consistently better. My boss' laptop and a few we got for one of our larger clients have been really good. Its pretty much any seek operation is drastically faster (for obvious reasons). so your scheduled AV scans run faster, defrags, searches, booting, etc.

In most computer systems these days the largest restriction to performance for common tasks is the speed of the drive. the fact that they even sell 5400 RPM 2.5" drives is a damn travesty.

For desktops and servers i would recommend a SSD for the OS and do conventional platter/head drives for storage. in my home desktop i have a WD Raptor drive and a few 1TB's. 40-60 gigs is just to damn small for my home computer so the Raptor was a really good alternative. almost as fast, but 300 gigs.

[Mute]

I've been using one for a while now. I will never go back to conventional hard drives as my primary. I only use platter drives now for storage.

[TonyM]

I went SSD a year ago and would never go back. There are a couple of OS tweaks you can make that will really make it fly.

+1

I run two mid-speed 128GB SSDs in RAID0 for my boot partition on Win7 and it screams.

Boots are fast and Windows reports it's pretty good too.

[sfwdiy]

I'll probably be throwing an SSD in my Macbook Pro shortly. I'm also thinking about pulling the optical drive and throwing another hard drive in there instead. SSD for OS/Apps, HDD for data storage.

--B

[JDay]

Easily the best performance value for computers. People spend hundreds of dollars to get a few hundred mhz difference, a few more gb of ram, or on aftermarket cooling so they can OC their chips, yet none will provide a dramatic difference like going from a conventional platter HDD to an SSD. The difference is night and day. My crappy netbook with its piss poor cpu will boot up windows and open programs in half the time of my my i3 based desktop running a 7200rpm HDD.

An i3 isn't exactly a fast CPU, in fact it is a low end CPU.

[JDay]

Its pretty much any seek operation is drastically faster (for obvious reasons). so your scheduled AV scans run faster, defrags, searches, booting, etc.

You should never defrag a SSD, for one thing it is not needed and for another it will decrease the drives life.

[SikDMAX]

Im on the hunt for a crazy Cyber Monday deal on a nice SSD around 100GB or so. I just bought a 2TB HD for $59.99 shipped for all my music and data, but this will be, as mentioned by others, for the OS and programs.

I went SSD a year ago and would never go back. There are a couple of OS tweaks you can make that will really make it fly.

What mods are these? Id like to do them.

[norcal77]

I went SSD a year ago and would never go back. There are a couple of OS tweaks you can make that will really make it fly.

Please share these OS tweaks, if they are the ones I'm thinking of you need Windows 7 and I'm still on XP. I'm probably going to upgrade soon but any tips would be appreciated..

[norcal77]

I have heard that they have a limited read/write cycle, which may contribute to a higher failure rate than HD's.

I read the same thing also but instead of relying on tests I decided to try it myself, I honestly don't notice any kind of limitations...

I did read earlier models of the solid state drives that used the Jmicron controller had major "stuttering" issues but supposedly that has been tuned out and it should be good to go..