Types of ssd for laptop. Linear recording speed. Drive connection interface

More and more users are purchasing SSD drives for installation in PCs. They are used in parallel with the HDD or instead of them. Solid state drives have many advantages over hard drives. Therefore, you need to know how to choose the right SSD drive for your computer.

What is it?

A solid state drive is a non-mechanical storage device. It is designed for installation on PCs, laptops, server equipment and is designed to replace HDD disks. An SSD is created on the basis of memory chips controlled by a special controller.

Advantages and disadvantages

Benefits:

high speed of data read / write and work performance;
low heat generation and power consumption;
no noise due to the absence of moving parts;
small dimensions;
high resistance to mechanical damage (overload up to 1500g), magnetic fields, temperature changes;
stability of data reading time regardless of memory fragmentation.

Disadvantages:

limited number of rewriting cycles (1,000 - 100,000 times);
high price;
exposure to electrical damage;
the risk of complete loss of information without the possibility of its recovery.

Main characteristics

If you are buying an SSD to install on a computer, pay attention to its main characteristics.

When buying an SSD drive, first of all pay attention to the volume and purpose of use. If you only purchase it to install the OS, select a device with 60GB or more memory.

Today's gamers prefer to install games on solid state drives to increase performance. If you are one of them, then you need a variant with a storage capacity of 120 GB or more.

If you are purchasing a solid state drive instead of a hard drive, consider how much information is stored on your computer. But in this case, the capacity of the SSD disk should not be less than 250 GB.

Important! The cost of a solid state drive directly depends on the volume. So if your budget is tight, use an SSD to install the operating system and HDD to store your data.

Most modern SSD models are sold in a 2.5-inch form factor and are built into a protective box. Because of this, they are similar to classic hard drives of the same size.

Good to know! To install a 2.5 "SSD drive into a standard 3.5" mount inside the PC case, special adapters are used. Some chassis models have 2.5-inch slots.

There are 1.8-inch and smaller SSDs on the market that are used in compact devices.

Connection interface

Solid state drives have several connection interfaces:

SATA II;
SATA III;
PCIe;
mSATA;
PCIe + M.2.

The most common option is to connect using a SATA connector. There are still SATA II models on the market. They are no longer relevant, but even if you purchase such a device, due to the backward compatibility of the SATA interface, it will work with a motherboard that supports SATA III.

If you are using a PCIe SSD, you may need to install drivers, but the data transfer rate will be faster compared to a SATA connection.

MSATA models are used on compact devices, but work in the same way as the standard SATA interface.

The M.2 or NGFF (Next Generation Form Factor) models are a continuation of the development of the mSATA line. They are smaller and more flexible for digital manufacturers.

Read / write speed

The higher this value, the more productive the computer. Average speed indicators:

read 450-550 Mb / s;
write 350-550 Mb / s.

Manufacturers can indicate not the actual, but the maximum read / write speed. To find out the real numbers, browse the Internet for reviews and reviews of the model you are interested in.

Also, pay attention to the access times. This is the time it takes for the disk to find the information required by the program or OS. The standard rate is 10-19 ms. But since SSDs have no moving parts, they are significantly faster than hard drives.

Memory type and runtime

There are several types of memory cells used in SSD drives:

MLC (Multi Level Cell);
SLC (Single Level Cell);
TLC (Three Level Cell);
3D V-NAND.

MLC is the most common type that allows two bits of information to be stored in one cell. It has a relatively small resource of rewriting cycles (3000 - 5000), but a lower cost, due to which this type of cells is used for mass production of solid state drives.

The SLC type stores only one data bit in one cell. These microcircuits are distinguished by a long life time (up to 100,000 rewriting cycles), high data transfer rates, and minimal access times. But due to the high cost and small amounts of data storage, they are used for server and industrial solutions.

The TLC type stores three bits of data. The main advantage is the low production cost. Among the disadvantages: the number of rewriting cycles is 1,000 - 5,000 repetitions, and the read / write speed is significantly lower than the first two types of microcircuits.

Helpful! Recently, manufacturers have managed to increase the lifetime of TLC disks up to 3,000 rewriting cycles.

3D V-NAND models use 32-layer flash memory instead of standard MLC or TLC chips. The microchip has a three-dimensional structure, due to which the volume of recorded data per unit area is much higher. This increases the reliability of information storage by 2-10 times.

The reliability of the solid state drive depends on the manufacturer. Renowned companies produce high-quality devices with subsequent technical and hardware support. Their factories have high requirements, which ensures the excellent quality of the products.

Modern SSD manufacturers: Samsung, OCZ (a division of Toshiba), Kingston, Crucial, Corsair, Plextor, GOODRAM, Silicon Power, Transcend.

TRIM function

The most important additional feature for a solid state drive is TRIM (garbage collection). It is as follows.

Information on the SSD is first written to free cells. If the disk writes data to a cell that was previously used, it first clears it (unlike HDD, where data is written over the existing information). If the model does not support TRIM, it clears the cell just before writing new information, which causes the speed of this operation to drop.

If the solid-state drive supports TRIM, it receives a command from the OS to delete the data in the cell and clears it not before overwriting, but during the "idle" of the disk. This is done in the background. This maintains the write speed at the manufacturer's specified level.

Important! The operating system must support the TRIM function.

Hidden area

This area is not accessible to the user and is used to replace failed cells. In high-quality solid state drives, it is up to 30% of the device volume. But some manufacturers, in order to reduce the cost of an SSD drive, reduce it to 10%, thereby increasing the amount of storage available to the user.

The flip side of this trick is that the hidden area is used by the TRIM function. If its volume is small, it will not be enough for background data transfer, which is why at the SSD "load" level of 80-90%, the write speed will drop sharply.

Model overview

Below is a list of several popular models.

