Solid State Drive (SSD), why is it needed? What is an SSD (Solid State Hard Drive) and what you should know about it

The abbreviation SSD stands for “Solid-State Drive,” which roughly translates to a solid-state drive or drive.

We will, of course, look at the main characteristics of such devices in this article, but I would like to do this based on a real example. Such a case recently, very opportunely, presented itself to me, since my working hard drive began to show obvious signs of dying (a wedge appeared, which manifested itself in the spontaneous freezing of the entire system, accompanied by a characteristic click).

It so happened that our company (for testing) bought one SSD drive (also known as a solid-state hard drive) and, for the reason stated above, it ended up with me! :)

Well, it would be a sin not to take advantage of this moment and not conduct a comparative test of this SSD hard drive and its predecessors, designed on the basis of .

We unpacked the new product, our entire IT department huddled around it :)

From the markings on the box it follows that this is a solid-state drive from Plextor, with a capacity of 64 gigabytes, equipped with an external SATA connection interface and a maximum transfer speed of 6Gb/s (gigabits per second). This will be somewhere around the theoretical maximum of the third generation SATA interface (600 megabytes per second).

Remember what we talked about interface speeds and their history in?

The form factor of our solid-state drive, as can be seen from its size and the inscription on the box, is 2.5 inches. That is, it can be installed with equal success on both desktop computers and laptops. More expensive models come with a special mount that allows you to install the device in 3.5-inch bays. In our case, the kit only includes sealed plastic packaging :)

Here are a couple of photos so you can estimate the size of the SSD hard drive:

It is a little less than a centimeter thick. And here - in comparison with a “regular” hard drive:

Moreover, the mass of an SSD is absolutely not comparable to its “bigger” brother. Compared to him, he is a piece of fluff. After all, there are no moving mechanical parts that need to be protected from external influences, which means there is no point in making a thick metal base case. The outer covering is aluminum and plastic, so the weight is appropriate: 75 grams. The device supply voltage is five volts.

The estimated uptime (as stated by the manufacturer) is 1,500,000 hours, and the official warranty period indicated on the box is three years. From which we can conclude that the drive must be quite reliable. Is it really? Time will show:)

It’s not a rewarding task to talk about cost in such a rapidly changing market as the information technology market, but at the time of writing this article, the price of this solution was around eighty dollars.

In general, what is essentially a solid-state SSD drive? This is a large flash drive (equipped with a high-speed SATA interface) with fast access, a cache of a certain amount and a specialized data transfer and processing controller responsible for the optimal operation of the media.

A solid state drive (Solid State Drive), unlike an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), has a number of obvious advantages (along with implicit disadvantages), but first things first. Let's start with something pleasant :)

SSD hard drives are characterized by:

short access time to data (regardless of its fragmentation and location)
the same speed for any sampling sequence, since the organization of information storage here is a matrix of flash memory cells from which sampling occurs.
absence of moving parts, which means complete absence of noise
resistance to various vibrations and physical impacts
lower (relative to HDD drives up to 30%) energy consumption

This is what the SSD disk looks like when disassembled:

At the top left is a RAM chip (DDR3), which is the drive cache, and on the right is the Western Digital device control controller. Below are eight fast NAND flash memory chips (eight gigabytes each), which together make up the total capacity of this solid-state drive - 64 gigabytes.

Here is another photo to consolidate the image, so to speak :)

Let's say a few words about the memory chip itself. This is not exactly a cache, more precisely, it caches (remembers) data, but not at all to speed up the operation of the device, and information about allocation tables and erased/occupied cells is dynamically recorded here. The addresses of worn-out flash memory cells, where recording can no longer be carried out, are also recorded here.

Now, as for the controller: its main task (as we already mentioned) is to provide read and write operations, but it is also responsible for managing the data layout structure. Using his wear control tables, he “looks” at which cells have already been recorded and which have not yet been recorded and equalizes these indicators.

Thus, the controller ensures the longest service life of our SSD drive, causing its cells to wear out evenly. Therefore, a properly programmed and configured controller can significantly change both individual speed indicators and the durability of the device as a whole.

So, let's continue the review! On the back of the box of our solid-state SSD drive we found an interesting table from the point of view of information content:

What useful information can we glean here? Firstly: an indication of the size of the disk's memory chip (cache). We see that for models with a capacity of 64 gigabytes it is equal to 128 megabytes, for a capacity of 128 gigabytes it is 256 megabytes, and for 256 gigabytes it is 512 megabytes of ultra-fast RAM, which is used for the needs of the media itself.

The “Performance” section shows us the linear (sequential) speed value reading from a solid state drive - “Read Speed” (520 megabytes per second) and speed records to disk “Write Speed” (90, 200 and 390 megabytes per second for different SSD capacities, respectively).

Also pay attention to the interesting inscription at the very bottom, which says that in the ATTO Disk and Crystal Disk Mark performance determination programs (benchmarks), the disk subsystem shows the best performance index.

Let's test this moment! And let's start with the CrystalDiskMark program.

But first, a little background. The fact is that for more complete testing, I collected (connected) a small collection of hard drives on my work computer, which, by a happy coincidence, were within my reach and it would just be a shame not to “drive” them :)

So, the following people take part in our testing:

Plextor 64Gb M5S SATA solid state hard drive SSD - new
Seagate Barracuda one terabyte SATA 7200 rpm - practically new
Western Digital 320 Gb IDE 7200 rpm - new

Note: abbreviation RPM stands for (round per minute - revolutions per minute) and characterizes the speed of the spindle of the hard drive. In general, the more, the better. The standard values are 5400 and 7200 rpm. There are high-speed devices with speeds of 10,000 and 15,000 rpm, but they are extremely expensive and are not used in home or office computers.

As you can see, the company we selected was very worthy. Discs are not worn out. And I specifically wanted to test drives with different data transfer interfaces. Remember what we talked about working with in a separate article?

