SSD Drives

[Tesla]

How long do you think it will be until Solid State Disk are the norm and cost effective? I want one badly but I don't want to shell out the cash they want for a 32gig drive.

[Tomi]

Awch, I would stay well away for now my friend. Speed/side/cost wise they are no better than a top of the range standard HD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlB8r_0dDlI

This guy is a hardcore computer hardware enthusiast and as his little test shows there is virtually no difference. I would rather have the extra space of a normal drive and save the money.

[nighthawk]

Normal hard drives are still better. If you want speed so much buy two drives and connect them in RAID-0 mode (stripped). Only drawback - if one of them die you lose all your data, or buy at least three (up to 32) and connect them in RAID-5 mode. In that way you have greater speed (especially read, writing may use a lot of CPU, so it is usually a little slower), and even if one disc breaks down you still have your data.

SSD discs will be good in a few years (if they don't invent something even better), but now they are too expensive for use in desktop computers. There's also the problem with the number of writes that flash memory can stand before dying. For most flash memories its 300 000 times which is more than enough for mp3 players, removable discs, etc, but computer almost always writes something to hard drive.