Solid state memory. Solid State Drives (SSD) - Advantages and Disadvantages

Almost every user has already heard about solid-state drives, and some even use them. However, not many people have thought about how these discs differ from each other and why SSD is better HDD. Today we will tell you what the difference is and conduct a small comparative analysis.

The scope of application of solid-state drives is expanding every year. Nowadays SSDs can be found almost everywhere, from laptops to servers. The reason for this high speed and reliability. But, let's talk about everything in order, so first let's see what the difference is between a magnetic drive and a solid-state drive.

By and large, the main difference lies in the way the data is stored. Thus, HDD uses a magnetic method, that is, data is written to the disk by magnetizing its areas. In an SSD, all information is recorded in a special type of memory, which is presented in the form of microcircuits.

Features of the HDD device

If you look at the magnetic HDD(MWD) from the inside, it is a device that consists of several disks, read/write heads and an electric drive that rotates the disks and moves the heads. That is, the MZD is in many ways similar to a player vinyl records. Read/write speed modern devices can reach from 60 to 100 MB/s (depending on the model and manufacturer). And the rotation speed of disks usually varies from 5 to 7 thousand revolutions per minute, and in some models the rotation speed reaches 10 thousand. Based on the special device, there are three main disadvantages and only two advantages over SSDs.

• Noise that comes from electric motors and rotation of disks;
• The read and write speed is comparatively low because certain time spend money on positioning heads;
• High probability of mechanical breakdowns.

• Relatively low price for 1 GB;
• Large data storage capacity.

Features of the SSD device

Device solid state drive fundamentally different from magnetic storage devices. There are no moving parts, that is, there are no electric motors, moving heads or rotating disks. And all this thanks to a completely new way of storing data. Currently, there are several types of memory that are used in SSDs. They also have two interfaces for connecting to a computer - SATA and ePCI. For type SATA speed read/write can reach up to 600 MB/s, while in the case of ePCI it can range from 600 MB/s to 1 GB/s. An SSD drive is needed in a computer precisely for faster reading and writing of information from the disk and back.

Thanks to their design, SSDs have many more advantages over MZDs, but they are not without their disadvantages.

• No noise;
• High read/write speed;
• Less susceptible to mechanical breakdowns.

• High cost per 1 GB.

A little more comparison

Now that we have understood the main features of the disks, we will continue our comparative analysis further. Externally, SSD and MZD are also different. Again, thanks to its features magnetic storage much larger and thicker (if you do not take into account those for laptops), while SSDs are comparable in size to hard drives for laptops. Also, solid-state drives consume several times less energy.

To summarize our comparison, below is a table where you can see the differences between the disks in numbers.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that SSDs are better than MZDs in almost all respects, they also have a couple of disadvantages. Namely, this is volume and cost. If we talk about volume, then at present solid-state drives are significantly inferior to magnetic drives. They also benefit in cost magnetic disks because they are cheaper.

Well, now you know what the main differences between different types drives, so all that remains is to decide what is better and more rational to use - HDD or SSD.

Where we looked at what it is, how it works, etc. But we didn't say that hard disks, in fact, have already outlived their potential for growth in both volume and performance, and they have been replaced by modern solid-state drives or SSDs. Despite the fact that HDDs are still quite common, SSDs have also become very popular, and are gradually displacing outdated technology from the market.

Since the topic is popular and relevant, in today’s article we will look at SSDs: we will find out what they are, what are the features of their operation, characteristics, in general - as usual. Let's begin.

What is SSD

SSD drive - a computer non-mechanical storage device consisting of memory chips and a microcontroller. Comes from the English Solid State Drive, which literally means solid-state drive.

In this definition, every word has meaning. Not mechanical device means that there are no mechanical parts - nothing moves, buzzes or makes noise inside. As a result, nothing wears out or wears out. Since SSD drives have replaced traditional mechanical drives, this property is very important. Old disks suffered from vibrations during operation, but solid-state drives did not.

Memory chips are used to store information. The controller on the disk allows you to receive data from memory cells and write to them, transferring the data to common interface computer, regardless of the specific operation of the media memory. A giant flash drive is what an SSD drive is, it may seem at first glance, but only with a bunch of useless components.

What is an SSD for?

In any computer SSD replaces regular HDDs. It works faster, has small dimensions and does not make sounds. High loading speed of applications and the operating system increases the comfort of working with a PC.

