One of the main things that we notice when we get our new computer out of the box and turn it out is that, in the shop, it starts up like lightening. We get it home, we start to install our programs and get it working how we want and.. that sort of *wow zOMG my computer is sooooo fast* sort of fades.. well, for the bigger laptops and desktops that come with mechanical drives.
One of the most cost effective and easiest way to improve your boot and speed performance on your computer is by switching from a larger mechanical (or tradition style 'hard disk drive') to a solid state drive. In one of our upcoming blog posts, we are going to show you the difference between this by showing you, in real time, how long it takes for your computer to boot up and run using both storage methods.
Solid state drives had a bit of a reputation for making you have to decide between whether you wanted space, or wanted speed (or spending a lot more money than you would have otherwise). This is becoming less of an issue these days as the sizes are increasing and the prices of SSDs are coming down to be far more reasonable and at the moment, you can get a decent size SSD for a far more reasonable price.
Jo talked about her gaming rig in the previous blog post and one of the main reasons she had put off getting her upgrade done for so long was just due to the fact that Master Tech had convinced her to switch out her big old mechanical drive for small SSD (120gb) to put her operating system, World of Warcraft and productivity programs on. When she turned it on the first time, it was like a whole new computer.
Similar story with one of our regular customers who was on a tight budget and madly saving for his dream gaming rig. He was pretty much having trouble gaming on his laptop in any sort of reasonable manner. He wanted the most cost effective performance increase he could manage with his limited resources. We cloned his data over on to his new 250gb SSD and the expression on his face the first time he turned it on was priceless.
That being said, where you have to make a choice because you only have capacity for one or the other, if storage space is your primary concern and speed, not so much, then your mechanical drives do tend to be better option. Watch this space, though, because as time and technology march on, SSD are becoming larger and cheaper per gigabyte (gb).
