Are the 64 x 2 SSD Hard drives that much faster?

Is it worth getting that option.
My rents bought me an alienware, and said If I add in a grand we can go for the 2 x 64 SSD, but my dads the comptuer guy and says he really doesnt think its worth the money.

What do you guys think?
I have a grand im willing to add in, but Im wondering if it really is worth it? Is it that much faster? Is battery life that much better? Big difference in performance? Any opinions... Thanks

 

Ask yourself if you really need all that speed and if it's worth the money.

 

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of a Stable State Drive, depending on what you do you may or may not want it, refer to the information below to make your decision.

Advantages

The disassembled components of a hard disk drive (left) and of the PCB and components of a solid-state drive.Faster startup – as no spin-up is required. (RAM & Flash)
Typically fast random access for reading – since there is no read/write head to move. (RAM & Flash)
Extremely low read and write latency times – SSDs seek times are orders of magnitude smaller than the best current hard disk drives.[1] (RAM)
Faster boot and application launch time – provided hard disk seeks are the limiting factor, see Amdahl's law. (RAM)[2]
No noise – Lack of moving parts makes the SSD completely silent, although high-end SSDs and large SSDs may include cooling fans. (RAM & Flash)
For low-capacity SSDs, somewhat lower power consumption and heat production, although High-end SSDs and DRAM based SSDs may have significantly higher power requirements.
High mechanical reliability – Lack of moving parts almost eliminates the risk of mechanical failure. (RAM & Flash)
Better able to endure extreme shock, high altitude, vibration and temperatures – SSDs are tougher than traditional hard drives.[3] These features are useful for laptops, mobile computers, and devices that operate in extreme conditions. (Flash)[2]
Relatively deterministic performance[4] – unlike hard disk drives, performance of SSDs is almost constant and deterministic across the entire storage. This is because seek time can be constant, so file fragmentation has less impact on performance than on disk drives.
For low-capacity SSDs, lower weight and size, although size and weight per unit storage are still better for traditional hard drives, and microdrives allow up to 20 GB storage in a CompactFlash 42.8×36.4×5 mm (1.7×1.4×.2 in) form factor. Up to 256GB, SSDs are currently lighter than hard drives of the same capacity.[3]

Disadvantages
Price – as of mid-2008, flash memory prices are still considerably higher per gigabyte than those of comparable conventional hard drives – around US$3.50 per GB[5] compared to typically less than US$0.20 for mechanical drives.
Capacity – though currently far lower than that of conventional hard drives, SSD capacity is predicted to increase rapidly, with experimental drives of up to 1TB in test.[6][7]
Higher vulnerability to certain types of effects, including abrupt power loss (especially DRAM based SSDs), magnetic fields and electric/static charges compared to normal HDDs (which store the data inside a Faraday cage).
Limited write cycles – usually Flash storage will wear out after 300,000-500,000 write cycles, while high endurance Flash storage is often marketed with endurance of 1–5 million write cycles (many log files, file allocation tables, and other commonly used parts of the file system exceed this over the lifetime of a computer). Special file systems or firmware designs can mitigate this problem by spreading writes over the entire device (so-called wear levelling), rather than rewriting files in place. This problem is being improved all the time with lifespans increasing. Today's drives can last up to 20 years with average usage.[8] An example for the life time of SSD is explained in detail here. SSDs based on DRAM, however, do not suffer from this problem.
Slower write speeds – as erase blocks on flash-based SSDs generally are quite large, they're far slower than conventional disks for random writes,[9] and in some cases for sequential writes.[2] SSDs based on DRAM do not suffer from this problem.
Lower storage density - hard disks can store more data per unit volume than DRAM or flash SSDs, except for very low capacity/small devices.

Courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive

 

Are the alienware ones based on flash or DRAM ?
Im guessing flash. And from what I read DRAM is way better..... Am I right... ?

 

Personally, I think that if you're buying an alienware, it's likely you'll be playing games on it. So - 64gb is a pretty small hard-drive for gaming. You could purchase an additional smart-bay drive for more space, but then you have the problem of not being able to use the CD drive to install the games to the smart-bay hard drive, since they require the same slot!

Someone I know ran into this problem with their m15x when they bought it. Configured it w/the 64gb SSD and Vista. Now after installing two games, they have 8gb free space. That's terrible on a $4k machine! For a machine like this, get the bigger drive.

I'd say the speed and safety gains are minimal benefits compared to the space you want for what you're likely using it for. Not to mention the money you'll save on a traditional drive vs the SSD.

 

As I said somewhere else, wait for the 256GB SSD coming soon from Samsung. It will provide you with both speed and size (though we'll have to see the price)

 

Yeah, that thing will probably come with a VERY hefty price tag! Samsung's 32gb SSD retails for $900-$950 - imagine what they'll price a 256gb at!

IMO, SSD drives are too novel to be worth the cost for most people right now. Remember when 15" LCD panels were $2,000? And when DVD burners were $800? We all wanted them, but waiting was the name of the game. Soon enough SSDs will become the dominant technology, and then become affordable and reasonable alternatives to traditional platter drives.

 

Flash.

Ram based SSDs are literally sticks of RAM with a hardware controller and a backup battery. The problem with RAM ssds is that you need a constant flow of power to your drive, or you'll lose all the date on them within seconds of power loss (unless you're using your computer in a liquid nitrogen environment, which means you might have minutes before you lose all your data).

RAM HDs area also extremely expensive.. like $20/GB rather than the $3/GB of a flash HD.