How SSDs work and which ones to avoid

AnandTech has taken another close look at solid state disk, you can read Anand's 31-pages long article over here. He thoroughly explains why the performance of SSDs degrades over time and provides lots of benchmark results to tell you which SSDs are good and which aren't. Basically, if you have the money the Intel X25-M SSD is the one you should get, but the OCZ Vertex is a good value alternative. This article is long but definitely worth a read if you have the time.

The Intel drive is still the best of the best. Yes, it, and other SSDs do get slower over time and later in this article I’ll explain why it happens and why it’s not as big of a deal as you’d think. The issues I complained about with the JMicron drives from last year are still alive and well today; they’re just somewhat occluded.

Delay after delay kept me from writing this article, but I believe it’s for the best. What went in to what you’re about to read is nearly six months of research, testing and plain old work with SSDs.

The timing couldn’t be more perfect. We’re about to see a new wave of SSDs hit the market and it’s time to separate the fact from the fiction, the benchmarks from reality and the men from the boys. The last time I wrote an article about SSDs I ruffled quite a few feathers. That’s never my aim, but we’ll see what comes of this one.