freeman440

The post was not only interesting, but very informative and useful.
This article can be used as a small reference guide.
Looking forward to the continuation :)

Andrey

Thanks for the articles, they help a lot, I’m still choosing an ssd

Victor

Vadim, I’m glad that you didn’t shelve the article about SSDs. But I couldn’t even imagine that you would end up with a whole cycle. Super!
At the same time, this is not just another custom-made article, but akin to a whole confession. Moreover, from my own experience. Which is doubly valuable.
I’m already silent about all sorts of technical details that you’re unlikely to read about in other articles. In general, sensible articles come from your pen. Looking forward to the continuation!

were you interested in this post?

Naturally. Even more. Since the question of purchasing an SSD is on the agenda

did she help you in any way?

Let's just say it expanded the horizons of my knowledge of SSDs

what exactly new did you learn?

The fact that there are only 4 NAND manufacturers in the world, about SLC, MLC and TLC, about synchronous and asynchronous memory, an interesting link for checking data and a lot of other little things.
In general, for me the article turned out to be very informative.
Looking forward to the continuation!
P.S. And about "General reviews of SSD components have nothing to do with this" give it up. What are Windows and other software installed on? That's right - to disks. SSD included. So, everything here is closely interconnected.

Leonid

Dima

Thanks Vadim.
I made the choice based on reviews from colleagues on the forum, the article confirmed that I made the right choice.
http://s4.hostingkartinok.com/uploads/images/2013/01/201abd5dbf983c4fcd53b46f2ddd0063.jpg
Moreover, there is room for improvement - the board supports SATA ||
At the time of purchase, criteria price/availability + recommendations.
I don't understand hardware, but I'm interested.
New - synchronous / asynchronous + a good example about strawberries.

Victor: P.S. As for “General reviews of SSD components have nothing to do with this,” come on. What are Windows and other software installed on? That's right - to disks. SSD included. So, everything here is closely interconnected.
And if you expand the thematic scope of your blog a little, I think there will be nothing wrong with that.

I'm subscribing.

Anatoly

Thanks Vadim. I’m faced with the decision of buying an SSD, so your article came at just the right time.

Andrey

I know that it is an OEM, but the manufacturer (a Chinese company with an S... I forgot the name) is one of the largest OEM suppliers. Plus a guarantee from Plextor and from the seller - 5 years. this is what captivated me))

For some reason my answer went down. replied to this comment:

Valery

Andrey: I know that it’s an OEM, but the manufacturer (a Chinese company with an S... I forgot what it’s called) is one of the largest OEM suppliers.

Almost Taiwanese Lite-On makes disks for Plextor. But yes, the factories are most likely located in China.

a) the article was not very interesting (why look at point b);
b) didn’t help in any way, because I had already decided on my choice;
c) website with SSD database.

I will answer questions 1 and 2 after purchase.

Victor

Vadim Sterkin: Well, yes, according to you, I write articles about Windows 8 to order (apparently from Microsoft). I'm surprised it didn't occur to you that this article was commissioned by Intel, Samsung, Crucial, OCZ and, of course, Corsair

Eh, Vadim, you misunderstood me, I wrote about something completely different. About the fact that on other sites, many people order freelance articles. And they write to them in general terms, without delving deeply into the essence. Right there, in your article, everything is sorted out. Beauty!
This is how it happens, you give a compliment to a person, and you can be misinterpreted.
By the way, the expression

It doesn't matter what you said. What matters is how you are heard.

found in this case another confirmation.

Vadim Sterkin: What is characteristic is that this material does not contain a single drop of personal experience in using the products

Well, it turns out I was wrong. Although you chose the SSD, bought it, and are using it now. Isn't this an experience?

Serge

Serge

And yet, NOT “as an example of a combination of obsolescence of materials and poorly placed accents,” but more of a contrast.

Since the advice is “HARMFUL”, what kind of “combination” can we talk about? THIS IS AN OPPOSITE.

Well, or as an option, you can explain yourself unambiguously and without equivocation (so that God forbid you offend your colleagues). “- THIS is, in my opinion, correct. And this is NO.”

Vladimir

Vadim, don’t even think about stopping the series about SSD drives :)
This year I plan to buy a 512 GB SSD drive.
Thank you for your useful work that you bring to me with each new entry on this blog!

spax

After my vertex 2 ssd burned out and the service center showed me another whole cabinet of dead ocz ssds, my trust in them was completely undermined. Most likely, all the shortcomings have been corrected in the new series, but I will not buy ssd from ocz anymore.
I chose intel 320 series. It's been working for six months now and no problems.

Anatoly

Hello Vadim. I decided to opt for OCZ Vertex 4 2.5 VTX4-25SAT3-256G. I'm interested in your opinion on this drive.

Andrey K.

