Solid state drive

[tiggerblue10]

What are the advantages/disadvantages of these drives? I'm thinking of getting one as my brother recommends it but I'd like other opinions please.

Thanks :o)

[MarkRae]

In theory, a huge increase in speed as there are no moving parts. In practice, although they do run a bit faster, you won't see anything like the speed increase you'd imagine.

As for disadvantages, other than the price, none really...

[ChuckFickens]

Well you might see the dramatic increase in speed for a short time but the speed drop off after a short time seems to be pretty bad on SSDs

[tiggerblue10]

Speed is what I'm after. My computer at the moment can be so slow at times.

Thanks Mark and Chucky.

[ChuckFickens]

OH, and as for opinions...

I'd consider getting one for a laptop that is going to be used on the move, not for the speed increase though, just purely due to the lack of moving parts so shocks and knocks can't damage (destroy) them like a normal hard drive.

I wouldn't get one myself for a desktop computer (or a laptop that spends it's life on a desk)

[MarkRae]

Upgrading the hard drive is unlikely to improve the speed of the computer, other than the obvious benefit gained by reinstalling the operating system, thereby eliminating the detritus which builds up over time (unless you're REALLY careful) and can slow things down.

[ChuckFickens]

"eliminating the detritus"

He's much posher than me, I'd have said get rid of the crap :)

(agree though)

[tiggerblue10]

Its the desktop pc that I'm trying to sort out. My brother deleted loads of internet file and did some other stuff to it the other day (he's an comp engineer/networker) but I'd like him to completely sort it out at some point.

[tiggerblue10]

I've never even heard of that word! Lol

[MarkRae]

> He's much posher than me

He isn't, he really isn't. He just had a good education, a fact which seems to amuse, anger and enrage many of the people on here in equal measure...

[AlBags]

I was tinkering with one a few weeks ago on another PC.
PDQ to be honest.
I usually use Raptor drives in Raid which are pretty fast .. but this one was at least as quick.

Defrag becomes a thing of the past, too.

[tiggerblue10]

Well I find you just amusing Mark.

I've never heard of a Raptor drive albags. I thought a raptor was a dinosaur! Lol

[MarkRae]

Raptor drives are faster than "normal" hard drives because they spin faster, typically 10,000 rpm as opposed to 7,200 rpm.

However, this comes at a bit of a price, e.g.

http://www.amazon.co....qid=1296157555&sr=1-4

http://www.amazon.co....qid=1296157688&sr=1-3

[tiggerblue10]

That is pretty pricey.

[MarkRae]

As in virtually everything to do with technology, you (don't) get what you (don't) pay for...

You said "speed is what I'm after" - a raptor drive will definitely speed things up...

[tiggerblue10]

I'd better start saving now then.

[ChuckFickens]

So are SSDs though :)

http://www.amazon.co....rds=256GB+ssd&x=0&y=0

A clean install and keeping it clean is free and will probably make a hell of a difference, spend a little of the money you save on RAM and you'll probably be sorted :)

[tiggerblue10]

Wow! Thats expensive.

Just spoken to my brother and he's bought me two extra memory sticks as he says every time he looks at it the memory always looks full. Hopefully this may sort some problems out.

[AlBags]

Some finishing shortly.
If you use both for non-raid storage, that is fast 300Gigs .. less .. say 20Gb OS and programs/partition space = 270Gb of fast storage.
If you Raid them for performance .. half that.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk...L&hash=item3f06b2fbd8

[AlBags]

If you learn a bit about OS's, there are for instance about 20 services in XP that do not need to run at all for day to day computing. I switch them off .. in fact they have all been off for two years.
Items that load with Windows is another one .. My TM list is only about 20 tasks long incl Firefox running .. and 4x items in tray.
Speeds up things nicely.

[ChuckFickens]

You're all just going to confuse tiggs (no offence meant tiggs) and my advice is....

If your computer is slow then back up everything and get your brother to do a clean install with all the latest drivers (preferably from a original Microsoft OEM CD)

If your computer is slow and running out of hard drive space then get a new, bog standard, larger hard drive and get your brother to do a clean install on that.

If you have less than 1GB of RAM then upgrade that (no need to go mad... 3GB is more than enough for most)

Keep the system clean after the install and only install what you really need.