The benefits introduced by solid state drives are undeniable. However, there are a few pitfalls to consider when switching to this latest storage technology. This article provides a rundown for beginners and decision makers.
Solid state drives (SSDs) seemingly have it all: storage capacities of up to 512 GB, blazing performance, low power consumption and heat, great efficiency, and incredible physical durability. In everyday life, SSDs seem all but perfect. But there are still some limits and pitfalls. We'll look at the details you need to know about SSD technology as it moves into a variety of applications at home and in businesses.
The SSD Market
First, we need to divide the market into segments. One way to approach this is to differentiate between low-cost, mainstream, and high-end offerings. This is typically what you find when searching for SSD reviews or doing price comparisons. Another method distinguishes consumer- from business-class products, roughly translating to client systems versus servers. Since the technology behind those two groups is similar, this article covers both worlds, pointing at individual aspects where necessary.
Business and enterprise products are typically not available in retail stores, as these target larger server and storage companies that assemble larger-scale systems. SSD makers, such as Samsung, Intel, Micron and Toshiba usually provide special support for solution providers. Samsung recently announced a partnership with Seagate to create enterprise-class SSDs. Clearly, the worlds of traditional magnetic and cutting-edge silicon storage are starting to mingle.
Trends and Developments
While the performance levels and efficiency of SSDs have developed quickly, capacities have not, owing to sluggish increases in NAND bit density. Huge demand from the smartphone sector has dragged on SSD evolution in PC environments. And the awaited transition to 3-bit cell flash memory is happening more slowly than expected. As a consequence, SSDs are getting more affordable, but it doesn’t seem like they'll escalate the capacity battle against hard drives any time soon.
Therefore, SSDs are expected to remain a minority player in the storage market compared to conventional hard drives. But 2010 marks the year in which SSDs achieved critical mass. Prices for entry-level products have come down to less than $99. On the enterprise side, power consumption should be considered. A 2008 study by McKinsey & Company found that data centers consume 0.5% of the world’s energy, causing more CO2 emissions than all of Argentina. The EPA estimates that data center energy consumption will reach 3% in the U.S. by 2011, making SSDs almost essential for keeping energy draw in check.
Getting an Overview
While enterprise and client SSD specifications don’t differ much, choosing the right drive or the right environment is very important. We will now look at how SSDs work, what they can do for you, where you should be careful when preparing for deployment, how your business will be impacted, and how to make proper buying decisions.

Upon SSD data loss, can we recover the data files if it's defragmented, especially on a SSD that has never been defragmented as Tomshardware had recommended?
Most SSDs will perform this process themselves when idle for extended periods, but it happens at a slow rate. This is what most manufacturers refer to when they talk about Garbage Collection.
Please send me the four fastest 256GB SSDs on the market, so that I might perform my own comparison ... I'll just sit by the door and wait for UPS to arrive.
Thanks, in advance !!
= Alvin =
I am using same configuration on desktop. What I have noticed is that performance is actually much better than I expected. That is probably because of cache memory. If you have drives with big cache then in RAID stripe configuration those caches logically combine. In case of good desktop drive you can easily have 64MB cache. BTW I looked at the SSD drives caches - wow I know where performance comes from.
I think SSD is overrated right now. They have to be 4x cheaper. Otherwise it makes no sense. Next year they will be 2x cheaper and after one more year they will 2x more cheaper. So actually technology still needs two years to be usable.
My recommendation: stick to SATA and RAID - save the money. If you need little storage and max comfort then use SSD.
You save a lot of money with SSDs, simply because their watt consumption is really low. So, in long term (say 1y) you will be saving enough money to probably buy those Hitachi 7200K for free.
Energy efficiency is the key factor with SSDs.
The power consumption difference of a single drive is negligible for the purposes of generating any tangible savings on the electric bill. Let's assume the average power consumption difference between HDD and SSD is 5W, and the system that employs the drive is up 24/7/365. Also, let's assume that your electricity cost is 14 cents per kWh (that's what I'm paying on average, your mileage may vary). Thus 0.005kW * 24h * 365d * $0.14 = $6.132 - that's your annual savings (to be clear, that's six dollars and some change, not six thousand). Surely, if you employ hundreds upon hundreds of drives, the savings will add up, but in the end the up-front investment into SSD's higher cost is not likely to pay off within the SSD lifetime, not to mention to get you any savings.
On a separate note, I do believe that longevity of drives is one of the major factors that affects the purchase decision. For enterprise use, if the drive is constantly hammered by writes (say, a database file is stored on it), the rate of wearing out re-writable flash is likely to be higher than the rate of failure of magnetic drives (certain 10K RPM IDE drives notwithstanding).
... if only SSD were more affordable! But, perhaps, the rumored adoption of 2Xnm technology for NAND by Intel by the end of this year will finally put enough pressure on the market to bring down prices to the realm of affordability. One can only hope.
Why is the block size so large?
What makes a 4KB or even 256B block a bad idea?
Is it there's a large per-block component that can't be shrunk?
Is it that blocks need to be insulated from each other so that high-voltage instructions (perhaps clear) don't leak?
Those are purely guesses.
5.5 watts to 1.7 watts is not "1/3 Reduced" as per label - it is "2/3 reduced" or "Reduced to a 1/3"