ARE SSD'S WORTH THEIR HIGH PRICE

You've seen the word before, SSD or HDD options. And maybe you own that well coveted SSD option on your current laptop. But if you're in the market for a new system and are not sure what an SSD is than let me give you a crash course on whether you should or should not buy it.

SSD stands for Solid State Drive and as the name suggests it does not contain any moving parts unlike its HDD relative which uses a spinning disk to operate. I would love to go into a long discussion as to the pros and cons but since you'd probably be bored half way through I'm going to hit you with the facts straight up.


PROS

Faster operating speeds. Because there are no disk to spin a solid state drive can operate at faster speeds than their hard disk counterparts.

Nearly Indestructible Data: This is not to tell you that if you throw your new netbook down the Grand Canyon you can waltz down there and pick up the pieces and find your SSD in tack. But it does mean that if you should accidentally drop it due to carelessness or some other mishap, you don't have to worry about losing your precious data.

Better Power Management: SSD offer much better battery life than HDD options. Not only do they eat up less battery juices they also cause the system to run smoother because that continuous spinning is gone which can generate a lot of heat.

CONS:

More Expensive: SSD options are considerably more expensive than their HDD counterparts. This is mainly because they are a new technology and like all new tech takes a while to drop in prices.

Less Disk Space: Generally speaking SSD options contain considerably less disk space than their HDD counterparts. Case in point is a 32GB SSD would cost the same as an 80GB HDD. Or an 80GB SDD costs round about the same as a 160GB HDD.

CONCLUSION:

If multitasking is your thing and you have the extra cash than SSD is your answer. But for those who do casual web surfing and document editing, the high prices of solid state drives are too much to offset the little performance gains we could have. In the end though its a matter of choice. Just note that the price you are paying today for an SSD option, a year later you will get double or triple the space for the same mullah.