		Form Factor		Read / write speed		Those. process	Weight

Introduction Solid-state drives (SSDs), which are based on flash memory rather than magnetic platters, have become one of the most impressive computing technologies of the last decade. Compared to classic hard drives, they offer significantly higher data transfer rates and orders of magnitude lower response times, and therefore, their use raises the responsiveness of the disk subsystem to a whole new level. As a result, a PC that uses a solid state drive offers the user a truly quick response to common actions like loading the operating system, launching applications and games, or opening files. And this means that there is no reason to ignore progress and not use SSDs when building new or upgrading old personal computers.

The emergence of such a breakthrough technology has been appreciated by many users. Demand for consumer-grade solid-state drives has exploded, and more and more companies have joined the SSD industry, trying to grab their share in a growing and promising market. On the one hand, this is good - high competition gives rise to the establishment of favorable prices for consumers. But on the other hand, there is a mess and confusion in the market for client solid state drives. Dozens of manufacturers offer hundreds of SSDs with different characteristics, and it becomes very difficult to find a suitable solution in such a variety for each specific case, especially without a thorough knowledge of all the subtleties. In this article, we will try to highlight the main issues regarding the choice of solid-state drives, and give our recommendations that will allow you to make a more or less informed choice when buying an SSD and get at your disposal a product that will be quite a worthy option for a combination of price and consumer qualities.

The selection algorithm we preach is not too difficult to understand. We suggest not to get hung up on the features of hardware platforms and controllers used in various SSD models. Moreover, their number has long gone beyond reasonable limits, and the difference in their consumer properties can often be traced only by specialists. Instead, it is preferable to build a choice based on really important factors - the interface used, the type of flash memory installed in a particular drive and which company produced the final product. It makes sense to talk about controllers only in certain cases, when it really has a decisive importance, and we will describe such cases separately.

Form factors and interfaces

The first and most noticeable difference between the solid-state drives on the market is that they can have different external designs and can be connected to the system via different interfaces that use fundamentally different protocols for data transfer.

The most common SSDs with an interface SATA... This is exactly the same interface as used in classic mechanical hard drives. Therefore, most SATA SSDs look similar to mobile HDDs: they are packaged in 2.5-inch cases with a height of 7 or 9 mm. Such an SSD can be installed in a laptop in place of an old 2.5-inch hard drive, or you can use it in a desktop computer instead of (or next to) a 3.5-inch HDD without any problems.

Solid state drives using the SATA interface have become a kind of successor to HDD, and this determines their ubiquity and widest compatibility with existing platforms. However, the modern version of the SATA interface is designed for a maximum data transfer rate of only 6 Gb / s, which seems prohibitive for mechanical hard drives, but not for SSDs. Therefore, the performance of the most powerful SATA SSD models is determined not so much by their capabilities as by the bandwidth of the interface. This does not particularly prevent mass solid-state drives from revealing their high speed, but the most productive SSD models for enthusiasts try to bypass the SATA interface. Nevertheless, it is the SATA SSD that is the most suitable option for the modern general system.

The SATA interface is also widely used in SSDs designed for compact mobile systems. In them, additional restrictions are imposed on the size of components, so drives for such applications can be produced in a specialized form factor. mSATA... Solid state drives of this format are a small daughter card with soldered microcircuits and are installed in special slots found in some laptops and nettops. The advantage of the mSATA SSD lies solely in its diminutiveness; mSATA has no other advantages - these are exactly the same SATA SSDs as those produced in 2.5-inch cases, but in a more compact design. Therefore, such drives should be purchased only for upgrading systems that have mSATA connectors.

In those cases, when the bandwidth offered by the SATA interface seems to be insufficient, you can pay attention to solid-state drives with an interface PCI Express... Depending on which version of the protocol and how many lines are used by the drive for data transfer, the throughput of this interface can reach values \u200b\u200bthat are five times higher than the capabilities of SATA. These drives usually use the most productive hardware, and they significantly outperform more conventional SATA solutions in speed. True, PCIe SSDs are significantly more expensive, so they most often fall into the most high-performance systems of the highest price category. And since PCIe SSDs are usually available as add-in cards that plug into PCI Express slots, they are only suitable for full-size desktop systems.

It is worth noting that recently, PCI Express drives that use the NVMe... This is a new software protocol for working with storage devices that further increases system performance when interacting with a high-speed disk subsystem. Due to the optimizations made in it, this protocol really has the best efficiency, but today NVMe solutions need to be treated with caution: they are compatible only with the newest platforms and work only in new versions of operating systems.

While the bandwidth of the SATA interface is becoming insufficient for high-speed SSD models, and PCIe drives are bulky and require a separate full-size slot for their installation, drives made in the form factor are gradually entering the scene. M.2... It looks like M.2 SSDs have a chance to become the next mainstream standard, and they will be just as popular as SATA SSDs. However, it should be borne in mind that M.2 is not another new interface, but only a specification of the standard size of the cards and the layout of the connector required for them. M.2 SSDs work on quite familiar SATA or PCI Express interfaces: depending on the specific implementation of the drive, either one or the other is allowed.

M.2 cards are small daughter cards with components soldered onto them. The M.2 slots they need can be found on most modern motherboards today, as well as many newer laptops. Considering that M.2 SSDs can also work through the PCI Express interface, it is these M.2 drives that are most interesting from a practical point of view. However, at the moment the range of such models is not too large. Nevertheless, when it comes to assembling or upgrading a modern high-performance system, in particular, a gaming desktop or laptop, we advise you to pay attention first of all to the M.2 SSD models with the PCI Express interface.

By the way, if your desktop system is not equipped with an M.2 connector, but you still want to install such a drive, it is always possible to do this using an adapter board. Such solutions are produced by both motherboard manufacturers and numerous small manufacturers of all peripherals.

Flash memory types and storage reliability

The second important question, which in any case will have to be dealt with when choosing, concerns the types of flash memory that can be found in current models of solid state drives. It is flash memory that determines the main consumer characteristics of SSDs: their performance, reliability and price.

