Solid state drives SSD: what is it and why is it needed? Solid State Drive SSD

Hello friends! Technologies do not stand still and are developing more and more rapidly every year, especially in the computer industry. It seems like just yesterday that we only learned about the three laws of robotics, written by Isaac Asimov, and today the Japanese are already designing dolls whose electronic “filling” is half as powerful as a small server room, but which have never even heard of the mentioned laws.

The changes also affected the area of data storage. Today you will find out what an SSD drive is and why it is needed, whether such a device is needed in principle or how you can do without it.

Why solid state

Such drives have been known for many years, but most users have only recently turned their attention to them as a worthy alternative to traditional hard drives. So why is it called solid state? The name comes from the English word Solid - “Solid state”. In fact, this is an ordinary microcircuit built on semiconductors - a green board with a bunch of tracks that everyone who has ever disassembled the body of an electrical device has seen.

The architecture of the device resembles the already familiar flash drives. SSDs use the same type of energy-efficient memory circuits that do not lose data even when there is no power for long periods of time. The only difference is in dimensions, capacity and recording speed. In addition, a flash drive is designed to be used as a plug-in external device, while an SSD is still, in most cases, an internal device.

Externally, solid-state drives resemble hard drives, but differ in size - they are smaller. According to standardization, there are slightly different form factors: for example, M2 or U2. This does not mean that an SSD cannot be installed in a regular system unit: there are special adapters for old cases, and new cases are already equipped with mounting slots.

Benefits of SSD

A logical question may arise: why such a device in a computer at all, if there are familiar and affordable hard drives. And solid-state drives have several advantages:
Higher data read and write speed. This is especially appreciated by users who process large files, as well as gamers whose games load faster.

Less power consumption. For laptop computers, this is a decisive factor, because the device can work longer on the same battery charge.

Longer service life. Due to the lack of mechanical parts, there is a higher chance that the device will not fail at the most inopportune moment.

Impact resistance. When transporting the device, there is a higher chance that the user will lose important data due to a fall or mechanical impact. This is the reason for the growing popularity of portable SSDs.

Often a small SSD is installed on a computer as a system volume to load the operating system faster. Such a computer will not only boot faster, but the OS will also be faster due to quick access to all system files.

Disadvantages and Limitations

You may ask: if this device is so gorgeous, why don't all users use it on PC? Alas, everything still comes down to cost: for the same price you can buy a regular hard drive with a capacity ten times greater than an SSD. When assembling or upgrading a computer, users are often limited in funds, so they have to “rein on their horses,” maneuvering between the coolness of the part and its cost. And so we would instruct everyone, yeah.

There is still a misconception among users that SSDs are unreliable. Yes, this was observed at the time of their mass appearance on the market. The reason lies in the use of cheap controllers that did not cope with their task. Today, the cheapest SSD is guaranteed to “survive” up to 3,000 rewrite cycles. For higher quality devices, this figure increases to 10,000. This is even more than a traditional HDD.
Another myth is that the operating system must be somehow cleverly configured to work with a solid-state drive - for example, disabling the page file. This is wrong. All the user has to do is activate the AHCI mode in the BIOS, which is necessary for the correct operation of the device. Please note that older motherboards do not support this mode - instead there is a now obsolete IDE

Why is it needed?

"To be or not to be?" - the reader will think. Buy an SSD or save money by buying something else. According to reviews from my clients, no one has ever experienced dissatisfaction with the purchase of such a device. There were several claims regarding warranty repairs, but this is a statistical error that always appears with large numbers of sales.

And if you get nervous every time your computer starts to slow down and freeze, an SSD is the best option to get rid of such phenomena. You will most likely not stop being nervous, but you will already find another reason, but the computer will “fly” with such a drive.

True, there is one small “BUT”. You quickly get used to the good stuff, and then working on a computer with a regular HDD will be a little uncomfortable. But these are little things, aren’t they?