Testing an SSD drive

So, let's start our testing using CrystalDiskMark.

We launch the program and see this simple window:

The photo above already shows the results of testing our SSD drive. Let's use them to look at the interface of this simple but useful program.

In the upper left corner there is a button labeled “All”, clicking on which starts the testing procedure. To the right of it is a drop-down list through which we can specify the number of “passes” of the test before displaying the final result. The default value here is “5”. Next is the size of the test file that will be written to disk. It is based on the results of its recording that the program will judge the linear (sequential) speeds of write and read operations on the media. Even further to the right is a list from which you can select the hard drive itself that we will test.

As you can see, my SSD drive acts as a system partition (drive “C”).

So, we figured out the main parameters. Now let's look at the results themselves. We have two columns here: “ Read MB/s"(reading speed, megabytes per second), " Write MB/s"(write speed, megabytes per second).

According to the first line, as we see, our solid-state drive produced 237 megabytes per second (for reading) and 102 megabytes per second (for writing). This is for a file of 100 megabytes. The second and third lines show speeds when working with small pieces of data (512 and 4 kilobytes, respectively). The general principle here is this: the more files and the smaller the size of each of them, the more time the hard drive needs for any operations on them.

Let's remember (write down) these values and select another drive (E) for testing. For me it will be a SATA hard drive with a capacity of one terabyte. And here are the results he showed:

As you can see, they are an order of magnitude lower than those of an SSD hard drive, but they are also not very bad!

Now let's see what our third participant will show - a 320 GB hard drive with an IDE interface?

You can compare the results obtained with each other and draw conclusions based on them. You can also download “Crystal Disk Mark” from our website and conduct the test yourself on your system, comparing its results with those that I received.

I would like to immediately bring to your attention another program that is designed specifically for measuring the speed of SSD drives. It has several more useful functions in its arsenal. Let's take a closer look at it:

The photo above shows the results of my disk test for reading (Read) and writing (Write). Notice the highlighted area at the top left. Here we can see the firmware version of the controller - 1.00 and check whether our operating system has aligned (laid out) the solid-state drive correctly? If there is “OK” here, then everything is fine.

The “Access Time” field shows us the time spent by the device to access the requested data. The “Score” line displays the overall summary of the measurement results. The so-called "parrots". Remember how in the cartoon? :)

The program can build us a graph for clarity. To do this, go to the “Tools” menu and select “Compression-Benchmark”.

After this, the following window will open:

In it we will need to click the “Start” button and wait for the end of the graph construction procedure. If you want, you can download this utility.

Well? Does God love a trinity? :) I can’t help but introduce you to another wonderful program for testing and obtaining comprehensive information about data storage devices installed in your computer. The program is called “HD Tune Pro” and is also remarkable because it has a Russified interface, so working with it is a pleasure.

This is what one of its tabs looks like with a benchmark (performance assessment) of the disk system:

The photo above shows the test results of my Plextor SSD. What is good about this particular program? The fact that it shows not only numerical values, but also draws us a graph in real time, according to which we can judge changes in certain parameters in dynamics and observe some trend. We will see this clearly in the following screenshots.

What do we see here? Maximum, minimum and average reading speed values (we obtained similar values in the previous test). New parameter - disk access time and load percentage. There is a separate switch for measuring the speed of reading and writing to the disk.

Well, let's compare the performance with our terabyte SATA drive:

As you can see, the difference is obvious! Particularly interesting is the graph that shows the difference in reading speed at the beginning of the disk and closer to its end (process dynamics). If we look at the graph of a solid-state SSD drive, we will see that its “cardiogram” is almost flat and there are no drops in speed.

Also pay attention to such a function as the hard drive temperature indicator, available in this program for HDD drives.

So, let's explore our "dinosaur" from Western Digital :)

As expected, the main indicators are much more modest, but I was surprised by the stability of the reading speed over almost the entire surface of the disk. Only at the very end did it noticeably decrease. Also here we see the lowest CPU load among all our test subjects.

Let's move on to the next tab of the HD Tune Pro program, which is called "Random Access". The photo below shows the number of I/O operations that our solid-state hard drive produces per second for data blocks of different sizes (IOPS - Input Output Per Second), the average and maximum data access time and their reading speed.

Let's look at the results of the hard drive from Seagate (Seagate 1 terabyte):

Do you see how big a difference there is in the results? Let's see what Western Digital will demonstrate (320 GB IDE):

You can see everything for yourself. In general, the HD Tune Pro program is very good and useful. In addition to the “benchmarks” themselves, she can show us our drive (they are located on the “Health” tab). You can also enable real-time disk monitoring and scan the drive surface for the presence of (bad blocks).

You can conduct your own testing of this program or compare it with my indicators.

Let's look at another tab of the program - "File Benchmark". The principle of its operation is somewhat similar to that used in “CrystalDiskMark”, which we discussed in the middle of the article.

The test is launched by pressing the “Start” button, but before that you can configure its parameters: select the device that we will test, indicate the size of the file to be written to the disk and what type of data will it contain?

On the left we see the already familiar graph-cardiogram of work, and below are reading and writing speed indicators, as well as the number of I/O operations performed by the drive.

Let's compare the graph above, which was for an SSD hard drive with our terabyte capacity:

Below is our “WD”.

Here, I think, there is nothing unexpected and this drive rightfully takes its honorable third place :) The winner, by all indicators, is unconditionally the SSD solid-state drive from Plextor.

Since the article already turned out to be quite voluminous, I decided to split it into two parts and talk about the shortcomings, general principles of operation of solid-state drives designed on the basis of flash memory, and my subjective feelings from using such a device, which will soon appear on our website .

A short video about how SSD drives are produced:

Solid state drives (SSDs) have been on the market for a long time, but they have been gaining more and more popularity recently. SSD drives are quite expensive, but they greatly improve system performance due to their very high speed of reading and writing data.