Thank you very much for the “revealing” article. Your stories about Windows help me, and your point of view: making do with the Windows OS itself is close to me and I share it. With your help, I learned to overcome the “inconveniences of maintaining” the system itself and am increasingly convinced of its reliability, your judgments are authoritative for me. Thank you!

Alexander Gorlov

Actually, I give the best strawberries to those I love. Perhaps Toshiba does this with its NAND?

And thank you very much!

Pavel Nagaev

I was pleased with this:

At the leading plant in the US state of Utah, the same memory is produced under the brands of these two companies in almost equal proportions. From the assembly line of the plant in Singapore, which is now controlled by Micron, the memory may also come under the brand of its subsidiary SpecTek.

Vadim, where could you find this?

The post is beautiful and chic, useful for broadening your horizons.

Vadim, in any case, this is good material, so write it down, you are doing a good job.

Anatoly

Vadim Sterkin, Thank you. This is quite enough to “cool down” a little.

Sergio

Thank you, the text was very useful. After reading it, I just realized that when buying a “body storage device” you don’t have to worry about anything. Companies (brands) that sell themselves have distributed the products into the desired price category. The only thing I realized is that it is better to buy brands that crystallize this memory themselves. those. Samsung and Intel.

Vladimir

Vadim Sterkin: Vladimir, why do you need a 512 GB SSD? This is a serious investment, it must have some justification.

I'm going to use it as a system disk + I want to transfer caches of many programs to it: a browser, an image viewer (Fast Stone), an operating system paging file and a Windows indexing database, as well as a cache of some programs from Adobe (Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, Audition).
Plus, I will need high read speed, which for a 512 GB SSD will be higher than for smaller capacity drives. So far it seems like that.

They are the most modern and high-performance data storage for computer systems. They offer much higher data transfer speeds than traditional hard drives, while consuming less power and having higher levels of reliability due to the absence of moving parts in the design of the device.

The characteristics and performance of different SSD models on the market can vary quite a lot, so it is very important to learn as much as possible about solid-state drives before going to the store to buy a device.

In this article, we'll look at some key features and how they can impact the performance and cost of SSD drives—simple, affordable, and hassle-free. I really hope that this knowledge will help you when choosing an SSD for your computer.

Volume

SSD is not the cheapest pleasure, and the cost of the device increases in direct proportion to its volume. A good drive with a capacity of 480-512 GB will cost about $200, and a “terabyte” drive will cost about $500.

In order to save on unnecessary waste, savvy users came up with an elementary solution - use an SSD drive to operate the system, and leave a classic hard drive - HDD - for movies, music, photos and other content that takes up the lion's share of disk space.

Thus, it turns out that a bootable SSD disk will ensure faster operation of the system, programs and computer games. And the second disk, HDD, will serve as a kind of storage for the remaining data.

But what size SSD should you choose? Here are my thoughts on this matter:

• 32 GB: with a stretch, it’s suitable for installing an operating system (hereinafter simply referred to as OS) and some low-demanding programs. Suitable for office work, where they do not use anything other than Word and Excel;
• 64 GB: good for installing the OS and most of the software necessary for work. Again, an office version of the drive;
• 120 GB: great for installing the OS and necessary programs. You can even install a couple of your favorite games to load the latest ones faster;
• 240 GB: great for installing OS, software and games. Most likely, you won’t have problems with low memory for a long time, unless, of course, you start cluttering the disk with various multimedia files, such as music and movies. I repeat, for these purposes it is better to use a second disk - HDD;
• 480+ GB: great for installing OS, software, games, and you can even get a little naughty and throw multimedia onto the disk.

This is roughly how I see SSD volumes for the various purposes you are pursuing. The golden mean is, of course, a 240 GB drive. Unless you're an avid gamer who plays another game every week, then it's worth considering better options.

Flash memory

Flash memory is another very important parameter that determines the cost of the device, as well as its performance, read speed and durability. And here, in most cases, the choice is between flash memory with two-bit cells - MLC and three-bit cells - TLC, but which type of memory to choose depends on the tasks for which the SSD is purchased.

If you take an SSD as data storage, then you can safely buy a drive with TLC flash memory. Such SSDs, at the same cost, will have much more memory than MLC SSDs, but have fewer rewrite cycles.

Accordingly, if you take an SSD to install the system, then it is better to choose MLC. The volume will be smaller, but the number of rewrite cycles will be greater. And since the data on the system disk is constantly updated, MLC is an ideal option for a boot disk with the system.

There is also 3D V-NAND flash memory, developed by SAMSUNG. The principle of operation is the same as MLC and TLC memory, only in a three-dimensional model. The 32-layer design is promoted by SAMSUNG under the marketing name V-NAND, and MLC V-NAND and TLC V-NAND flash memory is considered more reliable than its classic counterparts.