And if you are already heading to an online store for a brand new SSD drive, read these instructions - it will help you correctly. You might also be interested, of course, if you think that you can’t live without an HDD.

I advise you to pay attention to the Kingston SSDNow A400 120GB 2.5″ SATAIII TLC device - a good and affordable 120 Gb drive.

And with that, I say goodbye for today. Thank you for your attention, friends, and see you next time. Don't forget to share my blog posts on social networks. Computer literacy to the masses! And to receive notifications about new articles.

We have long been accustomed to hard drives on which our files, documents, videos, images, and basically everything are stored. Hard drives have been around for a very long time. Back in 1956, IBM created a storage device that rightfully bears the name hard disk. But a deeper and more standardized introduction of these information storage devices occurred, of course, in connection with the growing popularity of personal computers.

At first, hard drives were bulky, extremely noisy and had available space of only about 5-50 MB, which, by the way, was enough at that time to install the operating system and all work applications, as well as a set of personal files.

Subsequently, the drives acquired a form factor that is still popular today for desktop systems, which is 3.5", the number of vendors producing these products decreased, and the volume of drives grew year by year and totaled hundreds of megabytes, gigabytes, tens of them and now thousands of gigabytes per one device.

Hard drives are used everywhere, in almost all computers; at one time there was an attempt to use them even in mobile phones, since at that time Flash memory chips were too expensive, unreliable and significantly inferior in volume.

The principle of operation has not changed, in fact, for decades. Inside any HDD there is a motor, read heads and magnetic plates. In other words, mechanics controlled by electronics. Moreover, all this must be in sterile conditions, and the safety of information depends on hundreds of different factors, which is why these devices are sensitive to many external manifestations of influence.

The evolution of storage systems and the arrivalSSD.

Over time, not only the volume, but also the speed of hard drives grew, new communication interfaces were released, until, finally, they reached a logical “dead end” of development in their speed indicators. No matter how much we would like to, it is almost impossible to create a very fast hard drive. Of course, there are separate “accelerated” drives (used, as a rule, in servers), but they are not omnipotent, and they are also much more expensive to manufacture.

At the same time, in parallel, another direction of information storage systems began to develop, which received the abbreviation SSD (Solid-State Drive), that is, a solid-state (or semiconductor) drive. SSD has a lot of differences from its opponent, the main thing is the absence of the entire mechanical part of the device, instead of which digital systems for recording/reading information are used.

In other words, a solid-state drive consists of a controller that controls the operation of memory chips with information, which significantly increases both fault tolerance under physical influence and operating speed. The first experiments with SSDs took place back in 1978, then they used memory similar to RAM (volatile), it is capable of storing information only directly during operation, and after that it is completely reset, which, of course, is inconvenient for a storage system.

Much later, with the advent of Flash memory, that is, non-volatile chips capable of storing information all the time, SSDs began to flourish, and the first manufacturers began to release new products. Today, many companies produce exclusively SSD devices, most often these are those companies that are in one way or another connected with the production of memory chips, for example Samsung, Micron, Kingston and others. There are also a number of vendors that produce SSDs under their own brand, however, using ready-made products and “semi-finished products” from other manufacturers to assemble their own products.

An SSD consists of digital circuitry and has no moving parts. The photo above shows the main components of the drive:

Device memory chips. (usually located on both sides of the printed circuit board). The volume, reliability and speed of the SSD depend on them.
Chip with buffer memory. Developers use different memory chips, but no direct relationship has been observed regarding the overall speed of the drive.
Interface and power connectors. Modern SSDs use the SATA interface in various versions (SATA-300, SATA-600). SATA are compatible with each other, but the latest versions of this interface allow you to unlock the potential of high-speed drives.
Controller (processor) SSD. The SSD controller is one of the most important parts of the device. It depends on the controller how efficient the SSD will be, whether it will support cleaning technologies, and how it fares with reliability.

Advantages and disadvantagesSSD.

