Solid State Drives
A solid state drive (SSD) is an upgraded form of the HDD sort of speak. It is an upgrade because there are no moving parts so it is less prone to take damage from falls. The device is also a lot thinner, lighter, and the performance is faster when accessing data. However, the technology is still becoming popularized so it is a bit pricey, despite prices being significantly lower over the past two years (an almost $100 drop price on certain SSDs).
Many SSDs are 2.5 inches and some are 1.8 inches. They are differentiated by terms of SATA and mSATA for micro serial advanced technology attachment. The performance is the same, however size is limited to 250 GB at the moment for the mSATA. SSDs transfer rates are rated at 6 GB/s and their is no RPM rating as there is no moving parts. They are know for loading applications faster and moving data from storage to storage quicker than the HDD counterpart.
mSATAs are used in devices that require the smaller device such as notebooks, ultrabooks and tablets. My current device that I am using uses a 250 GB 1.8 inch mSATA. The laptop is a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro and the specifications can be seen here.
The idea of a non moving memory device has been conceptualized since the 1970s however it has not been supported until recently with the technology of flash memory, which is what SSDs use. One GB of RAM of SSD in 1978 would have cost about one million U.S. dollars.
While HDDs max out at 6 TB. SSDs have reached 2 TB and are more affordable in comparison to the market for SSD a couple years back. The pricing in 2013 was at $0.59/GB and now in 2014 it is rated at about $0.49/GB and is continually decreasing. Currently, in comparison, HDDs cost about $0.05/GB for a 3.5 inch HDD and about $0.10/GB for a 2.5 inch HDD.
Although, the price is still relatively high in comparison with the HDD, there are many benefits as some have already been stated (weight, size, speed, durability). SSDs consume a lot less energy as there are no moving parts. They can also resist higher heat compared to HDDs, which would begin failing if overheated. SDDs for this matter are not as noisy as the fans required to cool the system are a lot smaller as well as quiter.
As their pricing decreases, HDDs will soon become obsolete much like the floppy disks. To learn more about floppy disks click here. The creation and popularization in SSDs have led to products such as ultrabooks and tablets such as the Macbook Air and iPAD, respectively. One of the benefits that SSDs provide and that consumers would always prefer is the increase in mobility that the device allows for.