What is an SSD drive? Solid State Drives (SSD) - Advantages and Disadvantages

If you look at modern laptop or a 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 solid state drive SSD and how it compares to classic ones 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 electronic circuit, built entirely from semiconductors and is, in fact, an ordinary microcircuit (the green one, with a bunch of incomprehensible “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 Such a device is a transistor radio, copies 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 times of vintage transistors have long since sunk into oblivion, and nowadays almost all electronic devices made on the basis of semiconductors, including that 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, as well as in the fact that the flash drive is designed for external use in a computer system, and SSD to be placed inside the computer, instead of the 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 memory capacity as hard drives, but they also have some nice SSD capabilities.

Why use an SSD

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

• Less power consumption- This 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 in HDD operation. 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 SSDs 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. For lately SSDs have certainly become more affordable 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.

The capacity is also important factor in the adoption of solid state drives as the only non-alternative technology for data storage. Average laptop, equipped with an SSD, will have a memory capacity of 128 to 256 GB. 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 HDDs, since the average PC is equipped with a HDD of 1 TB or more.

Therefore, in 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 - very high price to devices.

We have long been accustomed to hard drives on which our files, documents, videos, images, and basically everything are stored. Hard drives have been around for a very long time. Back in 1956, IBM created a storage device that rightfully bears the name hard disk. But a deeper and more standardized implementation of these information custodians occurred, of course, in connection with the growing popularity personal computers.

At first, hard drives were bulky, extremely noisy and had available space of only about 5-50 MB, which, by the way, was enough at that time to install the operating system and all work applications, as well as a set of personal files.

Subsequently, the drives acquired a form factor that is still popular today for desktop systems, which is 3.5", the number of vendors producing these products decreased, and the volume of drives grew year by year and totaled hundreds of megabytes, gigabytes, tens of them and now thousands of gigabytes per one device.

Hard drives are used everywhere, in almost all computers; at one time there was an attempt to use them even in mobile phones, since at that time, Flash memory chips were too expensive, unreliable and significantly inferior in volume.

The principle of operation has not changed, in fact, for decades. Inside any HDD there is a motor, read heads and magnetic plates. In other words, mechanics controlled by electronics. Moreover, all this must be in sterile conditions, and the safety of information depends on hundreds of different factors, which is why these devices are sensitive to many external manifestations impact.

The evolution of storage systems and the arrivalSSD.

Over time, not only the volume, but also the speed of hard drives grew, new communication interfaces were released, until, finally, they reached a logical “dead end” of development in their speed indicators. No matter how much we would like to, it is almost impossible to create a very fast hard drive. Of course, there are separate “accelerated” drives (used, as a rule, in servers), but they are not omnipotent, and they are also much more expensive to manufacture.

At the same time, in parallel, another direction of information storage systems began to develop, which received the abbreviation SSD (Solid-State Drive), that is, a solid-state (or semiconductor) drive. SSD has a lot of differences from its opponent, the main thing is the absence of the entire mechanical part of the device, instead of which digital systems for recording/reading information are used.

In other words, a solid-state drive consists of a controller that controls the operation of memory chips with information, which significantly increases both fault tolerance under physical influence and operating speed. The first experiments with SSDs took place back in 1978, then they used memory similar to RAM (volatile), it is capable of storing information only directly during operation, and after that it is completely reset, which, of course, is inconvenient for a storage system.

Much later, with the advent of Flash memory, that is, non-volatile chips capable of storing information all the time, SSDs began to flourish, and the first manufacturers began to release new products. Today, many companies produce exclusively SSD devices, most often these are those companies that are in one way or another connected with the production of memory chips, for example Samsung, Micron, Kingston and others. There are also a number of vendors that produce SSDs under their own brand, however, using ready-made products and “semi-finished products” from other manufacturers to assemble their own products.

SSD consists of digital circuit and does not contain moving parts. The photo above shows the main components of the drive:

1. Device memory chips. (usually placed on both sides printed circuit board). Volume, reliability and speed depend on them SSD operation.
2. Microcircuit with buffer memory . Developers use different memory chips, but the direct relationship is relatively overall speed No drive operation was observed.
3. Interface and power connectors. IN modern SSDs The SATA interface is used in its various versions (SATA-300, SATA-600). SATA are compatible with each other, but latest versions of this interface allow you to unlock the potential of high-speed drives.
4. Controller (processor) SSD. The SSD controller is one of the most important parts of the device. It depends on the controller how efficient the SSD will be, whether it will support cleaning technologies, and how it fares with reliability.

