I agree on the limited space. I recently bought a 30GB OCZ and a 64GB Kingston just to play with - the one machine that really needs the performance is the Windows box, and that is rapidly approaching half a terabyte with all the games and crap that I keep on it.
I did test installs of both Windows and Linux to see whether the performance was really there - and it is, though Windows likes to insert pauses for the hell of it, no matter how fast the disk is.
However, I do see that there are beginning to appear "booster" units, to which you attach a normal hard disk and an SSD. The booster then caches part of the hard disk to the SSD, and thus gains a pile of performance without losing the capacity. The one I've seen on sale isn't very sophisticated, but I'm sure that will improve, especially if someone tinkers with it.
I also strongly agree that you must go for quality. The biggest trick is to find out which controller is used. Outside of the Intel drives, the Indilinx controller is the one to go for in general, but the new JMicron 61x series (which my Kingston uses) is perfectly respectable. The Kingston drives are remarkably cheap at about €2 per GB, the Indilinx-based drives are about twice that.
The Samsung and the old JMicron 602 controllers are to be avoided. So is the Toshiba controller, which is a rebadged 602 with tweaked firmware. The Samsung is apparently reliable, but a very poor performer.
The Sandforce and Crucial/Micron controllers are as yet unproven, so avoid them for the next few months if you like reliability, but they should be excellent choices for performance once they've worked the bugs out.
I did test installs of both Windows and Linux to see whether the performance was really there - and it is, though Windows likes to insert pauses for the hell of it, no matter how fast the disk is.
However, I do see that there are beginning to appear "booster" units, to which you attach a normal hard disk and an SSD. The booster then caches part of the hard disk to the SSD, and thus gains a pile of performance without losing the capacity. The one I've seen on sale isn't very sophisticated, but I'm sure that will improve, especially if someone tinkers with it.
I also strongly agree that you must go for quality. The biggest trick is to find out which controller is used. Outside of the Intel drives, the Indilinx controller is the one to go for in general, but the new JMicron 61x series (which my Kingston uses) is perfectly respectable. The Kingston drives are remarkably cheap at about €2 per GB, the Indilinx-based drives are about twice that.
The Samsung and the old JMicron 602 controllers are to be avoided. So is the Toshiba controller, which is a rebadged 602 with tweaked firmware. The Samsung is apparently reliable, but a very poor performer.
The Sandforce and Crucial/Micron controllers are as yet unproven, so avoid them for the next few months if you like reliability, but they should be excellent choices for performance once they've worked the bugs out.
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