What are SSD drives and what are their advantages over conventional HDDs. Solid State Drive

Hello! I’ll tell you today about what SSD drives are and whether you need to buy them. What are the pros and cons of SSD drives? Remember those days when a 40 GB hard drive was considered big and it was very cool? Now the normal size of a hard drive is 1 TB or more.

Of course, technology is developing very quickly, and SSD drives have replaced hard drives. These are new devices that have a lot of pros and a few cons, and we’ll talk about that.

SSD (Solid state drive) is a drive that does not have moving parts, like a regular hard drive. An SSD uses flash memory to store memory. In simple words, this is such a large flash drive. The main advantages of SSD drives are speed, resistance to mechanical damage, and low power consumption. The downside is the high price and short failure time.

Advantages of SSD drives

Speed of reading and writing information. Compared to regular hard drives, SSDs operate at high speeds. For example, a drive connected via the SATAIII interface operates at a speed of 500 MB/s. This is impressive, and it is not the limit and not the full potential of SSDs. The operating system on such drives loads in a matter of seconds.

Resistance to mechanical damage. You probably know that hard drives really don’t like various problems, strong vibrations, etc. Especially in laptops, HDDs very often begin to “crumble.” As I already wrote, the SSD has no active elements, so it is not afraid of mechanical damage, of course, within reasonable limits. I really like this; by installing such a drive in a laptop, you don’t have to be afraid to carry the laptop with it turned on, etc.

Quiet operation. The SSD drive does not make any sounds when operating. You probably know that regular hard drives make noise during operation.

Low power consumption. Compared to HDD, SSD uses less electricity, this is very important for laptops.

Disadvantages of SSD

Short operating time for wear and tear. This means that the SSD drive will work for a certain time. This is a limit on overwriting, for some reason I always saw different numbers, usually it is 10,000 times. But in the description of the drives they also indicate the operating time, for example, the SSD OCZ Vertex 4 SSD 128GB indicates an operating time of 2 million hours, which is a lot.

Price. Yes, SSD drives are not very cheap now. For example, the same SSD OCZ Vertex 4 SSD for 128GB costs approximately 1000 UAH. (4000 rubles).

Work with different OS. Currently, only Windows 8 and Windows 7 work perfectly with SSDs. They support these drives, and they themselves know how to disable services such as indexing, etc. Enabling such services reduces the operating time of the SSD drive. Therefore, I recommend using these systems.

These are what SSDs are. In fact, these are very worthy devices that will give your computer a second wind. Comments like this are encouraging: “Replacing an HDD with an SSD is like replacing a propeller with a turbine” :). And it’s true, there are a lot of advantages, and despite the disadvantages, solid-state drives are gaining popularity every day. Moreover, the price for them is only falling.

Hello friends! As they used to say in Rus': “Every merchant praises his goods” and no matter how many different articles you read about SSDs, you are unlikely to come across the same opinion. Some people read something and decided to buy a Samsung solid-state drive, some from Toshiba, while others decided to buy an OCZ Vertex or SSD at any cost. Kingston.

About a year and a half ago, my friends and I firmly decided to buy an SSD solid-state drive, but everyone has them, but we don’t. My friends asked me to test various SSDs and choose the best one.

Solid-state drives are not sold very well, so sellers of computer goods do not carry a lot of them, so as not to lie as dead weight in the warehouse. We also do the same, which is why I had at my disposal the best-selling SSDs at that time. The most inexpensive of the entire company turned out to be the Silicon Power V70 SSD, the test of which I left for later.

I wasn’t particularly sophisticated in my tests; I installed an operating system on each SSD, then compared the SSD and a regular HDD in the CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD Benchmark test programs. I didn’t have to prove to anyone that an SSD is better than a regular HDD. Windows installed on an SSD loaded in 4 seconds; the test programs CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD Benchmark showed the complete superiority of the SSD over a regular HDD by 3-4 and even 5 times.

I carried out all the tests on the sales floor and the information was available to customers, in short, all the test SSDs were disassembled, besides, that day was good for sales and there wasn’t even a single SSD left on the display case, well, I think I was left without a solid-state drive! And then I remembered about SSD Silicon Power - V70. In principle, I knew this good manufacturer from Taiwan, but I still wanted something else, for example Crucial or Plextor!

