August 18, 2008

Solid State Hard Disks: Fast and Quiet

Over the past several days, I've been testing out Samsung's Solid State Drive (SSD). Instead of moving, magnetic platters of information, solid state drives are silent and store information in flash memory. Flash memory, according to Wikipedia, is non-volatile, which means that no power is needed to maintain the information stored in the chip.

I tested a Lenovo ThinkPad (with Samsung's SSD inside) against my current Lenovo 300 N1, with a traditional hard disk.

The ThinkPad definitely has longer batter life. In fact, I inadvertently left it in sleep mode and it's been that way for 2 or 3 days. Sure sleep mode is virtually a state of "sub-conscientiousness" for a note book but I know most notebooks can't be sleep for longer than a day.

For my next test, I turned both the ThinkPad and 3000 on at the same time. The ThinkPad, with the solid state drive was at the Windows logon prompt much faster.than the notebook with the traditional hard disk.

Finally, the silence was defining. I put my ear real close to the ThinkPad and didn't hear anything. Not even a fan - although I'm sure one is in there. On the other hand, I could hear the gentle hum of the hard disk moving and the Lenovo 3000 fan from a about 2 - 3 feet away.

If you want to know more about solid state drives, Samsung's web site is quite informative and check out the very good video.

Since there are no moving parts a SSD is also more durable and resistant to drops than a traditional hard disk. Should get get one? I wouldn't go out and change all your existing hard disks. But as you buy your next computer and you have the option to buy a SSD definitely give it serious thought.

tags: hard disk , samsung , solid state , sshd | 0 comments