What is an SSD in a laptop, where every watt of energy counts? Of course, first of all, it is a very economical storage medium. It is able to work with a battery charge longer. In addition, it has a very small size, which allows it to be included in the most compact hardware configurations.

What does an SSD consist of?

A small housing containing a small printed circuit board– this is an SSD disk externally. Several memory chips and a controller are soldered onto this board. On one side of this box there is a special connector - SATA, which allows you to connect an SSD drive like any other drive.

Memory chips are used to store information. It's not something that's on every computer. The memory in an SSD drive is capable of storing information even after it is turned off. Memory SSD drives non-volatile. Just like a regular disk, data is stored on magnetic plates, here the data is stored in special microcircuits. Writing and reading data is an order of magnitude faster than when working with mechanical disk platters.

The controller on the disk is a highly specialized one that can very efficiently distribute data in microcircuits. It also performs part of the cleaning operations disk memory and redistribution of cells when they wear out. To work with memory, it is very important to perform service operations in a timely manner so that information is not lost.

Buffer memory, as on regular disks, used for data caching. This is fast RAM on an SSD drive. The data is first read into buffer memory, are changed in it, and then only written to disk.

How does an SSD drive work?

Principle SSD operation disk is based on the specific operation of memory cells. The most common type of memory today is NAND. Data is processed in blocks, not bytes. Memory cells have limited resource rewrite cycles, that is, the more often data is written to the disk, the faster it will fail.

Reading data is very fast. The controller determines the address of the block that needs to be read and accesses the desired memory cell. If several non-sequential blocks are read in an SDD disk, this does not affect performance in any way. It simply refers to another block at its address.

The process of recording data is more complex and consists of a number of operations:

• reading a block into the cache;
• changing data in cache memory;
• practicing the procedure for erasing a block on non-volatile memory;
• writing a block to flash memory at an address calculated by a special algorithm.

Writing a block requires multiple accesses to memory cells on the SSD drive. An additional operation appears to clean the block before recording. To ensure that flash memory cells wear out evenly, the controller uses a special algorithm to calculate block numbers before writing.

The block erase operation (TRIM) is performed by SSD drives during idle time. This is done in order to reduce the time it takes to write a block to disk. When writing, the algorithm is optimized by removing the erase step: the block is simply marked as free.

Operating systems perform independently TRIM command, which leads to the cleaning of such blocks.

Types of SSD drives

All SSD drives are divided into several types depending on the interface through which they are connected to the computer.

• SATA – the drives are connected to the computer via the same interface as regular HDDs. They look like laptop drives and are 2.5 inches in size. The mSATA option is more miniature;
• PCI-Express – connect like regular video cards or sound cards into the computer expansion slots on the motherboard. They have higher performance and are most often installed on servers or computing stations;
• M.2 – a miniature version of the PCI-Express interface.

Modern SSD drives mainly use NAND memory. According to its type, they can be divided into three groups that appeared chronologically: SLC, MLC, TLC. The newer the memory became, the lower the reliability of its cells became. At the same time, the capacity increased, which helped reduce costs. The reliability of the disk depends entirely on the operation of the controller.

Not all SSD manufacturers disk drives themselves produce flash memory for their devices. Their memory and controllers are produced by: Samsung, Toshiba, Intel, Hynix, SanDisk. Few users have heard of an SSD drive manufactured by Hynix. The well-known manufacturer of flash drives Kingston uses Toshiba memory and controllers in its drives. Samsung itself is developing technologies for the production of memory and controllers and equips its SSD drives with them.

SSD Specifications

We have almost figured out SSD drives, all that remains is to talk about the characteristics. So:

• Disk capacity . Typically this characteristic is indicated by a value that is not a multiple of a power of two. For example, not 256 GB, but 240. Or not 512 GB, but 480 GB. This is due to the fact that disk controllers reserve part of the flash memory to replace blocks that have exhausted their resource. For the user, such a substitution occurs unnoticed and he does not lose data. If the disk size is 480 GB or 500 GB, then the flash memory on the disk is 512 GB, just different controllers reserve different amounts of it.
• Disk speed . Almost all SSD drives have a speed of 450 - 550 MB/sec. This value corresponds to the maximum speeds of the SATA interface through which they are connected. SATA is the reason why manufacturers are not trying to massively increase read speed. The writing speed in applications is significantly lower. The manufacturer usually indicates in the specifications exactly the recording speed on blank media.
• Number of memory chips . Performance directly depends on the number of memory chips: the more there are, the greater the number of operations that can be processed simultaneously on one disk. In one line of disks, the write speed usually increases as the disk capacity increases. This is explained by the fact that more capacious models the number of memory chips is greater.
• Memory type . More expensive and reliable MLC memory, less reliable and cheaper TLC, as well as own development Samsung - "3D-NAND". These three types of memory are now most often used in storage devices. In many respects, on modern solid-state drives, operational reliability depends on the quality of the controller.