I also decided to test it at the end of the working day and after the tests I was a little surprised, the V70 turned out to be a great solid-state drive, in no way inferior to other SSDs I tested and sold that day. And the SiSoftware Sandra program generally awarded him first place.

Over the course of a year, wherever it didn’t work for me: on a laptop and on various stationary system units and instead of a flash drive, I carried it in my pocket and dropped it on the floor, but nothing, it still works fine.

Well, okay, enough chatter, I’ll move on to the most important part of the article, the answers to your questions about the solid-state drive, and at the end of the article I’ll give some tests that prove that an SSD for installing an operating system is just what the doctor ordered.

ALL your questions regarding SSDs.

1. What is the internal structure of an SSD? Which NAND flash memory should I buy an SSD based on: SLC, MLC or TLC?

2. Which SSD manufacturer should you prefer?

3. Is the lifespan of an SSD really limited? After how many years of use will my SSD fail?

4. Is the user at risk of losing all recorded data if the resource of the memory chips is exceeded?

5. To extend the life of an SSD, is it worth disabling hibernation, paging file, recovery, disk indexing service, disk defragmentation, Prefetch technology, and moving the cache? browser and a directory of temporary files on another hard drive, and so on?

6. How much faster is an SSD than a regular hard drive?

Comparing different SSDs in terms of performance

It is important to know not only the average sequential read and write speed on an SSD, but also what is hushed up by all SSD manufacturers - the random write speed in blocks of 512 kB and 4 kB! Disk activity for most users occurs mainly in such areas!

When comparing SSDs from different manufacturers in the AS SSD Benchmark program, we can see the following result, for example:

My SSD Silicon Power V70 showed:

Sequential read and write speed 431 MB/s (read), 124 MB/s (write)

The speed of reading and writing in 4 KB blocks turned out to be 16 MB/s (read), 61 MB/s (write)

SSD from another manufacturer. As you can see, there is a high (higher than my SSD) sequential read and write speed of 484 MB/s (read), 299 MB/s (write), but there is a drop in reading/writing in 4 KB blocks, namely 17 MB/s (read), 53 MB/s (write).This means this SSD is not faster than mine, although the box of this SSD may show the numbers 500 MB/s.

SSD test in SiSoftware Sandra program

My SSD ranked first among similar models

If you look at a modern laptop or personal computer, you will probably see a solid-state drive in the list of components. This form of data storage has been on the market for years, but has only recently been embraced by the industry and consumers as a viable alternative to traditional hard drives.

So, what is an SSD solid state drive and how does it compare to classic hard drives - HDD?

What is a solid state drive

What kind of strange word is this? Solid state? The name comes from the English word “Solid”, which means “Solid State”. By solid state we mean an electronic circuit, built entirely from semiconductors and which is, in fact, an ordinary microcircuit (the green one, with a bunch of strange “tracks” on it).

semiconductor chip

“Hmm, yes, but this has always been the case in all the devices that we broke in childhood,” some, and maybe many, thought. But no, or rather, yes, but no. That is, yes, in those devices that you and I broke in childhood, indeed, there were already quite a lot of green microcircuits, but before that, a long time ago, most devices consisted of vacuum tubes, various wires, switches and a bunch of others all kinds of details. A good example of such a device is a transistor radio, examples of which may be remembered by music lovers from the times of the USSR and the early 90s.

So, a Solid-state drive is a solid-state drive, a device for storing digital data, based on a semiconductor memory chip. I won’t delve into the subtleties (and I don’t really know these subtleties - hehe), so as not to clog your brain with unnecessary, unnecessary garbage.

The days of vintage transistors are long gone, and nowadays almost all electronic devices are made based on semiconductors, including the very same radio.

But, if we talk about such a market niche as “data storage media,” then, until recently, the well-known hard drives ruled the roost, whose operating principle is based on the interaction of magnetic disks, and not semiconductors, as in SSDs.

Now you can object that such data storages have existed for a long time in the form of flash drives connected to a USB connector. And you, by and large, will be right, because SSD and flash use the same type of energy-saving memory circuits that retain their information even in the absence of power. The difference lies in the form factor and capacity of the drives, and also in the fact that a flash drive is designed for external use in a computer system, and an SSD is designed to be placed inside the computer, instead of a traditional hard drive, or next to it.

