It is an interesting topic to be discussed as computer vendors (Apple is not a PC vendor, that is why I write computer vendor instead) start to configure their products with this premium harddrive. Long story short, I would like to know whether I will get comparable benefit to purchase a computer with this SSD thingy. So, I went and asked Mr. Google, and he gave me this link: SSD vs SATA RAID. If any of the readers interested to dig into this geek stuff, please go ahead but if you do not, you can continue to read my opinion.
Let me start with the pricing of the SSD against SATA harddisk. According to the article, a piece of 32GB SSD cost about 500US$ while a piece of 750GB SATA cost about 130US$. I verified the price in Singapore, I have 80GB 2.5″ SSD for 888S$ while 500GB 2.5″ SATA for 166S$. It means that I can have 5x 500GB SATA drives for one SSD drive. So, the article is true that we can achieve RAID 6 using the same amount of money.
Looking into the performance of SSD against SATA, the article indicates that SSD seek time is way much faster compare to that of SATA. While SATA and SSD show similar performance in block transfer, the RAID 6 significantly improves the SATA performance.
In conclusion, I must admit great enhancment in storage technology, i.e. SSD, but I believe that today is not the right time to purchase it. Today’s SSD technology is still bundled as a “premium” device, which may not be the case once it is mass-produced. Considering the flatness of my wallet, I have decided to stop my investigation here without conducting any experiment.
Craeser 
Posted on March 17, 2009
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