Quick Solid State Drive Question

I recommend an SSD more than anything else to speed up your computer. Especially if you're running a 5400 rpm drive, you'll notice a RIDICULOUS speed improvement. I bought my first one a few years ago when they were still about $1 a GB, but now they're about half that.

As far as what others have said about "data recovery," if you aren't backing up your data already, that's what you should look into first and foremost. Get yourself an external hard drive and use it SOLELY FOR A BACKUP DRIVE. I've met too many people that are angry at computers because their hard drive failed and they can't get their data back. Just pay the $75 for a TB external and get it over with.

Not to mention the failure rate of SSDs is supposed to be astronomically low, if I recall correctly... A quick Google reminded me I saw this on slashdot about a year ago: SSD Annual Failure Rates Around 1.5%, HDDs About 5% - Slashdot. Oddly enough, that link pretty much matches up with what polarity has given as his failure rate for SSDs!
 
MrWrenchey said:
I recommend an SSD more than anything else to speed up your computer. Especially if you're running a 5400 rpm drive, you'll notice a RIDICULOUS speed improvement.
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It really is mental. I love these guys who quote figures and stats about how a 5400 drive can theoretically support up 17 billion stereo tracks @192k 24bit or whatever.
They can't. Get an SSD. :)
 
Just a fort!!!
If you have a 2 yr old say, laptop and you replace the 5k4 drive with an SSD you would in all likelihood install a cleaner version and eliminate 2yrs junk files? No surprise then that the new clean drive is sprightly?

I am no knocking SSDs but I get my information from about only two or 3 guys that I trust to give me the unvarnished, unhyped, no Emp's new clothes truth!

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Just a fort!!!
If you have a 2 yr old say, laptop and you replace the 5k4 drive with an SSD you would in all likelihood install a cleaner version and eliminate 2yrs junk files? No surprise then that the new clean drive is sprightly?

I am no knocking SSDs but I get my information from about only two or 3 guys that I trust to give me the unvarnished, unhyped, no Emp's new clothes truth!

Dave.
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Assuming a new install. I would probably just do a "disk move". But really, the SSD would have to make a difference as I/O is and has been the slowest part of the data processing chain. Wait states for information, etc. is usually where majority of delays for data processing takes place. With the speeds of SSDs (practically the speed of the controller) you have to see some type of gain.
 
ecc83 said:
Just a fort!!!
If you have a 2 yr old say, laptop and you replace the 5k4 drive with an SSD you would in all likelihood install a cleaner version and eliminate 2yrs junk files?
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I just cloned and carried on. Plus I'm on a mac so it runs like the day I bought it anyway.

ecc83 said:
No surprise then that the new clean drive is sprightly?
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In my experience we're not talking about sprightly. We're talking about feeling like you've upgraded from p4 to c2d, or c2d to i5.
Can't stress it enough man, they're incredible.

I'm on my 4th now. I set up a linux a while back with a 7200 and spent a whole day trouble shooting to find out what the problem was.
Turns out there wasn't one. I had just forgotten what 7200 felt like.
 
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DM60 said:
Assuming a new install. I would probably just do a "disk move". But really, the SSD would have to make a difference as I/O is and has been the slowest part of the data processing chain. Wait states for information, etc. is usually where majority of delays for data processing takes place. With the speeds of SSDs (practically the speed of the controller) you have to see some type of gain.
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Yes well, I get what you are saying, all you busy people. I am retired and my HPi3 laptop and this PC are fast enough for my needs. I can always just go and put the kettle on.


Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Yes well, I get what you are saying, all you busy people. I am retired and my HPi3 laptop and this PC are fast enough for my needs. I can always just go and put the kettle on.


Dave.
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That's a completely different point though, isn't it.
No one's trying to sell you one. :p
 
ecc83 said:
Yes well, I get what you are saying, all you busy people. I am retired and my HPi3 laptop and this PC are fast enough for my needs. I can always just go and put the kettle on.


