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| Frequently Asked Questions on Solid State Disks |
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| Q: What is the difference between a Solid Sate Disk (SSD) and a Disk on Module (DOM) |
| A: Solid State Disks and Disks on Module are solid state flash disks. That means they are pure flash memory with a standard connector and controller. There are no moving parts, making them rugged, immune to vibration and dropping, and they have no altitude operating restrictions. A Disk on Module (DOM) is a term for a disk that plugs DIRECTLY into a motherboard's socket. PQI and other manufacturers make DOMS with IDE, USB, or SATA connector. DOMs are popular in point of sales machines, ATMs, and other tight-fit applications. DOMs are the smallest form factor possible and are smaller than standard disk drive |
| A Solid State Disk (SSD) is a DOM that is in the form factor of a hard disk. 1.8", 2.5", and 3.5" form factors are drop in replacments for hard disks. The SSD has a standard connector on it such as IDE or SATA (or BOTH!). The solid state disk is connected to the motherboard via a standard connector. The SSD can have a higher maximum capacity since it is a physically larger size. Check out the new PQI 64GB SSD. It is a 2.5" form factor and is only 8.45mm high! No other manufacturer keeps the height that low on such a high capacity! |
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| Q: I heard that NAND flash memory costs $X per GB, so why isn't a 32GB SSD under $1000? |
| A: Simply conjecturing that NAND flash chips costs X dollars per GB, and doing simple math is irresponsible reporting by the media. First of all, there are more parts than just the flash chips. There is the controller and engineering required for you to be able to plug it into ANY computer and have that computer recognize it has a hard disk. Secondly, there are different grades of NAND flash. The best manufactures, such as PQI, M-Systems, Bitmicro, and Adtron use Industiral Grade Flash. (PQI uses Samsung NANDs). The companies that charge half the price of PQI SSDs use consumer grade flash. It is inferior and unstable. Super Talent, Q-Memory, and others produce SSDs that are so unstable that they will generate blue screens of death in Windows, causing you to reinstall Windows DAILY. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. That's why our customers prefer PQI. Their prices are about half that of M-Systems, and they perform at the same level! We have benchmarked them inside our test system with identical results. We buy directly from PQI and can assure you that we pay far more than $1000 for a 32GB at the wholesale level. Last we checked, a 32GB SSD from M-Systems costs about $8000! PQI prices start at $1799 for 32GB. You may have seen one other company advertising PQI SSDs and you can plainly see that we beat them by $300 to $500 PER UNIT. As (if) prices fall, we will pass it along. Keep in mind that NAND flash is a 20 year old technology, and prices have just now gotten down to THIS level. |
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| Q: What about speed? I see M-Systems claims a 45MB/s read speed, yet you say that the PQIs are just as fast even though the spec sheet says they operate at 25MB/s. How fast are they? |
| A: Well, lets start by restating from the above question that the 2.5" PQI Turbo SSDs benchmark as fast as M-Systems. We have tested them each at right around 25MB/s using HD Tach 3.0. We think that maybe M-Systems used a a different benchmark to get their performance numbers. Or maybe hard disk benchmarks don't quite do justice to solid state disks. For instance, the current line of 1.8" SSDs from PQI benchmark at 15MB/s, yet they will boot a laptop 21% faster than a laptop drive rated at 30MB/s (rated at TWICE the throughput)! One reason for this is the superior random access properties of SSDs. When data become scattered around a hard disk's platters, the read/write head must thrash about, losing performance. Any area of a solid state disk is instantly accessible at <1ms. So while the throughput of a hard disk might be twice as fast as current SSDs, the access times of the SSD are over FIFTEEN TIMES FASTER than the best mechanical hard disk. When you look at a chart that benchmarks the number of I/Os an SSD is capable of, compared to a hard disk, you notice the SSD on top and then have to scroll down...farther...farther...Oh! There are the hard drives! It's that big of a difference. Samsung and Microsoft say that flash disks are 50 to 100 times faster for 4K transfers, a common data set size for Windows operation....which is the premise of Vista ReadyBoost. SSDs are great for database applications, multi-user, multi-I/O environments. If you are just looking for another drive for A/V editing, look elsewhere. SSDs are fast enough, but not necessary...But for rugged needs, high-altitude needs, databases and such, SSDs are an excellent solution. Beware of marketing claims of speed. Adtron advertises a solid state disk that operates at 85MB/s. So we called them and spoke with an engineer who candidly told me that that it was marketing hype and to expect performance in the 30s. At DV Nation, we are honest about performance and think that for now, PQI provides the best value. We are in contact with companies in Tawian, Korea, and Japan. So when other SSDs come out, we will provide them if they are superior. |
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| Q: I hear people in forums cry about the number of read/write cycles. How long will a modern SSD last? |
| A: First-generation SSDs had an expectation of 1,000,000 write cycles. With technologies such as wear leveling, and the newest NANDs, that has increased to 5,000,000 write cycles. Manufacturer suggest a 10 year life expectancy. 3.5" hard drives come with a 3 to 5 year warranty. SSDs are so reliable that they have been sent to Mars on Mars Rovers. You can't do that with something that won't last. We have been selling PQI SSDs since the middle of 2006 with no returns for any reason. On the other hand we have purhased numerous 2.5" laptop mechanical hard disks that failed within 2 to 3 weeks! This WON'T happen with solid state disks! SSDs should outlast the useful life of your system. |
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| Q: Do you have a solid state disk for the Motion Computing Tablet? |
| A: 50pin IDE 1.8" SSD with "Toshiba connector " is produced by Samsung. |
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| Q: Do you have a solid state disk for the Samsung Q1 UMPC? |
| A: The Samsung Q1 uses a disk drive with a ZIF (zero insertion force) connector. Samsung's Module type SSD has ZIF interface. This SSD can use in Samsung's, Asus's UMPC and Sony sub.note PC's. Also Samsung released Q1 SSD, new UMPC model with SSD is produced by Samsung. |
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