"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
On 16/01/2021 08:36, alan_m wrote:
On 16/01/2021 01:49, Fredxx wrote:

Still agree with John about SSDs. They make boot time shrink. They are
more rugged and take less power (I think). Though always back them up as
they tend to fail catastrophically without notice.


I fitted a SSD to my previous laptop and really didn't notice that much
change in boot up time. Yes there was some increase in speed but again
only for some activities, noticeably when virus checking the whole system
etc. At the time I didn't think the investment worth it for the
performance increase. The performance of the hard disk on my previous
machine may not have been the bottle neck or the factor limiting the
speed.

from 3 minutes boot to 28 seconds is worth having,

Only if you boot much. I dont, I suspend instead.

also loading programs is sub second

I dont do that much either, I leave them loaded.

SSDs do NOT fail catastrophically. Quite the reverse, They keep going
with substantial and detectable errors.

you need to use S.M.A.R/T to interrogate them.

https://www.howtogeek.com/134735/how...rive-is-dying/

Many years on, prices now for SSD are different so if the usage of the
laptop doesn't require massive amounts of hard disk space then SSD may be
worth investigating to increase speed. What would you do with the speed
increase that you are not doing now.

They are still about three times the price of spinning rust, but its
getting closer. They are faster last *longer*

Thats less clear.

and are more shock resistant.

I dont throw my laptop very often at all.

I'm probably in the market for a new machine (laptop) sometime this year
and I will seriously consider one with SSD rather than one with spinning
rust. I believe that one thing to watch with current machines is that the
SSD also has a form factor much like RAM modules that slot into
connectors BUT some manufactures are now soldering the chips directly on
to the main board so no easy DIY upgrade path is possible if a larger SSD
is required.

There is usually expansion available