Most SSDs are very similar in appearance to classic HDDs, the only difference being the form factor (roughly speaking, the size of the seat). Hard drives, as a rule, have a 3.5’’ form factor, and system units of recent years are equipped with exactly these seats. SSDs have more compact dimensions and, accordingly, a smaller form factor - 1.8'' and 2.5''. But this does not mean that such SSDs cannot be installed in old cases, because the compatibility problem is solved with the help of a special carriage, or with the help of improvised means and imagination.

Some SSDs look more like memory card chips than HDDs, because they are simply a chip with a connector for connection. These SSDs include models with M.2 and PCI-Express form factors.

There are also ones that combine the advantageous aspects of HDDs and solid-state drives. They have the same form factor and storage capacity as HDDs, but they have some of the nice capabilities of SSDs.

Why use an SSD

Solid state drives have a number of advantages over magnetic hard drives and they are due to the fact that SSDs have no moving parts, while HDDs have motors to rotate the magnetic platters and drive heads. All storage on an SSD is handled by flash memory chips, and this provides three obvious advantages:

Less power consumption- this is a key factor why the use of SSDs in laptop computers has become so popular, because unlike hard drives, SSDs do not require power for motors, and accordingly, power consumption is significantly reduced;
Faster access to data- since the drive does not need to spin up the disk and move the heads, data is read and written at incredibly fast speeds, which adds a lot of pleasant sensations to using a PC or laptop;
High reliability— hard drives are very fragile devices and sensitive to various external factors. Even a slight shake or fall is enough to cause problems with the HDD. Since an SSD has no moving parts and the data is stored on the chip, the drive is much less likely to be damaged by an accidental drop or transportation in a car.

Taken together, these factors make what is happening now - the gradual displacement of magnetic hard drives from the market. But, since the cost of SSD is still quite high, the complete migration of users from HDD to SSD will take more than one year, or even decades. By the way, about this.

Why SSD is not used on all PCs

The main limiting factor for using SSDs in laptops and desktops is their high cost. SSDs have, of course, become more affordable recently as the price of the devices has come down to reasonable levels, but one megabyte on an SSD still costs about three times more than the same megabyte on an HDD. Or even more, because the higher the disk capacity, the greater the price difference becomes.

Capacity is also an important factor in the adoption of SSDs as the only storage technology available. The average laptop computer equipped with an SSD will have between 128GB and 256GB of storage. This is approximately equivalent to what was installed in laptops a few years ago - today most laptops are equipped with HDDs with a capacity of 500 GB or more. Desktop systems have an even greater imbalance between SSDs and hard drives, since the average PC is equipped with a HDD of 1 TB or more.

Therefore, at the moment, a complete transition of users to SSD is not advisable due to the high cost and small volume. But, in fact, it’s even more likely to be the first than the second, because there are 4 GB SSDs, but they cost quite a serious investment. In this regard, the second reason rather follows from the first - the very high price of the devices.

Solid State Drives (SSDs) are new and fast and a good alternative to HDD hard drives, but do you need one? Read on as we demystified the SSD. The last few years have seen a noticeable increase in SSD production and a decrease in prices (although, of course, prices between SSDs and traditional hard drives cannot be compared in this way).

What is an SSD? In what ways will you benefit from purchasing an SSD drive? What should you do differently with an SSD? Read on to learn everything about solid state drives.

What is a solid state drive?

It may be hard for you to believe, but SSDs are actually quite old technology. Solid state drives have been around for decades in various forms, the very first being RAM based and quite expensive, only appearing in ultra-high-end and super computers. In the 1990s, the first flash-based SSDs were made, but they were again too expensive for the consumer market and were barely noticeable outside of specialized computing circles. Throughout the 2000s, prices for flash memory continued to fall, and by the end of the decade, consumer SSDs had entered the personal computer market.

So what is a solid state drive? Here we must first highlight what a traditional hard drive (HDD) is. A hard drive is a collection of metal plates coated with a ferromagnetic material that spin on a spindle. Writing to the surface of magnetic plates is carried out by a tiny mechanical handle (drive lever) with a very thin tip (head). Data is stored when the polarity of the magnetic bits on the surface of the plates changes. This is, of course, a little more complicated, but suffice it to say that everything here is done by analogy with an automatic record player: its hand searches for a track on the record, and the drive handle and hard disk heads also search for data. When you want to write or read data from magnetic hard disks, the platters rotate, the hand searches and finds the data. It is as much a mechanical process as it is digital.