Unlike conventional hard drives, instead of magnetic tracks, a new technology is used - flash memory. But in addition to the great advantage in performance, there are several other disadvantages here - service lines, small volume and high price. In this article we will try to figure out how to choose an SSD drive for a computer, and also look at what they are and how they differ from each other. But first you need to find out what SSD drives are.

SSD or Solid State Drive is a storage device without moving elements based on memory chips or in other words, a solid state drive.

A typical hard drive consists of a magnetic disk rotating at high speed and a head for reading and writing data. Data storage is performed by magnetizing and demagnetizing the desired cells. But working with the cell, changing the disk rotation speed, and most importantly, moving the recording head takes too much time. Therefore, the hard drive cannot be very fast.

But an SSD drive solves this problem. Here, instead of this whole complex mechanism, flash memory is used. Thanks to this, there is no longer any need to move the recording head; recording to any point on the disk is instantaneous.

But chip-based memory technology is more expensive than conventional hard drives. In addition, flash memory has one very undesirable property - a limited number of rewrites. Therefore, manufacturers have to come up with different ways of cell placement and compensation to ensure that their drives last as long as possible.

So that you can choose the right ssd drive for your computer, you first need to consider what types of drives exist.

Types of SSD drives

During the development of this technology, several types of SSD drives have appeared; they differ in size, method of connection to the computer, operating speed and method of placing memory cells.

Dimensions and connection methods

The size, method of connecting the SSD drive to the motherboard and operating speed are interconnected, because these characteristics depend specifically on the connection interface. Let's look at the most common ways to connect an SSD so that you know which ssd to choose:

SATA- these SSD drives connect to the same interface as regular HDD drives. To be compatible with the installation space, these drives have a housing measuring 9x7x2.5 centimeters, which corresponds to the size of the HDD. Nowadays, they are used most often because they can be easily installed in any computer or laptop instead of a regular hard drive. But this option has a limitation - the maximum data transfer speed is 6 GB/second. For an HDD this is a very large figure, but some SSDs can develop even more.
mSATA- exactly the same connection interface as SATA, and therefore the same operating speed. Only there is not such a large building here. This type of SSD is often used for laptops. The only difference between this type of disk is the size.
PCIe- these drives look like a regular PCI card and, thanks to the use of this interface, can achieve data transfer speeds of up to 30 Gb/sec. But they can only be used in personal computers due to their size, and also cost two or even three times more than regular SATA SSDs.
NVMe- a modification of PCIe SSD drives that provides even greater performance thanks to special optimizations, but at the moment it is only compatible with new motherboards. The case looks exactly the same as the PCIe one.
M.2. is a smaller version of an SSD drive for PCI. It works using the same protocol and allows you to develop the same speed of data processing, but instead of a large case it is made in the form of one small board. Most modern boards already support slots of this type, but they can also be connected simply via PCI.

Methods for organizing memory cells

Based on the way SSD memory cells are organized, drives are divided into different numbers of bits that are stored in one cell. In fact, the less, the greater the rewrite resource and the speed of operation, but at the same time the higher the price. Therefore, manufacturers are trying to reduce the cost of production by increasing the amount of data in one cell. Currently there are the following types of memory:

SLC NAND- This type of memory was developed quite a long time ago. One cell contains one bit of data. It guarantees maximum performance and up to ten thousand data overwrites, but is very expensive and therefore not released.
MLC NAND is the next generation of flash memory, in which there are two bits per cell. The number of possible rewrites is reduced to three thousand times, and the operating speed is halved. But the price of such devices is already more or less acceptable.
TLC NAND- in this standard, one cell already contains 3 bits of data and the rewriting resource drops to 1000. But they are even cheaper. Manufacturers have found a way out of the situation by adding various balancing controllers, which replace the failed cells with reserve ones, and also try to give the same load to all cells. A cache from SLC memory is also used. All this allows us to guarantee the operation of the SSD for up to 3 years or more.

Nowadays TLC and MLC with various optimizations are most often used.

How to choose an SSD drive?

Now that you already know what SSD drives are, let's look at how to choose an SSD drive for your computer. New users only pay attention to volume, price and size. But you also need to take into account the type of memory placement, connection method and controller manufacturer.

SSD memory capacity

The larger the size, the higher the price of the device, but at the same time, the greater the rewriting resource, because the controller has more space to redistribute the load between all cells. Most often, SSD drives come in sizes of 128, 256 GB and 1 TB. Most often, users take a 128 GB SSD for the system.

Connection method

In fact, there are only two connection methods: using the SATA interface and PCI. SATA is more common and versatile. This SSD drive can be installed in both a computer and a laptop. But if you want very high speed, it is better to choose the PCI interface.

Memory type

To find out which ssd is better to choose 2016 for your computer, you need to pay attention to the type of memory. The first type of memory, SLC, is no longer available. There are two types common in the market - MLC and TLC. The first one is more expensive, but has a recording resource of 3000 thousand times, and the speed of working with data is 50 milliseconds. Such disks can last 5-7 years with normal use, but are more expensive.

Discs using TLC memory have a write life of 1000 times, a 75 millisecond read time and a service life of about three to five years. For a home computer, it is quite possible to choose TLC memory. But if you copy large files very often, then it is better to choose MLC.

Chip manufacturer

There is one more very important parameter that is worth paying attention to. This is the manufacturer of the controller chip. On the one hand, it may seem that this does not matter, but each manufacturer has its own characteristics and disadvantages.

SandForce- This is one of the most popular controllers. It is quite cheap and has good performance. The main feature is the use of compression when writing data to the media. But there is a drawback - when the disk is full, the recording speed drops significantly;
Marvel- similar to SandForce, has excellent operating speed, but it no longer depends on the disk full percentage. Disadvantage - too expensive;
Samsung- also quite popular controllers. They have support for AES encryption at the hardware level, but sometimes you can observe a decrease in speed due to problems with the garbage collection algorithm;
Fizon- has excellent performance, a low price and the absence of any problems that would reduce speed. But there is a drawback here. It performed poorly in random write and read operations;
Intel- better than Fizon, but much more expensive.