Advantages and DisadvantagesSSD.

Main advantages:

1) As mentioned earlier, an SSD does not have any moving parts, hence the increased reliability under physical impact. That is, if you drop a hard drive, it will most likely begin to malfunction or stop working altogether, especially when it comes to impact while the device is operating. A solid-state drive, similar to a flash drive, can withstand light shocks, shocks, and vibration.

2) The second and main advantage of SSD is its speed. Moreover, many users confuse the concepts a little and believe that the high linear read/write speeds of the device (exceeding those of hard drives) are a guarantee of high performance, but this is not entirely true. The main “feature” of SSDs was and remains high access and response speeds; this is paramount for read operations and it is because of this that files and applications are opened almost instantly on solid-state drives. While the controller of a traditional HDD is forced to wait for operations performed by the mechanics of the device, the SSD controller is already processing this information by reading it from the memory chips. Moreover, the higher the load (the more different calls to logical drive), the greater the advantage the SSD will show.

3) The mechanics inside the HDD also affect the device's power consumption, which is significantly lower on SSDs.

4) The absence of moving parts affects noise performance. The SSD does not produce any sounds at all.

5) "Immunity" to file fragmentation. Over time, the HDD loses some performance due to fragmentation of the recorded files, when they are “scattered” across the entire platter and the device needs more time to read these files. This is precisely why the defragmentation procedure was invented. For an SSD, fragmentation is not important, nor is the location of the file (which is again important for an HDD).

Main disadvantages:

1) Limited number of rewrites of information cells. As an example, we can again cite ordinary memory cards; they all have only a limited number of operating cycles, which theoretically reduces the reliability of the device as a whole; in practice, this means that its service life is normal use The drive will work in a home computer/laptop. The developers take this feature of drives into account, and therefore recommend not “clogging” them completely, leaving free space. However, SSDs often have additional memory reserves created just for this purpose. This is necessary for the lifespan of the SSD, as its internal controller tries to avoid any cell receiving a critical level of write cycles and constantly works to increase the life of the device by selecting the least worn cells.

2) Price for 1 GB. In terms of price per 1 GB SSD information so far they are losing to their “brothers” hard drives, but given that every year the volume of devices is growing and prices are constantly falling, we can safely say that sooner or later solid-state memory will equal the price characteristics of hard drives (or will replace it fully).

3) human factor. To work with SSDs, it is advisable to observe several simple rules. If they are neglected, the device may “grow old” faster than its allotted lifespan, which will affect the speed of operation and, subsequently, the fault tolerance of the SSD.

SSD orHDD?

SSDs are developing at a crazy pace. Controllers and memory chips are constantly being improved, production volumes are increasing, and even corporations are switching to using solid-state drives. The question of “what to choose now” is quite simple: ? But the time will soon come when HDDs, to one degree or another, will begin to lose ground in the market, as is actually happening now. And in the end, this question will disappear by itself. Think about it, not so long ago, all people had CRT monitors on their desks, and people were arguing about expensive and lower-quality LCD devices. In the same way, we went to buy film for cameras. But will you find new models in the store now? CRT monitors, or maybe you’ll buy something other than a digital camera to take pictures of your vacation?

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Solid state drives, also known as SSDs, are actively taking away market share in the personal computer market from standard hard drives (HDDs). IN recent years This trend is especially noticeable due to the falling cost of such storage devices. The price of SSD drives continues to be higher than that of HDDs, if we talk about variations of the same volume, but the advantages of solid-state information storage justify it.

Pros and cons of SSD drives

Before purchasing an SSD drive, you need to evaluate the pros and cons that the user will receive from such a solution. The obvious advantages of solid-state drives over HDD drives include the following:

TO cons of SSD drives can be attributed to the high cost and difficulty of purchasing such large-capacity drives.

How to choose an SSD drive

The market offers SSDs from various manufacturers. One company may have several lines of SSD drives, which vary in cost. When selecting an SSD, it is important to pay attention to the main parameters, choosing the best options for your tasks.

SSD capacity

The main parameter when choosing solid state drive– this is its volume. On the market you can find models with different free space for storing information, and before purchasing it is important to decide for what purpose the drive will be used.