Interface

If you choose an SSD for constant use in a computer or laptop, the connection interface will most likely be Serial ATA (SATA), rather than USB or PCI Express. Why? Because USB is an order of magnitude slower than SATA, and is only suitable as an external drive, and PCIe is an order of magnitude more expensive than SATA, although it is an order of magnitude faster.

Therefore, if you want to get the “golden mean” in the form of excellent speed and not very high price, then you will need a “SATA III” interface with a bandwidth of 6 Gbit/s.

The older "SATA I" and "SATA II" interfaces still have excellent performance, especially when compared to hard drives, but they won't give you the best performance.

On the other hand, you may have to purchase an SSD with a first or second generation SATA interface if your PC is quite outdated and the motherboard only has SATA connectors of the first or second revision. Although, from a technical point of view, you can take the “three”, since the SATA III interface is backward compatible and will work with previous versions.

To check which version of SATA you have, you need to Google the model of your motherboard and look at the specifications on the manufacturer's website. You can find out the motherboard model by looking at the name on the board itself or using standard Windows tools. To do this, open the command line (WIN+R -> CMD) and enter the command “wmic baseboard get product” (without quotes).

By the way, interface speeds are measured in gigabits per second, while disk read and write times are measured in megabytes per second. To determine interface restrictions, I have listed the converted values ​​for different SATA versions:

• SATA III (6 Gb/s): 750 MB/s;
• SATA II (3Gbps): 375 MB/s;
• SATA I (1.5 Gbps): 187.5 MB/s.

Remember that this is the theoretical maximum throughput for the various SATA interface standards. Real performance will be slightly lower than these figures. For example, most SATA III SSDs peak between 500 and 600 MB/s, which is about 20-30% below the maximum.

Read/write speed

Read Speed ​​- Determines how long it takes to open or read a file stored on disk.

Write speed is how long it takes to save or write to disk.

These parameters are one of the most important technical characteristics in solid-state drives, essentially showing the performance of the SSD. High read speed makes loading programs and games faster (as well as the entire operating system as a whole), and write speed affects tasks such as unpacking files using 7Zip.

Most modern SSDs have read speeds in the range of 500-600 MB/s, but very cheap/old SSDs cannot boast of such speeds. Therefore, I would advise choosing an SSD with a read speed in this range.

If you compare HDDs and solid-state drives, you can see that hard drives are several times slower than SSDs, with a read speed of 128 MB/s and a write speed of 120 MB/s. It is for this reason that when you “switch” from HDD to SSD, you will immediately feel an incredible increase in system boot speed when you turn on the computer, however, as mentioned a little above, you will also notice an increase in speed in loading games, opening programs, saving files and so on.

I would like to note that the write speed is not as important as the read speed, and therefore you can sacrifice a weak characteristic for the sake of a stronger parameter if the disk has a good read speed, but a much lower write speed.

Form factor

The form factor determines the size of the footprint and mounting for the drive. In most system units, space for a disk drive is made in a 3.5’’ form factor. This is where your computer's hard drive is most likely installed.

Since manufacturers are gradually abandoning the 3.5” form factor, the vast majority of SSD drives are made in the 2.5” form factor. But don’t be scared or stress yourself out, because if it comes to a personal computer, then you can easily install a brand new SSD in the system unit instead of a 3.5’’ HDD or next to it. To do this, you just need to purchase a special mounting frame (or an adapter, in other words), by placing a 2.5’’-inch SSD in it, you can easily install the latter in a 3.5’’ form factor mount.

But if you really can’t bear it, or purchasing a mounting frame is a problem, then you can screw a 2.5’’ solid-state drive onto two out of four bolts. One of my friends did exactly this and is happy as an elephant :)

If you're planning to install an SSD in your laptop to replace the hard drive, you'll also want to be aware of the physical size limitations. For example, 2.5-inch rims are typically available in several height ranges, from as thin as 5mm to taller ones as high as 9.5mm.

If your laptop can only fit a drive with a height of up to 7.5 mm, and you buy a 9.5 mm SSD, then, of course, this drive will not work. The same applies to mSATA and M.2 drives, used exclusively in laptops, ultrabooks and hybrid systems.

Therefore, be careful.

Manufacturer

An SSD is quite a large investment (by the standards of PC components), and if you decide to buy, it is better to do it from a quality, trusted brand. An excellent choice would be:

• Samsung is ahead of the curve in the development, production and sale of solid-state drives, winning 44% of the market for these devices. And there is nothing surprising here, because the company develops SSDs from start to finish, which together gives stable operation of the device and technical progress in this direction that is ahead of many manufacturers;
• Kingstone - the company does not develop devices at all stages, but works very competently with third-party manufacturers. The products of this brand offer market consumers a fairly flexible choice of high-quality SSD drive models, which has enabled Kingstone to gain a good foothold in the market of this segment;
• Crucial (Micron) and SanDisk are excellent choices as they offer high-quality, reliable products that operate at good speeds.