Solid state drives, on the other hand, have no moving parts. Although the scales are different, and the storage area on an HDD is much larger, and the SSD has much more in common with a simple portable flash drive than with a mechanical hard drive (and, of course, much more than ever with a tape recorder! The vast majority of SSDs on the market are NAND flash, a type of non-volatile memory that doesn't require electricity to store data (unlike the RAM in your computer, which loses its stored data as soon as the power is turned off). NAND memory also provides a significant increase in speed, much more than mechanical hard drives, since the time wasted when the platters are spinning and not looking for data is removed from the equation.

Comparison of SSDs with traditional hard drives

It's always good to know what SSDs are, but it's even more useful to compare them to the traditional hard drives you've been using for years. Let's look at a few key differences in a point-by-point comparison.

Spin Time: SSDs do not have a "spin" time; The drive has no moving parts. Hard drives have different spin times (usually a few seconds); When you hear a click-whirrrrrr for a minute or two when you boot your computer or when accessing rarely used files, you always hear the hard drive spinning.

Data access time and latency: SSDs find data very quickly and are typically an order of magnitude 80-100 times faster than HDDs; bypassing mechanical spinning plates and data retrieval, so they can access data almost instantly. Fast retrieval of data on hard drives is hampered by the physical movement of the armature and rotation of the platters.

Noise: SSDs are silent; no moving parts means no noise. Hard drives range from fairly quiet to very loud sound levels.

Reliability: individual manufacturing issues aside (bad drives, firmware, issues, etc.), SSD drives have taken the lead in terms of physical reliability. The vast majority of hard drive failures are the result of mechanical failure; At some point, after x tens of thousands of hours of operation, the mechanical drive simply wears out. In a sense, the read/write cycle of hard drives is limited.

On the other hand, SSDs have a limited number of write cycles. This limited number of write cycles is the main point of condemnation of SSDs, but the reality is that the average computer user is unlikely to be able to do many read and write cycles on an SSD. Intel's X25-M, for example, can process 20 GB of data for 5 years without failure. How often do you erase and write 20GB of data on your primary drive on a daily basis?

In addition, SSD drives can be used further; When NAND modules have reached the end of their write cycles they become read-only. The disk then reads the data from the damaged sector and writes it to a new part of the disk. Short of lightning or a catastrophic design flaw, SSD failure is more like “old age, why is my bones aching!” rather than a sudden “boom! bearings in HDD!” and its stop. You will have enough time to back up your data and purchase a new drive.

Power Consumption: SSD drives consume 30-60% less power than traditional hard drives. Saving 6 or 10 watts doesn’t seem like much, but over the course of a year or two on a heavily used car, it all adds up.

Cost: SSDs are not cheap. Traditional hard drive prices have fallen by about five cents per gigabyte of data. SSDs are much cheaper than they were 10-20 years ago (when they were limited to dedicated computer systems), but they are still quite expensive. Depending on the size and model, you can expect to pay somewhere between $1.25-$2.00 per GB.

Caring for your SSD

In managing the operating system, storing data, and interacting with your computer, the only difference you will notice as an end user when running an SSD drive is the increase in speed. When it comes to taking care of your drive, there are a few rules that are critical.

Don't defragment the disk. Defragmentation is useless for an SSD and reduces its lifespan. Defragmentation is a technique that finds pieces of files and optimizes them by placing them on hard drive platters to reduce search time and wear on the disk. SSDs are platterless and have almost instantaneous seek times. Their defragmentation consumes more write cycles. By default, defragmentation is disabled for SSDs in Windows 7.

Disable indexing services: If your OS has any search-added tool such as indexing service, disable it. Read times on SSD are fast, which you don't actually need to create a file index and the disk indexing and index writing process itself will be slow on SSD.

Your OS must support trimming. The TRIM command allows your OS to talk to the SSD and tell it which blocks are no longer in use. With this command, performance on the SSD will rapidly degrade. In this publication, Windows 7, Mac OS x 10.6.6+ and Linux kernel 2.6.33+ support the TRIM command. And registry hacks and additional programs exist to modify earlier versions of OS such as Windows XP to semi-support the TRIM command. Your SSD drive should be paired with a modern OS for maximum performance.

Leave part of the disk empty. Check the specifications for your device, most manufacturers recommend keeping 10-20% empty. This white space helps the alignment algorithm (they transfer data through the NAND modules to minimize overall wear on the drive and ensure long life and optimal drive performance). If you leave too little space, the alignment algorithms will cause premature wear on the disk over time.

