SanDisk SSD Ultra ATA 5000 1.8″

Sandisk is on the way of providing flash memory drives that will replace the classic hard drive of a notebook. The laptops will become thinner, faster and more reliable using that kind of a memory.

We still remember how we got excited when the 128Mb flash memory released, but now there seems to be a really tough competition on the thin cards flash memory market. Sandisk released Thursday the 32Gb (SSD) drive for laptops storing information on flash memory chips replacing the standard mechanical hard drives. This would of course increase the prices of a laptop, by maybe a few hundreds dollars (expected $600) but will be providing proven durability to improve the overall user experience.

Despite the price, it does have some nice features that one should think of. Different than the conventional hard drives, the SanDisk SSD flash memory doesn’t have movable parts therefore the risk of getting broken being less.

The flash memory is also very fast “more than 100 times faster than most hard disk drives” said SanDisk officials. A laptop equipped with the 32GB flash memory drive is able to boot Windows^® Vista^â„¢ in only 35 seconds rather than 55 seconds needed for a classic hard disk drive. Low power consumption is another advantage of the flash drive.

The main disadvantage of the flash memory drive is not really the price but the storage space. A 32Gb drive wouldn’t be enough for a corporate user or for a end-user that has lots of information. This is a point where the old fashion hard disk drives win the first place. We’re sure that by the end of 2007 the storage space of a SanDisk solid state drive (SSD) will increase and the price will go down as usual.

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Filed under Computers, Laptops, Storage