conclusions

Despite their similarity to a giant flash drive, SSD drives carry a whole range of modern technologies, thanks to which they show a significant increase in productivity without losing reliability. Working with a computer, after installing the system on such a disk, becomes much more comfortable.

The abbreviation HDD - hard-disk drive - many have already memorized and understand that it is a hard drive. But what is SSD - a new acronym that... last years used even more often than HDD? Read about it in our article.

SSD: decryption

SSD stands for solid-state drive and is translated into Russian as “solid-state drive” or, less accurately, “solid-state drive”. Behind this abbreviation lies new technology data storage, more advanced compared to traditional ones hard drives.

SSD drive: what is it?

So, what is it - an SSD drive? main feature Such a drive has no moving parts. Conventional hard drives store data on rotating platters, and this rotation causes a number of disadvantages: firstly, it slows down the reading of data, secondly, it accelerates the wear of the drive and makes it more vulnerable to shock, and thirdly, it generates noise at work.

Nothing rotates in an SSD - the data here is stored in flash memory, and is written and erased using electric charges. Thanks to this, solid-state drives operate very quickly, do not produce any sounds, and are more resistant to shocks and falls.

True, this technology also has disadvantages. SSDs are significantly more expensive than hard drives of comparable capacity. In addition, the specifics of flash technology impose a limit on the number of rewrite cycles, so theoretically SSDs can fail earlier than hard drives, although practically modern solid-state drives are quite capable of successfully withstanding average term services of a regular user computer.

What is an SSD for?

Since a solid-state drive, as mentioned above, is not the cheapest pleasure, you should not thoughtlessly buy it to replace a regular hard drive. For storing large amounts of data that do not require high read speed, SSD is still not the best choice. You shouldn’t use it for files that are overwritten many times during the day, otherwise the drive’s service life will quickly come to an end.

Best to install on SSD operating system system - then it will work much faster. Both applications and games that require high speed reading data from the drive will benefit from this. Read our article on how to install a solid-state drive. And to store files, you should equip your computer with a second disk - a traditional HDD.

It probably won't be wrong to say that Computer World enters the era of solid state drives. Indeed, in comparison with them, hard drives are significantly inferior in power. For example, doubling RAM computer, you can increase its performance by no more than 10%. It's another matter if you equip your computer with an SSD.

Thus, a solid-state drive for a laptop purchased three years ago can increase its power by almost 3 times. This means that the “modernized” one, due to Laptop SSD, firstly, productivity becomes almost equal modern model in the same price category. Secondly, the launch of all programs is faster, including video conversion.

Thus, the question of why a solid-state drive is needed can be answered briefly - to increase the performance of your computer or laptop. However, SSDs also have other important advantages.

Plus the first: stability. Hard drives, which have moving heads and rotating magnetic platters, are susceptible to damage and shock, unlike solid-state drives. SSD memory chips, due to the lack of moving parts in them, are not sensitive to external influences. Therefore, even after your laptop falls from a small height, all data will be saved and will not be damaged.

Plus the second: silent operation. SSDs use flash memory that responds to high-speed data transfer. In addition, thanks to flash memory, SSDs operate almost silently. True, the fan of the computer cooling system makes this plus little noticeable.

How to install a solid state drive? Most modern PCs have a bay where you can install an SSD, and thus use a solid-state drive and a hard drive in parallel. But to really improve your computer's performance, you'll need to migrate your operating system from hard drive on SSD.

To simplify this procedure, there are special programs issued by manufacturing companies, as well as external containers costing from 300 rubles. Containers make it possible to use a solid-state drive as removable storage. After transferring the data to the SSD using a USB cable, the drive is removed from the external container and installed in the computer. In this case, the data is saved on the hard drive.

But what if your PC or laptop doesn't have an extra bay where you can install an SSD? In this case, you will have to replace the hard drive with it. To do this, you first need to transfer information system on external hard disk using an SSD with an external container, and then replace it.

