It's now hard to go wrong when purchasing a solid state drive (SSD), according to a test by German computer magazine Computerbild of 30 flash drives currently on the market. The drives tested came with capacities of 120, 240 or 480 gigabytes (GB). Every model rated at least satisfactory; several scored "good" in an exacting routine where testers are not generous with accolades.
The fastest SSDs reached data transcription speeds of up to 550 megabytes per second (MB/s), which is between three and four times faster than old-style disc drives.
Experts say it will be next to impossible to boost the speeds much beyond that, because of their SATA connections which top out at about 550 MB/s in transfer speed.
In general, SSDs with a lot of memory work much faster than those with fewer gigabytes, primarily because they have the most memory chips installed, which means multiple chips are recording and writing at the same time. But even the SSDs with the least space still recorded data transfer rates of 400 MB/s.
In terms of storage space, larger SSDs are generally better priced than those with less space. The range goes from 43 to 78 euro cents (0.49 to 0.89 dollars) per GB with 120 GB SSDs. For 480 GB models, the cost per GB is as low as 38 to 59 euro cents per GB.
Since SSDs rely on chips, and not rotating magnetic plates, they are practically silent.
They also use less energy than standard drives, which can mean longer battery recharge cycles on laptops that have them installed.
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