Computerworld Showdown: SSDs Fail to Outperform Trusty HDD
Computerworld Showdown: SSDs Fail to Outperform Trusty HDD
by , 4:55 PM EDT, April 29th, 2008
The Solid State Drives, known to Apple customers as a very expensive replacement option on the MacBook Air, have no moving parts and are less power hungry. However, when it comes to sheer performance, the SSD was found to be wanting compared to the standard hard disk drive (HDD), according to Computerworld on Tuesday.
The author was able to acquire a Crucial Internal 32 GB 2.5-inch SATA SSD as well as a Ridata unit with the same specifications. He compared them to Seagate Barracuda and Momentus 7200 RPM 3.5 inch SATA drives.
The tests covered speed burst, boot speed, a Vista system restart, cold boot, and an 8 GB copy. The results showed that SSDs were no speed demons when it came to burst speed and the copy process.
"So forgive me for being contrarian, but while I recognize the exotic and alluring nature of solid state disks as a technology -- and have certainly fallen victim to their potential 'wow factor' on occasion -- after spending 12 days with a pair of them and a pair of mechanical drives, I'm convinced that SSDs have yet to live up to their true potential," the author concluded.
Charts at the end of the article summarize the rather dismal SSD results. The tests demonstarted that while the lower power consumption and shock resistance are SSD strengths, those who want vastly better performance will be disappointed. That's not surprising considering the many years of technical development the standard HDD has under its belt. Even so, with futher technical development of SSDs, it's hard too deny that the days of the HDDs are numbered in notebook computers.
Observer Comments
It should be noted that this is general tech-test, not a tip for Macbook Air shoppers. He tested 7200 rpm drives while the Macbook Air uses a 4200 rpm hard drive.
So while this test shows why larger laptops will be using hard drives for some time, it is NOT a comparison between the 2 Macbook Air models.
Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:54 am Subject: What is Performance?
Performance is relative. What do you need done? The performance requirements of an MBA is different from the performance requirements of my iMac because the purpose of the machines is different.
For me the performance advantage of an SSD is the fact that it does not have to park the heads. When you slam the lid shut on a MacBook or MBP it takes about 15 to 20 seconds to write the status quo to your hard drive, during which time it is inadvisable to move the machine. If you do so It is possible that the machine will not go to sleep and you will get one hot laptop in your bag.
With a MBA you close the lid, drop the MBA into it's bag and boogie.
From the standpoint of the MBA that is performance.
First of all, the comparison was not between SSDs and 3.5 inch HDDs as this article implies. (That would truly be silly.) The actual comparison used 2 SSDs, 1 Momentus 2.5 inch HDD and 1 Barracuda 3.5 inch HDD. The silly part is that if I have a computer that can work with a 3.5 inch drive, I am not worried about battery life. If performance is a driver, then why not go for a 10,000 rpm drive? This wipes out two of the supposed advantages of the SSD and leaves only the no moving parts. I cannot imagine replacing a 3.5 inch drive with an SSD for any real reason today. I agree that today's SSD is not a mainstream competitor for a good 2.5 inch drive. Hopefully this will change. Until it does, keep your moeny and buy the HDD.
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