Laptops with solid state drives pack in a lot more than just raw processing power.
Laptops are fast growing as the preferred choice for computing, be it at home, work or even for gaming. While there are several advantages that a laptop has over a desktop, there are downsides too, like battery life; but then again, the pros far outweigh the cons. It is a computer which is mobile, compact and just as practical to use as any desktop. With the constant evolution of all things technical, every aspect of mobile computing is getting better day by day. So, whether you need a laptop for business, internet activities or hardcore gaming, there is a laptop out there for you.
Desktop Replacement
Of course, for a laptop to effectively replace a desktop, there are several criteria it must fulfill, of which performance and reliability will always be on top of the list for almost every user. Apart from evolution allowing faster, multi-core CPUs, more amounts of faster DDR3 memory and cutting-edge graphics technology, there is one critical component that controls a chunk of your performance rating – your hard drive. Hard drives are one of the few components in a laptop that use moving parts. Traditionally, they’ve had several magnetic platters stacked one above another, with read/write heads moving in and out constantly seeking and storing data. Of course, these evolved too, with more storage per platter, faster spindle speeds and more cache memory for the fastest possible access times coupled with good reliability. But even at their peak, these hard drives are limited to the maximum stretch of their functional parameters. With a gap of a few micrometers separating the platters from the read/write heads, if they happen to fall from a reasonable height, or experience a strong shock, you can be sure that your data is all but intact. Backups began alternate avenues with the flash drive, and the way the market and capacity of flash drives were growing; a move to a new storage platform was what most of us were expecting.
Solid-state Drives:
Solid-state drives, or SSDs, are substitutes for conventional hard drive storage. They use the flash drive’s principle of data storage – NAND flash memory, which retains memory even without power. More importantly, there are absolutely no moving parts, and with the interface being the same as conventional hard drives, you can have SATA generation 3 speeds as well – up to true 520 MB/sec read and 400 MB/sec write speeds. This allows computing performance to breach a whole new level, with access times facing an instant drop. This ups the experience you have with every application, and, if you happen to be a gamer, it gives new life to fast-paced games! Laptops with SSD are also lighter, and you run a lower risk of data loss in case of minor impacts.
Laptop Pricing
On the downside, they are quite expensive! Even a 128 GB SSD will cost you around $200, while Intel offers a 600 GB SSD for about $1,100. Enterprise drives of 3.2 TB are also available for around $20,000! That’s a lot by any stretch of the imagination. However, 256 GB drives are the ones doing the rounds inside most gamers’ rigs, as that translates to sufficient capacity if you’re not one to store a lot of audio and video files on it. A large capacity conventional hard drive is more than ample storage for several large audio or HD video collections.
With several industry leaders offering laptops with SSD storage for a good price, there are no shortages of options for good, reliable computing. If you need that sort of performance boost rooted to storage and access speeds, and if price is not a concern, these laptops are exactly what you need.