Hello everyone,

Update: Solid State Drive prices have come way, way down! See my most recent post here.

Within the tech community a topic of great interest is the Solid State Drive. Instead of using a spinning disc these SSD’s use flash memory to store (read/write) data.

Flash memory uses less energy, is quieter and faster than the standard Hard Disc Drive.

But the most important SSD factor by far is SPEED! Your Solid State Drive computer will boot up in seconds, your programs will launch in a snap, and you will no longer have to wait as you stare at the hour glass icon on your screen for five minutes. Take a look at this video – can you even imagine this?

Is that fast or what? So it’s a no brainer – let’s all go to SSD’s right? Well there is one slight problem: They ain’t cheap!!

Lucas Mearian of Computerworld (http://tinyurl.com/n88z9n) notes the price difference between the two is substantial (this great article was written in June 2009 and the prices have come down some since then, but the gap between HHD and SSD prices is still steep).

“Most consumer-grade SSDs from leading vendors now cost around $3 per gigabyte, while traditional hard drives cost about 20 to 30 cents per gigabyte for 2.5-in. laptop drives and 10 to 20 cents per gigabyte for 3.5-in. desktop drives, according storage market research firm Coughlin Associates Inc. In other words, even the cheapest 120GB SSDs are going to be around $300, though some are available on sale for less. So should you buy a high-capacity HDD for little cash or plunk down hundreds of dollars more for a fast, but lower-capacity, SSD? Or, should you wait?”

Professor Randy says: Patience is a virtue! I wouldn’t “pull the trigger” yet on a SSD. The current price-per-gigabyte ratio is still too high! Wait until the GB capacities increase and the prices come down and then make your move!