Media to Second Drive: SSD drives are expensive, so there is no point in storing your massive media files on your expensive SSD drive. You can choose traditional 1TB hard drives, and use a large secondary drive (if available) to store large and static files (such as movies, music collections, and other media files).

Invest in Memory: Compared to the costs of SSDs, RAM is cheap. The more RAM you have installed, the fewer disk write cycles there will be. You can extend the life of your expensive SSD by ensuring that your system has adequate RAM installed.

Solid State Drive for Me?

At this point you've got a history lesson, a point-by-point comparison, and some tips for keeping your SSD in tip-top shape, but do you really need an SSD? Check all that apply and prepare for the following:

Near-instant boot time: You can go from cold boot to web browsing in seconds with an SSD; You could often get to this same window in more than a minute with a traditional hard drive.
You want fast access for common apps and games: We've said it many times before, but SSDs are super-fast.
You want a quieter, less power-hungry computer: As highlighted above, SSD drives are silent and consume significantly less power.
You'll be able to use two drives: one for the OS and one for files: if you're only storing a few family photos and a CD-Rip or two, you'll need the more affordable traditional HDD to store large files.
You are willing to pay a significant amount for an SSD drive: this is the highest amount per gigabyte to date, but at the same time the performance increase is huge at 3000%.
If your list looks more full than empty, and you want speed when working, then an SSD is for you!

I recommend purchasing an SSD drive with an optimal speed/reliability ratio of MLC or 3D NAND memory. Read/write speeds closer to 500/500 MB/s are considered quite high. The minimum recommended speed for more budget SSDs is 450/300 MB/s.

The best brands are: Intel, Samsung, Crucial and SanDisk. As a more budget option you can consider: Plextor, Corsair and A-DATA. Among other manufacturers, problematic models are more common.

For a work or multimedia computer (video, simple games), an SSD with a capacity of 120-128 GB will be sufficient, and here the A-Data Ultimate SU900 on MLC memory would be an excellent choice.
SSD A-Data Ultimate SU900 128GB

A mid-class gaming computer requires a capacity of at least 240-256 GB; an SSD from the A-Data Ultimate SU900 or Samsung 860 EVO series is also suitable.
SSD A-Data Ultimate SU900 256GB

SSD Samsung MZ-76E250BW

For a professional or powerful gaming computer, it is better to take a 480-512 GB SSD, for example Samsung SSD 860 EVO.
SSD Samsung MZ-76E500BW

For computers and laptops with an M.2 connector, a good option would be to install an ultra-fast SSD (1500-3000 MB/s) in the appropriate format.
SSD Samsung MZ-V7E500BW

When choosing a volume, be guided by your needs, but you should not neglect it for the sake of higher speed. If you doubt the correctness of your choice, we recommend reading reviews of specific models.

2. What is the difference between expensive and cheap SSDs

Inexperienced users may be confused why SSD drives of the same volume, with the same declared speed characteristics, differ so much in price, sometimes several times.

The fact is that different SSD drives can use different types of memory, which, in addition to speed indicators, also affects reliability and durability. In addition, memory chips from different manufacturers also differ in quality. Naturally, cheap SSDs are equipped with the cheapest memory chips.

In addition to memory chips, the SSD disk has a so-called controller. This is a chip that controls the processes of reading/writing data into memory chips. Controllers are also produced by different companies and they can be either budget ones with lower speed and reliability, or higher quality ones. Cheap SSDs, as you understand, also have the worst controllers installed.

Many modern SSDs use fast DDR3 memory, just like computer RAM, as a clipboard to further improve performance. Most budget SSDs may not have a clipboard, making them marginally cheaper but significantly slower.

But that's not all, it even comes down to saving on such important components of an SSD drive as capacitors, which are necessary to prevent integrity violations and data loss. In the event of a sudden power outage, the electrical energy stored in the capacitors is used to complete writing from the clipboard to the memory chips. Unfortunately, not all even high-quality SSDs are equipped with backup capacitors.

The layout itself and the quality of the printed circuit board wiring are also different. More expensive models have more sophisticated circuit design, quality components and wiring. The engineering solutions of the most budget SSDs are based on outdated designs and leave much to be desired. The number of defects in cheap SSDs is also higher, which is due to assembly in cheaper factories and lower levels of production control.