Main advantages:

1) As mentioned earlier, an SSD does not have any moving parts, hence the increased reliability under physical impact. That is, if you drop a hard drive, it will most likely begin to malfunction or stop working altogether, especially when it comes to impact while the device is operating. A solid-state drive, similar to a flash drive, can withstand light shocks, shocks, and vibration.

2) The second and main advantage of SSD is its speed. Moreover, many users confuse the concepts a little and believe that high linear read/write speeds of the device (exceeding those on hard drives) are a guarantee of high performance, but this is not entirely true. The main “feature” of SSDs was and remains high access and response speeds; this is paramount for read operations and it is because of this that files and applications are opened almost instantly on solid-state drives. While the controller of a traditional HDD is forced to wait for operations performed by the mechanics of the device, the SSD controller is already processing this information by reading it from the memory chips. Moreover, the higher the load (the more different accesses to the logical disk), the greater the advantage the SSD will show.

3) The mechanics inside the HDD also affect the device's power consumption, which is significantly lower on SSDs.

4) The absence of moving parts affects noise performance. The SSD does not produce any sounds at all.

5) "Immunity" to file fragmentation. Over time, the HDD loses some performance due to fragmentation of the recorded files, when they are “scattered” across the entire platter and the device needs more time to read these files. This is precisely why the defragmentation procedure was invented. For an SSD, fragmentation is not important, nor is the location of the file (which is again important for an HDD).

Main disadvantages:

1) Limited number of rewrites of information cells. As an example, we can again cite ordinary memory cards; they all have only a limited number of operating cycles, which theoretically reduces the reliability of the device as a whole; in practice, this means that the drive will work out its service life with normal use in a home computer/laptop. The developers take this feature of drives into account, and therefore recommend not “filling” them completely, leaving free space. However, SSDs often have additional memory reserves created just for this purpose. This is necessary for the lifespan of the SSD, as its internal controller tries to avoid any cell receiving a critical level of write cycles and constantly works to increase the life of the device by selecting the least worn cells.

2) Price for 1 GB. In terms of price per 1 GB of information, SSDs are still inferior to their “brothers” hard drives, but given that every year the volume of devices is growing and prices are constantly decreasing, we can safely say that sooner or later solid-state memory will be equal in price characteristics with hard drives (or replace it completely).

3) human factor. To work with SSDs, it is advisable to follow a few simple rules. If they are neglected, the device may “grow old” faster than its allotted lifespan, which will affect the speed of operation and, subsequently, the fault tolerance of the SSD.

SSD orHDD?

SSDs are developing at a crazy pace. Controllers and memory chips are constantly being improved, production volumes are increasing, and even corporations are switching to using solid-state drives. The question of “what to choose now” is quite simple: ? But the time will soon come when HDDs, to one degree or another, will begin to lose ground in the market, as is actually happening now. And in the end, this question will disappear by itself. Think about it, not so long ago, all people had CRT monitors on their desks, and people were arguing about expensive and lower-quality LCD devices. In the same way, we went to buy film for cameras. But will you find new models of CRT monitors in the store now, or maybe for leisure photography you will buy something other than a digital camera?

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SSD (solid state drive, solid state memory drive, solid state drive- Russian) - information storage device based on chips non-volatile memories that retain data after power is turned off. They are a relatively new type of storage media, and the first manifestation and development, non-volatile memory chips received from Flash drives and regular RAM memory.

Contains the same input/output interfaces as modern ones. IN SSD no moving parts and elements are used as in electromechanical devices (hard drives, floppy disks), which eliminates the possibility of mechanical wear.

Most modern solid state drives are based on non-volatile NAND memory. There are enterprise-class drives that use RAM memory coupled with backup power systems. This gives very high data transfer speeds, but the price of one gigabyte is very high by market standards.

Exist hybrid versions of SSD and HDD drives.

