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A few weeks ago, NewEgg had a deal on a 30 GB OCZ Vertex solid state disk (SSD). Although the limited capacity is a major drawback, its proven to be a great drive for my bootloader and OS X core installation.

So how do you review a solid state disk? I think it boils down to only thing – speed. After all, what’s the point of spending so much more compared to a traditional platter drive if the read/write speeds are comparable? All solid state disks tend to offer more reliability and less power consumption since there are no moving parts, but they greatly differ on I/O.

Here’s an excerpt from an XBench benchmark conducted on my Intel quad core workstation:

The numbers of interest are in the far right margin. Though I didn’t do a benchmark on my original boot drive (320 GB, 7200 rpm platter), it’s safe to say that this SSD blows it away. And for ~$100, I think the added reliability and speed is well worth the cost.

Legal

As a third year medical student at Baylor College of Medicine, my posts are intended to educate others and share my experiences from this incredible journey without violating patient privacy at all costs. These blurbs are not to serve as a replacement for recommendations provided by licensed physicians under any circumstance.