Netbook Users, What is a Solid State Drive?

Perhaps the biggest contribution of netbooks in the mini laptop market is how it made the Solid State Drive (SSD) popular. Prior to that, the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) lorded over computer storage. But what is SSD netbook?

The term "solid state" is actually an electrical term that refers to electronic circuitry that is built entirely from semiconductors. The term originally encompassed electronics like a transistor radio, which use semiconductors instead of vacuum tubes. When you talk about SSD, it only means that the storage medium is built entirely on semiconductors rather than a magnetic media like the hard drive.

Flask disks Versus SSD

A flash disk, which can be plugged into a computer's USB port, is similar to SSD in that both use non-volatile memory chips that allow them retain stored information even when they have no power. They differ in form and storage capacity. A flash disk is meant to be an external device that should be plugged to a USB port. On the other hand, an SSD resides inside a computer's chassis in lieu of the traditional hard drive or HDD.

On the surface, an SSD looks no different than a traditional hard drive because it comes in different standard sizes (1.8", 2.5" or 3.5") and also uses either an ATA or SATA drive interfaces so it can be used in a computer.

Why Use an SSD?

An SSD definitely has several advantages over a traditional hard drive, and it has a lot to do with the fact that an SSD has no movable parts. While an HDD would have a drive motor to spin the magnetic platters and the drive heads, storage on an SSD is handled by flash memory chips. Because of this, solid state drives use less power, can boot data faster (up to 20%) and are generally more reliable than traditional hard drives.

The first netbooks to be sold in the market use solid state drives because they draw less power. Netbooks thus have longer battery life. Netbooks that use flash drives also tend to be shock-proof. Hard drive platters are very fragile and sensitive, even small jarring movements from an impact can cause the drive to be completely unreadable. Since a solid state drive stores all its data in memory chips, there are fewer moving parts to be damaged in any sort of impact.

Disadvantages Of SSD

Probably the only disadvantage of netbooks that use SSD is that they have low storage capacity. While hard drives can store up to 200 GB of data, most SSD netbooks can only hold up to 64GB of data.

Apart from the low storage capacity, SSD-driven netbooks are also more expensive than netbooks that use HDD. But all this is expected to change as the number of companies producing the solid state drives and the capacity for producing the flash memory chips grows. Solid state drives cost less than half in 2007 than in 2006.

Some netbook manufacturers like MSI are trying to get the best of both SSD and HDD by manufacturing mini laptops that have so-called hybrid storage capacities.

Visit the website http://www.compareminilaptops.com/ for more information on netbooks and the different netbook models.