The main manufacturers of memory boards are Samsung, SanDisk, Intel and Toshiba. But memory boards are not that different, so the choice of board manufacturer does not matter much.

I recommend purchasing an SSD drive with an optimal speed/reliability ratio of MLC or 3D NAND memory. Read/write speeds closer to 500/500 MB/s are considered quite high. The minimum recommended speed for more budget SSDs is 450/300 MB/s.

The best brands are: Intel, Samsung, Crucial and SanDisk. As a more budget option you can consider: Plextor, Corsair and A-DATA. Among other manufacturers, problematic models are more common.

For a work or multimedia computer (video, simple games), an SSD with a capacity of 120-128 GB will be sufficient, and here the A-Data Ultimate SU900 on MLC memory would be an excellent choice.
SSD A-Data Ultimate SU900 128GB

A mid-class gaming computer requires a capacity of at least 240-256 GB; an SSD from the A-Data Ultimate SU900 or Samsung 860 EVO series is also suitable.
SSD A-Data Ultimate SU900 256GB

SSD Samsung MZ-76E250BW

For a professional or powerful gaming computer, it is better to take a 480-512 GB SSD, for example Samsung SSD 860 EVO.
SSD Samsung MZ-76E500BW

For computers and laptops with an M.2 connector, a good option would be to install an ultra-fast SSD (1500-3000 MB/s) in the appropriate format.
SSD Samsung MZ-V7E500BW

When choosing a volume, be guided by your needs, but you should not neglect it for the sake of higher speed. If you doubt the correctness of your choice, we recommend reading reviews of specific models.

2. What is the difference between expensive and cheap SSDs

Inexperienced users may be confused why SSD drives of the same volume, with the same declared speed characteristics, differ so much in price, sometimes several times.

The fact is that different SSD drives can use different types of memory, which, in addition to speed indicators, also affects reliability and durability. In addition, memory chips from different manufacturers also differ in quality. Naturally, cheap SSDs are equipped with the cheapest memory chips.

In addition to memory chips, the SSD disk has a so-called controller. This is a chip that controls the processes of reading/writing data into memory chips. Controllers are also produced by different companies and they can be either budget ones with lower speed and reliability, or higher quality ones. Cheap SSDs, as you understand, also have the worst controllers installed.

Many modern SSDs use fast DDR3 memory, just like computer RAM, as a clipboard to further improve performance. Most budget SSDs may not have a clipboard, making them marginally cheaper but significantly slower.

But that's not all, it even comes down to saving on such important components of an SSD drive as capacitors, which are necessary to prevent integrity violations and data loss. In the event of a sudden power outage, the electrical energy stored in the capacitors is used to complete writing from the clipboard to the memory chips. Unfortunately, not all even high-quality SSDs are equipped with backup capacitors.

The layout itself and the quality of the printed circuit board wiring are also different. More expensive models have more sophisticated circuit design, quality components and wiring. The engineering solutions of the most budget SSDs are based on outdated designs and leave much to be desired. The number of defects in cheap SSDs is also higher, which is due to assembly in cheaper factories and lower levels of production control.

And of course, the price depends on the brand; the more famous it is, the more expensive the SSD. Hence, there is an opinion that you should not overpay for a brand. But the fact is that often it is the brand name that determines the quality of an SSD drive. Most well-known manufacturers who value their reputation will not allow themselves to produce low-quality products. However, there are exceptions here, in the form of well-known and popular brands, which nevertheless should not be recommended for purchase.

We will briefly look at the main differences between SSDs that you need to focus on in this article, and you can easily choose the model that suits you.

3. VolumeSSDdisk

Volume is the most important parameter of an SSD disk.

If you only need an SSD drive to speed up the loading of Windows, office programs and increase system responsiveness, then, in principle, a capacity of 60-64 GB (gigabytes) is sufficient.

If you want to speed up the work of serious professional applications (video editing, design systems, etc.), then you will need an SSD drive with a capacity of 120-128 GB.

For a gaming computer, it is advisable to purchase an SSD with a capacity of at least 240-256 GB, since modern games take up a lot of space (30-60 GB each).

In the future, focus on your needs (how much space you need for your programs, games, etc.) and financial capabilities. It is not advisable to use an SSD for data storage; for this you need a more capacious and cheaper hard drive (HDD) with a capacity of 1-4 TB (1000-4000 GB).

4. SSD read/write speed

The main indicators of SSD disk speed are read speed, write speed and access time.

According to statistics, the number of read operations on ordinary user computers is 20 times greater than the number of write operations. Therefore, for us, reading speed is a much more important characteristic.

The read speed of most modern SSDs is in the range of 450-550 MB/s (megabytes per second). The higher this value, the better, but 450 MB/s is, in principle, quite enough, and taking an SSD with a lower read speed is not advisable, since the difference in price will be insignificant. But you shouldn’t blindly trust representatives of budget brands, since the speed of cheap SSDs can drop significantly as the disk space fills up. The speed of a particular SSD drive model in real conditions can be found out from tests on the Internet.

The write speed of most SSDs ranges from 350-550 MB/s. Again, the faster the better, this is understandable. But due to the fact that write operations are performed 20 times less frequently than read operations, this indicator is not so critical and the difference will not be very noticeable for most users. But the price of discs with higher write speeds will be noticeably higher. Therefore, you can take 350 MB/s as the minimum recording speed. Purchasing an SSD with an even lower write speed will not bring significant savings, so it is not advisable. Please note that some manufacturers indicate the write speed for the entire line of SSD drives, which have different capacities. For example, Transcend has drives ranging from 32 to 1024 GB in its SSD370S line. The recording speed for the entire line is 460 MB/s. But in fact, only models with a capacity of 512 and 1024 GB have such speed. The photo below shows a fragment of a Transcend SSD370S packaging with a capacity of 256 GB with a real write speed of 370 MB/s.