More recently, the difference between different types of flash memory was just how many bits of data are stored in each NAND cell, and this divided memory into three flavors: SLC, MLC, and TLC. However, manufacturers are now adopting new approaches to cell layout and reliability in their semiconductor technologies, and the situation has become much more complicated. However, we will list the main flash memory options found in modern solid state drives for general users.

You should start with SLC NAND... This is the oldest and simplest type of memory. It assumes storing one bit of data in each cell of flash memory and due to this has high speed characteristics and transcendental rewriting resource. The only problem is that storing one bit of information in each cell actively consumes the transistor budget, and this type of flash memory is very expensive. Therefore, SSDs based on such memory have not been produced for a long time, and they simply are not on the market.

A reasonable alternative to SLC memory with higher storage density in semiconductor NAND chips and lower cost is MLC NAND... In such memory, each cell already stores two bits of information. The speed of the logical structure of the MLC memory remains at a fairly good level, but the endurance decreases to about three thousand rewriting cycles. Nevertheless, MLC NAND is used today in the vast majority of high-performance solid-state drives, and its level of reliability is quite sufficient for SSD manufacturers not only to give their products a five-year or even ten-year warranty, but also to promise the ability to overwrite the full capacity of the drive several hundred times. ...

For the same applications where the intensity of write operations is very high, for example, for servers, SSD manufacturers assemble solutions based on a special eMLC NAND... From the point of view of operating principles, this is a complete analogue of MLC NAND, but with increased resistance to constant overwrites. This memory is made from the finest, select semiconductor crystals and can easily carry about three times the load of ordinary MLC memory.

At the same time, the desire to reduce prices for their mass products is forcing manufacturers to switch to cheaper NAND memory compared to MLC. In budget drives of the latest generations, it is often found TLC NAND - flash memory, each cell of which stores three data bits. This memory is about one and a half times slower than MLC NAND, and its endurance is such that it is possible to rewrite information in it before the degradation of the semiconductor structure about a thousand times.

Nevertheless, even such a flimsy TLC NAND can be found in today's drives quite often. The number of SSD models based on it has already exceeded a dozen. The secret of the viability of such solutions lies in the fact that manufacturers add a small internal cache to them, based on high-speed and highly reliable SLC NAND. This is how both problems are solved at once - both with performance and with reliability. As a result, TLC NAND-based SSDs get speeds sufficient to saturate the SATA interface, and their endurance allows manufacturers to provide a three-year warranty on end products.

In pursuit of lower production costs, manufacturers are striving to compact data within flash memory cells. This was the reason for the transition to MLC NAND and the spread in TLC memory drives that has now begun. Following this trend, we could soon come across a QLC NAND-based SSD, in which each cell stores four bits of data, but what would be the reliability and speed of such a solution, we can only guess. Fortunately, the industry has found another way to increase the storage density of semiconductor crystals, namely by converting them to a three-dimensional layout.

While in classical NAND memory, cells are located exclusively planar, that is, in the form of a flat array, in 3D NAND the third dimension is introduced in the semiconductor structure, and the cells are located not only along the X and Y axes, but also in several tiers one above the other. This approach allows us to solve the main problem - the density of information storage in such a structure can be increased not by increasing the load on the existing cells or by miniaturizing them, but by simply adding additional layers. The issue of flash memory endurance is also successfully solved in 3D NAND. The three-dimensional layout allows the use of production technologies with increased norms, which, on the one hand, give a more stable semiconductor structure, and on the other, eliminate the mutual influence of the cells on each other. As a result, the resource of three-dimensional memory can be improved by about an order of magnitude compared to planar memory.

In other words, the 3D NAND structure is ready to make a real revolution. The only problem is that it is a little more difficult to manufacture such memory than ordinary memory, so the start of its production was significantly extended in time. As a result, at the moment, only Samsung can boast of an established mass production of 3D NAND. The rest of the NAND manufacturers are still only preparing to launch mass production of three-dimensional memory and will be able to offer commercial solutions only next year.

If we talk about three-dimensional memory Samsung, then today it uses a 32-layer design and is promoted under its own marketing name V-NAND. By the type of organization of cells in such memory, it is subdivided into MLC V-NAND and TLC V-NAND - both are three-dimensional 3D NAND, but in the first case, each individual cell stores two bits of data, and in the second, three. Although the principle of operation in both cases is similar to conventional MLC and TLC NAND, due to the use of mature technical processes, its endurance is higher, which means that SSDs based on MLC V-NAND and TLC V-NAND are somewhat better in reliability than SSDs with conventional MLC and TLC NAND.

However, speaking about the reliability of solid-state drives, it must be borne in mind that it only indirectly depends on the resource of the flash memory used in them. As practice shows, modern consumer SSDs, assembled on high-quality NAND-memory of any type, in reality are capable of transferring the recording of hundreds of terabytes of information. And this more than covers the needs of most personal computer users. The failure of a drive when it exhausts its memory resource is rather an out of the ordinary event, which can only be associated with the fact that the SSD is used under too intensive load, for which it was not really intended initially. In most cases, SSD failures occur for completely different reasons, for example, from power outages or errors in their firmware.

Therefore, along with the type of flash memory, it is very important to pay attention to which company made a particular drive. The largest manufacturers have more powerful engineering resources at their disposal and take better care of their reputation than smaller firms, which are forced to compete with the grandees using a price argument in the first place. As a result, SSDs from major manufacturers are generally more reliable: they use quality components, and thorough debugging of the firmware is one of the most important priorities. This is confirmed by practice. The frequency of warranty calls (according to public statistics from one of the European distributors) is lower for those SSDs that are manufactured by larger companies, which we will discuss in more detail in the next section.

