Reply to: 7200rpm HD vs a 5400rpm Hybrid Drive

[darrylmg]

Don't forget that if you need to encrypt your laptop storage, and you want to use an ssd as main data storage, setup the encryption on the ssd *before* you load any sensitive data on it.

[lilelvis2000]

Here's a decent guide on the clone. Apparently there are a couple of things to look out for including aligning the partition table and turning off indexing. How To Migrate Windows 7 to a Solid State Drive

[DimPrawn]

If anyone else comes across this thread, another cracking SSD is this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT10...dp_ob_title_ce

[lilelvis2000]

Amazing. I searching t'internet and picked up the Samsung EVO 850 1tb for £250 off Amazon. Crikey!

[Ticktock]

Samsung Evo 850 are available for £300 all in.

I like the Samsung SSDs. One tip, once you've got it set up install the Samsung Magician software and get it to check for firmware upgrades - the upgrades can be to do with stability and or speed issues identified since the drive launched. Luckily, the Samsung software makes it a doddle to check and upgrade - so much easier than the Crucial way of manually checking, downloading, creating bootable USB, etc.

[lilelvis2000]

That's quite ridiculous. An SSD is a circuit board with chips soldered to it; an HDD is a machine with moving parts aligned to incredibly fine tolerances. Which seems more likely to break when subjected to a shock?

Yup, sounds logical. but this mate had personal experience where either the SSD was dropped or the machine was dropped and the SSD stopped working afterward.


Anyway, it does look like no 7200rpm drive will fit in 7mm so my decision is kinda made up for me. Samsung Evo 850 are available for £300 all in.

[NickFitz]

A friend told me that SSD are more susceptible to shock than a HDD. They "break" pretty easily if dropped.

That's quite ridiculous. An SSD is a circuit board with chips soldered to it; an HDD is a machine with moving parts aligned to incredibly fine tolerances. Which seems more likely to break when subjected to a shock?

[Bozwell]

A friend told me that SSD are more susceptible to shock than a HDD. They "break" pretty easily if dropped.

I would have thought the reverse it true, especially if the HDD is spinning at the time.

[sal]

I think I read that Samsung storage division is actually owned by Seagate.

A friend told me that SSD are more susceptible to shock than a HDD. They "break" pretty easily if dropped.

Neither is true, Samsung are the leader in SSD research and sales, the traditional HDD manufacturers like Seagate and WD are clinging to the HDDs and under investing in SSD:

A Look At The SSD Market: Where Do Seagate and Western Digital Stand? - Forbes

It baffles me how some can think that SSD which is physically little different from the other components in a laptop like RAM and Motherboard can break from a fall, under a conditions that would keep an HDD intact...

[lilelvis2000]

Another little twist is that the laptop max drive thickness is only 7mm. That kinda narrows the field. I think the only 1TB drives in that size are 5400rpm drives.

I think I read that Samsung storage division is actually owned by Seagate.

A friend told me that SSD are more susceptible to shock than a HDD. They "break" pretty easily if dropped.

[sal]

Interesting:
SSD vs. HDD: Performance and Reliability - EnterpriseStorageForum.com

TL;DR ?

SSDs are clearly faster in performance... We find that SSD reliability is improving and is commensurate with, or moving slightly ahead of, HDDs...
The final score between NAND/DRAM SSDs and HDDs? ... Reliability is about the same. Performance is clearly faster, and should rule the final decision between SSD and HDD.

My comment:
Just among friends and family (where I get roped in to "fix my laptop") I see lots of HDD failures.

My advice: Buy a Samsung 1TB SSD

+1

Hybrids are half measure, if you find the price tag on the 1TB SSD too high go for 250/500MB and stick the old HDD in an external USB case or internal bay that replaces the optical drive if you have one, as most people are not using them these days both can be bought for like £10

Higher end Samsung SSDs are available with 5-10 years warranty, most HDDs are nowadays sold with 1-3 years.

The SSDs are designed so to keep a percentage of the raw capacity as spare, for when the active individual cells start failing they are isolated and some of the spares are brought in and the process is handled automatically by the SSD controller. When and if you reach a point where the SSD is so worn out that it starts failing you can sacrifice some of the available capacity for that buffer and keep using the SSD with reduced capacity in most cases. When HDD fails it's game over in most cases.

[Platypus]

Are SSDs that reliable now? I'd always thought that they could only handle so many read/write cycles before the memory stopped working. I should read more into this because having lightening speed will make part of my day go faster...everything slows to 2Mbps when I have to do anything over t'internet.

Interesting:
SSD vs. HDD: Performance and Reliability - EnterpriseStorageForum.com

TL;DR ?

SSDs are clearly faster in performance... We find that SSD reliability is improving and is commensurate with, or moving slightly ahead of, HDDs...
The final score between NAND/DRAM SSDs and HDDs? ... Reliability is about the same. Performance is clearly faster, and should rule the final decision between SSD and HDD.

My comment:
Just among friends and family (where I get roped in to "fix my laptop") I see lots of HDD failures.

My advice: Buy a Samsung 1TB SSD

[Contreras]

I upgraded a laptop from 7200 Hitachi 320GB HDD --> Seagate 1TB SSHD. At the same time I migrated from WinXP to Linux. It was noticeably much faster. How much that had to do with the OS change is hard to say.

The Seagate is a ST1000LM014, 1TB disk, 8GB flash, 64MB cache. £70 from Dabs ~12months ago and it's still in service. Laptop is on pretty much 24/7. I have recently enabled disk spin-down during idle so it remains to be seen if that impacts on lifetime but apparently laptop drives are engineered to cope with the increased cycling.

All the brands have had their moments and scare stories. Generally I have gone for Seagate, the Hitachi was an 'acquired' drive.

[lilelvis2000]

Are SSDs that reliable now? I'd always thought that they could only handle so many read/write cycles before the memory stopped working. I should read more into this because having lightening speed will make part of my day go faster...everything slows to 2Mbps when I have to do anything over t'internet.

[Platypus]

1TB SSDs are under £300 nowadays. Come on, you're a contractor!

I was going to mention that too. I recently bought one myself and I'm very pleased with it.

Given that an SSD should outlive and will outperform an HDD, I think the cost can be justified as "future proofing".