We all love the concept of solid state disks. We sure don't love the price, but if the manufacturers performance estimates remain true and the capacity continues to increase, everyone will want it. However, how do these drives really fare when it comes to performance? We're now starting to see them put to the test. While not exactly a "name-brand", this drive is still a 16GB SSD that will give you a good idea of what we can expect them to behave like. Considering that Dell and others are now planning and deploying SSD-equipped laptops, it's important to know.
Unfortunately for these first-of-a-kind drives, they have a lot going against them, from first gen tech to low density to an industry that has almost exclusively focused on boosting the performance of mechanical disks. It shows, and the performance of this 16GB drive didn't fare much better than a USB pendrive. Read speeds, write speeds, sustained transfers and any other test involving pushing data really hit the drive hard, with a standard 7200RPM disk scoring more than double it in most areas. However, that's not to say the drive isn't worth using. The advantages of SSD are very apparent, and the performance compared to flash technology just a mere five years ago is substantially improved. Samsung and others have promised flash drives capable of competing with desktop drives, and it doesn't seem to be that far off, with 128GB units planned by some manufacturers for this year.