[Dilemmachine]

I just built a computer with a regular 7000 rpm 500GB HDD, I'm just wondering what is the purpose of an SSD (like the velociraptor) and how necessary is it to have one?

 

[raptor_pa]

The Velociraptor isn't an SSD device, it's a 10K rpm drive electro-mechanical drive

 

[thedarkwolf25]

I think you might be a little confused. The Velociraptor isn't an SSD, it's a high-speed hard drive.

The benefits of a SSD (Solid State Disk) are many but the price is usually the main factor for people looking to buy one.

SSDs have: faster read/write times
greater durability
low heat generation
low power requirements
no noise

The reason for this is that unlike regular hard drives that have platters (physical disks) that have to spin up, SSDs have no moving parts. Due to that fact they produce no noise (due to no vibrations), are more durable, and are capable of far faster speeds than normal hard drives.

The Velociraptor is a normal hard drive such as the one you just bought, the main difference being the rpm that the platters move at. A regular hard drive has an rpm of 7.200. The raptor has an rpm of 10,000.

The most common speeds for hard drives are 5,400; 7,200; 10,000; and 15,000rpm.

It's not necessary to have an SSD over a regular hard drive as both do the same thing: store data. But if you want only the most powerful, fastest, and most durable hard drives than SSDs are the way to go.

However they are usually much more expensive than regular hard drives for the same capacity.

A 250Gb SSD ranges in price from $600 - $850; a same capacity regular hard drive is around $50 - $55.

Hope that helps some.

 

[Dilemmachine]

Thanks a lot and yes I did have an SSD confused with a fast hard drive. I appreciate the clarification.

 

[Ffoeg]

In April 2009 Thedarkwolf25 said:

"The benefits of a SSD (Solid State Disk) are many but the price is usually the main factor for people looking to buy one."

Today they are reachable; 64Gb SSD for £104

My query is are they a straight replacement (SATA for SATA) or do you have any special problems to watch out for in using one as a boot disk? I want to have it for my O.S. using a conventional drive for data.

 

[grimx133]

Sata is sata, basically. The form factor is the only thing, you may need an adapter to put the 2.5" drive into a 3.5" bay.

 

[Wrench97]

The real benefit as I see it is use in a laptop because of the ruggedness of the drive, they do read fast but write slower then conventional hard drives.

 

[Ffoeg]

Thanks for the advice, but I have decided to wait a while.
On further research I find that there could be a 'slowing down problem' on most SSDs.

BEFORE anyone else considers purchasing an SSD see article below:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2010/02/04/windows-7-ssd-performance-and-trim/1

this refers to windows 7 so when used with XP .... ?