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Solid State Hard Drives, Help Required.

wheelo

wheelo

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Hi Guys,
My brother, who is into his photography wants to replace his external hard drive with a Solid state HDD because the current one is apparently sounding like a computer tower's fan running. He needs about 1 TB storage.
I know these are expensive, but my questions are:-
1.I have found a 250 GB SSHDD for about 360 Dollars, is this about the going rate, or am I just not going to the right place?
2. is it too early to be investing in this technology, should he wait until the prices start to come down?
3. should he just buy a good 1TB HDD (not solid state technology)?

Cheers all.

( my own belief is that the price is prohibitive, and he should wait, but I would like to have your opinions)
 
Have a read of this article:

Code: 
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-recommendation-benchmark,3269.html


For external you'd probably be looking at something like the Transcend ESD200 which are 1.8" as opposed to the standard Desktop size of 2.5"

If it's strictly for storage purposes I would be inclined to say no to SSD.
 
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as g-man said for storage a little expensive. most people just buy one to run windows,office etc.
 
That's pretty much what I thought.
Great idea because of speed for internal HDD
Not so good for general storage (price wise)

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
 
Hello there, my experience with SSD drives is that you only really get speed benefits with these, and even then this is usually when they are used as internal drives requiring frequent data transfer ( e.g. Operating System drive - i.e. Windows, OSX, Linux main system drive). Also, they are still very expensive as data storage drives.

If your brother wishes to uses these as external drives - via USB/Firewire cable connection, then maybe a better solution then standard drives would be to look into Hybrid drives (currently the biggest one being about 750Gb). These tend to have some flash storage and standard storage - where frequent data is moved onto flash area to improve access times. Still this is an expensive option.

An advisable solution, in terms of value for money per gigabyte would be to use an external hard drive but with a better spin speed (rpm), transfer speed (SATA 6G) and if possible a faster cable connection standard - such as USB 3 or Firewire 800 or Esata. Maybe an external enclosure supporting this can be sourced from common online sources.

I hope the above helps somewhat in your brothers decision on which way to go. Regards
 
Your info is spot on! His thing is not the speed, it is more so that there are no moving parts, therefore more robust/less likelihood of things going wrong.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
 
Hello again, thanks for more info on your needs.
In this case, the biggest SSD drive I seen is the OCZ Octane SATA3 2.5" SSD 1Tb for around £2k.
Maybe a bit of an overkill but it does what your brother is aiming for. Prices do drop - so maybe in about 2 years this product may be more value for money at around £500 (Source: Amazon UK)
I would still advise that any modern ssd drive be housed in a SATA3, USB3 enclosure.

Regards
 
i use a solid state for windows etc. however, all storage goes on skydrive so i can access it from anywhere
 
Hello again :-)

Just found another link for a cheaper SSD although not quite 1Tb. It is an Crucial 960GB M500 SSD - £449.99 from Ebuyer - UK site. Hope this helps you and your brother. Regards
 
aldan said:
and i will say it again.no advantage to having an ssd for storage.
Click to expand...

so why are they pushing them on vps? and on sites for storage? i understand OS to boot quicker lol

