What are solid state drives? They are drives similar to the workings of the hard drive, but differing in a few ways. It is up to you to decide to use them instead of using a hard drive, if the need exists. Read this guide for more information about the pros and cons of solid state drives.

Pros

On the whole picture, solid state drives feature a consistent speed (little lag) once the data has already been prescribed and stored. So they are more reliable on the processing side as well as the hardware side (less likely to break down due to the factors in design). However the current technology has not yet made the storage space for the solid state drives to catch up with the hard drives. But in terms of MB/$ ratio, hard drives are by far cheaper and more compact (in terms of storage volume – bytes).

Another good thing about them is that they store data without moving, meaning that the device in itself is more durable and stable. It is less likely to break down because the internal components aren’t supposed to move around anyway.

Because there is no movement in internal components involved, there is no noise in operating a solid state drive as opposed to hard drives. Solid state drives have a higher tolerance for impact and humidity.

Cons

The downside to owning and operating a solid state drive is that they eventually wear out. The bits (information data storage units) inside a solid state drive are limited to a certain number of overwrites. Although the data is essentially recordable (can be erased and written), it has an expiration date.

Also, the flash/MLC based solid drives are said to be generally weaker (has a slower processing power) than the hard drives. Due to the slow speed it is generally not recommended for an active use. However, they do make good storage drives because already written files are easily retrieved.

Additional Help

If you feel like you need professional help on evaluating pros and cons of solid state drives, TalkLocal can help with finding the correct local experts in this case, saving you time and energy in what may be a stressful situation.

This entry was originally posted on Monday, September 17th, 2012 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Computer Repair. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.