First, "SSD" stands for "solid state drive." It's a hard drive that has no moving mechanical parts.
I have SSDs in one of my work computers and my "main" home computer. When I put an SSD in my main computer, I did get a small bump in speed over a mechanical hard drive, but I didn't notice it much other than if I was copying a large file or if I was running antimalware software on the drive. That was essentially the same for my work machine.
Anyhow, I was running out of space, so I replaced my main computer's SSD with a bigger one, which meant I had a smaller one to play with. I decided to put it in my early 2009 Macbook Pro (SATA II, Core 2 Duo, 2.66Ghz, 4gb RAM).
Incredible difference. Boot time is about 5 seconds and everything seems snappier. Additionally, the computer is now almost completely silent because I have no mechanical hard drive noise.
The odd thing is that the specs on my work iMac that has an SSD and my Macbook have almost identical specs -- both are SATA II and the drive's SATA II. The iMac's got a faster processor, too -- and the Macbook had a much more noticeable bump in speed.
The end-all of this is that if you want to do any of the following ...
* Have a nice bump in speed
* Have extended battery life
* Make your computer a bit quieter
... replace that mechanical hard drive with an SSD. If you happen to have a desktop and you have SATA I or II, get a SATA III card (and SATA III hard drive) and you'll see even more of a speed increase.
Price? My 90gb OCZ SSD was $50. Sale, of course, but SATA II drives are even cheaper. A cheap SATA III (6.0Gb/s) card is $20.
I have SSDs in one of my work computers and my "main" home computer. When I put an SSD in my main computer, I did get a small bump in speed over a mechanical hard drive, but I didn't notice it much other than if I was copying a large file or if I was running antimalware software on the drive. That was essentially the same for my work machine.
Anyhow, I was running out of space, so I replaced my main computer's SSD with a bigger one, which meant I had a smaller one to play with. I decided to put it in my early 2009 Macbook Pro (SATA II, Core 2 Duo, 2.66Ghz, 4gb RAM).
Incredible difference. Boot time is about 5 seconds and everything seems snappier. Additionally, the computer is now almost completely silent because I have no mechanical hard drive noise.
The odd thing is that the specs on my work iMac that has an SSD and my Macbook have almost identical specs -- both are SATA II and the drive's SATA II. The iMac's got a faster processor, too -- and the Macbook had a much more noticeable bump in speed.
The end-all of this is that if you want to do any of the following ...
* Have a nice bump in speed
* Have extended battery life
* Make your computer a bit quieter
... replace that mechanical hard drive with an SSD. If you happen to have a desktop and you have SATA I or II, get a SATA III card (and SATA III hard drive) and you'll see even more of a speed increase.
Price? My 90gb OCZ SSD was $50. Sale, of course, but SATA II drives are even cheaper. A cheap SATA III (6.0Gb/s) card is $20.