And of course, the price depends on the brand; the more famous it is, the more expensive the SSD. Hence, there is an opinion that you should not overpay for a brand. But the fact is that often it is the brand name that determines the quality of an SSD drive. Most well-known manufacturers who value their reputation will not allow themselves to produce low-quality products. However, there are exceptions here, in the form of well-known and popular brands, which nevertheless should not be recommended for purchase.

We will briefly look at the main differences between SSDs that you need to focus on in this article, and you can easily choose the model that suits you.

3. VolumeSSDdisk

Volume is the most important parameter of an SSD disk.

If you only need an SSD drive to speed up the loading of Windows, office programs and increase system responsiveness, then, in principle, a capacity of 60-64 GB (gigabytes) is sufficient.

If you want to speed up the work of serious professional applications (video editing, design systems, etc.), then you will need an SSD drive with a capacity of 120-128 GB.

For a gaming computer, it is advisable to purchase an SSD with a capacity of at least 240-256 GB, since modern games take up a lot of space (30-60 GB each).

In the future, focus on your needs (how much space you need for your programs, games, etc.) and financial capabilities. It is not advisable to use an SSD for data storage; for this you need a more capacious and cheaper hard drive (HDD) with a capacity of 1-4 TB (1000-4000 GB).

4. SSD read/write speed

The main indicators of SSD disk speed are read speed, write speed and access time.

According to statistics, the number of read operations on ordinary user computers is 20 times greater than the number of write operations. Therefore, for us, reading speed is a much more important characteristic.

The read speed of most modern SSDs is in the range of 450-550 MB/s (megabytes per second). The higher this value, the better, but 450 MB/s is, in principle, quite enough, and taking an SSD with a lower read speed is not advisable, since the difference in price will be insignificant. But you shouldn’t blindly trust representatives of budget brands, since the speed of cheap SSDs can drop significantly as the disk space fills up. The speed of a particular SSD drive model in real conditions can be found out from tests on the Internet.

The write speed of most SSDs ranges from 350-550 MB/s. Again, the faster the better, this is understandable. But due to the fact that write operations are performed 20 times less frequently than read operations, this indicator is not so critical and the difference will not be very noticeable for most users. But the price of discs with higher write speeds will be noticeably higher. Therefore, you can take 350 MB/s as the minimum recording speed. Purchasing an SSD with an even lower write speed will not bring significant savings, so it is not advisable. Please note that some manufacturers indicate the write speed for the entire line of SSD drives, which have different capacities. For example, Transcend has drives ranging from 32 to 1024 GB in its SSD370S line. The recording speed for the entire line is 460 MB/s. But in fact, only models with a capacity of 512 and 1024 GB have such speed. The photo below shows a fragment of a Transcend SSD370S packaging with a capacity of 256 GB with a real write speed of 370 MB/s.

Access time determines how quickly the disk finds the required file after receiving a request from a program or operating system. For conventional hard drives, this indicator is in the range of 10-19 ms (milliseconds) and significantly affects the responsiveness of the system and the speed of copying small files. SSD drives, due to the absence of moving parts, have access speeds 100 times higher. Therefore, this parameter is usually not focused on; any SSD provides incredibly high access speeds. However, higher quality models can have an access time of about 0.1 ms, and the most budget 0.4 ms. The difference in access time by a factor of 4 is not in favor of budget SSDs. With this parameter, manufacturers of budget SSDs can also be disingenuous and indicate a theoretical value under ideal conditions.

The real speed characteristics of SSD drives can be found out from tests on the most authoritative technical portals. You can download a file with links to them at the end of the article in the “” section.

5. Memory types and SSD resource

Modern SSD drives use several types of memory - MLC, TLC and 3D NAND (V-NAND).

MLC is the most popular type of memory for SSD drives with an optimal price/speed/durability ratio and an estimated resource of 3000-5000 rewrite cycles.

TLC is a cheaper type of memory, found in budget SSDs, with a rewriting resource of about 1000 cycles.

3D NAND is a modern fast memory developed by Samsung with the longest rewriting resource. Installed in more expensive Samsung SSD models.

There is a myth that SSD drives wear out very quickly. Therefore, you need to choose models with the maximum possible resource and use all sorts of tricks in the operating system settings to extend the life of the SSD drive, otherwise it will quickly exhaust its resource and fail.

