Laptop hard drives, like the one found in the PlayStation 3, take up little physical space. However, going smaller generally requires compromises. Performance takes a backseat, because manufacturers design the drives primarily for lower power consumption and heat emission. Sony likely wanted to make a smaller console and had to settle for using a space-saving laptop drive. That means we're stuck with a slow drive, and the console reminds us of it every time we install or load up and play a game. To speed things up a bit we could replace the 5,400rpm stock hard drive with an incrementally faster 7,200rpm drive. But that's the easy way out. We'd rather go the Tool Time way and slap in a next-generation solid state drive (SSD). Traditional hard drives have motors and platters that spin and move, and both of those devices take up power and generate heat. SSDs have no moving parts whatsoever--they're based entirely on NAND flash memory like the kind used in memory cards and USB storage devices. SSDs use very little power, emit far less heat, are completely silent, and provide excellent performance--if you can afford them.
Solid state drives aren't anything new; they've just been very expensive for much of their existence. Late last year 60GB SSDs sold for around $1,000. That number is far from affordable, but it was still half as expensive as it was more than a year ago. SSDs will continue to drop tremendously in price, grow in capacity, and increase in performance as the technology makes it way into more mainstream electronics. Apple, for example, offers an SSD as an option for its lightweight MacBook Air notebook. Prices for 60GB SSDs already hover in the $400 territory--not cheap, but getting closer to traditional platter-based hard drives.
SSDs are perfect for notebooks because they're light, they don't consume a lot of power, and they give off very little heat. The good news is that you can slide those same 2.5-inch solid state notebook drives right into a PlayStation 3. We got our hands on a 60GB SuperTalent Master Drive MX SSD to see how it performs in a PlayStation 3. The $400 60GB Master Drive MX specifications state that it has 120MB/s read speeds, but its write speeds cap off at 40MB/s. By comparison, we tested the stock PlayStation 3 hard drive and observed 32MB/s read and write speeds. The MX drive doesn't match up to the 120MB/s reads and the blistering 70MB/s writes of the more expensive $1,300 Super Talent 60GB Master Drive DX, but some upgrades get more difficult to justify when the PlayStation 3 itself costs only about $400.
Installing a solid state drive into the PlayStation 3 doesn't take long; we detailed the process in our How to Upgrade Your PlayStation 3 Hard Drive feature. Aside from screws that are incredibly tight and easy to strip, the process is simple and relatively painless. The SSD has normal SATA hard drive connections and is sized perfectly to fit into the PlayStation 3's hard drive tray.
PlayStation 3 SSD Performance
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Test System Setup: PlayStation 3 Stock Hard Drive - Seagate Momentus 5400.2 60GB, SuperTalent 60GB Master Drive MX SSD.
Performance
Solid state drives have advantages and disadvantages, which the results pretty much illustrate. The game installation test results show that writes on our 60GB SSD were substantially slower than writes on the stock PS3 hard drive by around 20-30 percent. More expensive SSDs have substantially faster write speeds and compete easily with the fastest desktop drives on the market.
The Devil May Cry 4 installation time in particular looks odd. The length of time the game takes to install comes as no surprise, but its performance compared to other games is undeniably subpar. Both Assassin's Creed and Grand Theft Auto IV stay relatively close to each other in terms of transfer rates, while Devil May Cry 4 runs almost half as fast.
Write speeds are only one part of the story because you generally install a game only once. The rest of the time, you'll likely be loading up saved games, waiting for levels to load, or launching games from the XMB. The SSD excels in those instances. Assassin's Creed showed tremendous speed increases both when starting the game and when loading a saved game. Grand Theft Auto IV also had gains, but Devil May Cry 4 hardly budged in favor of the SSD when it came to saved game loads. The SSD's superior read performance doesn't nullify load times entirely, but it does help to reduce them.
Conclusion
At a cost of $400, it's hard to justify purchasing a solid state drive, especially when you consider that the money could buy you a whole new console. The argument becomes even more difficult to push when the benefits of said drive aren't universal. Load times improved, but installation times increased tremendously. More expensive SSDs have faster write speeds, but at almost four times the cost. There certainly are benefits to upgrading to a solid state drive, but we wouldn't recommend doing so until the prices and speed are more in line with performance expectations. Fortunately, solid state drive prices seem to halve every year, and performance is improving. We shouldn't have to wait much longer for SSDs with larger capacities, better performance, and lower prices.
PlayStation 3 Solid State Drive Report
Load times getting you down? Why not slap a Solid State drive into your PlayStation 3?
SapSacPrime posted Jun 12, 2008 5:09 am PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)
slimezzz posted Jun 11, 2008 7:44 am PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)