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SSDs vs. Hard Drives In Value Comparison

Posted by kdawson on from the mostly-clear-with-scattered-data dept.

EconolineCrush writes "SSDs hardly offer compelling value on the cost-per-gigabyte basis. But what if one considers performance per dollar? This article takes a closer look at the value proposition offered by today's most common SSDs, mixing raw performance data with each drive's cost, both per gigabyte and as a component of a complete system. A dozen SSD configurations are compared, and results from a collection of mechanical hard drives provide additional context. The data are laid out in detailed scatter plots clearly illustrating the most favorable intersections of price and performance, and you might be surprised to see just how well the SSDs fare versus traditional hard drives. A few of the SSDs offer much better value than their solid-state competitors, too."

4 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Reliability? by TheRedDuke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While a pretty comprehensive article, nowhere do they actually talk about reliablity and longevity of these drives in their value calculations. That's a pretty important factor for me, and has been one of the reasons (besides price) that I haven't seriously considered one yet.

  2. As usual, ignores the value of data integrity... by KonoWatakushi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While most every hard disk supports and respects proper cache flush semantics, SSDs typically trade performance for data integrity. Although it should be a standard feature, very few SSDs include a capacitor to prevent filesystem/data corruption in the event of power loss.

    Unfortunately, the vendors are very secretive about SSD internals, and the algorithms they choose to employ can also have a significant effect on data integrity. At this point in time, there is far too much blind faith required, and many vendors definitely do not deserve it.

  3. Re:Would you employ SSDs in DB intensive tasks? by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well good thing we have your exceptionally small sampling size of two total drives (one of each) to make generalizations off of.

    --
    while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
  4. Re:Would you employ SSDs in DB intensive tasks? by DMUTPeregrine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, it's a fine conclusion. Don't trust SSDs. Don't trust spinning rust. Don't trust your drives, make sure you have redundancy (RAID) and backups. And don't blindly trust your backups, test them first. Then keep a set off-site.
    Now, the implied "don't-trust SSDs, trust rust instead" conclusion is bad.

    --
    Not a sentence!