SSD manufacturers to be aware of

The consumer SSD market is very young and has yet to be consolidated. Therefore, the number of manufacturers of solid state drives is very large - at least there are at least a hundred of them. But most of them are small companies that do not have their own engineering teams or semiconductor manufacturing, and in fact are only engaged in assembling their solutions from off-site components purchased on the side and their marketing support. Naturally, SSDs produced by such "assemblers" are inferior to the products of real manufacturers, who invest huge amounts of money in development and production. That is why, with a rational approach to choosing solid-state drives, you should pay attention only to solutions produced by market leaders.

There are only a few names that can be named among such "pillars" on which the entire solid-state drive market rests. And first of all it is - Samsung, which at this moment owns a very impressive 44% market share. In other words, almost every second SSD sold is made by Samsung. And such successes are not at all accidental. The company not only makes its own flash memory for its SSDs, but also dispenses with any third-party involvement in design and production at all. Its solid state drives use hardware platforms designed from start to finish by in-house engineers and built in-house. As a result, advanced Samsung drives often differ from competing products in their technological advancement - they contain such progressive solutions that appear in products of other companies much later. For example, drives based on 3D NAND are currently available exclusively in the Samsung range. And that is why the SSD of this company should pay attention to enthusiasts who are impressed with technical novelty and high performance.

Second largest consumer-grade SSD manufacturer - Kingstonholding approximately 10% of the market share. Unlike Samsung, this company does not independently produce flash memory or develop controllers, but relies on proposals from third-party NAND memory manufacturers and solutions of independent engineering teams. However, this is precisely what allows Kingston to compete with giants like Samsung: By skillfully selecting partners for each case, Kingston offers a very versatile product line that is well suited to the needs of different user groups.

We would also advise you to pay attention to those solid state drives that are produced by companies Sandisk and Micron using the trademark Crucial... Both of these firms have their own flash memory capacities, which allows them to offer high-quality and high-tech SSDs with an excellent combination of price, reliability and performance. It is also important that in creating their products, these manufacturers rely on cooperation with Marvell, one of the best and largest controller developers. This approach allows SanDisk and Micron to consistently achieve a fairly high popularity of their products - their share of the SSD market reaches 9 and 5 percent, respectively.

At the end of the story about the main players in the solid-state drives market, we should also mention Intel. But, unfortunately, not in the most positive way. Yes, she also makes her own flash memory and has an excellent engineering team at her disposal capable of designing very interesting SSDs. However, Intel focuses primarily on developing solid-state drives for servers, which are designed for intensive workloads, are quite expensive and therefore of little interest to ordinary users. Its client solutions are based on very old hardware platforms purchased on the side, and noticeably lose in their consumer qualities to the proposals of competitors, which we talked about above. In other words, we do not recommend using Intel SSDs in modern personal computers. An exception for them can be made only in one case - when it comes to highly reliable drives with eMLC memory, which the microprocessor giant succeeds perfectly well.

Performance and prices

If you carefully read the first part of our material, then the intelligent choice of a solid-state drive seems very simple. Obviously, you should choose from V-NAND or MLC-based NAND SSD models offered by top market leaders like Crucial, Kingston, Samsung or SanDisk. However, even if you narrow your search to only offers from these companies, it turns out that there are still a lot of them.

Therefore, additional parameters will have to be drawn to the search criteria - performance and price. In today's SSD market, there has been a clear segmentation: the products offered belong to the lower, middle or upper tier, and their price, performance, and also the terms of warranty service directly depend on this. The most expensive SSDs are based on the most powerful hardware platforms and use the highest quality and fastest flash memory, while the cheaper ones are based on stripped-down platforms and simpler NAND memory. On the other hand, mid-range drives are characterized by the fact that manufacturers try to strike a balance between performance and price.

As a result, budget drives sold in stores offer a unit price of $ 0.3-0.35 per gigabyte. Mid-range models are more expensive - their cost is $ 0.4-0.5 for each gigabyte of volume. Specific prices of flagship SSDs may well go up to $ 0.8-1.0 per gigabyte. What's the difference?

High-end solutions, which are primarily aimed at the enthusiast audience, are high-performance SSDs that use the PCI Express bus for their inclusion in the system, which does not limit the maximum data transfer bandwidth. These drives can be made in the form of M.2 or PCIe cards and provide speeds that are many times higher than the speed of any SATA drives. At the same time, they are based on specialized controllers from Samsung, Intel or Marvell and the highest quality and fastest memory types MLC NAND or MLC V-NAND.

In the middle price segment, SATA drives are played, connected via the SATA interface, but they are capable of using (almost) all of its bandwidth. These SSDs can use different controllers developed by Samsung or Marvell and different quality MLC or V-NAND memory. However, in general, their performance is about the same, since it depends more on the interface than on the power of the drive's filling. Such SSDs stand out against the background of cheaper solutions not only with performance, but also with extended warranty terms, which are set for five or even ten years.

Budget drives are the largest group in which completely diverse solutions are found. However, they also have common features. So, controllers that are used in inexpensive SSDs usually have a reduced level of parallelism. In addition, most often these are processors created by small Taiwanese engineering teams like Phison, Silicon Motion or JMicron, and not by world-famous development teams. In terms of their performance, budget drives are naturally not up to high-end solutions, which is especially noticeable during random operations. In addition, the flash memory that falls into the drives of the lower price range also does not belong to the highest level. Typically, there is either cheap MLC NAND, released according to "thin" manufacturing standards, or TLC NAND in general. As a result, the warranty periods for such SSDs are reduced to three years, and the declared rewriting resource is also significantly lower. High performance SSD

Samsung 950 PRO... It is only natural that the best consumer-grade SSDs are to be found in the range of a company that has a dominant market position. So if you want to get your hands on a premium drive that surpasses any other SSD in speed, then you can safely purchase the latest Samsung 950 PRO. It is based on Samsung's proprietary hardware platform, which employs advanced second generation MLC V-NAND. It provides not only high performance, but also good reliability. But it should be borne in mind that the Samsung 950 PRO is connected to the system via PCI Express 3.0 x4 and is made in the form of an M.2 card. And there is one more subtlety. This drive works on the NVMe protocol, that is, it is compatible only with the latest platforms and operating systems.