They include magnetic plates for a large volume of stored information and a small volume SSD storage in one housing. The most frequently used data is stored in SSD drive and are updated as they are relevant from the block HDD. When this data is accessed, it is read at high speed from solid-state memory without accessing the slower magnetic platters.

What are SSD drives made of? .

* For example NAND memory

A solid state drive is made up of the chips themselves. NAND, a controller that brings all the functions, a volatile chip and a printed circuit board on which all this is soldered.

Sometimes in SSD drives used small battery, so that when the power is turned off, all data from the cache can be rewritten into non-volatile memory and keep all data intact. There are precedents that in drives with MLC memory when the power was turned off, some or all of the data was lost. WITH SLC memory, no such problems were noticed.

Memory.

Almost all high-, mid- and budget-class solid-state drives use non-volatile NAND(flash) memory because of its relative low cost, the ability to save data without constantly maintaining power and the ability to implement technology for saving data in the event of an unexpected power outage.

Thanks to the compact layout of the chips, manufacturers can produce SSD drives in form factor 1.8; 2.5 ; 3.5 and less if we are talking about devices without protective packaging. For example, for laptops or internal placement in a computer.

In the majority SSD drives use cheap memory that can fit in one cell more than one bit. This has a very effective effect on price finished product and contributes to the popularization of these drives. But there is MLC memory and major shortcomings. This low durability cells or more low speed writing and reading than .

SLC write down only one bit into the cell and this provides up to 10 times better durability and up to 2 times more high speed compared to MLC. There is one drawback - price drives on SLC memory approximately twice as high than the price of drives MLC memory. This is due to high production costs, and especially because SLC chips the same volume, required on average twice as much to achieve the same volume compared to MLC.

SSD controller.

Almost all indicators SSD drives depend on the control controller. It includes microprocessor, which manages all memory processes using a special firmware; and a bridge between the signals of the memory chips and the computer bus ( SATA).

Functions of a modern SSD controller:

TRIM.
Read-write and caching.
Error correction ( ECC).
Encryption (AES).
Opportunity S.M.A.R.T monitoring.
Marking and recording of non-working blocks to add them to the blacklist.
Data compression ( Sandforce controllers for example).

All memory controllers are aimed at parallel connected NAND memory. Since the memory bus of one chip is very small (maximum 16 bit), buses of many chips connected in parallel are used (analogy RAID 0). In addition, a single chip does not have excellent characteristics, but on the contrary. For example high delay I/O When memory chips are combined in parallel, these delays are hidden by being shared among them. And the bus grows in proportion to each added chip, up to the maximum throughput of the controller.

Many controllers can use 6 Gbit/s, which is coupled with controllers that support data exchange speed 500mb/s, gives a noticeable increase in performance in reading/writing and complete Unlocking the potential of SSDs drive.

Cache memory.

IN SSD drives use cache memory in the form of volatile DRAM microcircuits, similar to those found in hard drives.

But in solid-state drives it carries another important function. Part of the firmware and the most frequently changed data are located in it, reducing wear and tear on the volatile NAND memory. Some controllers do not provide for the use of cache memory, but nevertheless they achieve high speed indicators ().

Interfaces for connecting SSD.

The most common interfaces for SSD consumer class are SATA 6 Gb/s, And USB 3.0. All these interfaces are capable of providing the required throughput for any SSD drive.

In portable devices such as laptops and tablet computers, compact SSD drives with interface mini PCI-Express (mSATA ).

Advantages and disadvantages of SSD drives compared to HDDs.

Advantages of SSD drives compared to HDDs(hard drives):

Turns on instantly, does not require promotion.
Significantly faster random access speeds.
Significantly faster access speed.
The data transfer speed is much higher.
No defragmentation required.
They are silent because they have no mechanical parts.
Does not create vibrations.
More resilient in terms of temperature, shock and vibration.
Slightly lower power consumption.

Disadvantages of SSD drives compared to HDDs(hard drives).

