Since the beginning of this year, the price of SSDs has been loosened. Many third-tier brands have even reached the price range of 1.5 yuan and 1GB. There is no doubt that this is a good time to buy SSDs.
However, faced with those parameters of SSD propaganda that seem mixed with English, it is believed that many consumers are confused. Which SSD is better? What kind of SSD is worth starting with?
Here, the old driver will simply look at some of the parameters of SSD promotion, let you buy solid-state hard drives, and no longer be afraid of the profiteers!
First determine the purchased capacity according to demand
Capacity, which is the size of the file space that the SSD can hold, should be understood by most people. After all, digital products around us include, but are not limited to, computers, mobile phones, and USB flash drives.
First of all, we need to know what our own needs are, so that we can spend our money on it. If we just upgrade old computers, then the SSDs we buy will only need to have a system plus some common software, then 120GB capacity is sufficient. The SSD has completely met your needs.
However, if we need to put a few more games into the SSD system, we may need to purchase about 250GB or even about 500GB of SSDs.
If you have a lot of work renderings, the model needs to be stored. At this time, you may need to purchase a 1TB SSD to meet your needs. After all, the guy who eats can not save, and the solider the capacity, the higher the cost performance.
Buying a solid state requires a look on the brand/grain
When buying SSDs, people are most concerned about the problem of solid-state life. Because there is no clear difference in service life between mechanical hard disks, SSDs have a theoretical service life, and they become obsolete after a while. The data is priceless. Therefore, Solid-state hard disk is best not to choose products using unknown NADA flash memory particles.
Speaking of NADA flash memory SSDs, what is NADA flash memory?
NAND flash memory is a kind of non-volatile storage technology that can still save data after power off, and NADA flash memory particles are of course the particles that store data. Now most of the costs of solid state are on the particles, so the importance of selecting particles is natural. It goes without saying.
There are three types of storage particles on the market, namely TLC, MLC and SLC. In the future, there may also be particles called QLC.
What is the difference between these three kinds of particles? SLC English is Single-Level Cell, single-layer unit, ie 1bit/cell.
The access principle is that the SLC architecture has two charging values of 0 and 1; that is, each cell can only access 1 bit of data, which is somewhat similar to the switching circuit. Although it is simple and very stable, the SLC particle lifetime is the longest, and the read/write speed is the longest. It is also the fastest and the natural cost is also the highest.
The Multi-Level Cell (MLC), ie, 2 bit/cell, has a small difference between read and write speeds and SLC, but its lifetime is not as good, and the cost is much lower. TLC particles are followed, 3 bit/cell, cost life, and read/write speed. It is the smallest of the three.
Therefore, the SSD particles are selected. Theoretically, SLC is better than MLC, and MLC is better than TLC. The QLC to be released is a more cost-effective, life-long, and closer-than-TLC particle.
Nowadays, there are not many manufacturers in the world capable of producing NADA flash memory particles, only Intel, South Korea Hynix, American Microlight, South Korea's Samsung, Japan's Toshiba and US SanDisk.
Therefore, the purchase of SSDs from the above companies is the most reliable. A winter also recommends that you buy solids from several manufacturers that produce NADA flash memory.
Even if you buy other branded products, you must first understand what brand of the product is used.
Some unknown third-line brands may adopt black and white films to reduce costs. The so-called black and white films, ie scraps or unqualified particles generated during the production of flash particles, are stipulated to be eliminated. These particles cannot be guaranteed or even easily damaged.
But how do you look at the lifespan of SSDs? When SSDs are advertised, how many TBWs are there? This is the Total Byte Written, which is the data of their lifetime.
For example, the TBW of the Plextor M8VC 512GB we reviewed earlier is 280TB, which means that when you write a total of 280TB of data to this hard disk, the hard disk is scrapped. Needless to say, the larger the TBW, the better In the future, everyone can estimate how long the SSD can last.
Decided to buy category
The mainstream SSD interfaces on the market can be divided into three major categories. One is SATA3.0 interface solid state drives, and the other is M.2 interface solid state drives. There is also a relatively rare PCIe interface solid state drive commonly used in enterprises. The interface is just a surface, depending on the performance of the SSD, the transmission protocol must be considered.
SSDs are classified into NVMe protocol and AHCI protocol according to the transmission protocol classification. The read and write speed of SSDs based on NVMe transmission protocol is much better than AHCI transmission protocol.
SATA interface SSD must be AHCI protocol , Some M.2 interface SSDs are NVMe protocol. , it will usually mark out its own use of NVMe protocol, because this is a big selling point.
However, some M.2 interface SSDs are AHCI protocols. They are generally not marked.
Regarding the solid state differentiation of the M.2 interface, in fact, we have previously published articles detailing the adoption of the NVMe transmission protocol for the PCIe channel. Its theoretical maximum theoretical bandwidth is 32Gbps, and the AHCI protocol is the SATA 6Gb/s channel. , Its highest theoretical bandwidth is only 6Gbps, the two are far apart, so do not choose the wrong oh.
Therefore, when we choose a solid state drive, if we are pursuing the ultimate in performance, we must remember to select the NVMe solid state drive. Conversely, if there is no need for performance, choose the SATA interface AHCI solid state drive, because they will be much cheaper. .
What is continuous reading speed?
The so-called continuous reading and writing speed, as its name suggests, is the speed of continuously reading and writing a file. This performance gives consumers the most intuitive experience when copying large files from one hard disk drive to another. At this time, a high-speed continuous SSD reads out The advantages.
But in fact, in our daily lives, copying and writing large files is not a lot. Therefore, although this data needs to be looked at, it is not the most valued. In fact, the most impact on the user experience is random read and write speeds. Also called 4K reading and writing speed.
What is 4K random read and write speed
In fact, the files we read on disk are generally random. For example, when our system or game reads and writes records, 4K random read/write speed is to read or write random data. Really reflect the true performance of the hard disk.
Therefore, when we choose to buy SSDs, we should look at the product's 4K random read and write speeds.
Conclusion
We choose solid-state drives to first select the capacity and type according to their own needs, then select the brand, and finally compare the random reading and writing speeds between the solid-state random number of the same price range, continuous reading and writing speed and life, according to this logic, we believe that everyone Will choose to your favorite SSD.