Buying an SSD from a “no-name” manufacturer is a rather risky step, especially if the price of the product is suspiciously low compared to similar drives from competitors. Using such a product, you can get seriously burned if something happens to the system or personal data.

Copyright "P.S.:"

We'll probably end here. Of course, one could name a dozen more different parameters that would give some flexibility in the question of which SSD to choose, but I believe that I have already outlined the most important thing in this article, and everything else is quite secondary characteristics that are clear to the average user They won’t contribute, but will only create, as they say, a mess in the head.

Happy shopping, thanks for reading to the end! Hope you liked it ;)

Solid state drives have rapidly burst into our lives. Ten years ago, no one even thought about using flash as a storage device for an operating system. However, today it is impossible to imagine a good computer without an SSD. Of course, they have not yet reached office PCs and budget workstations everywhere, but the price of devices of this kind is constantly falling, and the capacity is growing, which ultimately resulted in a rich variety of “types of SSDs”. And in this article I will talk about what types of solid-state drives there are, their purpose and operating features.

The variety of SSDs is the envy of a hard drive.

Unlike classic hard drives, the “kingdom” of solid state drives is disproportionately larger. If the shape and dimensions of traditional HDDs are dictated by their design - a set of round rotating plates and a block of heads that read from them, then the implementation options for SSDs are limited only by the imagination of engineers. Moreover, almost all subtypes of drives are in demand - some are compact, others are fast, and others are universal.

Inside, the devices are completely different. In a hard drive (on the left) there is a set of plates and heads, in an SSD there is a set of chips.

Let's go through each design option in more detail.

Laptop SSD 9.5 mm - classic

The ancestor of the “genre” is where the development of this class of devices begins. The engineers decided to keep it simple and release a new type of drive similar to a traditional hard drive. And it was completely justified. Firstly, from a compatibility point of view, such drives could be connected to a regular computer. Moreover, not only to the desktop system unit, but even to the laptop. The fact is that these devices completely copy the HDD for 2.5-inch portable PCs in appearance.

Classic SSD. Full compatibility with laptop hard drive

The first models had a SATA II connector, but it quickly became clear that its bandwidth was clearly not enough, and manufacturers began to equip their products with a timely SATA III port, which has twice the speed. Frankly speaking, advanced SSDs are “crowded” even in SATA III, but for consumer purposes it is more than enough.

The thickness of the product is also important. At first, preference was given to a case with a standard thickness of 9.5 mm, but manufacturers switched to 7 mm, since skinny counterparts can also be installed in ultrabooks that have significant size restrictions, so thin disks came in handy. Quite quickly, manufacturers focused on seven millimeters, not forgetting to complete the devices with plastic bosses for installation in the old 9.5 mm laptop bay. Sometimes you can find 5mm devices on sale, but they are rather exotic.

In addition, of all types of solid bodies, this one is the most optimal in price, which has led to their wide distribution. Currently, this is the most popular type of SSD.

mSATA

Experience in using SSDs has shown that in certain situations the classic disk size is clearly overkill; its dimensions are too large. Think about it, if the device will be used inside a laptop, where access to the average user is prohibited, then why does it need a case at all. The last one was scrapped. In addition, not all SSDs have maximum capacity (in other words, the number of memory chips they have is not very large). All this ultimately made it possible to reduce the disk size to a minimum.

mSATA. Compactness is the main trump card of this SSD

Externally, mSATA is a small board installed directly on the motherboard of a desktop PC or laptop. For reliability, the board is secured with a screw. Otherwise, this is the same SSD as described above. Unfortunately, the compactness led to a slight increase in price (compared to its classic counterparts).

Comparison of SATA (left) and mSATA (right)

M.2 PCIe - faster and more expensive

The growth in SSD performance has turned out to be so rapid that the capabilities of modern devices have come up against the limitations of the SATA III interface. However, in premium electronics this is simply unacceptable - expensive computers and laptops must surprise with their characteristics, so this limit was eliminated by using the PCIe bus, which is usually used by an external video card.

As you can see, in linear reading all SSDs show almost the same speed. The reason for this is the SATA III interface, which is a bottleneck.

The fast PCIe bus eliminates the bottleneck, allowing the SSD to operate at full capacity. M.2 drives resemble mSATA in appearance, but are more elongated in shape and have a connector with two slots. In addition, their length can vary, so there may be multiple mounting holes on the motherboard.

M.2 SSD
Various lengths depending on storage capacity. All of them will fit on the motherboard without any problems.

Typically, the M.2 format is a regular on expensive equipment - top-end ultrabooks and gaming motherboards. You won't find this connector in cheap devices. As a result, the cost is above average, but the performance is beyond praise.

Exotics - hybrids and monsters

Sometimes manufacturers deviate from the standards and begin to fence their connectors. A striking example is the Asus ux21 and ux31 laptops. They use their own connector. There is no difference for the user, but only until such an SSD fails. Usually, in the event of a breakdown, it is enough to simply replace the drive - buy a new one, but not with the above models.