Cell wear. At least in SSD drives and mechanical parts are missing, memory chips wear out (mlc ~10000 rewrites, slc ~100000 ).
The capacity is much smaller.
The price is significantly higher in relation to GB/$
Inability to restore lost data after a command or simply after formatting.

Solid state drives use the command (instruction) TRIM to increase recording speed. Together with some microcontrollers, TRIM allows you to achieve a slight increase in reading speed. All solid state drives produced since 2012 have support TRIM. In earlier versions, flashing with new firmware may be required to enable this instruction. In most cases, flashing the firmware permanently deletes all data.

SSD drives are still a completely new generation of information storage devices and they are not balanced products in all respects. However, for enthusiasts, enterprise customers and server use, they compare favorably in terms of performance, which may be a deciding factor for purchase. New round of evolution, solid-state drives will be available with mass production of memory chips Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM, FeRAM). This will improve the durability of the cells SSD drives.

But it’s not a fact that SSD storage is the future. Each new technological process, as practice has shown, reduces the read/write speed and increases the number of errors that arise, which also need to be removed using an error correction system to the detriment of performance. And for SLC this figure is acceptable, but with MLC And TLC (triple level cell) everything is very, very sad. With each new generation, without significant new breakthroughs, the speed will decrease. And by 4 nm, it will drop almost to the level HDD 2012.

Recently, SSDs or solid state drives have become increasingly popular. How do solid-state drives work, what advantages do they have, and is an SSD always better than a hard drive?

SSD device

SSD is a non-volatile non-mechanical storage device based on memory chips. In terms of its internal structure, a solid-state drive is not much different from a regular flash drive. The information in it is stored in several blocks of flash memory, a DDR DRAM chip is used for cache memory, and the SSD controller controls the read-write process and the data placement structure.

How SSD works

The operating principle of a solid-state drive is somewhat different from that of a hard magnetic disk drive, that is, an HDD. When reading information in a hard drive, the location of the data block is first calculated, then the block of magnetic heads moves to the desired track, and then the reading process itself occurs. And if the requested files are fragmented and located in different sectors of the hard drive, then the process of reading data is greatly slowed down. In SSD drives, due to the absence of moving parts, information is read much faster - after the controller calculates the address of the desired block, access to the data is provided almost instantly.

Benefits of SSD

The popularity of SSDs in the modern market is explained by a number of significant advantages that these drives have.

High read and write speeds, which are several times higher than the average performance of most HDD drives.
Better performance than HDD. The IOPS (input/output operations per second) rating of SSDs is significantly higher than that of hard disk drives.
Relatively low power consumption.
Solid-state drives have no moving parts, resulting in complete absence of noise and vibration.
SSDs are less sensitive to mechanical stress and external electromagnetic fields (due to the absence of magnetic disks).
Solid state drives have a wider operating temperature range.
SSDs have relatively low heat dissipation, which improves the performance of both the drive itself and the system as a whole.

Disadvantages of SSD

Unfortunately, for all their advantages, solid-state drives are not without their disadvantages, some of which may seem quite significant.

The main problem with SSD drives is the limited number of rewrite cycles, from 10,000 in inexpensive SSD models to 100,000 cycles in SSDs with more expensive types of memory. And although solid-state drive manufacturers are trying to combat this disadvantage, for example, by using load balancing schemes and replacing DRAM memory with cache memory made using FRAM technology, the problem of SSD wear still remains relevant.
The second disadvantage of SSD drives is their high cost. Due to the use of innovative technologies, the price of a solid-state drive is significantly higher than the price of an HDD with the same capacity and similar characteristics. In addition, the cost of an SSD is directly proportional to its capacity, while the price of a hard drive does not always directly depend on its memory capacity.
After wiping an SSD using the TRIM command, it is not possible to recover deleted data, even with the use of specialized utilities. However, for those who need to delete confidential information from the disk, this feature is rather an advantage.
It is also impossible to recover data from a solid state drive after a power surge. Since in SSD drives the memory chips are located on the same board with the controller, when there are network fluctuations, as a rule, both the controller and memory burn out, while in HDDs in similar situations only the disk controller board burns out.