Access time determines how quickly the disk finds the required file after receiving a request from a program or operating system. For conventional hard drives, this indicator is in the range of 10-19 ms (milliseconds) and significantly affects the responsiveness of the system and the speed of copying small files. SSD drives, due to the absence of moving parts, have access speeds 100 times higher. Therefore, this parameter is usually not focused on; any SSD provides incredibly high access speeds. However, higher quality models can have an access time of about 0.1 ms, and the most budget 0.4 ms. The difference in access time by a factor of 4 is not in favor of budget SSDs. With this parameter, manufacturers of budget SSDs can also be disingenuous and indicate a theoretical value under ideal conditions.

The real speed characteristics of SSD drives can be found out from tests on the most authoritative technical portals. You can download a file with links to them at the end of the article in the “” section.

5. Memory types and SSD resource

Modern SSD drives use several types of memory - MLC, TLC and 3D NAND (V-NAND).

MLC is the most popular type of memory for SSD drives with an optimal price/speed/durability ratio and an estimated resource of 3000-5000 rewrite cycles.

TLC is a cheaper type of memory, found in budget SSDs, with a rewriting resource of about 1000 cycles.

3D NAND is a modern fast memory developed by Samsung with the longest rewriting resource. Installed in more expensive Samsung SSD models.

There is a myth that SSD drives wear out very quickly. Therefore, you need to choose models with the maximum possible resource and use all sorts of tricks in the operating system settings to extend the life of the SSD drive, otherwise it will quickly exhaust its resource and fail.

In fact, the resource of modern SSDs matters only when installing them in servers, where the disks work for wear and tear around the clock. In such conditions, due to the colossal number of rewrite cycles, SSDs actually last an order of magnitude less than their older brothers - mechanical hard drives. But you and I already know that in the computers of ordinary users, the number of write operations, which cause wear and tear, is 20 times lower than read operations. Therefore, even with a relatively heavy load, the resource of any modern SSD will allow it to last 10 years or more.

Despite the fact that data on rapid wear and tear are highly exaggerated, you should not purchase an SSD based on the cheapest TLC memory, since the savings will be insignificant. Today, the best option would be an SSD drive with MLC memory. And the actual service life of an SSD disk will depend more on the quality of production and. Pay more attention to the brand and warranty period.

6. Clipboard

A clipboard (cache) based on DDR3 memory speeds up the operation of an SSD drive, but makes it somewhat more expensive. For every 1 GB of SSD capacity there should be 1 MB of DDR3 cache. Thus, an SSD with a capacity of 120-128 GB should have 128 MB DDR3, 240-256 GB - 256 MB DDR3, 500-512 GB - 512 MB DDR3, 960-1024 GB - 1024 MB DDR3.

Some models have a cache based on older DDR2 memory, but this does not significantly affect performance.

7. Blackout protection

It is desirable that a disk with DDR3 cache memory have protection against sudden power outages (Power Protection), which is usually based on tantalum capacitors and allows you to save data from the buffer to the memory chips in the event of a power failure on the SSD. But if you have an uninterruptible power supply (UPS, UPS), then blackout protection can be neglected.

SSDs that do not have a cache based on DDR3 memory do not require additional protection against power loss.

8. SSD controllers

There are many controllers for SSD drives. The most popular brands include Intel, Samsung, Marvell, SandForce, Phison, JMicron, Silicon Motion, Indilinx (OCZ, Toshiba).

The best SSD drives are built on controllers from Intel, Samsung, and Marvell. In the middle class, the long-proven SandForce and younger Phison controllers are more popular. Inexpensive SSD models are often content with old budget JMicron controllers and younger Silicon Motion controllers. Indilinx produced fairly reliable controllers and was bought by OCZ and then Toshiba for use in their mid-range SSDs.

But each manufacturer has both cheaper and more expensive controllers. Therefore, you need to navigate by a specific controller model, a review of which can easily be found on the Internet.

Most controllers in entry-level and mid-range SSDs are 4-channel. Top SSD models are equipped with faster and more modern 8-channel controllers. But don’t bother too much with controller models, it’s not always easy to figure it out. Focus primarily on the brand, the stated characteristics of the SSD drive and real tests of a specific model, which often also consider the advantages and disadvantages of the installed controller and other electronic components of the SSD.

In addition to the read/write speed, the controller also depends on support for various technologies designed to improve the performance of the SSD drive.

9. Supported technologies and TRIM function

An SSD drive, depending on the model and the controller installed in it, can support various technologies designed to improve its performance. Many manufacturers develop their own proprietary technologies that provide more marketing benefits than actual benefits to users. I will not list them; this information is in the descriptions of specific models.

The most important feature that should be supported by any modern SSD is TRIM (garbage collection). Her job is as follows. An SSD drive can only write data to free memory cells. As long as there are enough free cells, the SSD disk writes data to them. As soon as there are few free cells, the SSD disk needs to clear cells from which data is no longer needed (the file has been deleted). An SSD without TRIM support clears these cells immediately before writing new data, which significantly increases the time of write operations. It turns out that as the disk fills up, the recording speed degrades. An SSD with TRIM support, having received a notification from the operating system about the deletion of data, also marks the cells in which they were as unused, but clears them not before writing new data, but in advance in free time (when the disk is not used very actively). This is called garbage collection. As a result, the recording speed is always maintained at the highest possible level.

10. Hidden SSD area

Each SSD drive has a fairly large amount of memory in a hidden (inaccessible to the user) area. These cells are used to replace those that fail, so that disk space is not lost over time and the safety of data that is previously transferred by the disk from “sick” cells to “healthy” ones is ensured.

