SSD Price Drop: Time to Upgrade (2012)
Want to upgrade your computer but can’t afford a new one? Or just simply don’t want to have working computer getting dusty in a corner? You probably have already heard about SSD on high end laptops like macbooks, but you probably have also heard that they are pricey or at least until now.
First let’s introduce the concept of SSD and later talk about its prices.
SSD?
SSD is an acronym for Solid State Drive, you may have some USB pen drive, you can imagine that SSDs are something like a bigger version. SSDs do not have moving parts, data is stored in microchips, in the other hand, a conventional hard drive uses a mechanical arm that moves and reads or writes the information in the disk. This difference is what makes SSD much faster and more reliable, SSD use NAND-based flash memory, a type of permanent memory that has a data storage integrity for over 200 years and more power efficient and also one of the best features is that SSD consume relatively less power than traditional storage disks, this makes them ideal for laptops.
Additionally SSD have the same format as hard drives so they can be replaced easily with an SSD, normally their size is 2.5”, if you have a desktop computer will need a bracket to convert it to 3.5”. However, one of the downside is the short lifetime of the SSD drive in comparison to traditional HDD. One of the ways to increase the lifetime of your SSD drive is to disable unnecessary write access. There are many applications that will do this process easier, such as SSD Fresh.
And one more warning, SSDs don’t make noise, it will not give you a warning of something wrong, they just die. Then, you should always have complete image backups of your systems so you should be able to get back in no time, your important data should be replicated, and if you can not have all your data replicated you should select your sensitive data and system images.
Prices of SSDs
After this small introduction it shouldn’t be a surprise that an SSD is the best upgrade you can get for your computer and now is a great time to buy one, because the formerly-expensive drives have dropped dramatically in price over the past months this would be the perfect time to buy one. After last year’s Thailand floods, prices got stuck for some time, but SSD prices have continued dropping dramatically, many models being 65% cheaper than they were only a few months ago, SSDs have never been more affordable and they can make breathe new life into your computer. If you’ve been waiting to do a step forward, now is a great time to make the change.
Here you have a graph showing the price evolution of the Crucial CT128M4SSD2 128GB M4 SSD on amazon.com:
My recommendation is to buy a relatively small SSD for your OS and programs that depend much on disk reading, and have a traditional hard disk for store data, then you will not need much space, 128GB will be enough, and your pocket will not hurt much.
What to Look For When Buying
Not all SSDs perform equally, even at the same price point. The controller chip matters enormously — drives using SandForce SF-2281 controllers (found in the OCZ Vertex 3 and many budget models) deliver excellent sequential speeds but can stutter during incompressible data writes. The Crucial M4 uses a Marvell controller that offers more consistent performance across all workloads, which is why it remains a popular recommendation despite slightly lower peak speeds on paper.
The SATA interface version also determines your ceiling. If your motherboard only supports SATA II (3 Gbps), you will cap out at approximately 285 MB/s regardless of what the drive advertises. Most drives shipping in mid-2012 are SATA III (6 Gbps) capable, reaching 500+ MB/s sequential reads, but that only matters if your system supports it. Check your motherboard specifications before purchasing — there is no performance benefit to buying a SATA III drive for a SATA II slot beyond future-proofing for your next build.
Installation Tips
Migrating from a traditional hard drive to an SSD does not require a fresh Windows install if you use cloning software. Acronis True Image (often bundled free with Samsung and Crucial drives) or the free Macrium Reflect can create an exact copy of your existing system partition onto the new SSD. The key requirement is that your current used space must fit within the SSD’s capacity — a 128GB drive works if your OS partition uses less than approximately 110GB after formatting overhead.
After cloning, enter your BIOS and ensure the boot order prioritizes the new SSD. Then verify that AHCI mode is enabled rather than IDE mode, as AHCI allows the drive to use Native Command Queuing (NCQ) and TRIM, both critical for maintaining SSD performance over time. Windows 7 enables TRIM automatically when it detects a solid-state drive, keeping the controller informed about which blocks are free for writing.
