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SSD Buying Guide: What do I need to know and consider before buying an SSD?

Updated: Aug 13, 2022

Learn what an SSD is, what to consider when buying an SSD, the disadvantages of using an SSD, and more with the SSD buying guide.


SSD-Buying-Guide-What-do-I-need-to-know-and-consider-before-buying-an-SSD
SSD Buying Guide

The answer to questions such as what is an SSD and what should be considered when buying an SSD has become much more curious as the life of traditional hard drives is running out.


Users have turned to SSD due to the decrease in prices of solid state drives such as SSD, which take up very little space, are very fast and have a structure that makes the device light when inserted into the laptop. For this reason, the use of SSDs has become more common than ever before.


In this article, we shed light on the questions that users wonder. You can find the answer to almost every question you have about SSD in this article.


What is SSD?


SSD, Solide State Drive, is a hard disk system that does not have mechanical parts in classical hard drives, and works with a logic very similar to flash disk logic.


It consumes much less power since there is no mechanical component inside, it is light and does not make any noise. The main issue is the positive effect of SSD on the speed of the computer. These things have become quite cheap now and are no longer a luxury. Apple now offers SSDs as standard on almost all models. It is now possible to carry old models to this comfort at an affordable price.


I think the biggest handicap of the SSD that affects the user is that the large-capacity ones, like classical hard drives, are still quite expensive. If disk space is very important to you, I don't think it makes much sense to consider an SSD.


SSDs are usually produced in 2.5 inch sizes and are used in laptops. Desktop PCs, on the other hand, have not started to become widespread yet, as there is a small possibility of data loss that may arise from jolts.


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SSDs can work with 2 Watts of energy compared to the 15 Watts consumed by traditional hard drives. They are more convenient to use as they heat less and are lighter. But SSDs have a certain write limit.


For example, a region can be written or deleted 100 thousand times. Of course, this value can be increased to higher levels with the development of technology. But as it stands, the value of 100 thousand is not a small number. In a normal use, it will be able to work for at least 5 years without any problems.


The biggest problem with hard drives is overheating. However, SSD hard drives do not heat up because they do not have mechanics such as any mechanical parts and motors. The temperature difference between HDD and SSD is about 50 percent. This is an advantage in the temperature ratio inside the case.


What Should Be Considered When Buying an SSD?


  • Pay attention to data read and write speed.

  • Take SSD capacity seriously.

  • Consider the endurance of the SSD.

  • Make sure you have the new operating system.


Here are some things to consider when buying an SSD. Data read and write speed is very important to take full advantage of the SSD's highlight. SSD capacity is also often overlooked, but choosing an SSD with low storage will be a very bad choice.


Even if you have an old operating system, using an SSD is not recommended. Although new operating systems are compatible with SSDs, you are likely to have problems with older operating systems.


What are the Advantages of SSD?


  • It promises faster boot.

  • It shortens the loading time of games.

  • Provides more robust data protection.

  • It offers easy installation.


What Are the Disadvantages of SSDs?


SSDs are way behind HDDs in terms of capacity/price. The average price of a 1TB HDD is around 200 TL. However, a 1TB SSD is sold for over 1,000 TL. That's why SSD users turn to lower capacities and still have to house an HDD for high data storage needs.


Generally, PC users prefer to install system on SSD and keep their general files and backups on HDD.


Although SSDs are shock resistant, they are extremely weak against magnetic fields and electrical fluctuations. HDDs are more durable in this regard. SSD hard drives are unfortunately short-lived, with write and erase limits of around 10 thousand or 15 thousand. HDDs, on the other hand, can be quite durable under favorable conditions.


Which SSD Should You Buy?


Although there are a wide variety of laptop SSD entries on the devices, the structures of the SSDs can also differ. Here you have to find the best SSD for your device. Whichever SSD interfaces suit you, you should buy an SSD of that type. Let's talk about SSD types and some example SSDs:


SATA III – 3.0 – 6 Gbit/s – 600MB/s

This interface, which can provide 600MB/s bandwidth in theory, also supports NCQ. The SATA 3.0 interface, which has become a standard in every new computer sold today, is leaving its place to mSATA and PCI interfaces in the face of the non-stop performance increases of solid state disks. You will understand why when we touch on other interfaces.


SATA I – II SSD can be installed in a SATA III system and used easily. Or, a SATA III interface SSD can be installed and powered on a computer with SATA 1 or SATA 2. However, the sequential speeds of your SSD that are theoretically over 500MB/s will fall within their speed limits since the computer you plug your SSD into is SATA I or SATA II.


For example, we plugged a SATA III SSD into an old system that only supports SATA I and ran it. SSD works, operating system can also be installed in it. However, since our system does not support SATA I, that is, more than 150MB/s, our SATA III SSD will only work at SATA I speed.


