you know, it was a few years before i even understood what those shims were for. it made no sense to me as i mounted ssds with screws. then one day i'm like: hey, i know what that's for.
HDD or SSD?
- Thread starter roger2
- Start date
they called it a bracket, not a shim or spacer
Bill Ferris
Lunatic Member
you might be right and i may be confused but i just measured an 870 evo and it was 1/4"(go figure) not 7mm. i'm not splitting hairs, i just guess i shouldn't trust my eyes
i'd have to open a computer to measure an mx500 so i'm just going to take your word for it.
I never measured either, just trusted the source of my SSD manufacture.
And the added shim never caused any SSD fitting placement in the laptops, where they were needed for a snug fit, like their spindle based prior drives.
lini
just me...
Interesting. Should be 6.8 mm, according to the data sheet.
Greetings from Munich!
Manfred / lini
Today, it's a no-brainer to go with an SSD for your boot drive. Even 1TB drives are inexpensive! My first 128Gb SSD cost me well over $100! Now, I come from the days of the XT, where my first HD was a 20mb drive. But, at least it was an IDE and not an MFM with a separate controller card! As HDD speed began approaching 7200 rpm, the next big thing were the WD Raptor and Velociraptor HDD drives, with 10K speeds! I still have 5 NOS Velociraptor drives!
I have a nice Olive Musica music player that came with a 120gb IDE HDD. I was able to convert it to an SSD, using an IDE to Sata interface, and it sure boots much faster!
I guess the bottom line is that, unless you have a specific need to go with an HDD, such as for a large storage drive, always go with an SSD, at least for your boot drive with your OS of choice on it. And, let's not forget that there are also M2 SSD's that mount right on the motherboard, eliminating a cable and internal drive slot in your case!
I have a nice Olive Musica music player that came with a 120gb IDE HDD. I was able to convert it to an SSD, using an IDE to Sata interface, and it sure boots much faster!
I guess the bottom line is that, unless you have a specific need to go with an HDD, such as for a large storage drive, always go with an SSD, at least for your boot drive with your OS of choice on it. And, let's not forget that there are also M2 SSD's that mount right on the motherboard, eliminating a cable and internal drive slot in your case!
SSDs are the best storage going today. It is very, very reliable. Much more so than HDDs, IMO. I have had numerous HDDs fail on me over the years. I have been using SSDs for years without a single failure. Nearly all solid state electronics has been proven time and again to be more reliable than those using mechanical components. I have HDDs in storage for years as backups to my business files. Several of them have gone bad from just sitting idle for years. Luckly, anymore, they don't have any files I deem vital. The price of SSDs have come way down with 2TB drives costing just $70-$80 making the storage decently competitive to HDDs. If you are looking for reliability then use SSDs. Plus, the other benefits of SSDs over HDDs is much greater read/write speeds, far less susceptible to G forces, SSDs are much smaller physically and can be stored in a small SSD enclose that gives immediate access to the files. Also, the read/write longevity of a SSD is not an issue in nearly all but the most demanding use cases. The amount of data that one would have to write to wear one out is massive. In typical use cases you would have to write massive amounts of data daily for 10-20 years to cause a drive to reach its write limits if free space is held at around 20%. In most use cases free space is much greater than 20% which increases the life of the drive considerably. Try the same regime with a HDD and I guarantee it will die in a few years if it makes it that long.What is current opinion? I have no experience with SSD drives. My experience with HDD drives has all been good, no failures.
Which type of storage is being used most in new PCs? (not including laptops, tablets, etc)
Which type would be more reliable over the long term?
Other pros and cons for each type?
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Bill Ferris
Lunatic Member
Yes, Manfred, I noticed that when I recently (~2 weeks ago) purchased a 2 Terabyte Crucial SSD for a near future upgrade for my WAV. ripped music A/V rack`s laptop`s currently 1 Terabyte Crucial brand one, and was pleasantly surprised at the considerably lower price compared to several yrs. back price for the same drive.
I`m still looking for Corsair (my currently preferred brand) to offer a 2 Terabyte flash drive to upgrade my currently (2) 1 Terabyte in use ones.
lini
just me...
I`m still looking for Corsair (my currently preferred brand) to offer a 2 Terabyte flash drive to upgrade my currently (2) 1 Terabyte in use ones.
Would that refer to their Flash Voyager GTX family fast USB 3.0(/3.1 gen. 1) sticks? Then a 2 TByte variant might currently still be too problematic in terms of power consumption (and/or heat dissipation), I could imagine.