How to choose a solid state drive? The main guidelines are the SSD capacity, a good combination of memory and controller, and a suitable connector. It is these factors that play a significant role in increasing computer performance after installing an SSD. Flash memory and the controller affect the data transfer speed of the solid-state drive, for example, they determine whether a movie will be copied in 45 seconds or 75.

When an SSD is connected to a laptop or PC, data is transferred through the SATA connector. It is better to choose an SSD with a SATA 3 interface, it provides higher speed transfers, however, SATA 2, although it has half the performance, is still significantly faster than a hard drive in speed. The speed of operation is also affected by the capacity of the solid-state drive. The performance of computers equipped with an SSD with a capacity of 500 GB is much higher than those with a 250 GB drive or, especially, a 120 GB drive.

Of course, the capacity of an SSD directly affects its price: the larger the capacity, the more expensive the drive is. However, the ability to remain fully operational for many years will pay off the investment in the future. So, having dealt with the question of why a solid-state drive (SSD) is needed, it remains to mention the fastest models of various capacities.

To do this, we will use the results of independent testing. Computer Bild magazine compared solid-state drives in terms of data transfer speed, power consumption, heat dissipation and performance indicators. As a result, among models with a capacity of 120 GB, the Samsung SSD 840 Pro, and OCZ's Vector series SSDs showed the highest performance among SSDs with capacities of 250 and 500 GB.

What shouldn't you expect from SSDs? Firstly, low power consumption, secondly, increased battery life. Both of these indicators remain unchanged when replacing the HDD with an SSD. Nevertheless, it is already clear that the future belongs to SSDs, and we hope our review will help you make a good choice.

Probably every person who is familiar with computer equipment, knows or has at least heard about such a device as an SSD drive. What is it and what role does it play in the operation of a computer? In short, SSD is used to record and store the user's personal data. You could argue that that's what hard drives are for. And this statement will be absolutely correct, because these components of the computer perform identical functions. So why was the SSD invented, what is it, how does it work and how does it differ from a regular HDD? All these questions can be answered in this article.

What is the difference between a hard drive and an SSD hard drive? What kind of device is this and what are the main principles of its operation?

Today, the main place to store most files on a computer is the hard drive. If you take it apart, you will find a rather fragile mechanism inside. It consists of magnetic plates rotating on a special head. A carriage moves between these plates, which finds and reads necessary information. The hard drive mechanism resembles a gramophone, but these devices perform different functions. Unlike the mechanism of a musical device, the hard drive carriage moves at a speed of several thousand revolutions per minute and performs work related to copying and recording information.

As for the SSD disk, or, as it is commonly called, a solid state drive, it is used for the same purposes as a hard disk. It just works completely differently. There are no moving elements inside this device, but special chips are installed to store information. A solid-state drive resembles a large flash drive that can be placed in place of a hard drive.

Basic principles of operation of solid-state drives

The memory of SSD disks consists of special blocks that are divided into cells where the necessary data is stored. Everything would be fine, but the main problem occurs when you need to delete or re-record existing information. The fact is that it is impossible to delete part of the information from one block, but you have to format the entire sector. In this case, the necessary data is stored in the cells of neighboring blocks and only then overwritten in the old place. Suppose you need to save data of 10 KB in size. In this case, the memory block has a volume of 20 KB, 10 KB of which are already occupied. In this case, the information available on the disk is transferred to another location, the entire block is deleted, and only then the old and new data are written. It turns out that to carry out one operation the system performs several more additional actions, which slows down performance and accelerates wear on the SSD.

To increase device performance, you must use special program TRIM, or SSD trimming as it is sometimes called. What it is and how it works, we will consider further. TRIM is not even an application, but special team, which the operating system sends to the solid-state drive to indicate unused items. Thanks to this function, you can immediately delete unnecessary files, avoiding additional operations with transferring information to neighboring blocks. And this significantly improves SSD performance. But this command not supported outdated versions operating systems. Therefore, to connect TRIM, Windows 7 or 8 must be installed on your computer, Linux versions 2.66.33 or higher.

What does an SSD consist of?

Having studied the differences between the two types of information storage, we will dwell in more detail on how solid-state storage devices are designed SSD drives what these devices are and how they function. In appearance, this is an ordinary box with connectors for connecting to a computer. Basically, SSD drives for home use are equipped with Sata interfaces, USB 3.0 and PCI-Express, which provide the required write and read speeds without any problems.