Sandisk Ultra II 240GB Sata III SSD

Random Read Rate: 91K IOPS

Random Write Speed: 83K IOPS

Sequential Read Speed: 550MB/s

Sequential Write Speed: 500MB/s


Compared to an ordinary hard drive, we are faced with up to 28 times better performance. No more waiting for your computer to turn on and off. The Ultra II is shockproof, meaning your data is less likely to be blown away if you drop your computer.


Hi-Level 240GB Ultra Series Sata

Sequential Write Speed: 350MB/s

Sequential Read Speed: 550MB/s

Random Read Rate: 85K IOPS

Random Write Speed: 52K IOPS


Hi-Level's SSD with high-speed read and write speeds is of great importance in speeding up your computer.


Team Ultra L5 2.5″ 240GB

Random Read Rate: 75K IOPS

Random Write Speed: 70K IOPS

Sequential Read Speed: 550MB/s

Sequential Write Speed: 290MB/s


This 7mm SSD with SATAIII technology is compatible with UltraBooks. So if you want to make a new update on your Ultrabook, you can choose this SSD for capacity increase.


Silicon Power S60 240GB

Random Read Rate: –

Random Write Speed: 85K IOPS

Sequential Read Speed: 550MB/s

Sequential Write Speed: 500MB/s


This model of Silicon Power, which is 2.5" in size and has Sata 3.0 technology, is ideal for data security. It can monitor and change the bad block in the system. This prevents you from losing data.


Kingston 240GB V300 Series

Sequential Write Speed: 450MB/s

Sequential Read Speed: 450MB/s

Random Read Rate: 85K IOPS

Random Write Speed: 43K IOPS


10x faster than a 7200RPM hard disk drive, the V300 is ideal for getting more out of your computer's other components. You won't be looking for traditional hard drives as they provide a significant performance boost in games or everyday performance.


PCI M.2 SSDs

The PCI slot is one of the hardware inputs that has been on our motherboards for almost 20 years. Of course, we were able to connect 56K modems to the first type of PCI. However, with the development of technology, motherboards have developed PCI versions that can transfer faster and are suitable for new chipsets.


In the mid-2000s, when the AGP slot was popular, we installed new generation graphics cards to these slots, and then we insert graphics cards into these slots together with PCI Express's. Now it is possible to exceed the data transfer rate limited by Sata III to PCI or M.2 Sata.


However. PCI is a slot where the data flow of SSDs can be done the most. The Samsung 950 Pro is one of the leading SSDs in this technology, with a read speed of up to 2500MB/s and a write speed of up to 1500MB/s.


Samsung 950 Pro

It is currently commercially available as the world's fastest consumer SSD. It took me a long time to figure out whether this SSD that I own is compatible with my Lenovo Ideapad 700.


Considering that the 256 GB model has a price of close to 700 lira, I did detailed research on the internet and forums in order not to have any problems with incompatibility after purchasing it.


Since both the Ideapad 700 and this card are very new, there are not many users who buy and use this SSD. I followed a path like this, you can follow a path like this:


On the website of the laptop you bought, it is definitely written about the hardware of different models sold around the world.


In this way, if you have a laptop with a PCI M.2 slot, there is a model that comes with an SSD with PCI M.2 slot in any region of the world suitable for this model. There it may say what hardware it comes with. In this way, when I saw the version of the laptop model with technology similar to the technology of the Samsung 950 Pro, I bought it. it's working.


The Samsung 950 Pro is a storage device with incredible speeds. it is a blessing especially for me who is dealing with 4K video works. You can turn your computer on and off perversely. From the moment you press the power button, you can access Windows in 3 seconds. (2 seconds for the laptop to go to the bios, show the logo)


The price is quite high at the moment, but as time goes on, the price will decrease and the number of PCI supported laptops will increase.


M.2 Mini Sata

Mini Satalar is used in some ultrabooks and laptops because it has the same transfer speed as Sata IIIs but has a small form factor.


The approximate bandwidth offered by mSATA, which has developed in parallel with the expanding market shares of computers, is 6Gbp/s. A normal mSATA solid state disk weighs about 6-7 grams. It is spread over a wide area from computers to NUC systems.


However, mSATA cannot keep up with the rapidly developing technology. A new interface has been developed for SSDs promising more than 6Gbp/s.


Kingston SMS200S3/240G

Sequential read/write speed: 540MB/530MB/S

4K sequential read/write speed: 72K/40K IOPS


As we evaluated in M.2 Mini sata. mSATALs are unfortunately not as fast as PCI-based SSDs. However, it also has some advantages over classic SSDs with Sata III inputs.


One of them is that it can reach practically higher read and write speeds than conventional SSDs. The other is that it is lighter. In the meantime, let's mention that it creates less load on the computer in terms of power usage, so your laptop can go on a charge for a little longer.


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