SSD Vs HDD Comparison
Now it’s time to do some comparisons and determine which might be best for your individual needs - SSD or HDD? The best way to compare items is a table with a side by side comparison of items in which a green box indicates an advantage:
[TABLE="width: 601"]
[TR]
[TD="width: 217"]Attribute[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]SSD (Solid State Drive)[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]HDD (Hard Disk Drive)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 217"]Power Draw / Battery Life[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]
shortcode-tick.png
Less power draw, averages 2 – 3 watts, resulting in 30+ minute battery boost[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]More power draw, averages 6 – 7 watts and therefore uses more battery[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 217"]Cost[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]Expensive, roughly $0.50 per gigabyte (based on buying a 1TB drive)[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]
shortcode-tick.png
Only around $0.15 per gigabyte, very cheap (buying a 4TB model)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 217"]Capacity[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]Typically not larger than 512GB for notebook size drives; 1TB max for desktops[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]
shortcode-tick.png
Typically around 500GB and 2TB maximum for notebook size drives; 4TB max for desktops[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 217"]Operating System Boot Time[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]
shortcode-tick.png
Around 22 seconds average bootup time[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]Around 40 seconds average bootup time[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 217"]Noise[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]
shortcode-tick.png
There are no moving parts and as such no sound[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]Audible clicks and spinning can be heard[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 217"]Vibration[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]
shortcode-tick.png
No vibration as there are no moving parts[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]The spinning of the platters can sometimes result in vibration[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 217"]Heat Produced[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]
shortcode-tick.png
Lower power draw and no moving parts so little heat is produced[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]HDD doesn’t produce much heat, but it will have a measurable amount more heat than an SSD due to moving parts and higher power draw[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 217"]Failure Rate[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]
shortcode-tick.png
Mean time between failure rate of 2.0 million hours[/TD]
[TD="width: 191"]Mean time between failure rate of 1.5 million hours[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 217"]File Copy / Write Speed[/TD]
[TD="width: 211"]
shortcode-tick.png
Generally above 200 MB/s and up to 550 MB/s for cutting edge drives[/TD]
[TD="width: 239"]The range can be anywhere from 50 – 120MB / s[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 217"]Encryption[/TD]
[TD="width: 211"]Full Disk Encryption (FDE)
shortcode-tick.png
Supported on some models[/TD]
[TD="width: 239"]
shortcode-tick.png
Full Disk Encryption (FDE) Supported on some models[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 217"]File Opening Speed[/TD]
[TD="width: 211"]
shortcode-tick.png
Up to 30% faster than HDD[/TD]
[TD="width: 239"]Slower than SSD[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 217"]Magnetism Affected?[/TD]
[TD="width: 211"]
shortcode-tick.png
An SSD is safe from any effects of magnetism[/TD]
[TD="width: 239"]Magnets can erase data[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
If we tally up the checkmarks, the SSD gets 9 and HDD gets 3. Does that mean the that an SSD is three times better than an HDD? Not at all. As we mentioned earlier, it all depends on individual needs. The comparison here is just to lay out the pros and cons for both options. To aid you even more, here are some rules to follow when you decide which drive is best for you:
An HDD might be the right choice if:

  • You need lots of storage capacity, up to 4TB (though SSDs are constantly narrowing this gap)
  • Don’t want to spend much money
  • Don’t care too much about how fast a computer boots up or opens programs - then get a hard drive (HDD).
An SSD might be the right choice if:

  • You are willing to pay for faster performance
  • Don’t mind limited storage capacity or can work around that (Again, SSDs are working on this “con”)


HDDs are still the popular choice for the majority of average consumers, usually choosing the HDD as the storage option in their new computer simply due to the much cheaper cost. However, more and more consumers desire top computing performance and are opting for an SSD inside their new setup or as an upgrade to their current one. As such, SSDs are well on their way to becoming the mainstream, standard storage mechanism, especially for laptops given the advantages they present for a mobile device (they are currently the default storage device in the Ultrabook category). That said, there will always be a market for both HDDs and SSDs. The advent of mSATA SSD devices and hybrid drives that include both SSD and HDD features is another option for consumers seeking a bit of the best of both worlds, but that’s a topic for another day!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Still have to say, even using your check sheet, HDD wins out for me everytime for general storage, given that:-

1. The cost is prohibitive
2. The max capacity of SDD given the amount of files most of us have (around 1TB up to 2TB)

If they eventually become mainstream and the price drops to where HDD's are now, then yes, they win hands down without a shadow of a doubt.
 
another thing to remember is that an ssd lifespan is considerably shortened the more you delete and rewrite data to them.
 
I second what Gman and Aldan said, just stick with a good quality hdd, all the pretty specs about how ssd is better than hdd is good and all, but to the average person storing photos, music and movies it's not really worth the extra cost, until they come down in price just stick with a hdd.
 
they where only ever designed really for installing programs. as Adian said long term they would be worse for storing stuff on and would eventualy become corrupt. like i said i use cloud computing for storage just alot easier
 
I use an SSD as my main drive ie Operating system and main programes
boots up very fast, I then use a 1TB drive internal for every thing else pictures, music, data etc
 
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