In high-quality SSDs, this hidden volume can reach 30% of the declared disk capacity. Some manufacturers, in order to save money and gain a competitive advantage, make the hidden disk space smaller (up to 10%), and the amount available to the user is larger. Thanks to this, the user gets more available volume for the same money.

But this trick of manufacturers also has another negative side. The fact is that the hidden area is used not only as an untouchable reserve, but also for the operation of the TRIM function. Too small a volume of the hidden area leads to a lack of memory required for background data transfer (garbage cleaning) and the speed of the SSD disk at high capacity (80-90%) degrades greatly, sometimes several times. This is the price of “free” additional space and this is why high-quality SSD drives have a large hidden area.

The TRIM function must be supported by the operating system. All versions starting from Windows 7 support the TRIM function.

11. SSD manufacturers

The best manufacturer of SSD drives is Intel, but their cost is very high and they are used mainly in the corporate sector for critical systems and servers.

The next leader in terms of technology is Samsung. Their SSDs cost on average higher than all others, but are distinguished by impeccable quality, reliability and speed.

SSD brands Crucial, Plextor (Samsung brand) and SanDisk are recognized as the best in terms of price/quality ratio.

Also, as a compromise option in terms of price/quality, you can consider SSDs from the reputable brands Corsair and A-DATA.

I do not recommend purchasing SSDs sold under the Kingston brand, since most of them do not meet the stated characteristics and their speed degrades greatly as they fill up. But this manufacturer also has SSDs from the top-end HyperX series, which are of higher quality and can be considered as an alternative to top-end expensive brands.

In general, budget and unpopular brands are like a lottery, maybe you’ll get lucky, maybe not. Therefore, I recommend that you avoid purchasing them if possible. But it’s still better to look for reviews on models from recommended brands, since “even an old woman can get screwed.” Let me remind you that links to reviews of SSD drives are in the file that can be downloaded in the “” section.

12. Form factor and SSD interface

The most popular today are SSDs of the 2.5″ form factor with a SATA3 (6 Gb/s) interface connector.

This SSD can be installed in a computer or laptop. The motherboard or laptop must have a SATA3 (6 Gb/s) or SATA2 (3 Gb/s) connector. Correct operation when connected to the first version of SATA connector (1.5 Gbit/s) is possible, but not guaranteed.

When connected to a SATA2 connector, the SSD read/write speed will be limited to around 280 MB/s. But you will still get a significant performance boost over a regular hard drive (HDD).

Plus, the access time will not go away, which is 100 times lower than that of an HDD, which will also significantly increase the responsiveness of the system and programs.

A more compact SSD form factor is mSATA, which is based on the SATA bus but has a different connector.

The use of such an SSD is justified in ultra-compact computers, laptops and mobile devices (tablets) with an mSATA connector, in which installing a conventional SSD is impossible or undesirable.

Another smaller SSD form factor is M.2. This connector replaces mSATA, but is based on the faster PCI-E bus.

The motherboard, laptop or mobile device (tablet) must also have the appropriate connector.

Well, another type of SSD is presented in the form of a PCI-E expansion card.

Such SSDs have very high speeds (3-10 times faster than SSDs with a SATA3 interface), but are significantly more expensive and are therefore used mainly in very demanding professional tasks.

13. Housing material

The SSD case is usually made of plastic or aluminum. It is believed that aluminum is better because it has higher thermal conductivity. But since the SSD does not heat up significantly at all, this does not matter much and may not be taken into account when choosing a model.

14. Equipment

If you are purchasing an SSD for a computer and the case does not have mounts for 2.5″ drives, then pay attention to the presence of a mounting frame in the kit.

Most SSDs do not come with a mounting frame or even screws. But the mount with screws included can be purchased separately.

The presence of a mount should not be a significant criterion when choosing an SSD, but sometimes a higher-quality SSD complete with a mount can be purchased for the same money as a budget SSD with a separate mount.

15. Setting up filters in the online store

Go to the “SSD drives” section on the seller’s website.
Choose recommended manufacturers (Crucial, Plextor, Samsung, SanDisk), you can also consider Corsair and A-DATA.
Select the desired volume (120-128, 240-256 GB).
Sort the selection by price.
Browse SSDs, starting with the cheaper ones.
Choose several models suitable for price and speed (from 450/350 Mb/s).
Look for their reviews online and buy the best model.

Thus, you will receive an SSD disk that is optimal in size and speed, meeting high quality criteria, at the lowest possible cost.

16. Links

SSD Samsung MZ-76E250BW
SSD A-Data Ultimate SU650 240GB
SSD A-Data Ultimate SU650 120GB

In this article I will try to explain to you, what is an SSD drive, how it differs from a regular hard drive, I’ll tell you about its advantages and disadvantages, and you will also learn by what parameters (criteria) you should choose an SSD drive when purchasing.

This article today about SSD drives was not born by chance. It turned out that many readers have absolutely no idea what it is.

So, after my description of the SSD life program, the vast majority of users rushed to check their regular hard drives with this utility, which caused confusion in the comments. There I promised to write in more detail about SSD drives - I’m doing it.

What is an SSD drive

In “dry language” the definition of an SSD disk sounds like this: solid state drive(SSD solid-state drive) - a computer non-mechanical storage device based on memory chips.

It is unlikely that you are imbued with this meager definition. Now I’ll try to explain what an SSD drive is “with a wet tongue,” as they say, on my fingers.

I’ll come from afar... First, you need to remember (or find out for the first time) what a regular computer hard drive is (it’s also called a hard drive).

A hard drive (HDD) is the device in your computer that stores all the data (programs, movies, images, music... the Windows operating system itself) and it looks like this...

Information on a hard drive is written (and read) by reversing the magnetization of cells on magnetic plates that rotate at wild speed. Above the plates (and between them) a special carriage with a reading head rushes like a frightened one.