SSD optimization

In order for your SSD to last longer, you must follow some recommendations:

It is advisable to disable all functions that require frequent access to data on the disk. This includes defragmentation (not needed at all on an SSD), Windows file indexing, and the Prefetch function. You can also disable hibernation, which will free up some disk space and help reduce the number of accesses to the SSD memory.
It is best to have two disks in your computer: HDD and SSD. The SSD can store system and program files, as well as gaming applications (to increase performance, of course), and the HDD can be used to store user data (documents, movies, photos, and so on). In this case, it is better to transfer folders with temporary files and browser cache to the HDD. You can also place the hiberfil.sys file there.
If possible, you should avoid completely filling the SSD partition space. It is recommended to leave the last 10-20% of the SSD's free space empty, as the TRIM function needs space to rearrange data, and completely filling the disk can negatively affect its performance.

The abbreviation SSD stands for Solid-State Drive. Which, in fact, is translated as a solid-state drive. Its peculiarity is that it does not contain moving mechanical parts: inside there are only boards and microcircuits, with the help of which information is recorded, stored and read.

The history of SSDs began quite a long time ago. For the first time, StorageTek was able to implement something similar in 1985. But at that time, the high cost and low manufacturability of components did not allow the mass implementation of solutions among the masses, and there was no particular answer as to why a fast SSD drive was needed in a computer if the interfaces and peripherals still worked slowly. But in the early 2010s, the popularity of SSDs increased greatly. Nowadays, almost every new laptop comes with an SSD or a hybrid hard drive configuration. Next, we will look at what it is - an SSD in a laptop or desktop computer.

Why do you need an SSD drive in a computer?

An SSD is no different from a HDD in its purpose. It is designed to perform the same function - to store data, the operating system, swap files and the like. Naturally, this replacement is more expensive if calculated in terms of gigabytes/ruble. It is more than likely that the situation will change in the near future.

SSD hard drive device in a laptop and computer

There is essentially no difference between what an SSD is in a laptop and a desktop computer. It can be a case similar to a HDD, or it can be made in the form of a board for installation in an M.2 type connector. If you disassemble the SSD or look at the board, it is very similar in design to a regular flash drive. In general, an SSD is a large flash drive with the same operating principle.

The entire device is controlled by a controller that distributes data among cells, monitors their status, deletion, and generally performs all functions similar to the functions of a processor in a computer.

The memory itself is flash memory, the same as on flash drives. SSDs use the NAND type, which characterizes a three-dimensional arrangement of conductors where a number of cells are used at the intersections.

Based on the method of writing data to a cell, there are two types of implementation: SLC - Single-level Cell and MLC - Multi-level Cell. As you might guess, in the first case only one bit is written to one cell, in the second - several. Now another type has emerged from MLC, the name of which has become established in everyday life, although it is part of a subset of this type - TLC, Triple-level Cell.

There are a number of advantages and disadvantages to each implementation. MLC is cheaper in terms of volume/price ratio. This makes the SSD hard drive cheaper in the long run, which also affects consumer choice. But the multi-layer recording structure imposes limitations on the number of write cycles and performance. The more nesting levels are used, the more complex the algorithm for working with cells becomes and the smaller the resource. SLC is proportionally more expensive and has greater service life and performance.

Manufacturers solve problems with memory resource and reliability using algorithms that allow them to control the process of cell use: recording is done in those areas of memory that were used least often. Another approach is used - memory reservation. Almost every SSD leaves about 20% of the memory “in reserve” in order to replenish it from there in the event of cell loss.