Kingston HyperX Predator SSD... If you want to get the most hassle-free solution that is certainly compatible not only with the newest, but also with mature systems, then the choice should be stopped on the Kingston HyperX Predator SSD. This drive is slightly slower than the Samsung 950 PRO and uses the PCI Express 2.0 x4 bus, but it can always be made a bootable drive in absolutely any system without any problems. At the same time, the speeds provided by it are in any case several times higher than the SATA SSD. And another strong point of the Kingston HyperX Predator SSD is that it is available in two versions: in the form of M.2 form factor cards, or in the form of PCIe cards installed in the usual slot. True, the HyperX Predator has unfortunate flaws. Its consumer properties are affected by the fact that the manufacturer purchases the base components from outside. At the heart of the HyperX Predator SSD is a Marvell-designed controller and Toshiba flash memory. As a result, without full control over the hardware of its solution, Kingston is forced to provide a three-year warranty on its premium SSD.

Kingston HyperX Predator SSD benchmark and review.

Mid-range solid state drives

Samsung 850 EVO... Based on Samsung's proprietary hardware platform, which includes groundbreaking TLC V-NAND flash memory, the Samsung 850 EVO offers an excellent combination of consumer performance. At the same time, its reliability does not cause any complaints, and the TurboWrite SLC caching technology allows you to fully use the bandwidth of the SATA interface. We find the Samsung 850 EVO variants with a capacity of 500 GB and above that are especially attractive, which have a larger SLC cache. By the way, this line also has a unique 2 TB SSD, which has no analogues at all. To all of the above, it should be added that the Samsung 850 EVO is covered by a five-year warranty, and the owners of the drives of this manufacturer can always contact any of the numerous service centers of this company scattered around the country.

SanDisk Extreme Pro... SanDisk makes its own flash memory for its drives, but purchases controllers externally. So, Extreme Pro is based on the controller developed by Marvell, but you can find a lot of know-how from SanDisk itself in it. The most interesting addition is the nCahce 2.0 SLC cache, which in Extreme Pro is implemented inside MLC NAND. As a result, the performance of the SATA drive is quite impressive, and besides, few people will be left indifferent by the terms of the warranty, which is set at 10 years. In other words, SanDisk Extreme Pro is a very interesting and relevant option for mid-range systems.

SanDisk Extreme Pro benchmark and review.

Crucial MX200... There is a very good mid-range SATA SSD and the Micron range. The Crucial MX200 uses the company's MLC memory and, like the SanDisk Extreme Pro, is based on the Marvell controller. However, the MX200 is further enhanced with Dynamic Write Acceleration SLC caching technology, which pushes SSD performance above average. True, it is used only in models with a capacity of 128 and 256 GB, so they are primarily of interest. Also, the Crucial MX200 also has a slightly worse warranty - its period is set at only three years, but as compensation, Micron sells its SSDs a little cheaper than competitors.

Budget models

Kingston HyperX Savage SSD... Kingston offers a budget SSD based on a full eight-channel controller, which is what it wins over. True, HyperX Savage uses Phison's development, not Marvell's, but the flash memory is normal MLC NAND, which Kingston buys from Toshiba. As a result, the performance level provided by HyperX Savage is slightly below average, and it has a three-year warranty, but this drive looks quite confident among budget proposals. In addition, the HyperX Savage looks impressive and will be a pleasure to install in a case with a window.

Kingston HyperX Savage SSD benchmark and review.

Crucial BX100... This drive is simpler than the Kingston HyperX Savage, and is based on a stripped-down four-channel Silicon Motion controller, but despite this, the Crucial BX100's performance is not bad. In addition, Micron uses its own MLC NAND in this SSD, which ultimately makes this model a very interesting budget proposal offered by a renowned manufacturer and does not cause users to claim reliability.

SSD drives: a review of the best models of hard drives and a rating of their features will be of interest to everyone who is interested in long-term storage of their data, and for some reason does not particularly trust online storage.

Technologies for the production of information storage devices do not stand still, and now, in order to buy a hard drive for your computer or laptop, you need to understand how not to miss the choice; plus SSDs are still not cheap.

We will tell you what technologies are used by manufacturers of modern solid-state drives, the popularity of which, in comparison with HDD, is growing day by day. Before choosing specific model options, it is worth knowing what advantages SSDs have and what to be guided by when choosing them.

Pros and cons of equipment

The main advantages of an SSD:

high speed of reading and writing data, 2–3 times higher than even the latest HDD models;
stable transmission of information. For HDD, the speed of data movement varies depending on its size and location on the disk;
fast access to data, at the level of 0.1 ms;
high reliability of use due to the absence of moving parts and minimal heating;
low power consumption (10 times less than conventional drives);
light weight, which makes the SSD the best option for netbooks and laptops.

Among the disadvantages of the equipment, one can note the high cost and relatively small capacity, although at present the dimensions of the SSD (and the physical parameters and the amount of stored information) are already practically comparable to standard hard drives.

The downside is the file system installed on solid-state drives: it requires care and optimization, and data deleted from SDD is extremely difficult to recover, almost impossible.

Another disadvantage is that voltage surges in the power grid can lead to burnout not only of the disk controller, but also to the failure of the entire disk. HDDs are also susceptible to this, but to a lesser extent. In any case, to prevent this kind of trouble, it is worth using a UPS and voltage stabilizers.

Selection features

Before buying a drive, you should pay attention to the following features.

The most important characteristic is sSD size -it depends on the needs and financial capabilities of the user.

The price of 1 GB SSD-memory varies from 100-200 rubles. for small drive sizes up to 20-30 rubles. for mid-range options.