This whole thing is buzzing and moving constantly. In addition, this is a very “thin” device and is afraid of even a simple wobble during its operation, not to mention falling to the floor, for example (the reading heads will meet the rotating disks and hello to the information stored on the disk).

But now the solid state drive (SSD) comes onto the scene. This is the same device for storing information, but based not on rotating magnetic disks, but on memory chips, as mentioned above. Just like a big flash drive.

Nothing spinning, moving or buzzing! Plus - just crazy speed of writing/reading data!

On the left is the hard drive, on the right is the SSD drive.

It's time to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of SSD drives...

Advantages of SSD drives

1. Speed

This is the biggest plus of these devices! If you replace your old hard drive with a flash drive, you won’t recognize your computer!

Before the advent of SSD drives, the slowest device in a computer was the hard drive. It, with its ancient technology from the last century, incredibly slowed down the enthusiasm of a fast processor and fast RAM.

2. Noise level=0 dB

It makes sense - there are no moving parts. In addition, these drives do not heat up during operation, so cooling coolers turn on less often and do not work as intensely (creating noise).

3. Shock and vibration resistance

I watched a video online - a connected and working SSD was shaken, dropped on the floor, knocked on... but it continued to work quietly! No comments.

4. Light weight

Not a huge plus, of course, but still, hard drives are heavier than their modern competitors.

5. Low power consumption

I’ll do without the numbers - the battery life of my old laptop has increased by more than one hour.

Disadvantages of SSD drives

1. High cost

This is at the same time the most limiting drawback for users, but also very temporary - prices for such drives are constantly and rapidly falling.

2. Limited number of rewrite cycles

A regular, average SSD drive based on flash memory with MLC technology is capable of producing approximately 10,000 read/write cycles of information. But the more expensive type of SLC memory can already last 10 times longer (100,000 rewrite cycles).

As for me, in both cases the flash drive can easily last at least 3 years! This is just the average life cycle of a home computer, after which the configuration is updated and components are replaced with more modern, faster and cheaper ones.

Progress does not stand still and tadpoles from manufacturing companies have already come up with new technologies that significantly increase the lifespan of SSD drives. For example, RAM SSD or FRAM technology, where the resource, although limited, is practically unattainable in real life (up to 40 years in continuous read/write mode).

3. Impossibility of recovering deleted information

Deleted information from an SSD drive cannot be restored by anyone. special utility. There are simply no such programs.

If during a large voltage surge in a regular hard drive, in 80% of cases only the controller burns out, then in SSD drives this controller is located on the board itself, along with the memory chips, and the entire drive burns out - hello family photo album.

This danger is practically reduced to zero in laptops and when using an uninterruptible power supply.

Bus capacity

Remember, I advised you how to choose a flash drive? So, when choosing a flash drive, data read/write speed is also of paramount importance. The higher this speed, the better. But you should also remember about the bus bandwidth of your computer, or rather, the motherboard.

If your laptop or desktop computer is very old, there is no point in buying an expensive and fast SSD drive. He simply will not be able to work even at half his capacity.

To make it clearer, I will outline the throughput of various buses (data transfer interface):

IDE (PATA) - 1000 Mbit/s. This is a very ancient interface for connecting devices to the motherboard. To connect an SSD drive to such a bus, you need a special adapter. The point of using the described disks in this case is absolutely zero.

SATA - 1,500 Mbit/s. It's more fun, but not too much.

SATA2 - 3,000 Mbit/s. The most common tire at the moment. With such a bus, for example, my drive operates at half its capacity. He needs...

SATA3 - 6,000 Mbit/s. This is a completely different matter! This is where the SSD drive will show itself in all its glory.

So, before purchasing, find out what bus you have on your motherboard, as well as which bus the drive itself supports, and decide on the feasibility of the purchase.

Here, for example, is how I chose (and what guided) my HyperX 3K 120 GB. Read speed is 555 MB/s, and data write speed is 510 MB/s. This drive now works in my laptop at exactly half its capacity (SATA2), but exactly twice as fast as a standard hard drive.

Over time, it will migrate to children's gaming computers, which have SATA3, and there they will demonstrate all their power and speed without limiting factors (outdated, slow data transfer interfaces).

We conclude: if you have a SATA2 bus in your computer and do not plan to use the disk in another (more powerful and modern) computer, buy a disk with a bandwidth of no higher than 300 MB/s, which will be significantly cheaper and at the same time twice as fast as yours current hard drive.

Form factor

Also, when choosing and purchasing a flash drive, pay attention to the form factor (size and dimensions). It can be 3.5″ (inches) - larger and slightly cheaper, but will not fit into a laptop, or 2.5″ - smaller and fits into any laptop (for desktop computers they are usually equipped with special adapters).

Thus, it is more practical to buy a disk in the 2.5″ form factor - and you can install it anywhere and sell it (if anything) easier. And it takes up less space in the system unit, which improves cooling of the entire computer.

IOPS indicator

An important factor is IOPS (the number of input/output operations per second), the higher this indicator, the faster the drive will work with a larger volume of files.

Memory chip

Memory chips are divided into two main types MLC and SLC. The cost of SLC chips is much higher and the service life is on average 10 times longer than that of MLC memory chips, but with proper operation, the service life of drives based on MLC memory chips is at least 3 years.

Controller

This is the most important part of SSD drives. The controller controls the operation of the entire drive, distributes data, monitors the wear of memory cells and evenly distributes the load. I recommend giving preference to time-tested and well-proven controllers from SandForce, Intel, Indilinx, and Marvell.

SSD memory capacity

It would be most practical to use an SSD only for hosting the operating system, and it is better to store all data (movies, music, etc.) on a second hard drive. With this option, it is enough to buy a disk with a size of ~ 60 GB. This way you can save a lot and get the same acceleration of your computer (in addition, the service life of the drive will increase).

