Four tips to choosing an SSD

Darius Chang | Jul 28, 2009

Just a year ago, solid-state drives had sky-high prices with 64GB models going for well over S$1,200 (US$869.75). Today, you can score a unit with the same storage capacity for under S$400 (US$289.92).

However, unlike harddisks with their tried-and-true magnetic technology, different implementation technologies mean not all SSDs are made the same. In fact, you need to know more than the capacity when sourcing for a solid-state drive. Here are some things to look out for.

Single-level cell (SLC) vs. multi-level cell (MLC)
In SLC SSDs, one bit of data is stored in each cell. This allows for much faster read and write speeds, though it also means the cost is much higher than MLC models. The latter store two or more bits of data in a cell, and though performance suffers significantly, they are also much cheaper. At this time, a 64GB SLC SSD costs about S$999 (US$724.07), while an MLC goes for about S$369 (US$267.45).

Go for better brand and memory controller
If you decide to go for the cheaper MLC drive, always head for bigger brand names such as Intel and Samsung. Since multiple bits of data are stored in each cell, the integrated memory controller is vital in determining the performance of the drive. Some OCZ SSDs, for example, puts two SSD controllers with internal RAID-0 configuration to increase read/write speeds.

Wear leveling
Each memory cell has a limited read/write lifespan. Once that has been reached, no more data can be stored in that cell though the information can still be read. Most modern SSDs come with wear leveling that attempts to spread the use of memory cells evenly and lengthens the life of the drive.

Read/write speeds
Besides capacity, read/write speeds are very important as they determine the performance of the SSD. A decent read speed should be 120MB/s, while writing at at least 80MB/s. Still, due to the nature of the SSD technology, take note that it will likely be slower than a conventional magnetic harddisk when it comes to large file transfers.

For those who have made the SSD leap, has a faster and hardier storage system been worth the premium or should you have waited a little longer for the price to drop?

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aweysham

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aweysham says...
I have not made the leap yet and will wait for further price drop and further increase in the technical aspects of the SSD (read/write speed, wear leveling, etc). Call me when I can change out my current 500g hd for a 1 terabyte SSD.

Jul 28, 2009 17:47

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minimickey

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minimickey says...
Sounds like the future of everything selling these days. Some evil group of corporate Dr. Whos have gotten together and decided , "hey let's make everything disposable so they have to keep coming back to buy from us more often." Really, my daughter bought a brand new house, I looked at it and after 3 months I can truthfully say, it's disposable too. Now disposable hard drives. They only last so long and well its time to buy another SSD.

Jul 30, 2009 17:55

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