At the bottom is the original SSD from the laptop (non-standard connector), in the middle is the classic M.2 SSD, at the top is an adapter for installing M.2 into a non-standard port.

It won’t be easy to just buy non-standard hardware, so you’ll have to buy an adapter that allows you to put a standard M.2 into a “branded” connector. But let's not blame anyone. Probably, the engineers designing such solutions had their own reasons for this.

Wiring on the board

In some cases, when you need to show the wonders of compactness and release a very thin laptop or nettop, stuffed to the gills with powerful components, none of the above options will work. The direct wiring of components on the motherboard will allow you to squeeze out the maximum - memory chips, controller and other elements will “huddle in close quarters” with the rest of the components - RAM, processor, etc.

Disassembled Apple Macbook. All elements are soldered on a board, which has a non-standard size. Compactness on the one hand, lack of maintainability on the other (only replace the entire board).

But you have to pay for everything. In this case, such a solution will be more expensive (due to its non-standard nature - each board is designed separately), but the main disadvantage is the complete lack of maintainability. It will be impossible to replace a disk in the event of a breakdown (as well as to increase its capacity).

PCI-Ex

The principle of operation is similar to M.2 drives - they are also connected via the PCIe bus. But unlike their smaller counterparts, these devices are real monsters. They are not limited in size or power consumption and are intended exclusively for use in the system unit of a desktop PC. Externally very similar to a video card.

Externally, such an SSD is very similar to a video card and is inserted into the same slot.

This approach allows you to show miracles of performance. In comparative tests they take first place, producing the best results. Obviously, the price of such specimens is exorbitant.

Correct use of SSD

And in conclusion, let me remind you that SSDs are special devices in terms of operation. Firstly, under no circumstances overload it - this often leads to its failure. Try to leave at least 20-30 percent of free space, and plan the purchase of a new drive taking this rule into account. Second, increase the amount of RAM to the maximum and disable swap, which is usually located on the SSD. This will maximize the life of the solid-state drive.

The appearance on the market of a relatively new data storage technology raises many questions among users. What is an SSD? Is it worth installing it instead of the usual hard drive? Is he as good as they say he is? After reading this article to the end, you will answer all the questions posed, which will allow you to decide whether you need to change anything in the operation of your computer.

Let's start with a concept: An SSD is a solid-state drive that uses NAND memory, which does not require electricity to store data. In essence, an SSD is a capacious flash drive that is characterized by high speed of writing and reading information.

Comparison with HDD

To draw parallels with a regular hard drive, you first need to delve a little deeper into the theory and see how the HDD works.

HDD is a set of metal disks rotating on a spindle. Information is written to the surface of the disks by a small mechanical head. When you copy something, create a new file, or run a program, the head moves, looking for where it was written. For clarity, imagine a vinyl record - only instead of a needle there will be a mechanical read head.

Solid state drives do not have any moving mechanical parts.

Other benefits of SSD:

• Quick response to user actions.
• Silent work.
• Low power consumption (half that of HDD).
• No overheating.

These are just the main advantages of solid-state drives that the user can “feel”. However, many users continue to ask the question of which is better HDD or SSD, so let's compare the characteristics of these two types of drives:

1. The operating speed of SSDs is higher, since the stage of mechanically searching for the desired location on the disk surface disappears. Data access time is reduced by 100 times - a system installed on an SSD begins to literally fly compared to using a HDD.
2. The absence of mechanical moving parts contributes to the silent operation of the drive and increases its life expectancy. HDD most often fails due to mechanical damage - this problem does not exist with SSDs.
3. The SSD temperature is always kept at the optimal level, even if it is not cooled with a cooler. The HDD overheats without cooling, which leads to software and hardware problems.

But let's be objective: SSDs also have disadvantages. First of all, this is the price, which still remains quite high and directly depends on the volume. Another problem is the limit on the number of rewrite cycles. The HDD can be filled with data and cleared as much as you like; SSDs have a limitation, but in practice it is difficult to achieve.

All SSD drives have a warranty life of 3-5 years, but they usually last much longer, so you shouldn’t focus on these numbers.

If you cannot choose between SSD and HDD, then there is a hybrid option - SSHD. Such drives combine the advantages of both technologies, but you will notice the increase in operating speed only when loading the operating system. Data writing and reading will be performed at the same level as that of an HDD, so such hybrids are not particularly popular among users.

Selection rules

So, you’ve decided that it’s time to ditch the outdated hard drive and install a solid-state drive in your computer - you’ve figured out why it’s needed and what advantages it has over an HDD. However, another question arises here: how to choose an SSD?