Greetings from Munich!
Manfred / lini
Bill Ferris
Lunatic Member
Yes, Manfred ! The Corsair GTX, are what my 1 Terabyte flash drives are.
My fall back, if the trusted "quality" (Corsair brand) larger capacity (2 Terabyte) flash drives fail to materialize, then it will be the USB 3 to SATA external drive adaptor (which is totally USB powered), in which my 24/7/365 powered up OPPO UDP-205 Universal player`s USB 3 front port has successfully powered, and flawlessly run the Crucial 2 Terabyte SSD with (currently ~700 Gig. of music files) my WAV. ripped music for many, many months in the shuffle/repeat all mode for my desired daily all day music listening requirements.
faber12
Addicted Member
I have upgraded a few newer laptops (1 year old) to SSD after Windows 10 or 11 had slowed to an unusable speed on the original hard drive. Any manufacturer that still sells computers with hard drives for boot drives should be ashamed of themselves at this point. You can get a name brand 256gb for $15 and a 1tb for around $40
SolderIron
Addicted Member
PC with SSD is so much faster. I still have laptops with HD, and I been waiting for SSDs to come down in price.
Bought 2 WD 500G ssd from Walmart recently. I been too lazy to do switching. May get around to it this month.
They were $50 each marked down to clearance $30. I suspect more price cutting later.
Gripe:
Going from bench top to laptop, end up with big HD in corner/reserve.
Going from lap top HD to SSD, end up with small HD in corner/reserve.
Bought 2 WD 500G ssd from Walmart recently. I been too lazy to do switching. May get around to it this month.
They were $50 each marked down to clearance $30. I suspect more price cutting later.
Gripe:
Going from bench top to laptop, end up with big HD in corner/reserve.
Going from lap top HD to SSD, end up with small HD in corner/reserve.
lini
just me...
Why not put these in USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 gen. 1) cases for use as back-up drives (or for data, you rarely need)?
Greetings from Munich!
Manfred / lini
SolderIron
Addicted Member
Great article on this subject that includes the following.
https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-bes...l SSDs are more complicated,-board (AIB) SSDs.
"Finally, the price of an SSD can also be affected by the memory element "method" used to store data. The four different types are single-level cell (SLC), multi-level cell (MLC), triple-level cell (TLC), and quad-level cell (QLC), respectively storing one to four bits per cell. SLC is both the fastest and most durable of the four types, but it's also the most expensive and rarely seen outside enterprise drives. MLC is less durable and a bit slower, but more reasonably priced, while TLC and QLC have pretty much taken over the mainstream; they are the least "durable" but also the cheapest."
https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-bes...l SSDs are more complicated,-board (AIB) SSDs.
"Finally, the price of an SSD can also be affected by the memory element "method" used to store data. The four different types are single-level cell (SLC), multi-level cell (MLC), triple-level cell (TLC), and quad-level cell (QLC), respectively storing one to four bits per cell. SLC is both the fastest and most durable of the four types, but it's also the most expensive and rarely seen outside enterprise drives. MLC is less durable and a bit slower, but more reasonably priced, while TLC and QLC have pretty much taken over the mainstream; they are the least "durable" but also the cheapest."
Unwise to use cheap oriental SSD's in any system. As an exercise in discovery, I bought a 128TB (yes TB) to test. Failed and I was able to prove failure and got a refund. Able to keep the SSD so I pulled the SSD v3.0 apart and found a board with a chip and a 64GB mini SD. The mini SD is ok and formats to 60+GB and holds data. I will look at a 2TB pen drive (yes 2TB). Probably the same configuration as the 128TB. Dont know why that country says a 128TB SSD is a valid format and actually markets such a drive..Select Samsung SSD as it has good speed and longevity. Just get the 128GB version for use as drive C: because that is all you need to hold the operating system. Aomei backupper is a good choice for a simple backup app.
lini
just me...
Not to forget flash memory cards.
Well, at least, if it seems way to good to be true - whereas merely too good to be true might as well mean, that one just isn't yet aware of a recent price drop. But the latter typically isn't hard to check for, if one uses one of the established price comparision sites and checks for price differences between both different vendors and very similar products from different brands. And of course "way to good to be true" not only refers to the price levels in established capacity steps, but also to capacity steps from 3rd tier/NoName brands, which the top and 2nd tier brands haven't reached yet.
Greetings from Munich!
Manfred / lini