SSDs do not have any moving parts. mechanical parts. Thanks to this, they are much more resistant to external factors. For example, an ordinary HDD disk is a rather fragile thing, because if during shaking or falling the reading head comes into contact with the magnetic plate, this will lead to the failure of the media. But solid-state drives are designed completely differently. Inside these devices, special boards are installed on which memory chips and a controller are soldered. Some SSD drives are additionally equipped with compact batteries, which, in case of sudden shutdown electricity provides the cache with additional power, and the data is stored on the main memory chips. Now let's take a closer look at the main components of a solid-state drive.

SSD memory: what is it and what are its main functions?

Most SSD drives use NAND, or, as it is also called, flash memory. Similar chips are used in regular flash drives, only in solid-state drives they are more reliable and have greater speed due to the presence of a controller. Due to their low cost, they are widely used in SSDs, making these devices quite affordable for most users. Another advantage of this is that it is non-volatile and will not require additional food for work.

In addition to NAND technology, solid-state drives sometimes use RAM-SSD. This type of memory has a high speed of writing and reading data due to the use of chips used to create RAM. He will demand permanent connection to electricity, which is why SSD drives that use RAM often have additional batteries in case of a sudden power outage. Due to the high cost of producing these drives, they are rarely found in home PCs and laptops. RAM-SSDs are mainly used in computer systems large companies to increase the speed of working with databases.

Today, most drives use NAND memory. Despite this, these SSD drives differ from each other in speed of writing, reading data and cost. It all depends on the chips used in the drive: SLC, TLC or SSD MLC. What is it and what is the difference between them? This is how different ones are designated. The most common technology is MLC, thanks to which two bits of information can be stored in one cell. TLC makes it possible to write as many as 3 bits, but this leads to faster cell wear, so this technology not very popular. The fastest and most durable is SLC memory, with which you can write only one bit of data in each cell. Among the disadvantages, we can only highlight the high cost, which is 2 times higher than the price of an MLC SSD.

Controller

The controller is the most important element, without which the SSD cannot function. What it is and what its role is, we will find out further. These devices perform the work of distributing the load between memory blocks, are responsible for reading and writing information, error correction and file compression. The controller resembles command center, where decisions related to data processing are made. The speed of operation of the solid-state drive and its durability depend on this detail. The main component of the controllers is a special microprocessor, which bears the entire load. Also, the performance of the device depends on the quality of the firmware.

Quite a lot of companies are engaged in the production of SSD drives, because the technology for their production is quite simple and requires less time than creating a classic hard drive. All you need is to purchase memory chips, controllers and boards where everything will be soldered. After this, the design is placed in a beautiful case with a company logo - and the product is ready for sale. But the components themselves for solid-state drives have a high price, and the creation of a controller and high-quality firmware for it will require large expenses. Because of this, the cost of SSD drives today is much higher than conventional HDDs.

Hybrid SSD HDD

Now let's look at the hybrid SSD HDD. What is this device and what is it intended for? Every year, solid state drives are gaining more and more popularity. Technology does not stand still, and standard hard drives are gradually replacing more technologically advanced systems. SDD drives are present in many computers, but are used not as the main storage of information, but as an additional one. And all because their cost is significantly higher compared to conventional hard drives. To compensate for this gap between the two types of drives, it was created hybrid HDD SSD. Let’s try to consider in more detail what kind of device this is and what advantages it has.

The hybrid drive is based on the same HDD without any changes. But chips with flash memory are also installed in the body of these drives, which are used as a buffer zone. The information that is most frequently used is copied to it. This made it possible to increase the loading speed of some applications and the operating system itself when compared with conventional hard drives. The maximum amount of flash memory in such hybrid SSDs is 8GB. What was the result? In fact, we have something between a hard drive and a small solid-state drive. You cannot load data or install applications into buffer memory. It is used as a reserve for running priority programs that the user cannot control independently. As for the price, the cost of hybrid drives is lower than standard SSDs, but higher than HDDs; moreover, they are not very popular in our country, so they are not sold everywhere.

Benefits of a Solid State Drive

An integral part modern computer is an SSD drive. We have found out what kind of device this is and how it works, all that remains is to highlight its main pros and cons compared to conventional HDDs. Let's start with positive aspects solid state drives.