Stores offer drives with different form factors, controllers, and prices, so it's hard to figure out what's right for you. In order not to feel insecure in a conversation with a consultant who will probably want to sell the SSD at a higher price, try to choose a drive according to the parameters below.

Volume

As already noted, one of the main disadvantages of SSDs is the price, which is strictly tied to the storage capacity. The minimum capacity today is 60 GB. If you consider that installed Windows 7 requires 16-20 GB depending on the bit depth, it becomes clear that 60 GB is only enough to install the system and a dozen programs necessary for operation.

If you want to record games and heavy graphics applications like Corel or Photoshop on an SSD, then consider drives with a capacity of more than 120 GB.

Speed

Any drive (SSD is no exception) has two speed indicators: writing and reading. The higher these values, the better, but remember that the specifications usually indicate the maximum speed. The real value can only be found out in practice using special programs. If the drive has been on the market for a long time, then you can try to find its speed tests from users on the Internet.

Interface and form factor

Most modern SSD drives are manufactured in the 2.5 form factor with support for the SATA 3 interface. But there may be other, more expensive options:

• PCI card installed directly into the motherboard slot.
• External SSD drive.
• Disk with mSATA interface for installation in laptops and compact computers.

As for the interface: all new SSDs are available with a SATA 3 interface, but if you have an older controller (first or second generation) installed on your motherboard, then the drive can still be connected. However, there is one limitation: the baud rate is determined by the smallest value. That is, if you connect SATA 3 to SATA 2, the speed will be determined by the throughput of SATA 2.

HDDs for computers have a 3.5-inch form factor, but to install a 2.5 SSD you will need a special adapter, often called a “sled”. It is a small shelf made of metal, which is suspended at the location where the disk is installed.

By the way, using a special adapter you can install an SSD instead of a DVD in a laptop. Many users remove the unused drive and install a solid-state drive in its place, on which the operating system is then installed. A standard laptop hard drive is at the same time completely erased and then used as storage for personal files.

Memory and controller

There are three types of memory, differing in the number of bits of information in one cell - SLC (1 bit), MLC (2 bits) and TLC (3 bits). The first type is outdated and is now practically not used, so if you see it in the characteristics, pass by such a drive.

MLC is the most common type of memory at the moment, choose it. It has its drawbacks, but there is no adequate alternative yet, since TLC is just beginning to appear on the SSD market and is still very expensive.

The situation is similar with controllers: the most popular among manufacturers and widespread among users is SandForce technology, which increases disk performance by compressing data before recording.

But SandForce controllers have one drawback that may seem significant to some: if the drive is filled to the limit with information, then after cleaning it, the write speed does not return to its original state, that is, it becomes lower. However, this problem can be solved simply: do not fill the memory to the last byte, and the speed will not drop.

There are other, more expensive options: Intel, Indilinx, Marvell. If your budget allows, it is better to pay attention to solid-state drives with controllers from these companies.

Manufacturer

The last parameter that requires your attention is the manufacturer. Of course, on various forums you can find many posts saying that it is better to choose Kingston or, say, Silicon Power, since they specialize in the production of different types of drives.

However, this is not an entirely true statement: there are much fewer companies actually producing NAND flash memory than there are brands on the market. The following have their own production (and development department):

• Intel.
• Samsung.
• SanDisk.
• Crucial.

OCZ, for example, did not have any developments until recently and only recently acquired controller manufacturer Indilinx. Therefore, it is better to pay attention to the above characteristics, and keep the manufacturers in mind last.

Working with a SSD

After a successful purchase and successful installation of the system on the SSD, you will turn on the computer and be surprised at how quickly everything began to work. To maintain such agility for as long as possible, follow simple rules for operating solid-state drives:

• Install a system that supports the TRIM command (Windows 7 and higher, Mac OS X 10.6.6, Linux 2.6.33).
• Try not to fill the disk completely - the recording speed will decrease and will not recover (relevant for the SandForce controller).
• Store personal files on HDD. Don't remove the hard drive if it's working - store music, movies, photos and other data on it that doesn't require high speed access.
• Increase the amount of RAM and avoid using the page file if possible.

By following these simple rules, you will extend the life of your SSD and avoid premature slowdown.

A good place to start is with a brief history. Although SSDs themselves (Solid State Drive) began to appear on the client market relatively recently, the operating principle was clear and invented, in fact, along with the first memory chips. For a long time, prototypes and standard (highly specialized) devices used chips that can be classified as DRAM, that is, a volatile type of memory. Such semiconductor storage systems could only hold information as long as power was supplied, and therefore were equipped with powerful batteries and additional uninterruptible power supplies.

The advantage of volatile SSDs was their extremely high operating speed. Even excessive for cars of that time. The disadvantages, in addition to additional power support systems, were, of course, the high cost of the finished device with a relatively small capacity. Subsequently, the technology was transformed into modern RAM disks, where it was enough to install compatible RAM modules on a printed circuit board with ready-made wiring. In the realities of the present time, any user can download special paid or free utilities that allow you to create and configure RAM disks using the computer’s RAM.