Most often, SSD drives are purchased to increase the loading speed and operation of the operating system. If only Windows, Linux, or another system will be installed on the disk, it makes sense to choose a 128 GB or 256 GB drive, depending on how much information the user stores in system folders, for example, “My Documents”. On average, operating system takes 40-60 GB (if we are talking about Windows).

If you are purchasing a solid state drive as the only storage device for your computer, you should choose SSD size, depending on the purpose of the PC and the activity of work on it.

SSD speed

The parameter that the disk manufacturer pays special attention to is operating speed. On the box of each solid-state drive you can see information about how fast the information storage device works for writing and reading. However, such figures are in most cases a marketing ploy, and in reality they are much lower. This is due to the fact that the disk manufacturer indicates the maximum sequential read/write speed, which does not play a big role in the process standard work with a computer.

At choosing an SSD disk, you need to pay attention to its speed in random operations of writing and reading blocks of information of 4K size. It is with such data that the drive in a computer has to work 90% of the time, occasionally reaching peak values. Find out information about real speed SSD operation can be done using various programs, therefore, before purchasing a drive, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with tests on the Internet for a specific drive model.

Please note: In most cases the most fast disks V standard tasks those that have a high maximum sequential read/write speed, but this is not always the case. In addition, the values ​​​​specified by the SSD manufacturer may be overestimated.

SSD connection interface

SSD drives can be connected to a computer via one of the following interfaces:

• SATA 2;
• SATA 3;
• PCIe-E.

Most fast models use the SATA 3 interface, which has increased bandwidth.

As for PCIe-E SSD drives, it is almost impossible to find them on sale. Such drives are used for specific tasks when it is not possible to connect an accessory via SATA of any version. Using a PCIe-E connector is impractical in terms of its bandwidth.

SSD memory chip

Depending on the memory chip used in the information storage, the number of bits in one cell, the speed of the drive and the number of possible overwrites of information vary. In SSDs you can find SLC, MLC and TLC chips. Their comparative characteristics are given in the table:

Most often you can find on sale solid-state drives made on MLC chips. This is justified by the cost of their production and characteristics. Drives with SLC chips are more often used for servers, and SSDs based on them have high cost. As for TLC memory chips, they are common in removable media information (flash drives) that do not require so much large number write/read cycles, like SSD drives installed in a computer.

SSD controller

The stability and competence of the controller in a solid-state drive largely determines its speed, durability, and support. additional technologies and many other basic parameters. You need to choose SSDs that have a drive installed from one of the leading companies in this field: Intel, Marvell, Sandforce or Indilinx.

Please note: If a disk indicates high operating speed, but it has a bad controller from an unknown company, there is a high probability that such a drive will not work for long or will have problems when writing/reading information. This is why it is not recommended to buy “no-name SSDs”, about which there is no information other than the maximum sequential read/write parameters.

Additional SSD options and parameters

When purchasing SSDs, you may notice various items and options listed in their specifications. Let's decipher the most common of them:

• IOPS– this indicator indicates how many operations per second the drive is capable of performing. You should pay attention to it, because in most cases it can tell more about the actual speed of the disk than information about maximum parameters read/write;
• MTBF– operating time of a solid-state drive before failure. This parameter is measured in hours, and not all drive manufacturers indicate it. MTBF is calculated based on tests performed, during which the disks are loaded until they fail, after which the average values ​​are calculated;
• TRIM– an option that is present in the controller of almost all SSDs. It implies that the “brain” of the drive will always be aware of which cells have been cleared of the information previously contained in them, thereby giving the disk the opportunity to use them;
• S.M.A.R.T.– a diagnostic option that is present in almost every solid-state storage device. It is necessary so that the disk can independently assess its condition, thereby approximately calculating the time before failure;
• Garbage Collection– an option designed for automatic cleaning memory from “phantom” files and other “garbage”.

The myth that SSDs work several times less than HDDs has long been dispelled. At standard download Solid state hard drives can be used for 10 years or more without problems.

When upgrading a computer, users are increasingly tormented by doubts about what to choose: a hard drive or a solid-state drive. Both types of devices have their advantages and disadvantages.

