Newsletter Archives

• Solid-state drives — from bespoke to commodity

  Posted on May 23, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  Solid-state drives (SSDs) have a surprisingly long history, leading up to the types commonly in use today.

  It takes some planning and analysis to make best use of them, but significant improvements in speed and reliability over electromechanical hard drives make SSD investments worthwhile.

  For this article, let’s stick with name brands such as Crucial, SK hynix, Kioxia, Samsung, SanDisk, and Western Digital — all with comparable performance levels. Note that SK hynix acquired Intel’s SSD business, SanDisk is now a subsidiary of Western Digital, and Kioxia is a spinoff of Toshiba.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.21.0, 2022-05-23).

  Hardware Adapters, Hardware, Newsletters, Solid-state drives, SSDs

• Tips for speeding up Windows PCs

  Posted on November 1, 2020 at 20:15 CST by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums
  

  TROUBLESHOOTING

  By Nathan Segal

  With each update and upgrade of our Windows machines, overall speed seems to take another hit.

  Additional memory and a solid-state drive can significantly improve the performance of some systems, but there are other factors to consider. While researching this topic, the Microsoft Doc article “Speed up your computer” popped up in my search results. It provides a helpful summary of tweaks that might put more zip back into a hard-working PC. Here’s my hands-on take on those suggestions.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.43.0 (2020-11-02).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Troubleshooting AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Benchmarks, PC performance, Solid-state drives, SSDs, System cleanup

• Terabyte update: The hard-drive price advantage

  Posted on June 1, 2020 at 01:15 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums
  

  HARDWARE

  By Will Fastie

  Solid-state drives (SSDs) have rapidly become the drive of choice for all types of devices, with smartphones and tablets leading the way.

  Today’s laptops commonly include an SSD, and an increasing number of desktop PCs are configured with a smallish boot SSD and a larger spinning-platter, hard-disk drive (HDD) for long-term data storage. Given the ongoing changes in storage technology and cost, there’s little doubt that solid-state memory will someday replace mechanical rotating disks. The only question is when?

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.21.0 (2020-06-01). This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Edition 17.21.F.

  Hardware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hard-drive pricing, Hybrid drives, Solid-state drives, SSDs