SSD

[Andrew Smith]

Just wondering if the 2TB disk is SSD yet?

[Peter Lowham]

Hi andrews..,

No, the 2TB model is still HDD, probably because the SSD would add an additional £100 to the purchase price.  Higher capacity SSDs are still a lot more expensive than an equivalent HDD.  Although I cannot speak for Brennan, it's not likely that a move to SSD will happen anytime soon.

Regards,

Peter.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

However, it is simple to fit an SSD into your B2 (swapping out the HDD) if you want to. I have fitted a 2Tb SSD in mine.

Fred

[Peter Lowham]

Hi All,

If you really want the B2 with a 2TB SSD, then the least expensive way would be to purchase a B2 240G and then a 2TB SSD.  Swap out the 240GB for the 2TB and there you have it.

The only potential issue is that the B2 240G is available only in black whereas the B" 2TB is also vailable in metallic.

Regards,

Peter.

[RandyT]

Peter I'm curious, will the SSD speed up any processes? EX: Scan Disc, using external CD drive, Export to USB A/C, etc. OR are the USB interfaces (internal & external) still the limiting factor? I bought my brother a B2 480GB SSD for Christmas and from the limited time I spent with it, it seemed a bit quicker at things.

Thanks

Randy

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Randy

While I have no empirical data to back up this, it was my impression that after moving from a 2 Tb HDD to a 2 Tb SSD, my B2 was faster at doing backups and Scan Disks,  but as for the music and Web UI I could not detect any change. However I think My B2 now uses less power.

Fred

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Randy,

I have only done limited testing as I have one SSD unit, a Samsung 750GB unit.  Some functions did run slightly more quickly than on a HDD, for example the Export runs at about 28GB per hour on an HDD, but this increased to 30GB per hour when using the Samsung.

One big advantage that the SSD has is the it is not slowed down by 'fragmentation' in the same way that an HDD unit is.  When folders & files become fragmented through being edited, renamed, deleted, recreated, etc., the folders and files become scattered across the surface of the HDD.  So with the HDD being a mechanical device it has to move the disk heads to different locations across the disk surfaces to find the content.  Disk head movement is the slowest past of the disk operation, so fragmentation can slow the HDD response times.  The SSD does not mind fragmentation; it just calls up the next memory location and gets the data.

One aspect of SSDs that needs to e considered is the Read/Write speeds of each SSD.   These can vary greatly from model to model and brand to brand.  In particular, write speeds are a lot slower than read speeds; this might not matter in the B2 because the B2 is reading the data off the SSD for most of the time.  This aspect will usually only be noticeable during an Import (Restore).  One thing that I did notice about writing to the SSD is that it can get quite hot during hours of writing; this is due to the SSD circuits being 'boosted' to a higher voltage while the write function is active.

I am planning to run on an SSD for a while in the near future, so I let you know how I get .on.

Regards,

Peter.

On Wednesday, 6 April 2022 at 13:56:44 UTC+1 RandyT wrote:

[Andrew Smith]

OK thank you. I suppose they are replacable if they fail?

On Wednesday, 6 April 2022 at 12:44:59 UTC+1 peter....@gmail.com wrote: