The Optane modules attempt the RAM replacement/assistance role and are very fast. NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) allows speeds at the moment of around 4 GBps (32,000 Mbps), mostly 2 GBps (16,000 Mbps) after overheads (and how implemented) compared to SATA 3 at 600 MBps even with a SSD, The SATA limit of speed is about 500 MBps (0.5 GBps for comparison) after overheads so if buying a SATA connected SSD you won’t get more than this. Most laptops are still using SATA ports though some are moving to M2. and similar connections. NVMe needs only a single message for 4 KB transfers instead of the 2 needed for SATA. It can process multiple queues, 65,536 of them. All this means it is very fast at handling traffic. So with NVMe the real throttling comes because of the pipeline it uses and how it is implemented more than the saving of data to the chip. If you placed 4 NVMe drives in a RAID 0 you have a theoretical limit of around 16 GBps (128 Gbps or 128,000 Mbps).
Of course RAM is faster at the moment but the way it is advancing on the storage side I think they will soon be very similar.
in my many years of dealing with computers i have never known a computer slow down from anything else than os, software problems, or mal/virus infections. true, excessive heat on either gpu or cpu might affect performance under some situations, but that’s more an exception than a rule.
most hd’s might well give some ‘notice’ of impending failure, but generally a pc works, or it doesn’t.
all that said, i have used ssd’s for os since they first came out, and use then professionally for video work, but all in all, for everyday use / economy, such as storing video, music, docs, etc., a large capacity 7.5k hd suffices
I’m totally with you Fred! SSD technology is excellent and I definitely notice the improvement when browsing through photos as the thumbnails render quickly with SSD. As a couple of others have noted, SSDs support a finite number of write operations. On the bright side, the limit is very high. To cite an example from a CNet article: “if you write 50GB of data per day every day to the drive, it will take you some 12 years to wear it out”.
The general recommendation is to limit the use of functions which unnecessarily execute disk-intensive write operations - for example disk benchmarking operations, hibernation mode and unnecessary defragmentation operations.
A few years ago a major vendor proposed and sold an SSD based disk caching system as part of a many $millions system. It did not work well for many reasons but the germane part is the SSD life cycles were months not years (how about those write cycles). Technology has moved on, but.
Without going into the longevity or reliability of SSD technologies, that kind of advice can put angst rather than reassurance in the minds of some. The shop tells them an SSD is better, systems increasingly come with SSDs, and they are what they are. How many ‘non-technical mortals’ have any concept of or would keep track of write cycles? Reports? What are they? (chuckles). Most people who still use computers turn them on and use them. Backups? Aren’t those in the cloud?
Watching so many people grab onto the latest technology and finding they need to learn something about it is sometimes a bit of schadenfreude.
The best general recommendation might also be to leave things alone. A factory set up from a reputable manufacturer should need no intervention. A little knowledge and an ill informed user are a sure fire recipe for disaster. Feel free to delete any crapware if you are confident of your actions.
A modern personal device does not require the owner to do anything such as delve into defrag, hibernation, or any other settings and play with speed testing. If they honestly have expert knowledge that is appropriate the one thing they will prioritise over all else is a reliable backup regime. That’s the one and only thing every user needs to do. If you also connect on line you can add - It would also be wise to have a reliable firewall and AV installed! And ensure all updates are current.
Data on an SSD is far more likely to be lost or destroyed due to user ignorance, early life electronic failure or hacking than the SSD wearing out from over use. The speed benefits of SSD drives are not a recent innovation. My older laptop 2009 vintage still has it’s original SSD as does my updated three year old desktop. Both drives are consumer grade Samsung products. I also happily use hibernation to save where I left off, although sleep will do the same so long as the power or battery stays up.
Yes. It may be obvious to the nerds but if you look at the things that keep you waiting, that it is within your grasp to fix, slow loading is a stand out. Unless you are a serious gamer rendering and CPU limitations are not significant in a modern 'puter and often there is little you can do about slow network.
Commercial SSDs are hitting the bus speed limit now. In other words, we need new and wider buses, which will mean new standards and old hardware not working with your shiny new motherboard.
There are SATA III SSDs, there are M.2 style SSDs and PCI-e SSDs that are the mainstream types. SATA III SSDs have reached potential long ago ie 500 MBps read and writes (bytes not bits) is close to the limit of the SATA III specifications and nearly every SSD of this type now reaches those thresholds. In the M.2 you have standard which are really just SATA III specification or you can get NVMe M.2 drives which have some reaching around 4,000 MBps (many around 2,000 MBps) in reads and between 1,000 and 3,000 MBps writes, these NVMe drives require a NVMe enabled M.2 slot to see these speeds. PCI-e achieve similar to NVMe drives but require a PCI-e Gen 3 Bus to have these outcomes.
If buying a gaming laptop and looking for best drive performance then you are best looking for a NVMe SSD drive installed in an NVMe capable laptop.
If you want reasonable performance but not the edge of possibilities then either a M.2 standard drive or an SATA III type SSD will give you reasonable benefits. In regards to older laptops the upgrade to an SSD over the old rotational drives will see big improvements and these are generally easy to install in the older laptops. Newer laptops/Surfaces/Ultra Books/tablets are much harder to deal with and in many cases it is better to get skilled replacement done than a do it yourself approach.
Some users of Windows 11 (not a huge amount but even if a minority it is a problem for those affected) have been experiencing SSD slowdowns since around March 2023 due to what appears to be a problem that is in the mandatory Microsoft updates. The issue appears to be about writes to the drives and not reads. Large file writes appear to be the worst affected types of writes. One fix has been to remove all updates back to March, this however leaves gaping security holes in the Windows 11 operating system and is not a recommended action.
Windowslatest and Yahoo have written articles about the problem