For a long time, the cost of solid-state drives was too high, so only computer enthusiasts and avid gamers voted for them in rubles. For other users, the hard drive was considered a more rational choice, as it offered best ratio capacities and prices. But the cost of SSDs gradually decreased due to the transition to a more advanced technological process. In addition, the balance of forces in the market was significantly changed by the cataclysms that occurred in the countries of Southeast Asia in 2011. Severe flooding disrupted the entire production chain, resulting in a shortage of hard drives and prices nearly doubling worldwide. However, the cost of a gigabyte of “hard” memory is still higher than that of “hard” memory, but the difference is no longer so great that one can call it an undisputed favorite.

Who's who

Solid-state drives, which, unlike hard drives, are built on the basis of flash memory rather than magnetic platters, are relatively new to the computer market. Previously, memory chips were used only in flash drives and memory cards, on which, nevertheless, craftsmen managed to install operating systems. Silent and shock-resistant flash drives really looked promising compared to hard drives, but the USB interface did not allow for high enough data transfer speeds, and it also significantly loaded the central processor during I/O operations. As you know, demand creates supply, so very soon it went on sale new type storage devices - SSD (solid-state drive).

In fact, a solid-state drive is nothing more than a large flash drive in size and capacity, in which the USB interface has given way to a faster one and, most importantly, almost no load on the central processor SATA interface. The SSD controller also plays an important role, because it is often the bottleneck that limits the throughput of flash memory chips. The advantages of solid state drives include:

■ generally higher read and write speeds than hard drives, as well as minimal data access latency. And this is critically important, because the “weak link” modern computers often it is the disk subsystem;

increased temperature, constant vibration and even strong shocks;

■ variety of form factors. Among SSDs there are classic 3.5- and 2.5-inch, as well as rarer 1.8-inch drives, thin boards without protective housing and expansion cards PCI Express and even chips soldered directly onto the motherboard.

Main design difference The difference between hard drives and solid-state drives is that they have moving parts. The rotation speed of magnetic plates, which are colloquially called “pancakes,” is usually in the range from 5400 to 7200 rpm, but there are exceptions - server models with 10,000 and even 15,000 rpm. This is why HDDs are more sensitive to shock than SSDs. And modern hard drives have much fewer form factors - only three: the widespread 3.5- and 2.5-inch ones, as well as 1.8-inch models, which are less common. But still, hard drives have undeniable advantages in front of SSDs:

■ more favorable price-capacity ratio: for example, for 3 thousand rubles. Now you can purchase either a 3.5-inch HDD with 500 GB or a SSD with 64 GB. Although just two years ago the gap was four times larger - 1000 GB to 32 GB;

■ availability of large volume models in retail sale – up to

4 TB. Thus, the volume of 550 for the consumer market is limited to 600 GB, and for server models - 2 TB;

■ long time trouble-free operation, thanks to the ability to rewrite sectors multiple times magnetic disk, while flash memory blocks can withstand much fewer cycles.

Purpose

It is impossible to name the sole leader of the race between HDD and SSD. since for each specific task should be selected suitable solution. We will look at the most common situations and recommend the optimal type and model of drive for each of them.

■ Netbook. Inexpensive compact laptops often have to work in " field conditions" Frequent shocks and unfavorable weather conditions will clearly not be beneficial hard drive— sooner or later, problematic sectors will appear on the plates or the spindle will completely jam. So in this case, solid-state drives, which are found in netbooks from many manufacturers, are preferable. Another thing is that, trying to reduce the cost of laptops to a minimum, manufacturers install SSDs with a capacity of 8 to 16 GB in them. For Windows 7 and a set of frequently used applications, this is clearly not enough, and you have to put up with a pre-installed less resource-intensive operating system Linux system Not everyone is ready. Therefore, it is worth purchasing the cheapest available SSD with a capacity of at least 30 GB from your nearest electronics store. For example, a 30 GB OCZ Strata model with read and write speeds of 125 MB/s and 40 MB/s, respectively, will cost only 2 thousand rubles, but to connect it you may need an mSATA-SATA adapter. In addition, the device is much lighter than a 2.5-inch hard drive, which in the case of a netbook is an undoubted advantage. There is also no need to worry about the time between failures of an SSD, since it will probably last longer than the case and display of a “travel” netbook.

■ Laptop. It is necessary to distinguish at least two types of laptops: those that serve as a replacement desktop computer, and walking models. Laptops intended for use only at home often play a role file storages, and storing hundreds of gigabytes of movies, music and photos is too expensive. Therefore, if you decide to replace old hard laptop drive or install a second one using a special adapter, sacrificing the DVD drive, and rely on a 2.5-inch HDD. For example, Western model Digital Scorpio Blue with a capacity of 1 TB and a rotation speed of 5400 rpm. will cost 3.5 thousand rubles.