RAM-based storage

The second wave of interest in SSDs surged along with the growing popularity of Flash memory in the mid-90s. Some developers presented their prototypes of devices, which this time featured non-volatile memory. However, the idea did not reach the masses, since at that time the production of Flash chips was quite expensive, and in terms of parameters such as write speed and capacity, solid-state drives were many times inferior to traditional hard drives on magnetic platters.

The term SSD itself can be applied to any drive based on semiconductor elements, including storage systems in phones, smartphones and other equipment. However, quite a lot of time passed until the production of NAND Flash memory was adjusted to the appropriate level, allowing adequate products to be brought to the user market at an adequate price.

Modern SSDs

The development of semiconductors has resulted in modern solid-state drives, which operate on a general principle. The basis of SSDs are NAND Flash memory chips, as well as a control chip-controller; some of them also use an additional small amount of buffer memory. The only difference in the model range of devices is the difference between the type of processor and memory, as well as secondary technologies, microcode version and information transfer interface.

SSD device

Although HDDs are still the cheapest and most capacious unit of computer storage, solid-state drives continue to actively advance on all fronts. Researchers from one of the analytical agencies predict 40% of the market for SSDs, taken away from hard drives, by 2016, but already now there are many decent solutions on the shelves at reasonable prices (for their level of efficiency), because their most important advantage is speed.

Unlike an HDD, which requires significant computer-scale startup, positioning, and read times, an SSD performs only some of these operations, and much faster. This explains the impressive file access times, immunity to data fragmentation, and fast data reading. Thus, the SSD greatly speeds up the response and launch of applications installed on it, the operating system itself, and work with files. But you have to pay for everything, so for each gigabyte of capacity you have to shell out an unheard-of (compared to HDD) amount. And besides, it also has a limited life cycle. Exactly! Any SSD will definitely “die” during operation. Sooner or later, he will die. It will be almost impossible for the average user to restore the information that has gone with it.

NAND Flash memory

Memory is one of the most important components of a solid-state drive. The speed and reliability of the device depends on it. Any NAND Flash memory has a limited number of cell rewrite cycles. Ultimately, the cell will not be able to record information and will fail.

To ensure that the drive can be used for as long as possible, mainly two technologies are used. The first is software. The controller is busy constantly monitoring all the cells and their degree of wear, distributing the load. The second degree of protection is hardware, when the control chip reserves part of the memory for replacement needs in case of excessive wear.

Developers constantly talk about new types of memory, but they don’t really get around to it. Most of the developments appear only in rare products of the corporate segment, or in general only tentative release dates for products in the foreseeable future have been assigned. And currently there are three main types of chips on the market with SLC, MLC and TLC cells.

SLC

The abbreviation SLC stands for Single-Level Cell, that is, each cell in such a structure is capable of storing only one bit of information. Such chips are somewhat more expensive to produce, although the main problem is the fact that SLC-based drives have much smaller capacities (from 8 to 64 GB). But such an SSD will be faster and more reliable, because the properties of a one-bit cell allow it to be rewritten from 60,000 to 100,000 times.

One of the famous client drives was the Intel X25-E with capacities of 32 GB and 64 GB. The latter was estimated at about 20,000 rubles. For example, today for this money you can buy a drive not of 64 GB, but of 960 GB, albeit with MLC cells.

At the moment, the market for SLC solutions is extremely poorly represented.

MLC

Multi-Level Cell or MLC (Multi-Level Cell) is the basis for most solid-state drives. True, for some reason the word “multi-level” is associated with two-bit cells. The products are presented in a wide range and offer the user solutions ranging from 8 GB to 1 TB. The speed of these SSDs is high. Although their reliability is much lower, the price per 1 GB is constantly decreasing. Initially, MLC drives offered up to 10,000 write cycles, later this figure was reduced to 5,000 and 3,000 cycles.

TLC

Most of the controversy is over, as you already understood, three-level cells such as TLC (Triple-Level Cell). Such drives may be cheap to produce, but they offer only 1000-1500 rewrite cycles. It is possible that these numbers will also decrease further in the future.

SSD controllers

Without a good controller capable of quickly processing the received information, any solid-state drive will be nothing more than a large and expensive “flash drive” with a SATA connector, and therefore it’s time to get to know the main players in the SSD logic market.

LSI-SandForce

If you have never heard of SandForce, then know that this controller developer was recently acquired by the largest company LSI, and still “holds” the majority of the solid-state drive market.

SandForce has its fans and its haters. The reason for this is the “proprietary” features of the controller. The most common eight-channel chip - SF-2281 - is found on completely different products with a price of less than 2,000 rubles and above 15,000 rubles. The success of the logic is explained by its work with any type of memory interface and its wide support. In addition, the manufacturer always provides ready-made firmware to the developers themselves, that is, the vendor receives an almost finished product, which all that remains is to “assemble”, package and ship to the distributor.

