B2 SSD

[Tim]

Hi Paul

I notice that you are now producing SSD B2s.  This is great news.  Are you planning to launch a 2T B2 with an SSD rather than HDD please?

Best

Tim

[Daniel Taylor]

You can swap out the HDD or SSD to another of your choice, up to 2TB, as long as it's the same form factor.  I forget exactly what it's called, but it's the size that fits in laptops that still accept a HD.

[PMB]

Hi Tim,

As far as I know 2TB SSD prices are still much higher than HDDs and we have a commitment to HDDs orders to complete (all electronics is on a long lead time now).

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Tim]

Thanks Paul.  From what Daniel says, if I were feeling brave I could replace the HDD in my B2 with an SSD.

Tim

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Guys,

I was just looking at large capacity SSDs.  Currently a 2TB SSD retails at about £200 whereas a 2TB HDD is around £85 so there is, as Paul says, still a big price differential between them.

In terms of performance, there is not much difference either.

Regards,

Peter.

[Tim]

Thanks Peter.  This is all really useful.  I think I shall wait for the time being.

Best

Tim

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

Hi Tim,

I have a 2TB SSD B2, I swapped out the old 2TB HHD myself - performance is about the same but its power consumption is less.

Old HDD is now used in other Raspberry PI projects.

I think one or two other Forum members have done similar.

Fred

[Daniel Taylor]

I bought a B2 that came with a 500GB HDD and replaced it with a 2TB HDD.  I have not gone to an SSD because, for the B2 application, the advantages of SSD don't seem to make enough difference to justify the price.  The best advantage might be if the SSD is less prone to failure.  But that would only be known in the long term.  If my 2TB HDD goes bad, I'll check the prices of a new SSD at that time.  Until then, I keep my backup discs ready to go.

[Tim]

Thanks Fred and Daniel.  I have recently swapped the HDD in my Apple lap top for an SSD because the HDD was slow and old.  I might wait for the time being, but am certainly keen to consider doing it to the B2.  Fred was it straightforward please?  Which SSD did you use?

Tim

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Tim,

Fitting an SSD to an Apple (or other PC type device) will show a fairly dramatic improvement in performance because  PCs/Macs are interacting heavily with their storage device.  However the B2 is not doing that; it reads one track from the storage device, plays it for 3 or 4 minutes, then gets the next track and so on.  This access is a very light load on the B2's storage device, and this is why you won's see much difference between the B2 HDD and the B2 SSD units.

I also replaced my MacBook Pro's HDD with an SSD and found a very good performance benefit, so I am not 'anti-SSD'.  I'm just setting expections!

Regards,

Peter.

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

Hi Tim,

Yes very easy (indeed I think there are instructions (not mine) on this forum - a word doc with pictures step by step)

My 2Tb was a Samsung 860 EVO 2 TB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MZ-76E2T0) that I got as a black Friday deal of Amazon.

Fred

On Wednesday, 7 April 2021 at 14:54:19 UTC+1 Tim wrote:

[Tim]

Thanks All, good pragmatic advice as ever.

Tim

[PMB]

Hi Tim,

Here's a - link - to that document.

Paul

Brennan Support.