Advice: experts recommend filling the disk partitions no more than 75%. So, if the disk is intended only for system information and the operating system, 60 GB is sufficient. For storage of frequently overwritten data, 256-512 GB models are suitable - they are relatively inexpensive.

Another important factor when choosing - bus frequency, on which the speed of reading and writing data will depend.

The most common option is the format SATA2transmitting up to 3000 Mbit of information per second. SATA3 twice as fast, however, may not be supported by computers manufactured 3-4 years ago.

Other nuances that should be considered by the buyer:

form factor. For laptops, 2.5 "options are usually chosen, for computers - 3.5";
iOPS (input and output operations per second). For outdated models its value does not exceed 50–100 thousand, for new disks it reaches 200000;
controller type. The best and most reliable options are Marvell, Indilinx and Intel.

10 best SSD drives

Some of the best known solid state drive manufacturers include the brands ADATA, AMD, Crucial, Intel, Plextor and Western Digital.

The well-known manufacturers of HDDs, flash cards and USB-drives Kingston, Samsung, SanDisk, Toshiba and Transcend have distinguished themselves in the production of SSD-drives.

Considering various SSD models, it should be borne in mind that 500 GB drives (512, to be more precise) currently have the best price, volume and quality ratio.

They are large enough to store the same storage capacities as conventional hard drives, and the price is only 2-4 times higher. A smaller disk may not be enough, and there is no sense in buying more expensive options for several terabytes (with a unit price of a gigabyte above RUB 30).

High resource

Thanks to the use of a reliable controller, the ADATA Premier SP550 drive lasts 2-3 times longer than most analogues for the same price. At the same time, it does not differ in high speed, but it allows you to rewrite up to 1/3 of all data daily. When the cache is full (4.5 GB), the speed can drop to 70–90 MB / s, although this amount of data is not required for most moving tasks.

Technical specifications:

volume of 480 GB;
maximum read speed - 560 MB / s;
16nm technology;
controller: four-channel Silicon Motion SM2256.

Most profitable when buying

AMD is not a direct manufacturer of solid-state drives, but offers several interesting options. One of them is AMD Radeon R3 480, which can be bought for about 8,500 rubles. With a volume of 480 GB, this makes the unit cost of 1 GB less than 18 rubles - there are practically no such offers on the market.

Main characteristics:

volume of 480 GB;
controller type: SM2256;
read / write speed: 520/470 MB / s.

Optimal solution for your gaming computer

Crucial's lineup is large enough to offer a range of sizes and performances. One of the most recent models with a capacity of about half a terabyte is the Crucial MX300 525. It may be the best solution for a computer used for business purposes. First of all, due to the good speed and affordable price (about 10 thousand rubles), and secondly, due to the use of a significant supply of volume - 576 GB instead of the declared 525.

Device parameters:

capacity: 525 (576) GB;
speed (read / write): 530/510 GB;
controller: Marvell 88SS1074.

The most reliable

The read and write speed offered by most modern drives is at least 500 MB / s. The maximum value for the flagship model Intel 730 Series 480 is 550 MB / s. The device is highly reliable and comes with reliable protection against power outages. Such a drive will handle a lot of work compared to other 500GB options.

Main characteristics:

maximum speed: 550 MB / s;
controller: server PC29AS21CA0;
capacity: 480 (544) GB.

High rewritability

The peculiarity of the Kingston SSDNow UV400 device is the Marvell 88SS1074 controller and a decent size of the cache, when overflowing it also maintains a good speed (more than 110 MB / s). To create the disk, 15nm TLC NAND technology was used.

The service life of the SSD is extended by the ability to rewrite more than 1/3 of the information daily, and the price does not exceed 15,000 rubles

Drive parameters:

speed: up to 550 MB / s;
controller: four-channel Marvell 88SS1074;
cache: 8 GB.

Long warranty

For the Plextor M6 Pro 512 model, created using the relatively outdated Marvell 88SS9187 controller, one of the advantages is about 100 thousand IOPS. The second is TrueSpeed \u200b\u200btechnology, which increases the resource and speed of the disk.

Last year, this drive was among the most expensive, and now, with a price of 17,000 rubles, it is a device that is quite affordable for many consumers. The manufacturer offers a 5-year warranty for the device - with the standard 2-3.

SSD specifications:

speed: up to 557 MB / s;
controller: Marvell 88SS9187;
technology: 19 nm.

Fastest and lightest

With the price of the Samsung 950 Pro PCIe SSD drive over RUB 20,000, its read speed of 600–2500 MB / s is well worth the expense due to its high speed and lightness.

The memory has a 48-layer structure and high reliability. The manufacturer guarantees 5 years of SSD operation with daily rewriting at 80-100 GB.

Drive parameters:

controller: Samsung UBX;
volume: 512 GB;
weight: 10 g;
maximum speed: for SATA III interface - up to 600 MB, for PCIe - up to 2500 MB / s.

The most durable

The SanDisk SDSSDEX2-480G-G25 device has a fairly high cost, at 25,000 rubles. At the same time, its read / write speed is 850 MB / s, and its shock resistance reaches 800G. High durability is provided by a special case from the Extreme 900 Portable series, thanks to which this external SSD is easy to transport and, unlike most other models, can be dropped. It weighs, however, as much as 210 g, and is more than 13 cm long.

Specifications:

volume: 512 GB;
read / write speed: 850/850 MB / s;
interface: USB 3.1.

Safety of information

Considering the Toshiba OCZ VT180 480 model, we can focus on such its advantage as the ability to correctly shutdown even in case of an unexpected power outage.

As a result, data is stored more reliably than many other options. And an additional plus when buying a drive is its price - from 10 thousand rubles.

Device parameters:

Fig. 11. Compact and affordable Transcend SSD370 512

Prevention of malfunctions

In order for a solid-state drive to last long enough, it is worth checking it periodically for errors.

There are applications that help determine how much of the SSD resource has already been consumed - such drives have a certain number of write and rewrite cycles, after which they can fail.

