Intel ships 160 GB solid state drive for netbooks
One of the advantages of owning a netbook – beyond its portability – is the extended battery life achieved by using newer solid state hard drive technology. Soon netbook owners will be able to enjoy that long lasting battery goodness without having to sacrifice on storage.
Netbooks have increasingly taken the spotlight from their slightly paunchier cousin, the laptop, in the last couple of years. They offer increased mobility through a smaller form factor that is attractive to many professionals that are always on the go.
The other benefit of netbooks over laptops is a much longer battery life. By using solid state drives with no spinning disks, netbook makers have doubled the effective battery life of these portable machines.
So far the only disadvantage of the netbook has been the hard drive capacity. Solid state drive technology is newer and larger drives are just beginning to be available for consumers.
Intel’s 160 GB solid state drive is still a bit bulky at 2.5 inches. However in a few weeks it will follow up this release with a 1.8 inch drive that will match the 160 GB capacity.
It won’t be long before we see solid state drives become more common in workstations and servers as well. As capacity increases to match the needs of these devices, we should see solid state drives popping up in all types of computers
Samsung has already begin producing a 256 GB solid state drives. Toshiba is expected to release a 512 GB solid state drive by June of 2009.
Solid state drives are quieter and use less electricity than standard hard drive technology. However, the price of these greener drives may need to come down before they can fully replace hard drives.
Adding a solid state drive to a laptop currently boosts the price $500 to $1,000 dollars for a laptop. So while 2009 might not be the year everyone switches to solid state, it certainly can’t be much longer.
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December 22nd, 2009
It seems the reviews on this netbook run hot and cold. I received mine last week and have had no problems even after removing bloatware and other unecessary software. I removed Works and installed Office pro and it handles relational databases just fine!
The 2Gb RAM upgrade is almost essential for this netbook especially when streaming media files. The charger DOES run hot and the connector is flimsy…using AC to charge only is recommended as moving it around on AC may weaken the connector IMO. As many have mentioned already, fingerprints show up but I can live with them AND if I keep the cover clean, I can tell when someone has been snooping around!
All in all, I am extremely happy with the unit and it functions as advertised.