LAPTOP PARTS

Solid state technology is composed of non moving semiconductor components, as opposed to electromechanical devices such as magnetic hard drives that rely upon moving read/write heads to store and retrieve data. Solid state hard drives (SSDs) have a low access time and run quieter than existing hard drives due to the lack of moving parts; if a cooling fan is added to the drive then noise will be apparent but at lower decibel levels. The fans are typically included in a RAM and Flash combination SSD. As of 2008, SSDs are capable of far lower seek-times and result in faster boot times and far lower temperature outputs.

For lower capacity SSDs the power consumption is markedly lower than traditional hard drives; but it

should be noted that higher capacity and higher end SSDs will have a much higher power consumption and heat generation. A downside of the SSD technology is that they have a limited number of write cycles as opposed to mechanical hard drives. The number of writes is a function of the type of SSD technology used but is limited. Solid state drives also can endure higher impacts and a larger range of operating temperatures making them ideal for laptops and use in extreme environments.

Solid state drives are more expensive per unit of storage than their traditional counterparts but are not affected by fragmented files in read times. Although, with solid state technology, a portion of the storage that is to be altered


or
written over will write over all of the stored information in that area, or sector, of the drive even if only a portion of it is being replaced. SSDs also have slower write speeds during small writes due to the fact that erase blocks on flash based SSDs are larger than traditional drives. This is not the case with DRAM solid state drives which are much faster than traditional hard drives.