Storage SSD over next 12months Buy Now?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Modsbywoz, 21 Apr 2010.

  1. Modsbywoz

    Modsbywoz Multimodder

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    From reading an excellent article in the CPC magazine regarding Intel & Micron shrinking down to a 25nm process I have a couple of questions.

    Is it worth buying an SSD now, or, waiting 12 months for the new technology to come out and get more bang for buck?

    Do you think these new SSD's due out around Christmas will need a motherboard with SATA6?

    What, if any performance degradation is there with SSD's?

    With the new 25nm process coming out in about 8 months, is there any point in buying an SSD at these high price per capacity currently available?

    Thank you for your input.
     
  2. barndoor101

    barndoor101 Bring back the demote thread!

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    ur always gonna have choices like this when buying new kit - should i buy now or wait 12 months? stuff will be cheaper and better!

    im about to take the plunge on an ssd - the g.skill falcon 2, as soon as its back in stock im having one. theres no real point in waiting
     
  3. Fractal

    Fractal I Think Therefore I Mod

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    I agree with barndoor101, you'll always get something better if you wait to purchase. Personally I'm going to wait until good SATA III ones come out (since my RAID matches the best current SSDs). SATA III is backwards compatible so such an SSD will connect via SATA II, it just won't be fast.

    As for performance degradation, the good controllers (Intel, Indilinx and SandForce) all appear to suffer little write amplification (performance loss due to over-writing sectors). The concerns about re-write cycles in flash memory are now baseless due to advances in the technology.
     
  4. barndoor101

    barndoor101 Bring back the demote thread!

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    exactly - all SSDs have write levelling built in, and TRIM makes any performance degredation minimal. if you think about it, the amount that SSDs have matured in only a few years is pretty astounding.
     
  5. Ph4ZeD

    Ph4ZeD What's a Dremel?

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    Technology marches on regardless. We accept that with graphics cards and CPUs, that faster generations will come out at a rapid pace, and we are now getting used to the idea that the same will happen with hard drives. Personally, I don't regret buying my SSD (see sig) at all, because it really is THAT much faster than a traditional hard drive. Once you get used to a SSD, every computer seems slower than your own.
     
  6. SlowMotionSuicide

    SlowMotionSuicide Come Hell or High Water

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    You would be better off asking yourself whether you really need the SSD or not - I did the same and the conclusion was that for the moment I don't.

    I mostly use couple of programs on my computer besides gaming, so with Superfetch stuff just appears on my screen nearly instantly, and my cold boot time is around 30 seconds with tweaked bios settings anyway. I decided my money is spent better upgrading my computer audio, while I keep an eye on SSD front, especially waiting on price drop come the 25nm stuff.
    As much as I'd like to have one (SSD), and believe me, I love cutting edge tech as much as the next guy here, those drives are just too prohibitively expensive right now, or way too small.
     
  7. Showerhead

    Showerhead What's a Dremel?

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    After seeing this benchmark, i think i'll wait until Sata3 becomes mainstream drives running on this seem to be alot faster. That and prices are way too high for me.
     
  8. Guest-44432

    Guest-44432 Guest

  9. Elledan

    Elledan What's a Dremel?

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    Same here. For my purposes the HDDs are rarely the bottleneck. I rarely reboot my system so I don't care about boot times, I launch a few applications during the day and mostly spend my time typing code or documentation in MSVC, OpenOffice and such. I estimate I could maybe gain a few minutes of time total by switching to SSDs, time I now spend on looking away from the monitors.

    The only benefit to SSDs I can see is high-IOPS situations, such as database transactions in a commercial setting. Beyond that it's just a matter of compensating :)
     
  10. cybergenics

    cybergenics What's a Dremel?

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    I agree with this, SSD's add 'throttle response' to a PC like having a free revving engine in a car, that is not restricted.

    My main PC has two SSD's but the boot is still slow as it mucks about doing tha tdouble reboot thing whne it fist fires up, then takes ages to get through the BIOS procedure, a good 20 seconds or more before its even starting windows, when you first hit the button.

    My other PC boots quicker on a mechanical drive, just because the BIOS is less fussy.
     
  11. Dark Matter

    Dark Matter What's a Dremel?

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    Watching with interest I would like to get an SSD to run my os and a few essential progs from, the favourite atm is an 80 GB Intel X-25 G2
     

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