How an SSD drive works

Probably, many people know how a regular hard drive works - the magnetic head runs from the beginning to the edge of the rotating disk and reads data from the tracks. The main problem with magnetic disks is that it takes too much time to position the head in the area with the required data. And if the file is also divided into several pieces in different areas, then the time of the reading or writing process increases significantly.

To understand what an SSD drive is, you need to know the principle of its operation. To access data to read or cells to write, the system only needs to know the address. The controller then simply returns blocks of data. Time is spent only searching for an address and transferring data - literally milliseconds.

Types of hard solid state drives

SSD types can be characterized by form factor and interface type. There are three main form factors:

2.5". The disk is housed in a 2.5-inch case. Provides compatibility between almost all types of systems: laptops, servers, PCs.

As a separate card for the PCIe slot. Provides good speed and reliability, uses the PCI Express interface.

M.2. A relatively new format, presented mainly in the form of a board that is installed directly on the motherboard in the M.2 connector, which is very compact. This SSD can be found in three different versions depending on the length: 2242, 2260, 2280. The last two digits indicate the length in mm.

There are several other formats that are rare and needed for a narrow range of tasks, for example 1.8”, 3.5” or mSata.

Interfaces are more difficult to understand. There is a mess of standards and specifications here. Let's start with the most popular one - SATA. To date, there are three main revisions and two additional ones. SATA - supports up to 1.5 Gbit/s. Now it is becoming less and less common. SATA II - up to 3 Gbit/s. SATA III - up to 6 Gbit/s. Revision SATA 3.2 received an additional Express prefix. It has speeds of up to 8 Gbps and is backward compatible with other SATA, and, most interestingly, it is based on a PCI Express interface. The interface can be implemented in both 2.5-inch and M.2 form factors.

The PCI-E interface is a little easier. It is implemented mainly in M.2 in SSDs. It is worth noting that PCI can be multi-channel. The more channels, the faster the data transfer speed.

General characteristics of SSD (Solid State Disk)

Let's look at the basic characteristics by which we can identify an SSD, figure out what it is, and compare it with an HDD.

Interface and form factor

We have already talked a little about this. Now consider this in the context of choice and relevance for different systems. With interfaces, everything is simple - eSATA is now considered the most productive, which in the specifications in some stores and manufacturers can be designated as PCI-E. This is by far the fastest interface.

The form factor must be chosen depending on the type of PC - laptop or desktop. In a stationary one, for compactness, you can use M.2, which takes up little space on the board and does not require additional power. New laptops also support M.2. For older ones, the 2.5-inch form factor is relevant.

Disk capacity and speed

SSD capacities are quite expensive. The most budget version of a 32 GB SSD can be purchased for about 1,500 rubles, while a HDD for the same money will already have a capacity of 160 GB or more. As for speed, everything is not so clear. Very often, data read and write speeds in disk specifications are greatly overstated. And not necessarily only from little-known small companies, but even from famous brands. Therefore, you have to rely on reviews and measurements of authoritative services and testers.

Type of memory chips

It is interesting that now both types of memory - MLC and SLC - are almost the same in terms of performance and write/rewrite resource. Much depends on the implementation of a particular manufacturer. Before purchasing each specific model, we would recommend looking at tests and reviews of these gadgets.

Leading manufacturers of SSD drives for PCs

The top includes well-known drive manufacturers. Their implementations do not differ in anything special. Moreover, controllers made by Samsung or Intel can be found not only in their own drives, but also in devices from competing brands. Main names in the top:

Samsung. They produce a wide range of SSDs for a variety of tasks;
Western Digital. One of the oldest media manufacturers. It produces three different lines of drives - Green, Blue and Black;
Intel. Everything is clear here. Reliability and quality;
Transcend. Known mainly for its flash drives. Now we are releasing full-fledged SSDs.

Which SSD drive is better to buy?

If the budget is not limited, then there are no problems. If every ruble counts, then it is better to approach the issue thoroughly. Let's look at a couple of models that are worth paying attention to.