Dave.
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To me it is about squeezing a bit more out of old hardware. I agree with you, if the equipment is getting the job done ...
 
Steenamaroo said:
That's a completely different point though, isn't it.
No one's trying to sell you one. :p
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Oh I quite agree! Just that it seems everyone MUST have the latest and fastest and best when in truth my son was happily making music on an old PCWorld EI-Systems special P4 with 1G ram and an 80G drive.

How much computing juice can a singer/guitarist with a MIDI keyboard USE on his own anyway?

But don't mind me, just joshin' to keep things light!

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Oh I quite agree! Just that it seems everyone MUST have the latest and fastest and best when in truth my son was happily making music on an old PCWorld EI-Systems special P4 with 1G ram and an 80G drive.

How much computing juice can a singer/guitarist with a MIDI keyboard USE on his own anyway?

But don't mind me, just joshin' to keep things light!

Dave.
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In some ways I fall on your side.
With a lot of beginners coming through here I often agree that a basic computer setup should be adequate for singer-songwriter recording etc.
Having said that, I spent a lot of money on a mac pro today. :p


If you're (not you specifically) someone who is pushing their computer hard, doing heavy sessions with virtual instruments etc, maybe even video? SSDs come highly recommended.
 
Chili said:
Nothing beats empirical data. So, about a 2% fail rate. I can believe that and proves early mortality may not be an ol' wives tale after all. :D

How does that compare with HDD failures you've experienced?
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Hmm Honestly I've installed thousands of drives over my career. I've seen a much higher failure rate lately it seems. That could be do to the number of laptops being bounced around, the sheer amount of data that users are expecting to keep/use/sync, quality of the drives, etc. It seems I've seen many many more come in DOA than I used to (maybe 1 out of 5 arrives dead and has to be RMA'd).

It's one of the reasons I am pushing the SSD thing here. No spinning platter, no moving parts, lets chance of issues from them dropping laptops constantly. That being said it seems like there is not as much of a 'kinda working' state with SSD. It's working or it's dead. No more throwing it in the freezer and pulling data off or dropping it off a table and grabbing more data. So it is a trade off. They also seem to be the biggest bottleneck on speed so lots of clients happy to move that direction.
 
I agree. For most people it's over kill.

For those of us spending all day on a computer, especially if it's how you make your money it's another story.

Steenamaroo said:
In some ways I fall on your side.
With a lot of beginners coming through here I often agree that a basic computer setup should be adequate for singer-songwriter recording etc.
Having said that, I spent a lot of money on a mac pro today. :p


If you're (not you specifically) someone who is pushing their computer hard, doing heavy sessions with virtual instruments etc, maybe even video? SSDs come highly recommended.
Click to expand...
 
Indeed, the speed increase is well worth the cost. The 150+GB failure point is a far off problem to deal with at a much later date. 2% initial failure matches pretty much to what I've seen in HDD installations (well about 1/4 that), so really, if it makes it past 90 days, you're pretty good to go for 8-10 years, well beyond my upgrade path. Still, one of the ones I use (only 2 years) is starting to require about weekly patch. I've sent all my critical stuff away from that drive and will replace it after imaging.
Bottom line, if you don't mind spending $120-240 for a smaller drive that you can do fast work on and transfer (or sync, like I do) to backup location, it's a great idea.
 
BroKen_H said:
so really, if it makes it past 90 days, you're pretty good to go for 8-10 years,
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That's what I think, too. If it's going to fail, it will do so quickly. Otherwise, you're good to go.

I've got an SSD in my desktop and one in my laptop. For the laptop, I bought a carrier that replaces the DVD drive with an HDD. I put the original HDD in it, reformatted it and now it's a data drive for mobile recording. Who uses DVD's anymore??? :confused:
 
No one so far seems to have mentioned T.R.I.M?

Err? And I use DVDs, to transfer/install programs and O/S'es. I also backed up a shedload of stuff from a drive I wanted to wipe XP off and install W7 on and that went onto DVD DL for safe keeping.


Dave.
 
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