Current SSD Champs + Outlook

The current SSD leaders are touching up against the upper limits of the current SATA 3 (6GB/sec) standard.  This translates into read/write speeds of 600 MB/sec.

Note that typical hard-drives are fast enough for the vast majority of computer users.  For faster hard-drive access, some users upgrade to 7200 rpm hard-drives (versus the standard 5400 rpm drives).  However, some users will like the faster boot-up times (15-30 seconds) of SSDs.  In addition to faster boot times, users with large computer files will also find the SSDs helpful.

SATA 3 allows interface speeds of up to 6GB/sec.  SATA-Express promises speeds of 8GB/sec and 12 GB/sec although SATA-Express isn't quite there yet for the general public.  So -- for now, storage enthusiasts will have to make do with the current leaders in mainstream SSDs:








Read more here:
http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage/disk-drives-hdd-ssd/ocz-vector-256gb-1130546/review

Here is the SATA website -- which shows a pseudo-roadmap
http://www.sata-io.org/technology/sataexpress.asp

Some good info on PC setups and SSDs
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/280390-32-sata-satae

More SSD Information (Feb 2013)

As SSDs (Solid State Drives) become more mainstream, we thought we would put some information together.  We prefer looking at the Read/Write speeds (such as 500 MB/sec).  Some people like to use the IOPS (Input/output Operations Per Second) measure; this benchmark is particularly useful for input/output actions required by servers.


Samsung PM810 (older generation)

• SATA 3GB/Sec; Read 245 MB/Sec; Write 210 MB/sec 
• Launch September 2010
• About 2-3x faster than a 5400 RPM Hard-drive
• http://www.ssdreview.com/review/compare/samsung-pm810-128gb-axm0601q/
• Boot time around 30 seconds

Samsung 840 / Crucial m4

• Newer is SATA 3; 6GB/Sec; Read 500 MB/sec; Write 250 MB/sec
• Twice as fast as the Samsung PM810 SSD and about 4x+ faster than hard-drives.
• Boot times around 15 seconds

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Faster Read / Write Specs

Some makers have edged specs up closer to read/write numbers on the order of 500 / 300 or even 500 / 500.   Although not generally-available to the public, some makers are even pushing the boundaries to 1000 / 500 and more.  Read more here:

http://www.gizmag.com/smart-optimus-fast-ssd-enterprise-storage/19445/

Most people get 120-256GB SSDs.  This should be enough space for most people -- although not enough for your entire digital picture / video collection!  More space costs more $$...  

Hybrid Computer Drives = SSD + HD

Here's a great article on how Hybrid drives work.  SSD's are great -- but you pay for the 2-5x faster access time.  SSDs still cost almost $1/GB.  Hard-drives cost a fraction of this amount.  Hybrid drives try to achieve the speed of SSDs, but also keep costs down by using hard-drive materials for the bulk of the storage.  How do Hybrids work?  

An SSD can read and write data many times faster than the best mechanical hard drive. On the downside, flash memory is many times more expensive than the innards of a typical hard drive, so manufacturers have limited their SSD capacities to hit reasonable price points: A 128GB SSD costs about $130, and for that same price tag, you can buy a 3.5-inch desktop hard drive that delivers 2TB of storage, or a 2.5-inch laptop drive that provides 1TB of storage.

Two years ago, Seagate (quickly followed by Samsung) introduced a drive that married a small SSD with a mechanical drive. The objective was to deliver the superior speed of an expensive SSD, while retaining the higher capacity and lower cost of a conventional hard drive. Now that Toshiba and Western Digital are joining the party, it's a great time to explain in more detail what hybrid drives are and how they operate.  

Read more here:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2012223/hybrid-hard-drives-how-they-work-and-why-they-matter.html 

Drive Specs: Hard-Drives -- and Introducing Solid State Drives

When you buy PCs or hard drives, one of the overlooked specs is the speed of data read/writes.  Most often, we see specs on the size of the hard drive (for instance, 500 GBs of space).  However, with increasingly larger file sizes from digital cameras, and high-definition videos, the speed of data access is becoming increasingly important.  


Hard drives come in a range of rotational speed.  The most common speed is 5400-rpm, but 7200-rpm is a popular choice to improve performance.  You'll see a corresponding improvement in transfer speeds if you copy a lot of data -- say HD videos from a full 8 GB memory card -- to your hard drive, so pay attention to these specs.  


If this is an important factor -- you may want to look into Solid State Drives.  These drives have no moving parts, so data transfer speeds are very quick.  Some estimate that the speed is 30 - 100x faster than hard drives!

Speeding Up 

With the very fast paced lifestyle these days, most businesses are time-bound and cannot afford a slowing down in their transactions. This makes speed of HDDs a crucial point in technological purchases. The typical access time for a Flash based SSD is about 35 - 100 micro-seconds, whereas that of a rotating disk is around 5,000 - 10,000 micro-seconds. That makes a Flash-based SSD approximately 100 times faster than a rotating disk. 

This however raises another point - what's the benefit of a high-speed SSD when the entire system cannot support it? The evolution of CPUs in terms of performance has far surpassed the development of the data storage system. The HDD is actually limiting the potential of a computer system when they are not able to keep up with the performance of the other components, particularly the CPU. If an HDD is replaced by a high-speed SSD, the performance would significantly improve.


Read more on SSDs here:
http://www.storagesearch.com/bitmicro-art3.html


On Flash Drives and SD Cards

Thumb drives and SD cards are slower than HDDs.  They use less battery than an SSD because they don't have as many chips that operate in parallel or a sophisticated controller with RAM caching. And they'll definitely use much less battery than an HDD. But they're also a lot slower for the same reasons. 

A Loaded Laptop (April 2012)

On our blog, we regularly talk about the "sweet spot" in terms of laptop performance vs. price.  In this blog post, we discuss laptops that are loaded with features.  This may come in handy for people performing computer-intensive research or working with large datasets -- where the increased specs would come into play.

Specs

• Second Generation Intel Core i7 (We prefer the quad-core i7's)
• Note that the i7-2640M is a Dual Core CPU (4064 benchmark rating).  
• i7-2670QM is a Quad Core CPU (6808 rating)
• i7-2760QM is Quad Core (7558, $378)
• i7-2860QM is Quad Core (7977, $693)
• CPU Links & Benchmarks for common CPUs, thanks to PassMark/CPUbenchmark.com:  
• http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-2640M+%40+2.80GHz
• http://www.cpubenchmark.net/common_cpus.html
• 8GB Ram
• Windows 7 - 64bit 
• We prefer a 14" screen for portability and battery life, but we'd also go for 15" depending on the rest of the specs.
• Hard-drive: most specs call for 5400RPM, and for accessing large files, 7200RPM will be that much faster...  
• A hot item nowadays is the Solid State Drive (SSD), but it is expensive relative to to Price/GB.  We'll price this laptop with a 256GB SSD.

And what will these goodies cost?

• $1350-$1500 is a decent price for these specs.  
• Can also find refurbished laptops for about $1150-$1200 with these specs.

Solid State Drives (SSD)

• The Solid State Drive is roughly a $500 premium, but for accessing the hard drive faster, the SSD can be 30-100x faster than a regular hard-drive.  

Without the SSD feature, a loaded laptop with the Second Generation i7 chip is starting to fall into our "sweet spot" of laptops (into the $600 range).  A good price for these laptops are usually in the $750-$900 range, but if you shop carefully, you may find some in the $650-$700 range.  Refurbished laptops might be in the $600-$650 range (10%-15% savings).

We expect prices to fall further, with the introduction of the Intel Ivy Bridge chip sets.