timeforsolidstatestoragewhencompared
withharddrives,witha typicalharddrive
takingaround 10 millisecondstoreacha piece
ofrequesteddata,anda typicalSSDtaking
just0.1milliseconds– that’s 100 timesfaster.
Thisinturnleadstothecolossal
performancedifferencebetweenharddrives
andSSDswhenit comestorandomreadand
writeperformance,wherethedriveis having
tojumpallarounditsstoragesystemtofind
bitsofdata.Here,wherea harddrivemight
struggletodeliver 600 input/output
operationspersecond(IOPS),evena basic
SATASSDcandeliver100,000IOPS.
Meanwhile,althoughtheearliestSSDs
weren’tthatmuch
fasteratreadingand
writinglargerchunks
ofdata,thesedays
thedifferenceis
huge.Whilea typical
harddrivemightjust
aboutbeabletoreach
200MB/secreadandwritespeeds,a modern
NVMeSSDcandeliver20xthatfigure.
REALWORLD
PERFORMANCEDIFFERENCES
Thetheoreticalperformanceadvantageof
thelatestSSDsis clear,butwhatmatters
intheendis howit affectsoureveryday
usage,andhereweactuallyseea more
nuancedpicture.If youcompareanySSD
fromthepastsixorsevenyearswithany
harddrive,you’llseeclearbenefitsacross
theboard.Windowsbootsfaster,gamesand
appsloadfaster,programssuchasvideo
editorsrespondquickerandfiletransfers
arefaster.PClifeis justimmeasurably
improvedbythisonesimpleupgrade.
What’smore,withpriceshavingsteadily
droppedandcapacitiesrisen,it’snowa cheap
andviableoptiontohave,say,a 1TBSSDas
yourPC’sonlynon-volatilestorage.Unless
youabsolutelyneedthemassivebulkstorage
of4TBoreven6TBdrives(which,withour
ever-growingpictureandvideocollections,
andthemassivefilesoftoday’sgames,isn’t
outofthequestion),wewouldn’tbotherwith
harddrivesatall.
Wherethesituationgetstrickieris when
lookingatupgradingyourexistingSATASSDs
tothelatestultra-fastmodels.Putsimply,therearen’tthatmanysituationswherethe
advantageis particularlypalpable,assuming
yourSATAdriveisn’tparticularlyoldandlow-
capacity.Inlastmonth’s£100upgradesfeature
wecompareda modern1TBNVMedrivewith
a 500GBSATAmodel,andit saveda meretwo
secondsonWindowsboottimeandmade
nodifferencetotheloadtimesofa couple
ofgameswetried.Infurthertesting,wedid
seea handfulofinstanceswhereyousavea
secondortwo,butbyandlarge,non-volatile
storageis nolongerthebottleneckhere.
Inhigher-demandapplications,suchas
videoeditingsoftware,thedifferencecanbe
morenoticeable.Movingallyourcacheing,projectfileand
scratchdiskstoanNVMeSSDcanimprove
performanceinsometasks,suchasimporting
media,byupto 40 percent.That’snottobe
sniffedat,andcertainlyforprofessionalsany
savingis worthwhile,butthedifferenceis still
smallcomparedwiththeimprovementwhen
upgradingfroma harddrivetoanySSD.
Thebigcaveathereis thatif you’reusingan
SSDforthesesortsofapplications,thenusing
a moreexpensiveSLC(orMLC)baseddriveis
farmorepreferabletousinga TLCorQLC
drive.Thelargenumberoferaseandwrite
operationsthatareperformedwillwearout
thedrivequitequickly,soyou’llwantthe
robustnessofsuchpremiumdrives.
Likewise,there’sa hostofothermore
specialisedapplicationsthatputa constant
heavyloadonSSDs,suchasserversand
certainscientificapplications.Inthese
instances,again,it’sgenerallya caseofthe
fasterandmoredurablethebetter.However,
performanceandthenumberofreadsand
writesvarymassivelydependingonthe
exactapplication.THEBESTSSDFORYOU
So,what’sthebestSSDforyourneeds?For
thesheerconvenienceofnotneedingtouse
cables,thesedayswe’drecommendanM.2
NVMedrivesuchasthegreat-valueCorsair
MP510,the960GB
versionofwhichyou
cangetfor£125inc
VAT.It’snotthefastest
M.2drive,butit’s
plentyfastenough,
andit’saffordable
andconvenient.
If youneedanevenlargersingledrive,you
cangetupto2TBM.2drivesorupto4TBSATA
drives,butbothoptionsareexpensive.Instead,
we’drecommendlookingintohowyoucan
bestsplitupyourdataandloadit ontoa couple
ofdrives,ideallywithonebeinga cheaphard
driveormaybeanolderSSD.
If you’relookingfora drivethat’sgoing
tobeusedfora scratchdiskinAdobe
Premiere,orsomeotherapplicationwhere
it willbehita bitharderandmoreregularly
thanintypicalPCusage,thenanydrive
that’sbasedonSLCorMLCstorageis the
waytogo,suchastheSamsung 970 Pro
(M.2)orSamsung 860 Pro(SATA).WHERE A HARD DRIVE MIGHT STRUGGLE
TO DELIVER 600 INPUT/OUTPUT OPERATIONS
IOPS, EVEN A BASIC SATA SSD CAN DELIVER100,000 IOPS
Samsung’s latest
Phoenix controller has
five CPU cores and
talks to eight NAND
channels at once