The type of memory it uses is TLC type. The stated read/write speed is 540/520 MB/s. The total storage capacity is 120 GB. In total, 75 TB of data can be written to the disk. On average, users write from 5 to 30 GB per day to their disk, which gives approximately 10 TB per year. Thus, the resource of this SSD should last approximately 7.5 years. The SATA interface is used for connection. You can buy the disc for 3,600 rubles. And its 2.5-inch form factor will allow it to be used both in a “desktop” and in a laptop.

Here are a couple of reviews about it:

Review of Samsung SSD 850

More details on Yandex.Market: https://market.yandex.ru/product/1973235126/reviews?track=tabs

If compactness and space saving come first, then you can consider an SSD with M.2. Within 5000 rubles you can buy Intel SSDPEKKW128G8XT.

This is a drive with an M.2 connector and a size of 2280. Please note that the free space from the connector to the nearest component must be more than 80 mm. Memory type - TLC. The total disk size is 120 GB. This drive is interesting because it is connected using a PCI-E interface with 4 channels via an M.2 connector. This means that the bus does not limit the capabilities of the SSD and fully allows for excellent write and read speeds - which, by the way, are declared by the manufacturer at 650 MB/s for writing and 1640 MB/s for reading. The total resource is 72 TB of data. The device costs 4290 rubles.

More details on Yandex.Market: https://market.yandex.ru/product/1974689676/reviews?track=tabs

Intel SSDPEKKW128G8XT

In general, prices over 5,000 rubles do not inherently imply big leaps in terms of performance. Only the total disk volume changes. By the way, for SSDs, the volume indicator also affects durability. For example, a 120 GB disk with 30 GB daily writes will last approximately 7.5 years. With the same recording rate, a device with a capacity of 500 GB should last 4 times longer.

You can give this: you need a disk only for the system and programs - you can choose a smaller one, 60 or 120 GB, and store all the data, movies, pictures, etc. on another HDD. If you plan to store everything on one SSD, it is better to immediately choose a larger one. PCI-E interfaces are still more expensive than SATA, but they do not limit speed, so if your budget allows, it is better to choose the PCI-E interface.

Answers to frequently asked questions about SSD drive

During its existence, SSDs have acquired myths and legends, as well as constant questions. We will look at a few of them.

Special operating instructions

Many people believe that if you use the disk correctly, you can increase its service life. This includes various optimizations - disabling caches, indexing, paging file, defragmentation. In fact, these actions will not significantly affect the SSD resource. Rather, a decrease in overall performance due to disabling functionality will be less justified than an increase in the total resource by a couple of tens of gigabytes.

The only thing that can be recommended is to make backups: save your important data on alternative media - the cloud or another disk. Although this advice applies to all media in principle.

How is SSD different from HDD?

Read and write speed, shock and vibration resistance, noise level, power consumption and weight. These are the main advantages of SSD over HDD.

What is TRIM in SSD

TRIM is an instruction for ATA interfaces that allows the operating system to tell the disk which memory blocks can be unused and considered empty. Why do SSD drives need it? It was introduced due to the specific operation of solid-state drives. When writing new data to a cell, the SSD cannot simply replace the old data with new ones. He has to first read the data into the cache, clear the cell, and then write it - while the access speed decreases significantly. TRIM solved this problem. The system and the drive constantly exchange information about which cells are no longer needed, and upon the TRIM signal, these cells are reset to zero. The next time you write, the SSD just calmly writes data to it immediately.

Do you need an SSD for gaming?

Here, too, not everything is so simple. Firstly, you can’t expect a significant increase in FPS in games from using an SSD. The solid-state drive will be active during the initial loading of worlds and levels - locations will load faster. There is a possibility that an SSD drive can help in cases where performance is limited by the amount of RAM, when this data is dumped into the swap file. But in such a situation, changing the HDD to an SSD instead of increasing the RAM is a dubious pleasure.

By the way, there is an interesting video of testing popular games on different disks: