Should I get a regular hard drive or an SSD?

[Chezziwick]

It's either a 750GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive, or a 256GB SSD.

Which one should I use? Would the smaller SSD be worse than a larger regular hard drive? Or does the performance boost make up for this?

[oz]

Which one should I use? Would the smaller SSD be worse than a larger regular hard drive? Or does the performance boost make up for this?

I've been using fast SSDs in a couple of my machines for the last two years now, and still run mechanical hard drives in four other machines. While I've had no issues with the SSDs, I still slightly prefer the regular hard drives. The main advantage to SSDs is the speed boost, silent operation, and the cooler running temps. They have a few disadvantages, too, but price still being the biggest. There's little doubt that mechanical hard disks will eventually be replaced with SSDs, but that all said, I ordered two more 7200 rpm regular hard disks just yesterday.

[drunix]

The specs on SSD's vary all over the place, I initially got a couple that were probably quite a bit slower than the HD's I was replacing. Caveat Emptor. My current desktop has a RAID 0 pair of OCZ Vertex-3 120GB drives. They do actually move things along. Check storargereview.com for their current recommendations. If you are on a budget the WD Caviar Black drives are a nice compromise.

Note that a fast SATA-3 SSD can saturate a SATA-2 connection. The only way around this is to upgrade to SATA-3 motherboard or adapter.

I still use one of the original slow Patriot 32GB drives in a car computer where speed really does not matter.

[gbray]

It's either a 750GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive, or a 256GB SSD.

Which one should I use? Would the smaller SSD be worse than a larger regular hard drive? Or does the performance boost make up for this?

If a laptop, I was lean towards an SSD. Also, look at a hybrid drive. I have one one a laptop, much faster than a standard HD but not as fast SSD. The only thing I would like better would be an SSD.

[Chezziwick]

I'm sorry, I wasn't specific. It was a laptop, and price is an issue now that I think about it. Because of this, I am probably going to get a hard drive. However, would laptop/desktop really make a difference?

[jweller]

However, would laptop/desktop really make a difference?

SSDs are going to be much more shockproof than a traditional mechanical HDD. In a laptop thats a HUGE advantage IMO. I've killed a couple mechanical drives in laptops due to shock.

[Krendoshazin]

There's little doubt that mechanical hard disks will eventually be replaced with SSDs

I disagree. There are quite a few situations where using SSDs would be impractical, and I think that the technology has a long way to go before it can really be adopted for those uses. At my job, we have media players that are constantly accessing content from a separate content drive 24/7; we've gone through several different makes of hard drive and we've managed to kill them all, until we settled on Seagate SV drives which are designed for 24/7 surveillance systems. These have served us well for the past few years. SSD drives would be dead in no time from that kind of workload.

[oz]

I disagree. There are quite a few situations where using SSDs would be impractical, and I think that the technology has a long way to go before it can really be adopted for those uses.

Right... that's why I said "eventually", because I do believe that SSD technology will someday improve to that point. In fact, I'd be extremely surprised if it never happens.

[bmackin1]

... would laptop/desktop really make a difference?

In a laptop, the drive is usually the total storage space, while a desktop usually has space for a second drive. In desktops, I use a small SSD boot drive and larger storage drive. In my laptop, I use a large singular SSD drive.

[drunix]

At my job, we have media players that are constantly accessing content from a separate content drive 24/7 ---- SSD drives would be dead in no time from that kind of workload.

Interesting; have you actually tried an SSD in this application? SSD's wear out due to write cycles and my impression is you have an ideal read-mostly condition where it would last nearly forever and for server usage it would not suffer as much from latency and seek time delays.

For a server you can get an "enterprise class" drives which have better specs including longevity and speed at a higher price.