Windows 7: Are SSDs the new RAM for boosting system performance?

Brink · 29 Nov 2012

Quote:

RAM was once the king of the system performance boost. Now, there's a new kid in town that's usurping the throne: SSDs.

SSDs are the new performance panacea. But, when SSDs first hit the scene a few years ago, we hated them. They were small--too small to be useful and too slow for anything but Netbooks. Technology took hold and now SSDs are our new heroes. They are the new RAM. Still a little pricey for widespread consumer use; servers, high-end laptops and ultrabooks come equipped with them. And, they're fast. They're cool. Sure, they're cool in the vernacular sense of the word but they're also cool in the Fahrenheit/Celsius sense too. No moving parts means cooler temps and cooler laps under them. My favorite thing to say about SSDs is that, "They toil not and neither do they spin."

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Are SSDs the new RAM for boosting system performance? | ZDNet

paulpicks21 · 29 Nov 2012

I remember paying at least £80 for 2GB of Ram many years ago, you can get a nice 128gb SSD for that now.

I certainly always recommend SSD's to people as a source of speeding their PC's up.

**x BlueRobot** · 29 Nov 2012

SSD's are the better option for increasing performance, although when you want a cheap and easy performance boost, then adding RAM could still be the option which consumers choose.

logicearth · 29 Nov 2012

Unless you have less then 4GBs of RAM adding more won't really help. Thus you have to look at other places to increase performance. SSDs are the next logical step. My new computer is going to come with 16 GB of Quad-channel memory, while enough for my intended purpose gaming, adding more will not improve performance for most of my application except running VMs. Thus, I'm throwing a small 256 GB SSD into this computer...or I haven't fully decided yet but I have been offered 512 GB SSD + 1 TB storage drive for an extra $400 (plus the cost of the 256 SSD, single 512 SSD is an extra $300). But we will see.

eburnettscd · 29 Nov 2012

How reliable are SSD drives? Horror stories of corrupted files lost - or is that just a USB device thing? On my part I've also been able to recover lost and raw partoons from my flash drive but not without some damaged goods. Imagination, heavy disk use maybe?

I have also wondered what is seek time like on SSD. I know USB is not the swiftest tool in the shed but what time cost savings could you expect from say - a comparable 7200 rpm?

And I hear you say no need to defrag - ahh what's this? I would like one to get rid of all the heat excess - when will a decent size (80+ GB works for me) at a decent price be on market?

eburnettscd · 29 Nov 2012

Ps I'm very cheap

jimbo45 · 30 Nov 2012

Hi there
in theory if the SSD is fast enough then you wouldn't need RAM at all -- apart from a small amount of RAM in the BIOS to bootstrap the OS and initialize the SSD driver to load the OS on to and prepare the user logon screen.

The MOBOS would have to be changed but gone would be the days of buying extra RAM -- a fast 256 GB SSD should be plenty for the next generation of PC's.

It probably will be a race between memory chip makers and SSD designers who can make the cheapest, fastest devices.

Cheers
jimbo

King Arthur · 30 Nov 2012

Besides access speeds, of which RAM still holds a clear advantage over other data storage mediums, RAM also holds the advantage of having unlimited write cycles which is essential in "scratch paper"-esque data storage mediums like RAM where data is constantly being written and rewritten. While we've always used swap files/virtual memory on our HDDs (which also have unlimited write cycles) to complement RAM, I'm not sure if swap files/virtual memory would be healthy for SSDs; at the very least they would be relatively short-lived.

linnemeyerhere · 30 Nov 2012

I think the balance of power between the two is the key, but it sounds like the balance has swung to the SSD and with capacities upping with street prices falling it's a great and natural upgrade. The SSD is in my opinion the greatest singular upgrade one can make to their modern system currently. I started with a Crucial 64gb and (5) SSD's later I'm over the moon with the latest 256gb Samsung 830 in my rig.

Are SSDs the new RAM for boosting system performance?-hpim2655.jpg

mikiep · 07 Dec 2012

Microsoft needs to rethink the disk/file/path structure. Perhaps move the MyDocuments/MyPicture/MyMusic/Downloads etc to D drive along with optional maybe for program installs to manually choose C drive installs or not. Make the system a fast boot at least... Then most standard users can get by with a small say 64 or maybe 32gb ssd c: drive and a larger d: spinning drive with ample room to have a system image for when that ssd craps out.

Windows 7: Are SSDs the new RAM for boosting system performance?

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