CrystalDiskInfo

The CrystalDiskInfo program, which can be downloaded as a portable version, allows you to diagnose equipment and identify errors. To work with it, it is enough to launch the application itself, which itself will check the disk for errors.

The yellow color under the Health Status sign indicates problems with the disk - most likely, the drive will have to be replaced soon. Blue indicates that the SSD is working properly.

SSD life

The SSD Life application with a Russian-language interface will show specific information about how many hours of work your drive has left.

This is done by the program, referring to the controller, which stores all the information in memory. However, even after SSD Life has shown that the storage resource is almost a third depleted, there is no need to worry. First, it is not necessary that the disk will fail after 3000 writes. Secondly, on average one "cycle" is considered to be a day of work. And over a period of more than 8 years (at 100% resource that the application will show for a new SSD), the user usually changes the drive himself, regardless of their type.

Greetings!

HDD vs SSD - how are they different and which one is better?

Surely, when buying a new PC or laptop, many have noticed that the type of storage device installed in it - HDD or SSD - can have a significant impact on its price. What is their difference?

Is it worth taking an ssd drive for a computer and what are the advantages of such drives? In this article I will try to answer the questions related to choosing a hard drive for different systems and needs.

The main differences between HDD and SSD

For starters, it should be noted that despite their common purpose, SSD and HDD are completely different technologies. In fact, the difference between the two is as great as the difference between a CD and a USB stick. But what is really there, by and large, HDD - this is a kind of CD, only made of a different material and installed in its own drive. And an SSD is a large, roomy flash drive, with an especially fast data exchange rate, increased capacity and, if we are not talking about an external drive, then with a slightly different way of connecting to the motherboard.

Unlike a hard drive, an SSD does not carry any moving parts. HDD devices are old, analog technologies, while SSDs are new, digital ones.

So what are the advantages of more expensive, modern SSDs versus older hard drives?

First of allThe SSD is smaller and lighter, which is especially useful when assembling compact systems such as laptops and tablets.

SecondlySSDs have a much higher data transfer rate than analog drives, because nothing needs to be recorded or searched by mechanical action. HDD takes time to distribute data on the plane of the plate, as well as to find information already recorded on it. Especially if you are searching in parts of the disk that are very distant from each other. For this reason, loading the operating system is somewhat slower, files open longer and the response speed of programs is slower. But saving and reading data from a solid state drive occurs almost instantly.

The speed is usually limited only by the bandwidth of the interface. Gamers may find this useful so that they do not have to wait for a long time to download and install games, as well as load levels in them.

ThirdlyAs mentioned earlier, there are no moving elements in SSDs. As a result, solid state drives are quieter and more reliable - they are shock and drop resistant. This means that an SSD is better suited as an external storage device for people who want to use one drive for multiple systems, or as a second hard drive for laptops.

Fourth, SSDs are characterized by lower power consumption, and there will hardly ever be any unnecessary energy savings.

It's time to talk about the disadvantages of these "big flash drives"

First drawbackwhich may seem like a serious problem to many - the limited lifespan of an SSD. The point is that flash memory has a certain number of rewriting cycles.

The rewriting cycle is the moment when the amount of downloaded data reaches the size of the drive's memory, or rather, when all the memory cells on it are full. But not in the literal sense of the word - nothing will change from the fact that you delete data and leave some space on the disk.

What matters is the total weight of the data written to it during its entire service life.

For example, I downloaded a 1 Gigabyte file, then deleted it and uploaded a 2 GB file - and that 3 GB was already written to the disk, even if some of them were deleted.

In addition, due to the peculiarities of SSD operation, when counting, you need to multiply the amount of data recorded on it by 9-10 times. Those. 3

A gigabyte is almost 30, almost a quarter of the rewriting cycle of a 120 Gigabyte disk. However, these are not exact figures, I took with a margin. In fact, it all depends on how the space on the drive was spent.

Do not be alarmed at once, on average SSDs are designed for 3 years, or even 5 years of service. Unless, of course, you download hundreds of gigabytes of data to them every day.

Unfortunately, I cannot say with certainty which drive is more durable - SSD or HDD. There are many other nuances that affect their lifespan. But in terms of resistance to external influences, the SSD clearly wins.

The second drawback is the price.

The price of an SSD can be several times higher than the cost of a hard drive of the same capacity. Surely, over time, the situation will change a little, but today it is more profitable to take such a disk for a PC as an additional one, install an operating system and some applications on it, and store everything else on the HDD.

And finally, the last problem with SSD, which will probably be solved soon, is the maximum amount of memory. SSDs appeared much later than hard drives, and so far even the best available models cannot hold as much data as a high-end HDD can fit. But this is most likely just a matter of time. You can, simply, use several storage devices at once.

This loan costs $ 11.000

Here are the characteristics

Conclusion.
At the moment, I don't think that buying a PC or laptop with an SSD would be a good idea for the average user. After all, its price is several times higher than the cost of a good old hard drive. Someone will consider the differences between these two types of drives important for themselves. For example, gamers are very fond of purchasing expensive equipment, even with a slight gain in system performance.

However, the presence of an SSD drive should not affect the speed of games, that is, the frame rate.
In general, without special need, I do not recommend buying an SSD as the only internal hard drive. But as a second drive, it may well justify itself.

Write in the comments what you have chosen or what are you going to choose ssd or hdd for yourself?

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Before choosing an SSD for a laptop, the buyer should know their main features, which should be paid attention to.

First of all, it is the volume of the disk and its price - facts that influence the choice of any drive.

However, SSD has its own characteristics that require other factors to be taken into account, approaching the purchase more responsibly than purchasing other computer elements.

Moreover, the price of such a device will be almost the most expensive among all laptop components.

Benefits of buying

Buying a laptop SSD drive is one of the most important steps to increase system performance and data processing speed.

On such a storage device, access to information is much faster.

