Netbook Scoop

Netbooks are available with either solid-state drives (SSDs) or traditional hard drives. (MSI has just announced a new hybrid netbook, model U115, that incorporates both.) Laptop users are familiar with hard drives, but for most, SSDs are a new animal. This article explores the advantages and disadvantages of SSDs in comparison to hard drives.

2.5 Inch Hard Driive

Hard drives are mechanical devices. The platters spin thousands of times per minute. The read/write heads float over the top and bottom of each platter. The heads are attached by arms to a spindle motor which positions them over the proper tracks of the platter.

Solid-State Drive

A solid-state drive is an electronic component. SSDs have no moving parts.

Solid-state drives have a number of advantages over hard drives:

• More reliable due to not having any moving parts
• Less likely to sustain damage if netbook is dropped
• Require less power, meaning batteries last longer
• Generate less heat
• Silent
• Can outperform hard drives, especially in read access times.

Please note that these are generalities. There are several different types of SSDs – each with their own strengths and weaknesses. If you are interested in the details, Wikipedia explores this in great depth.

There is a common perception that the performance of SSDs is poorer than hard drives. This certainly was true in the early models of SSDs. However, recent technology improvements now yield SSDs that outperform hard drives. Notebook Review published an article that compares a SanDisk 32GB SSD to a hard drive. The SSD blows away the hard drive’s performance across the board.

With features this good, why are we still using hard drives?

Hard drives do have a couple of strengths over SSDs:

• On a cost per gigabyte basis, hard drives are a *lot* less expensive.
• Hard drives outperform the low-cost type of SSDs
• Microsoft Windows handles SSDs ineffectively

The last bullet point is the reason why you see almost all Windows-based netbooks configured with hard drives. On the other hand, Linux-based netbooks may be packaged with either type of storage device.

However, the primary reason why hard drives have not been overwhelmingly replaced by SSDs is cost.

SSDs are becoming less and less expensive. At the same time, performance and reliability continue to improve.

This ultimately makes hard drives dinosaurs. It’s just a matter of time.