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Ron,<br>
<br>
Much gratitude for stayin' with me on this, and the summary as well.<br>
<br>
C.Thomas<br>
<br>
On 10/24/2011 5:05 PM, Ron Frazier wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4EA5D319.5050803@c3energy.com" type="cite">
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<disclaimer ON><br>
<br>
I'll be glad to give you my opinion. Opinions are plentiful and
cheap. Your mileage may vary.<br>
<br>
I am not a physicist, and am not an expert on flash memory
technology.<br>
<br>
<disclaimer OFF><br>
<br>
OK. An SSD is a giant version of a memory stick, more or less.
The
same pros and cons as mentioned before apply. I cannot speak to
the
susceptibility to airport screening equipment as mentioned in my
other
post. I love the idea of an SSD, although I don't currently own
one.
Properly configured and properly supported by the operating
system,
they are blazing fast. One big current problem is cost, so you
have to
determine if it's worth $ 2 / GB to get one, as opposed to $ 0.10
/ GB
for HDD. As someone else said, you probably won't get much speed
advantage over an external HDD when connected to a USB v2 port.
According to Wikipedia, USB v2 is capable of 480 Mbit/s
(60 MB/s).
That's the most you'll get out of any device connected to a USB v2
port. The SATA port on either a HDD or SSD is capable of about 6X
that
speed. So, the bottleneck is going to be the USB port. I don't
know
for certain, but I suspect that either the SSD or HDD will perform
similarly when connected to a USB v2 port. The HDD will be
faster, and
the SSD will be WAY faster, when connected to an internal SATA
port on
the PC.<br>
<br>
I tried an experiment by copying 20 Ubuntu ISO files (about 13 GB)
from
one internal 7200 RPM SATA drive to another in my PC. Data
transfer
speed varied widely, which may be due to the two platters not
being
synchronized. In any case, the max consistent speed was about 50
MB /
sec. So, I don't know if a 7200 RPM drive can max out a USB v2
connection, but it will come close. A 10,000 RPM drive could
probably
exceed the limits of a USB v2 connection. They are available in
2.5",
but cost a bit more.. An SSD will almost certainly max out the
USB v2
connection.<br>
<br>
So, the bottom line is this. The SSD is probably better for your
use
as an external drive IF A) you want to pony up the money, and B)
you
convince yourself that airport scanners won't fry it. It won't be
much
faster than a HDD if on USB, but it will be very durable and
pretty
much immune to mechanical shock (don't run over it with a big
truck).
It will be mostly immune to electrical shock if properly enclosed
(don't intentionally make sparks to it). Get one with a 5 year +
warranty.<br>
<br>
If you're convinced that airport scanners will fry flash memory,
go
with a g-shock protected (as someone mentioned) NON HYBRID HDD
with
7200 RPM speed. If you want maximum possible speed, go with
10,000
RPM. I didn't think about the airport thing when I originally
mentioned the hybrid drive. For that matter, I don't know how
airport
scanners effect HDD's either, but I presume, not so much. The HDD
will
still be more susceptible to mechanical damage than an SSD, so
g-shock
feature notwithstanding, try not to smack the drive, especially
while
it's running. Again, get one with a 5 year + warranty.<br>
<br>
As I mentioned in another post, I have misgivings about the long
term
reliability of any flash memory device, including SSD's. No
matter
what you choose, you need regular backups of critical data.
Perhaps
even more so with a flash memory device. Over the last few years,
I've
observed failures in several types of flash memory devices as
follows:<br>
<br>
a) when I was teaching, students reporting that their files
vanished or
were not accessible on memory sticks<br>
b) my own relative's inability to access photos on a memory card,
which
I had to recover<br>
c) a GPS device that suddenly decided it didn't want to run it's
program properly, and didn't want to take a firmware update<br>
d) routers that, periodically, start getting flaky, and have to
have
their firmware reloaded<br>
e) some may call me crazy for mentioning this, but, severe solar
storms
are predicted in 2012 and beyond, which MAY be more likely to
disrupt
flash devices (I'm not an astronomer either.)<br>
<br>
All these devices (a - d) are flash memory based. And, I've seen
them
all flake out. I wouldn't probably want to backup an SSD to an
SSD.
I'd back it up to an HDD, and possibly to online backup too.<br>
<br>
So, there you have it, long answer to short question. As with
many
things in technology, the answer is "it depends" on your use case.<br>
<br>
Hope it helps.<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
Ron<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 10/24/2011 3:14 PM, Courtney Thomas wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4EA5B926.9040804@bellsouth.net" type="cite">
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Ron,<br>
<br>
What is your take on SSDs vs HDDs ?<br>
<br>
Thanks again,<br>
<br>
C.Thomas<br>
<br>
On 10/24/2011 1:47 PM, Ron Frazier wrote:
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There are a couple of benefits to "rolling your own" external
drive.
It is frequently the case that the prefab drive in a case type
of
packages don't have adequate cooling. While the compact DIY
enclosures
for 2.5" drives usually don't have fans inside, good ones are
made of
aluminum, which has good heat dissipation. Bigger enclosures
sometimes
have fans. Western Digital had problems a few years ago with
their
packaged drive in a case (my book, passbook, whatever it's
called).
The drives would fry themselves to death. Then you have to
fret with
RMAing the thing. If you open the case, you void the
warranty, and I
don't think they had a 5 year warranty. If you choose
carefully, you
can get a bare HDD with a 5 year warranty. Then you can
switch it in
and out of cases as you see fit. You can also upgrade it to a
larger
drive if you choose, and not worry about voiding the warranty.<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
Ron</blockquote>
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<br>
<snip><br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such. I don't always see new messages very quickly.)
Ron Frazier
770-205-9422 (O) Leave a message.
linuxdude AT c3energy.com
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