The most important thing advantage of SSD is incredible and recording information. They are several times more productive hard drives. For example, the data processing speed of some drives exceeds 500 MB/s. In practice this gives more fast work programs and the operating system itself, which boots in a matter of seconds. This is very important, because the current generation of computers has high performance, which is greatly slowed down by HDDs. But with the advent of new drives, their speed has increased significantly.

Another advantage of SSD devices is their higher resistance to external factors. They do not have such a fragile mechanism as hard drives. Thanks to this, they can easily withstand shaking, vibration and moderate impacts to the body. These devices will become great solution for laptops. In addition, they cope better with temperature changes.

Another advantage of SSD is its quietness and low power consumption. Due to the fact that in hard drives There are moving mechanical elements, they produce a certain level of noise. In addition, in working HDD condition have enough high temperature, so the coolers have to spin at an accelerated rate. But all these problems are absent from SSDs, which do not heat up, do not make noise and consume less electricity.

Flaws

Having assessed all the advantages of solid-state drives, it remains to find out which weak sides has an SSD hard drive. What are these flaws? The first one is the high cost. similar drives. Despite the simplicity of their design, manufacturing flash memory chips and controllers is quite an expensive business. But there is no need to be upset about this, because technology is constantly developing, and the price of these goods is gradually decreasing. In a couple of years, they may well be equal in price to HDDs.

After the first drawback, a second one can be identified. Due to their high cost, SSDs have lower storage capacity than HDDs. For example, the memory capacity of some HDDs is 8 TB, while SDDs only reach 1 TB.

SSD memory is short-lived and will fail after a certain number of write cycles. Although the current generation of these devices has a fairly long service life, you must be prepared for the fact that one day the drive will stop working, and it will be problematic to restore information.

I would like to add that SSDs do not tolerate power surges quite well. If after one of these voltage drops it burns out, then it will be impossible to obtain data. In the case of an HDD disk, a certain sector in it will fail, but most of it will remain intact, thanks to which all undamaged information can be retrieved.

What should you pay attention to when buying an SSD?

Having studied the information about solid-state drives, many users probably wanted to purchase this device for your computer. But you don’t have to immediately run to the store and grab the first product that comes your way. Here are some tips to help you choose an SSD.

First you need to pay attention to the size of the SSD. What it is? In other words, this is the amount of built-in The higher its value, the more information can be written down. But you don’t need to buy the most expensive products, because solid-state drives are mainly used for installing operating systems and applications on them, and the main storage location is still the hard drive. Having completed your SSD system with just 60-120 GB, you can achieve a significant increase in the speed of your computer.

Reading and copying speed plays an important role. The higher it is, the better, but it happens that motherboard cannot reveal the full potential of an SSD drive due to its small bandwidth tires. It happens that there is no point in installing fast drives in old laptops or PCs at all, because even after the update the system will work the same as on a regular HDD. Therefore, it is worth studying the configuration of your computer, and only then go to the store. The largest ones are, and for outdated IDE ports you will need a special adapter to install an SSD.

The most important component of any SSD is the controller. It is this detail that controls all processes associated with information processing. The durability of the entire device depends on how well it is made, so it is recommended to give preference to proven and proven manufacturers. The leaders in production are SandForce, Marvell, Intel, Indilinx.

Finally, you should pay attention to the dimensions of the drive. For a PC this is not so important, because in system unit You can install any SSD, but problems may arise with laptops.

Basic rules for using solid-state drives

After looking at reviews from users and experts, we can conclude that an SSD hard drive is an integral part of a modern computer. We have already looked at what it is and how it works. Now you need to learn how to use it correctly. As strange as it may sound, in order to understand all the advantages of solid-state drives, you need to follow a few simple rules.

There is no need to fill all available memory to capacity. Many people neglect this rule, because SSDs are quite expensive, so users buy small drives and completely load them with necessary and not so necessary information. But we must remember that if you leave less than 25% free space, then the data processing speed will decrease significantly. The fact is that the more memory, the higher the number of free blocks where data can be written. When there is too little space left, information is distributed across the cells of neighboring blocks, and this leads to a decrease in performance.

It is worth remembering that using solid-state drives you can significantly increase the performance of your computer, so it is recommended to install the operating system, applications and demanding games on them. But you should use HDD as the main storage of information. This will be more economical and practical, because they can easily cope with playing audio and video files no worse than SSDs.

It is best to have one of the following installed on your computer latest versions operating systems. For example, Windows XP or Vista are poorly optimized for working with solid-state drives and do not support the TRIM command.