Storage Drive

Your Guide To Solid State Drives

Your Guide To Solid
State Drives

By: Lachlan Roy
http://lachlanroy.com
Edited By: Justin Pot

This manual is the intellectual property of MakeUseOf. It must only be published in its
original form. Using parts or republishing altered parts of this guide is prohibited.

http://lachlanroy.com | Lachlan Roy
MakeUseOf.com

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Your GuideTo Solid State Drives

Table of Contents
Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 5
Solid State Drive? What‟s that?.......................................................................................... 5
A Quick History of SSDs........................................................................................................ 5
Different Kinds of Solid State Drives ....................................................................................... 8
Technology ........................................................................................................................... 8
DRAM............................................................................................................................. 8
Flash (NAND) ................................................................................................................. 8
Hybrid Drive ................................................................................................................... 9
Interface............................................................................................................................ 9
ATA/SATA ....................................................................................................................... 9
PCIe ................................................................................................................................ 9
Mini-PCIe........................................................................................................................ 9
Form Factor ..................................................................................................................... 10
5.25”.............................................................................................................................. 10
3.5”................................................................................................................................ 10
2.5” ................................................................................................................................ 10
1.8” ................................................................................................................................ 10
“Blade”......................................................................................................................... 11
Other ............................................................................................................................ 11
SSDs vs. Conventional Hard Drives ...................................................................................... 12
How do theywork?............................................................................................................ 12
Should I get one? .................................................................................................................. 14
Advantages .................................................................................................................... 14
Speed........................................................................................................................... 14
Durability ...................................................................................................................... 14
Noise ............................................................................................................................. 14
Power...