In fact, the resource of modern SSDs matters only when installing them in servers, where the disks work for wear and tear around the clock. In such conditions, due to the colossal number of rewrite cycles, SSDs actually last an order of magnitude less than their older brothers - mechanical hard drives. But you and I already know that in the computers of ordinary users, the number of write operations, which cause wear and tear, is 20 times lower than read operations. Therefore, even with a relatively heavy load, the resource of any modern SSD will allow it to last 10 years or more.

Despite the fact that data on rapid wear and tear are highly exaggerated, you should not purchase an SSD based on the cheapest TLC memory, since the savings will be insignificant. Today, the best option would be an SSD drive with MLC memory. And the actual service life of an SSD disk will depend more on the quality of production and. Pay more attention to the brand and warranty period.

6. Clipboard

A clipboard (cache) based on DDR3 memory speeds up the operation of an SSD drive, but makes it somewhat more expensive. For every 1 GB of SSD capacity there should be 1 MB of DDR3 cache. Thus, an SSD with a capacity of 120-128 GB should have 128 MB DDR3, 240-256 GB - 256 MB DDR3, 500-512 GB - 512 MB DDR3, 960-1024 GB - 1024 MB DDR3.

Some models have a cache based on older DDR2 memory, but this does not significantly affect performance.

7. Blackout protection

It is desirable that a disk with DDR3 cache memory have protection against sudden power outages (Power Protection), which is usually based on tantalum capacitors and allows you to save data from the buffer to the memory chips in the event of a power failure on the SSD. But if you have an uninterruptible power supply (UPS, UPS), then blackout protection can be neglected.

SSDs that do not have a cache based on DDR3 memory do not require additional protection against power loss.

8. SSD controllers

There are many controllers for SSD drives. The most popular brands include Intel, Samsung, Marvell, SandForce, Phison, JMicron, Silicon Motion, Indilinx (OCZ, Toshiba).

The best SSD drives are built on controllers from Intel, Samsung, and Marvell. In the middle class, the long-proven SandForce and younger Phison controllers are more popular. Inexpensive SSD models are often content with old budget JMicron controllers and younger Silicon Motion controllers. Indilinx produced fairly reliable controllers and was bought by OCZ and then Toshiba for use in their mid-range SSDs.

But each manufacturer has both cheaper and more expensive controllers. Therefore, you need to navigate by a specific controller model, a review of which can easily be found on the Internet.

Most controllers in entry-level and mid-range SSDs are 4-channel. Top SSD models are equipped with faster and more modern 8-channel controllers. But don’t bother too much with controller models, it’s not always easy to figure it out. Focus primarily on the brand, the stated characteristics of the SSD drive and real tests of a specific model, which often also consider the advantages and disadvantages of the installed controller and other electronic components of the SSD.

In addition to the read/write speed, the controller also depends on support for various technologies designed to improve the performance of the SSD drive.

9. Supported technologies and TRIM function

An SSD drive, depending on the model and the controller installed in it, can support various technologies designed to improve its performance. Many manufacturers develop their own proprietary technologies that provide more marketing benefits than actual benefits to users. I will not list them; this information is in the descriptions of specific models.

The most important feature that should be supported by any modern SSD is TRIM (garbage collection). Her job is as follows. An SSD drive can only write data to free memory cells. As long as there are enough free cells, the SSD disk writes data to them. As soon as there are few free cells, the SSD disk needs to clear cells from which data is no longer needed (the file has been deleted). An SSD without TRIM support clears these cells immediately before writing new data, which significantly increases the time of write operations. It turns out that as the disk fills up, the recording speed degrades. An SSD with TRIM support, having received a notification from the operating system about the deletion of data, also marks the cells in which they were as unused, but clears them not before writing new data, but in advance in free time (when the disk is not used very actively). This is called garbage collection. As a result, the recording speed is always maintained at the highest possible level.

10. Hidden SSD area

Each SSD drive has a fairly large amount of memory in a hidden (inaccessible to the user) area. These cells are used to replace those that fail, so that disk space is not lost over time and the safety of data that is previously transferred by the disk from “sick” cells to “healthy” ones is ensured.

In high-quality SSDs, this hidden volume can reach 30% of the declared disk capacity. Some manufacturers, in order to save money and gain a competitive advantage, make the hidden disk space smaller (up to 10%), and the amount available to the user is larger. Thanks to this, the user gets more available volume for the same money.

