[jqp]

Who has an SSD?

SSD Drives are finally getting affordable. As long as you don't try to use them for storage and lots of written data, they make lots of sense in many cases.

If you are on a strict budget, need a new hard drive, maybe stick with an incredible deal like a 1TB drive for $65 with free shipping - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (from NewEgg).

If you are buying a new laptop and are not on a a strict budget (you pay a premium for laptops anyway, and even more if they are a MacPro), then I say bite the bullet and get an SSD drive as your OS drive. You can do it after-market to save.

I saw that the Plextor drives come with Acronic True Image software so you can just clone your C: drive onto the SSD - I am sure some other brands do this as well.

On a desktop and home server, get an SSD drive as your OS drive.

The performance benefit will blow you away - you will save a lot of time, especially if you do not leave the machine on all the time. If you put the OS, and anything that does not write much to the SSD itself (major apps that you use all the time) you will have a longer lasting, superfast boot-up and operating experience.

Any apps that write a lot locally, any data that you are generating, any paging/swap files for the OS or programs such as Photoshop, media burning programs etc, should go on a fast hard disk. This will give you the best performance and life of the SSD in the long run.

In a laptop, you may not be able to get a second drive, but if you can, you want to do it this way.

SSDs are not ready for the mainstream yet since their price/capacity is still too high for Wal-Mart, but if you are any kind of "power-user" you will really want to get one asap. The new ones will require SATA6 to perform at their peak (over 500MB/s read, 500MB/s write) and will still be pretty expensive. This means the cheapest ones available now will still blow you away. You can easily get by with an 80GB drive to hold you OS and many apps, and maybe dual boot if you plan your OSs and apps ahead of time.

I have one in each of my servers at home since I need them to boot and reboot a lot when I use them. Also the performance is amazing!

Kind of waiting for the next gen SSDs to come out to see what that will do to prices before I upgrade all my machines to SSD C: drives.

By the way, thanks to pjchappy and others, especially JohnR, for getting these new Special Interest sites up with all the appropriate topics from other circles!

[djmckaytx]

I've had them for quite a while now...primarily in my work PCs and servers.  They make a BIG difference in boot time and reliability.  I bought one for a music server that I plan to build after my busy season ends in early June.  It'll be interesting to see how it works out.

I do heartily recommend anyone who's considering taking the plunge on these to jump in as the prices keep falling...you will really be surprised at the difference it will make.  I cut boot time by at least 50-60% in Windows 7 installations, been giving a thought to trying it on some older Dell portables to see if I can make one tolerable again....

[pjchappy]

I have one on my PC (which is also used for HTPC purposes).  I have the OS and several major programs on there.  Man, is it fast!  I now couldn't go without one.


Paul

[xr2]

I put an SSD in my MacBook pro last fall, and there is no going back.  I have to use a different laptop for work with a specific client, and every little thing takes 10-15 seconds, which doesn't sound like much, but it really interupts my thought process and workflow to have these constant pauses.

I also do everything I can to limit disk access during normal operation.  Have enough ram that you don't need to swap, turn off disk caching in web browsers, etc. 

[rollo]

  Are the Suttle XPC Barebones SS? Looks like a very nice piece.


charles

[nathanm]

The solid state hard drive is something I have fantasized about for ages, and now that they are available in useful capacities and at prices that normal working humans MAY be able to afford I'm really stoked.  I can't wait to try one!

[wilsynet]

I've got the latest Macbook Air 13" with a 256GB SSD drive.  It's small, fast, light, and runs cool. 

Last time I declared a computer "best computer I ever owned", it was in 2001 when Max OS X went GA and shipped on the Powerbook Titanium.  I was a die hard Linux geek before then, but it's been Apple ever since.

Macbook Air is a packaging refinement with which I'm very, very pleased.  The SSD drive is a big part of that.

[Russell Dawkins]

Last May or June  I got a 17" MacBook Pro with a 128GB SSD. Love the speed and the silence is useful to me.

Quiet and silent are significantly different when you are listening critically and must be near your computer. My studio is essentially silent, now.

[toddbagwell]

A simple image of my old IDE hard drive onto a new 128GB Patriot Torqx drive took my boot up time from 3min 45 sec to just under 1 min 5 sec!

Nice improvement with program load times as well.

very satisfied. 

todd

[djbnh]

My wife and I both have Cyberpower tower builds. Her computer is under a year old and the boot drive is SSD, other drive is SATA3 (my 4 drives [RAID 0+1] are all SATA2; both computers are overclocked w/6G RAM and Win7. Her computer is up and running about 20 secs before mine is ready to go, seems programs run faster, etc. SSD seems to be the real deal.

[HAITIMAN]

Nice portable SSDs at this site:  oyendigital.com

[pjchappy]

A simple image of my old IDE hard drive onto a new 128GB Patriot Torqx drive took my boot up time from 3min 45 sec to just under 1 min 5 sec!

Nice improvement with program load times as well.

very satisfied. 

todd

While a definite improvement, it sounds like you could use some tweaking. . .maybe even a fresh OS install.  While a PIA, it is good to do every 2 years or so. 

My time from turn on to log-in screen is about 20 seconds.  Of course, fast times are also dependant on CPU, memory and board power/speed, too.


Paul

[zybar]

I just put a new SSD into my work laptop (a Dell piece of junk) and it was a noticeable improvement.  Boot time, search functions, and heavy read applications such as Outlook are way faster.  As a bonus, it is also nice not to have to hear the old HD clunking along.

I think it was money well spent and would encourage folks to go down the SSD path.

George   

[toddbagwell]

You're probably right, i'm still running win xp on an old amd 939 socket cpu. I just backed up a new drive image, so if i screw up something when reinstalling, it shouldn't be too hard to recover.

Thanks for the nudge towards a faster boot up!