Replacing an outdated HDD with a more modern version will bring more power gain than even increasing memory or installing a new processor.

Benefits of a laptop solid state drive:

increasing the speed of accessing data, which will speed up the launch of programs several times;
the compact size of most devices (except for portable options), allowing you to easily select an SSD for a large 17-inch laptop and a small netbook with a 10-inch display;
light weight, especially important when used on a laptop;
reduced power consumption, which should improve the average battery life of your laptop;
high level of reliability of the SSD.

Among the disadvantages that are noted in solid-state drives, attention is paid to its relatively small resource: 3000-5000 cycles.

For typical home use, this time is roughly equivalent to 7-8 years of work, more than the average user works with the same disc.

The relative fragility of the SSD in this case does not really matter - it is also undesirable to drop the laptop itself.

At the same time, the relatively high price of the device is compensated by the increase in the operating speed.

Selection features

To start choosing a solid-state drive suitable for you, it is worth starting with the main indicator, which immediately catches the eye when looking at various options in online stores.

This is the cost of equipment, which today is still several times higher than that of conventional HDDs, it depends on the volume and manufacturer of the disk.

Price and volume

The cost of an SSD can seriously affect the choice of a user with limited financial resources.

The only available options today are 60–120 GB drives, the price of which is in the range of 2–4 thousand rubles, almost the same as a 500–1000 GB HDD.

However, if the laptop is used only for work and not for games, a 120 GB disk will be enough to house the system and documents, and possibly enough for backups.

When choosing an option for storing a large amount of information, it is worth considering a budget 512 GB SSD.

Their cost per gigabyte is lower than that of other devices - at the level of 20-30 rubles. instead of 40-80 rubles. for smaller or newer and larger drives.

It is worth paying attention to the 512 GB variants and due to the increased data exchange speed.

Drives of this size (it can be not only 512 GB, some manufacturers produce 480 and 525 GB disks) work twice as fast as their 128 GB counterparts.

The size

When looking at SSDs, you will notice that their sizes differ from each other.

And, if for a stationary PC it is permissible to buy a 3.5 "drive, for a laptop it is worth choosing models with 2.5 and even 1.8 inches.

Some of the most popular options today are the mSATA and M2 form factors, which are cards for SATA and PCI-E slots, respectively.

The dimensions of such discs are even smaller - the width can reach only 12 mm, the length - from 16 to 110 mm.

The only drawback of mSATA and M2 drives can occur if the laptop motherboard does not have the corresponding slots.

But such outdated motherboards have not been produced for several years.

It is hardly possible to noticeably increase the performance of an old (before 2010-2011) laptop even with an SSD drive.

Interface

The standard interfaces for connecting SSDs are PCI-E or SATA.

In terms of price / quality ratio, the best options are drives connected via a SATA III connector.

Such an interface will provide data transfer rates up to 6 Gb / s - more than any solid-state drive available today.

Speed

Reading and writing speed are parameters that will affect the acceleration of work with information.

Most SSDs read faster than write.

If the cache is full, the actual speed of the drive may drop - although not as noticeably as with old-style hard drives.

However, even inexpensive SSDs have 3-4 times faster performance than high-performance HDDs.

Therefore, choosing a budget solid-state drive model (for example, a 512 GB variant for 10 thousand rubles), you will still get a noticeable performance increase.

Buying an analogue costing 25-30 thousand rubles is not always justified for the average user, even with an increase in speed.

A compromise solution is choosing an option with a lower capacity, but more data transfer capabilities.

Resource

For a conventional solid-state drive, the number of rewriting cycles reaches 5,000-10,000. The higher the value, the longer the disc will last.

So, for example, for a frequently used small SSD of 60 GB, during a working day, the resource may decrease by 2-3 cycles.

A productive 512–1024 GB drive will last you about the same number of days as indicated in its specifications - 3000 (over 8 years) or 5000 (13 years).

However, improper handling of the disk can reduce the resource much faster.

Manufacturer

Many manufacturers, from Intel to SanDisk, are engaged in the release of SSD drives. Choosing a drive by brand is not easy.

But if you are looking for an inexpensive option, you should go for the Crucial brands. Intel products provide high reliability.

And the fastest, albeit expensive, SSDs from Samsung, Western Digital and Corsair are considered.

Controller

The type of controller affects the performance of the disk. Budget options use Phison models.

On expensive and fast drives, Marvell controllers are installed, which provide a noticeable increase in performance.

Low- and mid-range drives can be equipped with a SandForce SSD controller, which slows down the data processing speed when the cache is full and decreases disk space, but at the same time writes information quickly.

Installing a disc

After the SSD is already selected and purchased, it remains to install it correctly in the laptop.

If there is not enough space, you can replace the HDD already installed on the laptop with a solid-state drive (which can then be inserted instead of the floppy drive using a special adapter).

Another option that is suitable when choosing a solid state drive with an M2 form factor is to install the disk along with the HDD; there is enough space inside the laptop for this.

In this case, the overpayment for a drive with a smaller size becomes justified.

The third option is to buy a special case to make the SSD external. Although you can buy such a drive in a design that is already suitable for connection via a USB connector.

True, the second option will cost more and will not allow, when such an opportunity arises, to install the disk inside the laptop.

Advice: External SSD should only be connected via USB 3.0 or 3.1 ports. The outdated 2.0 interface not only will not provide any speed increase compared to HDD, but may even decrease it.

Once connected, the drive needs to be optimized by installing software from an official manufacturer or other suitable applications.

For example, the Intel SSD Toolbox will keep the drive's firmware updated and its partitions aligned. The AS SSD utility performs roughly the same task.

The interface of such programs for optimization does not require much time to master - it is quite intuitive.

Green means the SSD is working properly.

Red warns of possible problems and you need to download the utility not for checking, but for fixing errors.

One of these applications is Parted Magic, whose task is to restore lost SSD settings and return them to factory values.