Calling Daddyjob and/or Bob

[Mark_h]

I've got an EEEpc netbook thing running XP and have been considering an SSD drive for it to replace the traditional one. Hoping it will run cooler, use less power and possibly wake up even faster than it does now. .

I can get a 128gb OCZ drive for about £55.

Apart form improved robustness will SSD give me the heat/power/speed I'm looking for and can you get me a significantly better deal?

[Fallout]

Hoping it will run cooler, use less power and possibly wake up even faster than it does now...

It does all those things.

Apart form improved robustness

But not that. My understanding is that SSD are still at a state where the technology is less reliable in the long term than a good quality HD. Obviously they can take the knocks a HD cannot, but for a static PC, I believe currently you will encounter read/write problems sooner than you would with a normal HD.

[DJ123]

I'll check prices in work tomorrow for you. As for reliability, they are generally good for 1 millions hour usage.

[DJ123]

And you don't need to defrag an SSD. By defragging it you can damage it (that's what I remember)

[Fallout]

An SSD drive may operate for a million hours, but the life span comes from the number of possible read/write cycles of the flash cells. The reason why defragging is damaging is because there are loads of read/writes in order to sequence all the data.

I don't know what the levels are at these days, and obviously it would vary based on memory quality, but eventually the flash cells fail, and I believe under normal usage conditions this is still earlier than a comparible HD would. So say your HD can last 5 years being caned for video editing, your SSD drive will last less. But other than that, they are quality. :)

[DJ123]

same with HDD's, make, quality of build and what you use it for. I imagine Dad only using it as a net book (surfing the net) it'll be fine as it's only really going to be used as a boot drive, with the odd saving of documents.
I wouldn't reccommend it if you were always doing transfers of files and data

[Fallout]

Yeah, sounds like good advice. Not sure if reading wears out the cells. If not, they'd be good for games. Quick loading, but not much writing needed after the first install, so good for long life. Worth looking into me thinks as I'll have to rebuild my compo soon!