A travel laptop usually requires high performance and the ability to store professional software and unfinished work projects. Therefore, a cheap 30 GB SSD, as is the case with a netbook. This is not possible; a faster and more capacious model is needed. A good option could be the Kingston SSDNow V200 solid state drive ( Bundle version Notebook) at 128 GB with read and write speeds of 300 MB/s and 190 MB/s, respectively. For 4.8 thousand rubles. the buyer receives not only the SSD itself, but also a box where you can install the one removed from laptop hard disk.

■ Desktop computer. Desktop owners should rely on two types of drives at once: install the operating system and frequently used applications on a fast SSD, and store multimedia content on a spacious HDD. And if your budget allows, it’s better not to save, but to choose one of best models in your class. Lovers of complete silence are advised to pay attention to the 3.5-inch 3-terabyte hard drive Western drive Digital Caviar Green with a reduced rotation speed, but for everyone else the Seagate Barracuda of the same volume will suit. Both options cost about 5.6 thousand rubles.

With solid-state drives, the choice is not so obvious: at least once a month, one of the industry leaders proudly announces the release of another record holder for read and write speeds. But goods of limited demand, which include the flagship 550, reach Russian retail with a noticeable delay. Now on the shelves you can easily find the following top models of 120-128 GB solid-state drives costing 5-6 thousand rubles: OCZ Vertex 3 and Agility 3, Kingston HyperX SSD, A-Data S511. Corsair Force 3, etc. All of them are built on the SandForce controller, thanks to which they can boast a throughput of up to 500 Mb/s. but only when connected to a SATA3 connector.

The future of storage

We can already say with confidence that sooner or later hard drives will go into their well-deserved retirement, giving way to flash memory-based drives. Every year it becomes more and more difficult for hard drives to meet the growing demands of powerful computing systems in performance, and they do not fit into the concept of the post-computer era at all. The near future belongs to SSDs - this is beyond doubt, but scientists do not stop there and are already full voice call the name of the flash memory ranks receiver. The place of transistors, which are now used as memory cells, should be taken by memristors - passive electronic elements that can change their resistance. Theoretically, memristors could become the basis not only for faster and more capacious flash memory, but also RAM, which will reduce the number of computer elements, making RAM and ROM a single whole.

In recent years, SSD drives have become increasingly accessible and cheaper. However, for now they still remain more expensive than traditional hard ones. HDDs. So, what is an SSD, what are the advantages of using it, how will working with an SSD differ from an HDD?

What is a solid state hard drive?

In general, solid state hard drive technology is quite old. SSDs are on the market in various forms for several decades now. The earliest of them were based on RAM memory and were used only in the most expensive corporate and super-computers. In the 90s, SSDs based on flash memory appeared, but their price did not allow them to enter the consumer market, so these drives were familiar mainly to computer specialists in the United States. Throughout the 2000s, the price of flash memory continued to fall, and by the end of the decade, SSDs began to appear in mainstream personal computers.

Intel Solid State Drive

What exactly is an SSD? First about what it is regular hard disk. An HDD is, simply put, a set of metal disks coated with a ferromagnet that rotate on a spindle. Information can be written to the magnetized surface of these disks using a small mechanical head. Data is stored by changing the polarity of the magnetic elements on the disks. It's actually a little more complicated than that, but this should be enough to understand that writing and reading to hard drives is not very different from playing records. When you need to write something to the HDD, the disks rotate, the head moves, looking for the desired location, and the data is written or read.

SSDs, on the other hand, have no moving parts. Thus, they are more similar to the well-known flash drives than to ordinary hard drives or record players. Most SSD drives use NAND memory for storage, a type of non-volatile memory that doesn't require electricity to store data (unlike, for example, the RAM on your computer). NAND memory, among other things, provides a significant increase in speed compared to mechanical hard drives, if only because it does not require time to move the head and rotate the disk.

Comparison of SSDs and regular hard drives

So, now that we know a little about what SSDs are, it would be nice to know why they are better or worse than regular hard drives. Here are a few key differences.

Spindle spin-up time: this characteristic exists for hard drives - for example, when you wake your computer from sleep, you may hear a clicking and spinning sound that lasts a second or two. IN SSD time there is no promotion.

