Make your computer run twice as fast with a solid-state hard disk

Solid-state disks, or SSDs for short, have been around for a few years but are only just becoming common.

We’ve looked at SSDs before and have been impressed with the almost instant speed with which they can access files, but the downside was usually an enormous cost.

Now you can buy one for less than £100, so this kind of super-speed disk is within reach of everyday PC users.

But is an SSD worth even £100 of your cash? To help make the decision easier, we put one to the test to see how much of a difference it makes.

And, if you’re wondering whether fitting one could be more trouble than it’s worth, we’ll explain how to fit an SSD inside your PC.

What is an SSD?
An SSD is a type of storage that has no moving parts. A conventional hard disk, like the ones in most desktop and laptop PCs, stores data on glass discs that spin thousands of times per minute. The data is then retrieved by a special head that moves across the spinning discs at phenomenal speed to fetch programs and files.

 

An SSD, on the other hand, contains no moving parts whatsoever. Comparing a hard disk to a vinyl turntable is quite apt; the technology is old, well tested, but pretty slow when it comes to skipping between songs or files. An SSD is like a memory-based MP3 player – any song is available in less than a second.

As a consequence, hard disks slow down a PC. The rest of the computer has to wait for the hard disk to retrieve the data from where it has been stored, and this causes a ‘bottleneck’ effect.

SSDs are totally different. With no moving parts there’s no lag when it comes to fetching different files one after the other. They are also a lot harder to break as they don’t have any delicate mechanical parts; this comes in handy if you have a laptop and accidentally knock or drop it.

As a side benefit, SSDs are totally silent – so the familiar clicking sound of a hard disk being read is a thing of the past.

The technology isn’t new: SSDs are made using a technology known as flash memory. This is the same storage you would find in a digital camera, memory card or MP3 player, but computer SSDs include huge quantities of the fastest flash memory available.