Cases for use
The most common use, and arguably so, for SSDs is as a boot drive for the operating system. This is the easiest selling point for me. You buy a more reasonably priced 32GB to 64GB SSD and use it as the main drive to boot your OS and a few key programs that you'd like to give a bit more zip to (i.e. games, productivity software, and etc.). You then buy another mechanical drive like the Seagate 1.5TB mentioned in the table above and use that for installing your other applications and storing all of your pictures, videos, and other fun stuff. It ends up being a decent mix of performance and storage capacity while keeping the empty wallet moths at bay.
Other arguments are for users with a bit more to invest. Even so, I would only suggest the highest current capacities of SSDs if you absolutely must have the fastest performance and can afford to upgrade often with little or no impact to your lifestyle. These higher capacities allow much more freedom for those that require the astonishing speeds of the larger capacity drives. Some of the lower capacity drives offer similar speeds, if not the same, but they come at a premium. The aforementioned users with more disposable income could benefit greatly from using the larger drives in a RAID array to not only increase performance, but make the drives appear as one singular large drive. A little over $2.4K and you too could own a 1TB raid array of 256GB drives. This would be excellent for those video and photo editors out there.
Notebook users are often limited to one drive so running a mix of drives is almost entirely out of the question. The good here is that the popular netbooks and other low power notebooks tend to have lower capacities with standard mechanical hard drives. Plus a notebook hard drive has a higher cost per gigabyte than its 3.5" form factor desktop cousin. It becomes less of a leap from the cost per gigabyte of a notebook hard drive to a SSD. Notebook users can likely get by on a 120GB SSD as their sole internal drive and use an external drive for all of their storage purposes. These notebook users would also benefit from the reduction in power consumption and may see minor to good gains in battery life.
Gamers need not fret, I have not forgotten you. After all, how could I? The enthusiast computer gamer, be they a custom system builder or buyer, stands to benefit from the faster SSDs. Your system boots to the desktop with half the speed of a 7200RPM drive. Games load and transfer data at much higher sustained rates than most mechanical hard drives. Just file the SSD under hardcore gaming necessities. This includes your 5.1 to 7.1 surround sound system, 5000+ DPI gaming mouse, keyboards with LCDs, and your giant monitor or HDTV with a 1920x1080 (1080P) or higher resolution.
Conclusions
Given the versatility and slew of improved features over a mechanical hard drive, SSDs sit in a position to help users gain value in many different ways. How that value manifests will be decided by each individual. My hope is that you will be able to make the decision a little easier through the suggestions and points I've made above. Barring price considerations, the SSD is a great upgrade choice for all. The price portion is a matter of how new the tech is and where demand sits relative to supply. Currently the 120GB SSDs are the sweet spot. If you're in the market for one, I'd suggest taking a look at reviews for those first.
Note: The following pages sections will deal with the benchmark figures that show boot times and data transfer rates.
For more info: email Nicholas at technic.amoroso@gmail.com
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