Data access time and latency: in this regard, the speed of SSDs differs from conventional hard drives by about 100 times, not in favor of the latter. Due to the fact that the mechanical search stage is skipped the right places on the disk and reading them, accessing data on the SSD is almost instantaneous.

Noise: SSDs do not make any sound. You probably know how noisy a regular hard drive can be.

Reliability: failure of the overwhelming number of hard drives is a consequence mechanical damage. At some point, after several thousand hours of operation, the mechanical parts of the hard drive simply wear out. At the same time, if we talk about lifetime, hard drives win, and there are no restrictions on the number of rewrite cycles.

In turn, solid-state drives have a limited number of write cycles. Most critics of SSDs most often note this factor. In reality, during normal computer use regular user reaching these limits will not be easy. There are SSD hard drives on sale with a warranty period of 3 and 5 years, which they usually outlive, and a sudden SSD failure is the exception rather than the rule, it just makes more noise for some reason. For example, 30-40 times more often people come to our workshop with damaged HDDs rather than SSDs. Moreover, if the failure of a hard drive is sudden and means that it’s time to look for someone who will get data from it, then with an SSD this happens a little differently and you will know in advance that it will soon need to be replaced - that’s exactly what it is “aging” rather than suddenly dying, some blocks become read-only, and the system warns you about the state of the SSD.

Power consumption: SSDs consume 40-60% less power than regular HDDs. This allows, for example, to significantly increase the period battery life laptop from battery using SSD.

Price: SSDs are more expensive than regular hard drives per gigabyte. However, they have become much cheaper than 3-4 years ago and are already quite accessible. Average price SSD drives fluctuate around $1 per gigabyte (August 2013).

Working with an SSD

As a user, the only difference you will notice when working at a computer, using the operating system, running programs is a significant increase in speed. However, with regard to the extension of the period SSD services, you will have to follow a few important rules.

Don't defragmentSSD. Defragmentation is completely useless for a solid-state drive and reduces its operating time. Defragmentation is a way to physically move fragments of files located in different parts of the hard drive to one place, which reduces the time required for mechanical actions to search for them. This is irrelevant in solid-state drives, since they have no moving parts, and the time to search for information on them tends to zero. By default, in Windows 7, defragmentation for SSDs is disabled.

Disable indexing services. If your operating system uses any file indexing service for faster file retrieval (Windows does), disable it. The speed of reading and searching for information is sufficient to do without an index file.

Your operating system must supportTRIM. The TRIM command allows the operating system to communicate with your SSD and tell it which blocks are no longer in use and can be cleared. Without the support of this command, the performance of your SSD will quickly decrease. TRIM is currently supported on Windows 7, Windows 8, Mac OS X 10.6.6 and higher, and Linux with kernel 2.6.33 and higher. Windows XP does not support TRIM, although there are ways to implement it. In any case, it is better to use a modern operating system with an SSD.

No need to fill outFully SSD. Read the specifications of your SSD. Most manufacturers recommend leaving 10-20% of its capacity free. This free space must be left to use utility algorithms that extend the life of the SSD by distributing data into the NAND memory for even wear and higher performance.

Store data on a separate hard drive. Despite the price reduction of SSDs, there is no point in storing media files and other data on an SSD. It is better to store things like movies, music or pictures on a separate hard drive; these files do not require high access speeds, and HDD is still cheaper. This will extend the life of the SSD.

Install more RAMRAM. RAM memory is very cheap these days. The more RAM installed on your computer, the less frequently the operating system will access the SSD for the page file. This significantly extends the life of the SSD.

Do you need an SSD drive?

It's up to you to decide. If most of the points listed below suit you and you are ready to shell out several thousand rubles, then take the money to the store:

• You want your computer to turn on in seconds. When using an SSD, the time from pressing the power button to opening the browser window is minimal, even if there is third party programs in startup.
• You want games and programs to launch faster. With an SSD, when you launch Photoshop, you don’t have time to see its authors on the splash screen, and the loading speed of cards in large-scale games increases by 10 times or more.
• You want a quieter and less power-hungry computer.
• You are willing to pay more per megabyte, but get more high speed. Despite the reduction in the price of SSDs, they are still many times more expensive than conventional hard drives per gigabyte.

If most of the above sounds like you, then go for the SSD!