SSD Drive layout

I am considering an Acer Netbook but am undecided between a conventional HD and an SSD drive.

I understand a 16GB SSD drive actually consists of 8GB flash and an 8GB SD card that shows as a single 16GB drive so am wondering how the OS and programs are installed; do they get installed across both memory modules, does the SD card need to be installed, can one eject it.

Geffers

 

MY FRIEND, ONLY CONSIDER AN HD ACER ONE...AVOID AN SSD.THE HD MODEL IS A LITTLE MORE EXPENSIVE BUT WILL ENABLE YOU TO SUPPORT WINDOWS XP AND PROBABLY WINDOWS 7 WHEN IT ARRIVES, THE SSD MODELS ARE ONLY GOOD FOR THE SUPPLIED LINPUS LITE OR OTHER LEAN VERSIONS OF LINUX, THE SSD DRIVES THAT ACER INSTALL ARE A BUDGET DESIGN AND NOT MEANT TO SUPPORT HEAVIER OPERATING SYSTEMS.I KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE.

 

Well it depends how you wish to use it. As you can see from my signature I have an SSD version. It is useful for travelling and for checking emails and the internet at home when I have not turned on one of our two XP PCs or wish to be in a different room. Certainly I don't see it as a full function laptop. To answer your question the OS and applications are installed on the provided 8GB SSD. If you slot in an SD card (I bought an 8GB SDHC for £12 from Amazon) then user data in saved there with an Acer provided integration of the memory. Pays yer money, takes yer choice!!

 

The complaint I had with my 8gb SSD was not it's size. I don't load up very much on my drives and the 8gb was fine. BUT it was so slooww...., at least with XP. Buy the one with a hdd it is a great netbook. I replaced my SSD with a 1.8" hdd and even though it is only 4200 rpm, it is much faster now and I am happy with it.

 

My initial intention is to use Linux but reading on the net got the impression that SSDs were faster than conventional drives so am wondering why the Acer SSDs appear to be slow.

Geffers

 

So. if the OS and programs are on the supplied 8GB SD card what is the function of the on board 8GB NAND memory, I'm thinking an extra USB memory key or other flash memory could be used.

Geffers

 

In the 110AW I have, the 8GB solid state drive (SSD/NAND) is the only one supplied and takes the place of a hard drive in a conventional system, it holds the OS and applications. An SDHC card (8 or 16GB) must be purchased separately if required and would then relieve the SSD of user data. It works fine with Linux Lite but of course with limited function. If you want XP function and fast performance then go for the HD version.

 

I'm no expert, just an enthusiastic user. In general I think SSD's NAND technology is considerably faster than traditional HDDs. But SSDs are new and are still very expensive. The price differential for a gig of storage between SSDs and HDDs is huge.

So to have an SSD in such a competitively priced netbook as the AA1, it by default could only be a relatively low-end model. Acer chose to use a PATA ZIF mini-card form factor SSDs. PATA devices are slower than SATA ones. And by accounts the simplified mini-cards have lesser performance than full size, enclosed 1.8" SSDs (yet they are just 1/4 the size!).

Additionally, to keep costs respectable the Intel and Samsung models Acer are using are certainly not the highest performance PATA ZIF mini-cards you can get. Runcore's ones are much faster. So adding all these things add up, the AA1's stock SSDs are not quite as fast as you might initially expect. But considering the price, the performance that they deliver is excellent.

If people complain about the SSDs shipped in the AA1, then they need to also acknowledge that to have had a larger, faster model the price they would have had to pay for the netbook would have been a lot higher. Just because of the increased cost of the components. Which would probably have made the unit unable to compete off the shelves with the HDD version, or with other brands.

My AA1 netbook is definitely fast. But I am generally happy with 'just' having Linpus. I wanted maximum ultra-portability - the lowest possible weight, slimmest form factor, quietest operation and the most instant-on/off performance possible. As I take this thing all over the place with me each day. For me buying an SSD unit made sense. But it seems that if you really need to have XP on your netbook, then you might be better off with an HD version for faster drive access.

I want to keep my AA1 up to spec, so I'm hoping that other replacement SSDs will in time come to the market and that the price of them will fall - commensuretly with the price of SD cards hopefully! But if that doesn't happen I could always get a 1.8" hard drive instead. Also, I have to say that once 'advanced mode' is enabled Linpus is surprisingly functional. I've not found anything much I could do on my XP desktop that I can't do with Linpus. Except for the availability of certain applications.

 

I beg to differ. I have an SSD AAO running tinyxp. Thanks to Flashpoint this thing is faster than my friends HDD based AAO.

 

AAO SSD runs very well in XP, once you do all the necessary tweaks. Heck even Windows 7 runs very well with the SSD.