Anandtech: The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD

**FEED** · 08-31-09, 12:11 AM

The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD

The third major SSD article on AnandTech is here. We go back and try to better understand how these SSDs work, how their performance is evolving and how TRIM is going to change everything going forward. If you read The Anthology, this is the SSD update you've been looking for. ...

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631

**Veovis** · 08-31-09, 12:02 PM

A lot of good info in this article. For those still not convinced that SSD is worth their time:

http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631&p=20

I had to install Windows on an old older WDC 7200rpm drive this weekend to test something out and it felt like slow motion compared to my SSD. Painful. From the tests I've seen, even the 10000rpm's in RAID 0 still don't compare to 1 good SSD.

**draco7891** · 08-31-09, 05:57 PM

The TL

R for the article is thus:

SSD performance in first-gen drives was stellar when new, but the way SSD's have to work with data meant that over time, their performance was severely degraded.

New technologies in garbage collection are coming down the pipe (and have in some cases already been implemented) that will allow SSD's to perform at >90% of their perfectly new speed, essentially forever.

Yes, SSD's do have wear, but drives have become much better at wear-leveling, such that it's no longer a serious concern for the vast majority of users.

Intel and Indilinx based SSD's trounce the performance being put in by Samsung based drives. The major notebook manufacturers all offer Samsung based drives in their computers (including Apple and Lenovo).

SSD's are smoking fast (and getting faster) compared to anything mechanical (even RAID), but are still on the costly side.

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Basically, the article is all about "hurry up and wait"; until TRIM is seamlessly and reliably integrated in both firmware and OS (Win7 and greater) and the prices dip a bit, it's still not quite worth delving into the realm of SSD's unless your time is worth more than a considerable investment in computer hardware, which I thought was an interesting tack to take. The promise in the technology is there, but it'll be a little while before practical benefits are realized for the average end-user.

Draco