This page is a kind of solid state drive wiki, if there is anything unclear - get in touch and we will try and help.
Solid State Disk UK
Harddrives traditionally are constructed of a spinning metallic platter. Solid State Disks or SSD have no moving parts.
Solid State Drive Speed
The main reason for using a solid state disk is because solid state drive performance is far greater than a spinning disk. What is a solid state drive? It consists of slabs of NAND Flash with a controller chip that is programmed to read and write data to the Flash chips. This process is much faster than the traditional harddrives that have been in use for 30+ years.
SSD Technology
Solidstate drives are the latest advance in technology and the fastest ssd 2011 reached 550 Mb/s Read and Write speeds (sustained read and write speeds). Drives are available in 2.5 hard drive, 1.8 inch hard disk formats as well as Mini PCIe, PCI and now SAS. A 2.5 SSD Drive fits into a laptop just the same as a spinning disk and can be used as a direct replacement.
Most Solid State Disks use a SATA interface, the latest use an SSD SATA3 interface running up to 600 Mb/s. Older systems use an IDE, PATA or ATA interface (all the same thing) which can achieve 100 Mb/s.
SSD Speed
Speed is the reason to use a solid state disk - MLC SSD and SLC SSD are both fast - MLC SSD targets the consumer and MLC SSD Drive Prices are generally lower than SLC SSD Drive Prices. Though the usage of MLC SSD is becoming more common place in the Enterprise field due to the cost advantage and the ongoing improvement in SSD Technology. Enterprise Storage companies are working with the SSD Technology to extend the SSD lifespan.
External hard drive
Should you use an SSD as an External drive? Well if you need a disk that will take a lot of bashing about while in use or where you don't have good protection for it when moving it around, then an External SSD would be a good replacement. However if you connect it with a USB 1.5 or 2.0 connector as a Portable Hard Drive then you will not get the full benefit of the Solid State hardrive performance (USB 1.5 = 150 Mb/s, USB 2.0 = 200 Mb/s}. Connect it to USB 3.0 as a USB hard drive, which is capable of 500Mb/s and you will see great performance.
Internal hard drive
This is where you will get the best Solid State hardrive performance - the best performance will come from a SATA 3 (also written as SATA III) which has a bus speed of 600 Mb/s (also written as 6 Gb/s).
Solid State Drives - Is it worth it?
Check out our Youtube videos to see how much of a performance benefit you will get from buying a Solid State Drive in the UK.
Solid State Disk UK, Solid State Disk Europe, Solid State Disk Worldwide - We supply SSD to the world!
