The big revolution in computing in the past few years has been in mobile phones, tablets, and other mobile devices. One reason these devices are so compelling is the quick, responsive interface. You rarely have to wait more than a few seconds to start new tasks.
One reason for this responsiveness is the use of solid-state storage, instead of the hard drives you see in your desktop or laptop PCs. Fortunately, you can get this responsiveness in your PC by using a solid-state hard drive, or SSD.
SSDs major advantage over a typical hard disk drive (or HDD) is that they contain no moving parts. Particularly in a laptop, a hard drive can easily be damaged by a sudden jolt or drop. Its head and platter, analogous to a needle and turntable on a LP record player, is susceptible to damage from typical use. With no moving parts, SSDs take this sudden motion in stride.
The lack of moving parts leads to another SSD benefit: longevity. Without the heat and movement to wear out its components, SSDs can last significantly longer than their regular hard drive counterparts.
The faster performance and lower power draw of SSDs lead to greater battery life in laptops, often adding 30 minutes or more to battery life.
Another great benefit of SSDs are their lightning-fast ability to read and write information. The computer doesn’t have to wait for a HDD to spool up, then move the head to the correct location on the drive. This makes SSD-equipped PCs lightning fast; Windows now boots in 15 seconds or less on even slow PCs, as compared to 1-2 minutes with a HDD. Launching large programs, opening files, or waking from sleep is almost instantaneous.
Until recently, the benefits of SSDs were tempered by one big problem: the cost. A typical 1TB HDD runs about $100 today; a typical 1TB SSD drive runs about $400-$500. However, smaller SSDs are priced reasonably; a 128GB SSD (enough to hold Windows and lots of software) runs $80-120; a 256GB SSD (enough for most users’ needs) runs $120-$150. Compared to the cost of additional RAM memory or faster processor, the cost of a SSD is pretty reasonable.
Many users can combine SSDs with a large regular HDD for general data storage needs; almost all desktop PCs and many newer laptops have provision for both. However, with the prevalence of offsite storage solutions like Dropbox, most users don’t NEED a large hard drive. In a corporate network environment, the greater storage capacity of a HDD becomes even less important, as all of your documents are generally saved to a file server.
The advent of SSDs have played a large role in making today’s computers smaller and faster. It is one of the best “bang for the buck” improvements you can make today to improve your PCs performance.
One warning: once you get a taste of the speed of your PC after a SSD upgrade, you won’t want to live without one.
by Jason Risner, Help Desk/Network Engineer
