October 27, 2009 | Comments Comments

Poll results: What is the minimum capacity that you would need for a SSD (Solid State Drive) ?

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Picture by kawanet

Picture by kawanet

On August 10th, I started a poll where I asked you the minimum capacity that you would need for a SSD (Solid State Drive).

What are SSDs?

SSDs, or Solid State Drives, are a breakthrough in storage for computers. Instead of using spinning platters and mechanical parts like in conventional hard drives, SSDs use many flash memory chips together to achieve faster data transfer and much lower latency. In short, your OS and programs load much more quickly with a SSD compared to a regular hard drive.

SSDs are a new technology and are still maturing. Until recently, their performance would degrade over time, due to the lack of firmware to optimize the SSD and the lack of Operating System to properly handle said SSD.

If you’d like to learn more about SSDs, check out this article of mine: The Best SSD for your money where I explain all of that in details.

Windows 7 and new SSD firmwares

Now, with Windows 7, which has been out for a few days and new firmwares for SSDs from Crucial, SuperTalent and OCZ now support the TRIM function, which automatically optimize the SSD with Windows 7 in order to keep the performance at its best all the time, the problem is resolved. For more details on TRIM, Windows 7 and the new firmwares, read this excellent article from AnandTech.

Now, the other problem is with capacity. SSDs being a new technology makes it expensive for a relatively low storage capacity. 30GB goes for $180, 60GB for $220, 120GB for $370 and 256GB for $675. This is why I started this poll, to see what is the minimum capacity that you need, so I could figure out which computer system designs could use a SSD.

So, two months and a half, with over 700 votes and Windows 7 along with new firmwares that are here, it’s now time to close the poll and call the results.

[poll id="16"]

We can see here that 32% of you are fine with 64GB or less (~$220), 30% of you with 128GB (~$370) and the majority of you, 39%, want 256GB (~$675) or more.

Needless to say, SSDs are not for you if you are on a budget. At $220 for a 64GB SSD, you won’t start seeing them as an upgrade option until we get in the builds that are $1000 or more. To me, it would simply make no sense to recommend a SSD before that, as you would be better off with a better video card or CPU and because most people are better off using a SSD for the speed with a regular hard drive for the storage.

Thank you to everyone for voted, knowing what you want will help me figure out when to offer SSD for computer systems and in which price range.

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  • specialk
    I would suspect people glazed over the question:
    What is the minimum capacity SSD you would *NEED* ???

    Unless people can point it out to me why they NEED more than 30GB or 64GB... I don't believe it. I think if 90% of the pollsters had to pay for the SSD they would think otherwise.

    Why NOT just a 30GB or 64GB for the OS and some applications, then use a regular (relatively cheap in comparison) sata drive for data back up, music, media files, etc.

    Come on Mathieu, surely you can't believe that people need more than 64GB SSD drive at most. Will some one set me straight on this ???
  • Mathieu
    specialk,

    Actually, I can believe that people would use more than 64GB. It simply depends on their usages. Here's two example I can think of:

    First of all, think about it, the OS alone can take up to 20GB.

    1- If you start adding video games installations, it will easily eat up over 64GB, if not even over 128GB.

    2- If you do a lot of picture touch-ups and work at very-high resolutions, you will be able to take advantage of the SSD speed and each file can easily weight in the hundred of MBs each, adding up quickly. Even worse if you work with video or 3D modeling.

    Now, in my humble opinion, very few people actually NEED anything over 128GB on a SSD, as long as they have a regular hard drive for main storage.

    If you look at the poll, 3 people out of 5, or 62%, would agree with me. However, I can't just ignore the other 38% who wants 256GB or more.

    Besides, 256GB SSDs will be featured only in the highest-end builds, due to their current prohibitive cost. So, if you actually need/want that much space, you will also have to be able to afford it.

    It is also my opinion that when people will see the price of a 256GB SSD, they might just decide that 128GB is just enough actually.

    In any case, we feature custom computer builds on this blog, so it's not like someone can't decide to pick a smaller or bigger SSD based on their own choice.
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