Comments on: Solid-state drives: No rush to widespread success

Momentum is building, but the up-and-coming storage technology will have to wait a little longer still for its big breakthrough.

[kwhsy82]

Here's the thing slowing down me: Try finding Windows-based machines with these drives. The 24-hour HP machine is still vaporware (I'm on their email list to be notified). Last I looked, the biggest SSDs on Dell were 80 gig. And older SSDs. Yes, I'm sure there are some vendors with them. But last I checked, HP and Dell are pretty significant vendors and their current offerings with SSDs are paltry.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Toshiba R500.
Lenovo X300.

Those two are machines I have here on the test bench that have SSD's in them. I expect you can find them in a lot of models if you look for the options.

[Crunchy Doodle]

I upgraded my ASUS C90S with an OCZ V2 60GB SSD a month or so ago when they were on special for $220. I loaded up Vista Ultimate SP1, an office suite, a virus scanner and some photograph and video editing and production tools. The performance is great. It's way faster and smoother than it was with the same basic software load and a tradition 7200RPM hard drive. The battery life is a bit better, and of course, it's silent and runs a little cooler. I was after raw performance and willing to pay a few bucks for it. I got what I wanted.

[Seaspray0]

What I'm interested in is the reliability factor. Flash memory was not known for reliability when it came out. How does the reliability of a flash hard drive compare to the traditional platter? I'm still looking for that answer.

[pretenderkc]

flash memory might have problem with compatibility when it first came out.
example, if you use a different card reader for the flash memory, this might cause some problem due to poor firmware.

in term of reliability, both flash memory and the platter counterpart are the same except flash memory is not vulnerable to gravity, jolt or vibration....that's the benefit of SSD.

[David Turner]

You might want to have a look at this http://wiki.eeeuser.com/ssd_write_limit
It is a user whom did some maths around the write limit of his Eee PC's SSD

[Mr. Dee]

2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, I don't care, I just don't see the value of an SSD over a mechanical hard disk, especially where the price per giga byte is concerned. The average, hard disk for a laptop in 2010 will hit 700 GBs to 1 TB in 2010. Why would I really invest in a overly expensive product for $400, when I could get a 1 TB laptop for the same price ratio? It just does not add for the consumer right now, at least the average consumer. I thought Vista already had out of the box support for SSDs with its Ready Drive Technology. Well, with this revelation that it might not, its even more reason not to invest in SSDs. I see support for it on the desktop side even worst when 5 TB HDs hit the market in 2010.

[Originalme8]

SSD's are for pure performance. They are for people who are concerned with performance and reliability. I wouldn't mind spending a little extra cash to get higher performance. It's just like upgrading your processor or video card in my opinion and I cannot wait for the technology to hit the main stream market!

[pretenderkc]

theoretically, you don't use your main drive for data storage. you would use the main drive for operating system and application softwares. thus, 120 GB drive for os and apps are plenty. most laptop now has USB or flash memory reader. you would use that for data storage. for those who only owned one computer (i.e., laptop), then, the external USB is the cheap way to go for data storage.

SSD provides better performance and reliabality than the platter counterpart.
because laptop is for mobile solution and people might jolt or drop the laptop, SSD is the answer.
also, some people now use laptop in their car for GPS navigation system, it's another good reason why SSD is a better solution than platter due to car vibration or hitting a speed bump.

[The_Decider]

Take the performance benefit and analyze that with the cost. The performance/cost ratio is still pretty low. Especially if you have enough memory where you don't need to access the disk all that often.

Have they fixed the issue of limited number of writes yet? That is a deal killer.