how do ssd's work?

[cheechx310]

Like how do they work only the storage stored on the ssd runs faster?Or can you somehow connect the ssd to the hdd and make that runs faster with out storing in the ssd?

 

[quilciri]

Most SSD's work only for what is stored on the SSD.

There are some smaller SSD's you can set up as a "cache". SSD's used as a cache will speed up data transfer from a normal HDD. You don't store data directly to the cache. It learns over time what files are accessed the most often and copies them to the SSD cache. This won't be as fast as a pure SSD solution, but will still be much faster than a HDD on it's own.

SSD cache's are a bit on the expensive side, in part because they inlcude software to simplify set up (a 32gb cache costs almost as much as an entry level 128gb normal ssd), but they are a much easier way to speed up your storage than using a full SSD.

Sandisk ReadyCache 32GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($44.95 @ SuperBiiz)

There are also hybrid drives now - a HDD with a small SSD cache built in.

 

[TechyInAZ]

SSD (Solid State Drives) are similar to memory, but run slower and can keep stuff stored without power.

What your talking about is a SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive), this drive has a mechanical HDD with a SSD built into it. However a SSD + HDD config will be quicker.

 

[yoji]

What? Google it..
Can you use a fast HDD to make a slower one go fast? No.. so same principle, so its a "no" to your theory.
Having said that.. you might be able to use the SSD to cache info from your HDD... and thets the principle behind hybrid SSD/HDD.. but to all intents and purposes... you cant do what you propose.
HTH
Cheers

 

[blurryy]

Reading and writing speeds are much higher therefore more efficent than a HDD. My current setup has a 500GB SSD for the OS and some important applications (AE,Steam games,etc) and I have 4TB HDD for all the rest of the storage. Note though, SSD's have a shorter life span of working than HDD. If your doing a silent operation build, SSD's are the best way to go. Personally SSD's are the best, but Some users like myself prefer to have a HDD, for massive storage.

Install the OS on a SSD and the boot times are beautiful.
Than plug in HDD in the second SATA port, and configure the HDD to store files, applications etc.
A SSD with 128GB is enough for just a OS, but I'd prefer 250GB since there only 99.99 etc.

 

[Deehomes]

SSD's don't have moving parts, put your ear next to a mechanical hard drive and you'll hear some clicking and spinning of the disc inside. The storage in SSD's are modules which allow much faster access and write speeds without the moving parts. Only programs installed on the SSD will see the speed benefit, this is why it is recommended to install you OS onto the SSD to vastly improve Boot speeds. You can "Technically" set up the two drives in a raid config, but it'll take the speed of the slowest drive which will make it completely pointless anyways.

 

[nukemaster]

SSDs are faster because the have no moving parts(electrons mode but lets not count that).

Hard drives when faced with random writes have to move drive heads to read a spinning platter. S o on top of waiting for this head to get into place the platter has to pass the head(other data passes it that is not even needed for random reads). All this adds up quickly when the drive has to jump from place to place or file to file.

Sequential reads like watching a video may all be read in order from the platter. A platter drive can read fairly fast sequentially, but more often than not it has to be used in a more random method.

Enter SSD's SSDs have very fast memory chips that can be read at the same time(depending on the number of channels on the controller in the SSD). On top of this paralleled reading/writing of data they SSD has almost NO delay when getting from one section of a file to another. Random read/writes are what make SSDs shine. Even the slowest SSD will be faster in day to day use than 3-4 fast hard drives in raid0

Raid0 lets drives(hard drives or SSDs) work on data at the same time by breaking work into chunks, this is similar to the channels on the SSDs controller, but the rotational speed and head movement time(for hard drives) still suck so only sequential read/writes are improved by a large margin. Raid0 also has NO redundancy one drive failing results in data loss on other drives because each drive only holds a portion(stripe) of the data.

With faster and faster flash memory, these SSDs get even faster, but still tend to write slower than they read.

Because flash can only be written(erased then written or program erased) so many times the controller also has to spread the writes across all flash. For this reason even if Windows thinks your SSD is fragmented, it will have no real clue because only the drive it self knows the location of all data. Data is fragmented to keep the wear level on all flash the same, without this overwriting the same fold over and over would wear out a section of the drive. Modern wear leveling allows the drives to have a long service life in all but the most write heavy environments.

To reduce writes some users will install software that writes constant log times to another drive or use a ramdrive(virtual harddrive that resides in system memory and is either written to your SSD at a set interval or on shutdown/startup.). This leads to writes much less often thus the drive not having to constantly cycle flash memory to keep wear even. APC's PowerChute Business Edition for instance writes a log every 20 minutes by default. Even with a small bit of data being written like this over time it uses much more writes than just holding this log in memory and writing it every few hours or once a day. Web browser cache is similar because it is many small writes.

I personally use SSDs for my OS/Games/Software and a hard drive(over the network) for all my files(too many for the SSD anyway). I have a ramdrive for my browser and its cache, but some things like flash video(the way Flash and some implementations of flash video work) still buffer on the SSD. I have not had any problems with excessive writes and the drive even monitors this so you can check it with 3rd party software on many of them. PowerChute Business Edition did put more writes on my drive in a month then I do in 6-12 months of normal use so it was moved to my hard drive.

As for using an SSD to speedup your hard drive, some software does just thing. Intel has its own implementation that detects sections of the hard drive you access often and takes a copy of it to the SSD allowing faster access when you need it. You can also have the SSD work as a cache for writes on the hard drive allowing fast SSD speed writes that are later written to the hard drive for permanent storage. This is not as fast as a SSD alone, but was a good way to get space and better than hard drive alone performance. Other companies have the same type of software available. Intel's was just popular because Intel pushed it with certain chipsets(Z68 for example had it as a feature).

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/file/product/Samsung_SSD_White_Paper.pdf
Why SSD's are awesome.

 

[cheechx310]

SSD's don't have moving parts, put your ear next to a mechanical hard drive and you'll hear some clicking and spinning of the disc inside. The storage in SSD's are modules which allow much faster access and write speeds without the moving parts. Only programs installed on the SSD will see the speed benefit, this is why it is recommended to install you OS onto the SSD to vastly improve Boot speeds. You can "Technically" set up the two drives in a raid config, but it'll take the speed of the slowest drive which will make it completely pointless anyways.

so when i buy my sdd and install it would it let me install my items stored on the hard drive to the ssd?
the speed is determined where its stored right?

 

[Deehomes]

SSD's don't have moving parts, put your ear next to a mechanical hard drive and you'll hear some clicking and spinning of the disc inside. The storage in SSD's are modules which allow much faster access and write speeds without the moving parts. Only programs installed on the SSD will see the speed benefit, this is why it is recommended to install you OS onto the SSD to vastly improve Boot speeds. You can "Technically" set up the two drives in a raid config, but it'll take the speed of the slowest drive which will make it completely pointless anyways.

so when i buy my sdd and install it would it let me install my items stored on the hard drive to the ssd?
the speed is determined where its stored right?

Yes you'll be able to move the items from your hard drive to the ssd. Regarding the speed; say you had a game like BF4 installed on your hard drive, it'd take roughly a minute or two for the map to completely load. Now say you move it to your SSD and load up BF4, that same map will load in about 20 seconds or so.