The user really should take a closer look at drives based on the SF-2281 controller! After all, this is one of the chips that compresses data, transferring it to NAND Flash. Consequently, the total volume of recorded information will be less, which allows saving cell resource.

But the speed of operation varies markedly depending on the type of data being processed (compressible and non-compressible). Compressed data is processed at peak performance, while the controller has to “sweat” with “complex” files, and the speed drops noticeably. The only obvious drawback of drives based on the SandForce controller is a decrease in performance when the memory is heavily loaded.

Another interesting feature is the lack of external buffer chips for operation. Instead, the chip's internal cache is used.

SandForce controllers are used in their devices by companies such as Intel, Kingston, ADATA, Silicon Power, KINGMAX.

Marvell

Marvell earned its recognition at the dawn of the era of solid-state drives. The 88SS9187 controller is “immune” to the degree of data compression, and the overall speed of the drive drops slightly over time. For its great versatility and stability, many users have chosen this chip manufacturer company.

The modern eight-channel controller 88SS9187 has support for SATA 3.0 and is used in Plextor and Crucial drives, as well as many other brands.

Indilinx

Perhaps we would have heard much less about Indilinx if OCZ had not become interested in it at one time, which released many products with the Everest II platform and newer Barefoot 3 chips (including the M10 modification). The third version of the controller was a joint development of engineers from both companies. The latest SSDs that have gained wide popularity and use Indilinx developments are Vertex 4, Vertex 450 and Vector.

Based on Barefoot 3, the Vector drive has been noted as one of the fastest drives in its niche. True, there were some unpleasant problems (device failure, BSoD, etc.), but they were eliminated through a firmware update.

Behind the scenes

Well-known controllers also include LAMD and MDX. The first settled in high-performance Neutron drives from Corsair. MDX logic has been spotted in Samsung SSDs. By the way, Samsung sold its hard drive business and concentrated entirely on solid-state drives. The 840 Pro line of devices has gained immense popularity.

Phison and JMicron controllers, which are increasingly found in budget devices, should not be written off. In general, these devices perform their duties well, although their performance, which is not surprising, is far from the characteristics of the “trendsetters”.

Popular models 60-64 GB

Now that we have a general idea of ​​what an SSD is, it’s time to familiarize yourself with the list of popular models. It is worth remembering that a model of the same line (with the same processor and memory) will be popular in the segment, for example, 60-64 GB, but may turn out to be completely uninteresting in the 240 GB version, because everything depends on competitors and price.

First of all, remember one axiom: the less memory is soldered on the device, the slower the drive will work. The second point is that many SSDs lose speed when the memory is too full. It is logical that 60 GB of “brains” will be half occupied immediately after installing the OS and a couple of “fat” applications. Finally, high memory usage causes wear and tear. The smaller the proportion of microcircuits is occupied, the more room for maneuver the controller has and, accordingly, the less cell consumption. That is, with the same use of two SSDs with a capacity of 60 GB and 240 GB, the second one will last much longer, especially if the same volume is occupied on it as on the first one.

Silicon Power S50 64 GB

Silicon Power produces solid-state drives mainly based on SandForce chips. However, the new budget series - S50 - uses the JMicron 667H chip. Despite the small capacity and not the most popular controller, the drive turned out to be quite fast (at the level of more expensive solutions) and at the same time inexpensive. However, you still have to look for it in stores.

Silicon Power S50

Kingston SSDNow V300 60 GB

Kingston recently introduced its small “star” - V300. This drive, depending on the configuration, can be very affordable, but at the same time has good performance. The SandForce SF-2281 controller can handle most tasks with ease.

Kingston SSDNow V300

TOSHIBA HDTS106EZSWA

An industry newcomer - TOSHIBA HDTS106EZSWA - costs a little more than its opponents. It uses a SandForce controller relabeled by the manufacturer, as well as proprietary memory. An important addition to the device is the rich delivery kit, which includes, in addition to the main goodies, an interface cable for transferring the system from a hard drive to an SSD.

TOSHIBA HDTS106EZSWA

Popular models 120-128 GB

Gradually, slowly, but drives with a capacity of 32-64 GB are leaving the market. Of course, new versions of SSDs are still coming out, and they are available in abundance. However, if we compare the situation with last year, their number has noticeably decreased. And all because the price of drives with a capacity of 120-128 GB has decreased significantly.

KINGMAX SMP35 120 GB

KINGMAX SMP35 is the “brother” of the Kingston V300 solid-state drive. And although they are produced by completely different companies, they have a lot in common both in pricing and in the use of the SF chip. As an additional advantage, excluding the low price, we can name a good delivery kit, which includes fasteners, adapters and cables.