Windows 7 and SSDs
Ed Bott has published a very interesting article today about the benefits of running Windows 7 on a solid state hard disk (SSD). He wanted to test the real-world benefits, if there are any, of upgrading to an SSD on which to install your copy of Windows.
I won’t repeat what the article says here, but it’s extensive and he’s gone into some depth. I would like to add my voice to a choir though.
I built myself a new desktop PC back in July 2010 around an Intel Core i7 860 running at 2.80GHz, 6Gb of DDR3 RAM and an Intel X25-M 80GB SSD. I bought this particular SSD on the recommendation of PC Pro magazine here in the UK who had only the month before group tested a great deal of them.
I also bought a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1Tb hard disk, a couple of them actually, for data storage as they too had come recommended in a group test. Both of these components I selected for sheer speed.
Now I can attest that not only is booting Windows 7 from an SSD significantly quicker than from anyconventional hard disk, but running it from the SSD is also significantly quicker day to day. If that is, you buy the correct SSD!
One of the things that the PC Pro group test revealed is that the wrong SSD can be as slow as a normal, ordinary middle of the road, mechanical hard disk.
If you intend to buy an SSD it’s worth checking the computer magazines and online to see group tests that compare the current crop of disks side-by-side as the differences in read/write and general access times can vary dramatically.
So have a look at Ed’s article as it’s extremely informative, but before you rush out to buy yourself an SSD, do your homework and make sure that you’re not throwing your money away on an expensive gadget which will provide no real-world benefits.
Fuente: http://www.ghacks.net/2011/01/24/windows-7-and-ssds/
Why the Limitations of SSDs Are Actually Good
You've been holding off on buying an SSD for awhile now, telling yourself they're too expensive and too limiting. Well, you're wrong. Here's why.
The Higher Cost Will Pay Itself Off
Solid-state disks are considerably more expensive than hard disks, which is likely the biggest barrier for most people. 128GB SSDs will generally run you about $200 and 256GB will run you closer to $500. While this cost might feel prohibitively high, it's not as bad as you think.
Let's take the higher cost of $500 for example and say you've purchased a 256GB SSD to upgrade your laptop. Straight out of the gate you have a leftover internal hard drive that you can either sell for about $50-75 or turn into an external. Being optimistic, you're down to $425. That's not a big savings overall, but if you upgrade your laptop every 1-2 years you can keep using the same SSD. When you buy a new laptop, remove its hard drive and swap it with the SSD in the old one. The old laptop you're going to sell will now have a larger capacity hard drive and you can charge a little extra when you sell it. Over three sales you'll probably make an additional $100, bringing us down to $325. When the time comes to upgrade to a new SSD, you can sell the original SSD alone or with your old computer. Mark up the cost of the machine by $325 and you've covered your original costs. $325 for an SSD laptop upgrade is a pretty good deal. Of course you'll need to buy a new SSD, but you'll have made back your money at this point while using your SSD for several years.
Note: SSDs don't last forever and performance can degrade over time with some models, so make sure you get a high-quality SSD that's rated for a long life if you're going to do this. You can use a tool like SSD Life to keep an eye on things.
Size Doesn't Matter (Sort of)
After a recent reader poll asking how much hard drive space you actually need in your computer, I came to realize that you, our readers, are a bunch of insane hoarders. That's okay! I like to hoard stuff, too, but I'd never pay extra for more than 256GB of disk space. When you have more space, you're most likely going to use it. This puts you in the habit of storing useless files on your computer that you either don't need or rarely need. It's like living alone in a two-bedroom apartment just so you can use the extra bedroom as a storage closet. For the most part, you can get rid of a lot of the files you think you need.
For some of us, we have a massive collection of crap we find comforting. For others, the space is necessary for large media projects. I fall into both of these categories, but external drives solve the problems far better than trying to manage huge amounts of data on the main internal drive. First of all, you get the benefit of virtually limitless space for your stuff. Second, you can organize your stuff by the drive if that helps. Third, if you need additional protection offered by, say, RAID, you can get that with external drives whereas you're not going to get that with a laptop and some desktops. Ultimately, the size of the internal disk in your computer can actually be bad for you after a certain point. For me it's around 250GB (I only use 200GB but I like to keep about 50GB of space free). For some of you it may be as little as 128GB, a size where SSDs are significantly more affordable.
In the end, the size limitations are going to be better for you. You can hoard your crap on external drives, stay more organized, and reap the benefits of a super-fast solid-state disk in your laptop or desktop computer.
When you decide to take the plunge, be sure to read how to take full advantage of your solid-state drive.
Fuente: http://lifehacker.com/5742045/why-the-limitations-of-ssds-are-actually-good