Again, I’ll give an example of my solution - special containers for hard drives are sold online (very inexpensively), which can be inserted into a laptop in 2 minutes instead of an optical CD drive (which I’ve used a couple of times over four years). Here is a great solution for you - an old disk in place of a floppy drive, and a brand new SSD in place of a standard hard drive. It couldn't have been better.

And finally, a couple of interesting facts:

Why is a hard drive often called a hard drive? Back in the early 1960s, IBM released one of the first hard drives and the number of this development was 30 - 30, which coincided with the designation of the popular Winchester rifled weapon (Winchester), so this slang name stuck to all hard drives.

I'm just reviewing programs! Any complaints - to their manufacturers!

13. 03.2017

Blog of Dmitry Vassiyarov.

What's the big deal about solid state drives?

Hello readers. Today we’ll talk about what an ssd drive is. For some ordinary computer users, the concept of ssd - solid-state drives is new and incomprehensible.

After reading this article, you will not only understand what we are talking about, but you will also be able to keep up the conversation about this device and choose the right one for yourself. After all, old hardware is a thing of history and each of us sooner or later has to change it. What do modern developments look like? Read on.

What is a solid state drive?

A solid-state drive, which in English is called “Solid-State Drive” (SSD), is a storage device based on memory chips.

The situation hasn't become much clearer, has it?

I won’t bother you any longer and will explain it more simply: it’s like a flash drive, which replaces the flash drive, but has a different configuration and operating technology, and besides, it works faster and has larger amounts of memory.

If you are reading this article, most likely your computer has a regular hard drive installed: it has platters, read and write heads that spin at breakneck speed. Because of this, the screw makes noise. This cannot happen with a solid-state drive, because it is only a microcircuit - no spinning or whirring mechanisms.

This is how HDD and SSD differ from the inside:

Types of microcircuits

Solid state drives are different depending on the specifics of data storage on chips:

Benefits of SSD

In addition to noiselessness, a modern drive has the following advantages:

Strength. It is not afraid of shocks and vibrations, unlike the usual hdd drive. The latter must be protected from shaking, because if the read heads collide with the spinning disks, you can say goodbye to years of accumulated photographs, reporting documentation and other important data that you store on the screw.
Small size. Compared to conventional screws, SSDs are much lighter and smaller.
Low power consumption.
Incredibly high data transfer speed. This is the biggest plus.

Flaws

As they say, not without a fly in the ointment:

High price. Most likely, this will not last long, because already now the cost of solid-state drives is gradually decreasing.
Impossibility of data recovery.
If in the event of a hard drive failure there is a chance to get at least part of the information, then there is no way to do this in an SSD - there are simply no programs or any methods.

Why? I'll explain with an example. When voltage drops in a regular hard drive, only the controller often burns out, but in an SSD drive it is located next to the memory chip.
Therefore, if something catches fire, the whole thing burns out.

Limited number of rewrite cycles. Many may not even notice this drawback, because an MLC disk can last on average 3-4 years (this is only in theory), and the more expensive SLC can last even longer.

Moreover, during this period, as a rule, any computer requires one or another update. But there is good news: FRAM technology has already been developed that can operate in continuous read and write mode for 40 years. Isn't it weak?

In addition to the types of chips, SSDs differ in several other criteria. They need to be taken into account when choosing. Let's take a closer look.

Interface

This parameter indicates what type of connection the drive has. The data transfer speed also depends on it. Main types of busbars:

operates at a speed of 1000 Mbit/s. This is an outdated option, but still occurs sometimes.
SATA is a little faster (1500 Mbit/s).
SATA2 is faster (3000 Mbit/s).
Want to fully experience the capabilities of an SSD? Choose the 3rd generation of buses, the speed of which is twice as high as the previous one (up to 6000 Mbit/s).
There are also devices with PCI Express connection type. Do you want to turn your computer into a super-fast machine? Give preference to PCI-e because it is even faster than SATA3. This interface is capable of transmitting data at a speed of 2 Gb/s.

Example of an SSD with a PCI-Express connection interface

There is one more tire. This is an M.2 interface (in theory, it should reach speeds faster even than PCI-E), but so far such drives are not very popular, and manufacturers have not yet learned how to make fast products using its potential. Another advantage is that such devices are not very large in size.

Example of SSD drives with M.2 interface

Form factor

This criterion indicates the size of the drive.

SSD sizes up to 3.5-inch device. They are mainly used for server computers; they are rarely used at home.

Just know that they are there :-)

Basically, the most common ones are 2.5 inch devices.

The “2242” format is a small disk with a diameter of 22x3.5x42 mm (in the image this is a disk labeled mSATA)

There are also sizes “2260” and “2280” - these are also scarf-shaped drives, connected to the M.2 interface.

Memory

Are you going to install the system on a solid state drive? Then 60 GB will be enough for you. If you are using it to store multimedia data, give preference to a larger capacity. It can reach 4 terabytes, so proceed from your financial capabilities.

The most commonly chosen capacity is 240/256 GB. The minimum is 120/128 GB - this is enough to install an operating system and store a small number of media files. For other types of files, solid-state drives are usually not purchased, well, not counting the major ones :).

Performance

In addition to the speed of a flash card, another important feature is the number of I/O operations it can perform per second. In English it looks like this: input/output operations per second (IOPS). In this situation, choose according to the principle: the more, the better.

Although, by and large, these figures are arbitrary. Performance is affected by many factors (controller model, chip type, capacity, cache algorithm, etc.), so to find out the capabilities of the drive, you need to test it. But since it is impossible to do this before purchasing, you can only trust the manufacturer’s data.

Well, that’s basically all I wanted to cover in this topic. I hope I wrote it in detail and clearly. Now you know what device lies behind the abbreviation SSD and its features, so you can safely upgrade your computer.