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    solid state drive

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by zekiezniper, Oct 14, 2010.

  1. zekiezniper

    zekiezniper Notebook Enthusiast

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    i was thinking of buying a SSD drive to replace my HDD drive on my m11x. however i am not an expert on this things so a got to ask, why is it so expensive? the way i understand about SSD is that its just an overgrown usb flash drive right? or am i wrong and there something special about SSD's that makes them expensive.
     
    zekiezniper, Oct 14, 2010
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  2. T_Sous

    T_Sous Notebook Geek

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    To my understanding SSD has no moving parts. It's data exchange is far faster than an HDD, the boot up time is very fast. If you want fast boot times and data exchange then it might be worth it. Also since its considered new technology It's going to be expensive for a while.
     
    T_Sous, Oct 14, 2010
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  3. jdbaker82

    jdbaker82 Notebook Evangelist

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    Why does a Porsche cost more then a Kia?
     
    jdbaker82, Oct 14, 2010
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  4. Stain

    Stain Notebook Consultant

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    Well, on its most basic level, it is just a big USB flash drive (or a SATA flash drive) :)

    Take a look at the average price (not cheapest price) of a 16GB flash drive... say $40? That is $2.50/GB. So 120GB x $2.50/GB = $300. That is about what the 120GB SSDs cost, so they are not too far out of line when you look at it like that.

    Cheers,
    Stain
     
    Stain, Oct 14, 2010
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  5. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

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    SSD's are expensive because they use an entirely different design and manufacturing process than traditional mechanical hard drives. As you noted, SSD's use flash memory chips to store data, and not spinning mechanical metal platters (hard disk drive) to store data. It is this difference in storage technology that causes the prices of an SSD to be so high.

    The reason people want SSD's is because of speed. They offer speed faster than any other drive out there. And some people are willing to sacrifice storage capacity and low price to get that performance.

    And while the general concept of an SSD is similar to a USB flash drive, it isn't anywhere close to the performance of a USB flash drive. The max transfer rate of a USB Flash drive (~30MBps) and a mechanical hard drive (~70-80MBps) don't come anywhere close to a top-end SSD (~280MBps).

    Here are two videos I made, showing SSD load times:
    YouTube - Why I love my SSD - Windows 7 boot + loading 27 applications in about 1 minute.
    YouTube - Alienware M11x Boot Time - 25 sec
     
    kent1146, Oct 14, 2010
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  6. mardon

    mardon Notebook Deity

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    I have a vertex 1 in my Desktop, its amazing! I'll be getting a Vertex 2 for my m11x.

    If a new R3 comes out with SATA 3 i'll be getting a CRUCIAL Real SSD c300 128Gb as they are even faster but max out the standard SATA 2 interface.

    Good review and comparion of the top SSD's can be found HERE.
     
    mardon, Oct 14, 2010
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