But this trick of manufacturers also has another negative side. The fact is that the hidden area is used not only as an untouchable reserve, but also for the operation of the TRIM function. Too small a volume of the hidden area leads to a lack of memory required for background data transfer (garbage cleaning) and the speed of the SSD disk at high capacity (80-90%) degrades greatly, sometimes several times. This is the price of “free” additional space and this is why high-quality SSD drives have a large hidden area.

The TRIM function must be supported by the operating system. All versions starting from Windows 7 support the TRIM function.

11. SSD manufacturers

The best manufacturer of SSD drives is Intel, but their cost is very high and they are used mainly in the corporate sector for critical systems and servers.

The next leader in terms of technology is Samsung. Their SSDs cost on average higher than all others, but are distinguished by impeccable quality, reliability and speed.

SSD brands Crucial, Plextor (Samsung brand) and SanDisk are recognized as the best in terms of price/quality ratio.

Also, as a compromise option in terms of price/quality, you can consider SSDs from the reputable brands Corsair and A-DATA.

I do not recommend purchasing SSDs sold under the Kingston brand, since most of them do not meet the stated characteristics and their speed greatly degrades as they fill up. But this manufacturer also has SSDs from the top-end HyperX series, which are of higher quality and can be considered as an alternative to top-end expensive brands.

In general, budget and unpopular brands are like a lottery, maybe you’ll get lucky, maybe not. Therefore, I recommend that you avoid purchasing them if possible. But it’s still better to look for reviews on models from recommended brands, since “even an old woman can get screwed.” Let me remind you that links to reviews of SSD drives are in the file that can be downloaded in the “” section.

12. Form factor and SSD interface

The most popular today are SSDs of the 2.5″ form factor with a SATA3 (6 Gb/s) interface connector.

This SSD can be installed in a computer or laptop. The motherboard or laptop must have a SATA3 (6 Gb/s) or SATA2 (3 Gb/s) connector. Correct operation when connected to the first version of SATA connector (1.5 Gbit/s) is possible, but not guaranteed.

When connected to a SATA2 connector, the SSD read/write speed will be limited to around 280 MB/s. But you will still get a significant performance boost over a regular hard drive (HDD).

Plus, the access time will not go away, which is 100 times lower than that of an HDD, which will also significantly increase the responsiveness of the system and programs.

A more compact SSD form factor is mSATA, which is based on the SATA bus but has a different connector.

The use of such an SSD is justified in ultra-compact computers, laptops and mobile devices (tablets) with an mSATA connector, in which installing a conventional SSD is impossible or undesirable.

Another smaller SSD form factor is M.2. This connector replaces mSATA, but is based on the faster PCI-E bus.

The motherboard, laptop or mobile device (tablet) must also have the appropriate connector.

Well, another type of SSD is presented in the form of a PCI-E expansion card.

Such SSDs have very high speeds (3-10 times faster than SSDs with a SATA3 interface), but are significantly more expensive and are therefore used mainly in very demanding professional tasks.

13. Housing material

The SSD case is usually made of plastic or aluminum. It is believed that aluminum is better because it has higher thermal conductivity. But since the SSD does not heat up significantly at all, this does not matter much and may not be taken into account when choosing a model.

14. Equipment

If you are purchasing an SSD for a computer and the case does not have mounts for 2.5″ drives, then pay attention to the presence of a mounting frame in the kit.

Most SSDs do not come with a mounting frame or even screws. But the mount with screws included can be purchased separately.

The presence of a mount should not be a significant criterion when choosing an SSD, but sometimes a higher-quality SSD complete with a mount can be purchased for the same money as a budget SSD with a separate mount.

15. Setting up filters in the online store

Go to the “SSD drives” section on the seller’s website.
Choose recommended manufacturers (Crucial, Plextor, Samsung, SanDisk), you can also consider Corsair and A-DATA.
Select the desired volume (120-128, 240-256 GB).
Sort the selection by price.
Browse SSDs, starting with the cheaper ones.
Choose several models suitable for price and speed (from 450/350 Mb/s).
Look for their reviews online and buy the best model.

Thus, you will receive an SSD disk that is optimal in size and speed, meeting high quality criteria, at the lowest possible cost.

16. Links

SSD Samsung MZ-76E250BW
SSD A-Data Ultimate SU650 240GB
SSD A-Data Ultimate SU650 120GB