solid state external drive or normal spinning type?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jw 1111
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jw 1111

Hi, in choosing an external hard drive i have narrowed it down to a choice
between a small laptop type in an external case or a small portable solid
state type of 60 GB.

is there any advantage in getting the normal laptop type since the
solid state one has no moving parts; which i thought would have been an
advantage. but on the other hand if they were that much better i guess the
soldi state type would be fitted to laptops, but they are not.

any advice please about the relative merits of the two different types?
thanks.
 
jw 1111 said:
Hi, in choosing an external hard drive i have narrowed it down to a choice
between a small laptop type in an external case or a small portable solid
state type of 60 GB.
Click to expand...
is there any advantage in getting the normal laptop type
Click to expand...

Price basically.
since the solid state one has no moving parts; which i thought would have been
an advantage. but on the other hand if they were that much better i guess the
soldi state type would be fitted to laptops, but they are not.
Click to expand...

Yes, basically because of the price.
any advice please about the relative merits of the two different types?
Click to expand...

Basically 60G solid state is very expensive.
 
Rod Speed said:
Price basically.


Yes, basically because of the price.


Basically 60G solid state is very expensive.
Click to expand...

the novatech nddisk7 60 GB external slimline memory is £72 u.k. [ 132 $
u.s.] buying on line which i think is not much more than a normal laptop
memory is it?
 
jw 1111 said:
Hi, in choosing an external hard drive i have narrowed it down to a choice
between a small laptop type in an external case or a small portable solid
state type of 60 GB.
Click to expand...

Are you sure the solid state drive isn't 2GB ?
A 60GB solid state drive would be VERY expensive, way out of
consumer level, which solid state drive have you seen?
 
jw 1111 said:
Rod Speed said:
Price basically.


Yes, basically because of the price.


Basically 60G solid state is very expensive.
Click to expand...

the novatech nddisk7 60 GB external slimline memory is £72 u.k. [ 132 $
u.s.] buying on line which i think is not much more than a normal laptop
memory is it?
Click to expand...

thats a "normal" spinning disk type
novatech ndisk 2 60GB @ £72
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-ND260


this one is "solid state":
2GB usb flash drive @ £64
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-MS2GBU
 
the novatech nddisk7 60 GB external slimline memory is £72 u.k. [ 132 $
u.s.] buying on line which i think is not much more than a normal laptop
memory is it?
Click to expand...

What is "nddisk7"?

I think you are mistaken. Those are NOT solid state hard disks.
 
Peter said:
Look at fantastic speed of this drive! No moving parts, implemented using
memory chips.
Click to expand...

It may not be the fastest, but you can kick it across the floor and it'll
still work.
 
Previously jw 1111 said:
Hi, in choosing an external hard drive i have narrowed it down to a choice
between a small laptop type in an external case or a small portable solid
state type of 60 GB.
Click to expand...

Are you sure about it being solid-state? Solid-state 60GB should cost
more than $10000 (I did not find prices on the web, bad sign).
One reference I found was $91000 for a 32 GB disk-backed RAM system,
which may or may not be more expensive than flash. I also found
one 4GB solid state disk for $2600.
is there any advantage in getting the normal laptop type since the
solid state one has no moving parts; which i thought would have been an
advantage. but on the other hand if they were that much better i guess the
soldi state type would be fitted to laptops, but they are not.
Click to expand...
any advice please about the relative merits of the two different types?
thanks.
Click to expand...

Solid state is massively more reliable and seldomly has complete
disk failures. In your size range it is usually used only in extreme
environments, for ultra-reliability applications and when extreme
large databases have to be accessed extrememly fast.

Arno
 
Arno Wagner said:
Are you sure about it being solid-state? Solid-state 60GB should cost
more than $10000 (I did not find prices on the web, bad sign).
One reference I found was $91000 for a 32 GB disk-backed RAM system,
which may or may not be more expensive than flash. I also found one 4GB
solid state disk for $2600.



Solid state is massively more reliable
Click to expand...
and seldomly has complete disk failures.
Click to expand...

That's like saying that even the hostbus interface is more reliable than
regular IDE or SCSI.
 
Arno Wagner said:
Well, yes. Also a cheap USB dongle is technically "solid state"
but does not match classical SSDs in reliability.
Click to expand...

That's fine if it is more reliable.
 
Arno Wagner said:
Well, yes.
Click to expand...

Bitmicro E-Disks are not cheap, yet not massively reliable. Popular hard
drives have better reliabilty.
Also a cheap USB dongle is technically "solid state"
but does not match classical SSDs in reliability.
Click to expand...

That comes with no surprise. Do you have any reliabilty info on "USB
dongles"?
 
Bitmicro E-Disks are not cheap, yet not massively reliable. Popular hard
drives have better reliabilty.
Click to expand...

Actually MTBF is only part of the story. Bit-error rate is another.
There may also be SSDs that are optimised for speed only, I agree.
SSDs used to be only an option for special reliability needs, I guess
there is a whole set of products targetted at different usage
scenarios now.

Also reliability of SSDs is usually used under conditions like
shock and vibration (nearly indestructable) or for example in
non-standard gas mixes, low/no air pressure, humindity or the like.
SSDs will do pretty well under thse conditions while HDDs die
very fast.

One other thing: For HDDs component life (the time the MTBF is
valid) is usually 5 years. For SSDs it can be 30 years or around.
Very important for equipment that cannot be easily replaced.

Also note thet the eqipment you reference is not an SSD, but a whole
box with PSU and the like. The SSD itself may actually have a
better MTBF then the whole box. It is especially difficult to
get PSUs with > 500.000h MTBF. It is also expensive to
measure MTBFs in this range so since you need to operate
many units for a long time. 500.000h is just about 2% failure
rate ber year.
That comes with no surprise. Do you have any reliabilty info on "USB
dongles"?
Click to expand...

No. Just that I and people I know had failures on not too much used
ones. I solved this by buing branded dongles where the brand name may
have something to loose. I also copy everything important (like slides
for a talk I am about to give) to two different dongles.

Arno
 
Actually MTBF is only part of the story.
Click to expand...

He didnt say anything about MTBF.
Bit-error rate is another. There may also be SSDs that are
optimised for speed only, I agree. SSDs used to be only an
option for special reliability needs, I guess there is a whole
set of products targetted at different usage scenarios now.
Click to expand...

Corse there are.
Also reliability of SSDs is usually used under conditions like
shock and vibration (nearly indestructable) or for example in
non-standard gas mixes, low/no air pressure, humindity or the like.
SSDs will do pretty well under thse conditions while HDDs die very fast.
Click to expand...

Irrelevant to the normal use of both types of storage.
One other thing: For HDDs component life
(the time the MTBF is valid) is usually 5 years.
Click to expand...

Wrong, that is an entirely different concept, the design life.
For SSDs it can be 30 years or around.
Click to expand...

Not with mass market retail SSDs.
Very important for equipment that cannot be easily replaced.
Click to expand...

Tiny part of the market now.
Also note thet the eqipment you reference is not an SSD, but a whole
box with PSU and the like. The SSD itself may actually have a
better MTBF then the whole box. It is especially difficult to
get PSUs with > 500.000h MTBF. It is also expensive to
measure MTBFs in this range so since you need to operate
many units for a long time. 500.000h is just about 2% failure
rate ber year.
Click to expand...

MTBF wasnt even being discussed.
 
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