A Solid reason for a new laptop?

Dear Propeller Heads: I'm shopping for a laptop and I'm considering upgrading to a solid state drive because I hear they're faster. Are they worth the extra cost?

A: We're sure the importance of your work is stupendous, but there are cheaper ways to save time. Why not cut back from eight hours of sleep every night to six? (We just saved you several hundred dollars and added six years to your waking hours.)

Solid state drives (SSDs) top traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) in many areas, but they'll cost you more. They are typically lighter, faster, quieter and more durable than "normal" drives. For the price, they should also help you quit smoking, lose weight and improve your tan.

SSDs aren't new - they've been used for years in the military, in factories and in hospitals, where disk durability and reliability are paramount.

Crack open an "old-school" hard drive and you'll void your warranty and lose your data. But you'll also see layers of magnetic platters. Small metal read-write heads are mechanically moved over the platters to read and write data. In contrast to electrons whizzing through circuits electronically, mechanical movements are pretty slow.

Enter solid state drives, which use flash memory chips instead of magnetic platters. They're similar to USB memory sticks, camera memory cards and MP3 players. Many devices have moved to solid state technology, including iPads and others. The advantages of an SSD are due to its lack of moving parts.

Writing to a SSD can be (but is not always) faster, but reading from them can be many times faster, leading to faster system boot-ups and wake-ups from stand-by mode.

But even if you spend all day saving documents and searching for files until you retire in 30 years, you'll only gain back about 12 days by switching to solid state. You'll save more time skipping your lunch break and swallowing bouillon cubes at your desk, or growing a beard and giving up shaving.

So what are the other advantages? SSDs are lighter than their HDD counterparts, sometimes about one fifth the weight - a big deal in laptops, where every ounce counts.

They're also quieter and more resistant to shock. Dropping a hard disk drive is likely fatal to the data it stores; dropping a solid state drive won't hurt much unless it lands on your foot. Did we mention they're lighter?

SSDs typically consume less power than their frenetic brethren, helping extend battery life on portable devices.

The main disadvantage to SSDs is their price. "Normal" hard drives cost under $0.50 per gigabyte, but SSDs cost about $1.50 to $2 per gigabyte. Prices per gigabyte typically go up as the storage capacity does. In addition, large SSDs top out around 600 gigabytes, where regular hard drives can be found at several times that capacity.

Many laptop models provide SSD options right now and this trend will continue as prices come down and drive capacities go up.

Current trends to the "cloud" suggest local computer storage needs may be going down, opening up a greater potential for SSDs. More on this at http://buswk.co/aSsqb. Here's a test: Check how much space you are using on your laptop now. If you are like many, it is probably less than 100 gigabytes, maybe much less. If so, your next laptop might be running without that familiar humming.

So upgrade to solid state, but do it for the lighter weight, the quieter operation and the durability. If you're just looking to save time, consider foregoing the elevator in your office building and just stepping directly out the window. When your co-worker asks if you have vertigo, tell her "Oh no, only about 10 feet more." (Apologies to Ogden Nash, who offers one last bit of time-saving advice: "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.")

When the PropellerHeads at Data Directions aren't busy with their IT projects, they love to answer questions on business or consumer technology. Email them to questions@askthepropellerheads.com or contact us at Data Directions Inc., 8510 Bell Creek Road, Mechanicsville, VA 23116. Visit our website at www.askthepropellerheads.com.