What speed though when compared to a RAID 5 of four drives? That's where the disconnect is for me. I hear "SSD speed" a lot, but for what? I mean we've been told to use it for static files where you don't write to it due to the limited writes (hence the "boot drive, boot drive, BOOT DRIVE!!! mantra), and a RAID can make you faster on reads in actually useful capacities...
So why do people say SSD + HDD at all? That's the part I'm just not grasping. By the time I go SSD + a high capacity drive, I could go three medium capacity drives, have the high capacity drive's storage, at 40/55ths to 48/55ths the read speed across the entire storage space. You go to four drives, you're pushing to as much as 72/55ths the read times.
I'm leaning towards the cheaper four drive array... I'm just wondering why SSD's get so much hype given their piss poor reliability, limited writes, limited capacity, and crazy prices.
Is it just marketing hype rooted in bandwagon and glittering generalities, or am I missing some key element of it?
Oh, I suppose there is the noise factor... something I care nothing about. When you worked next to a DEC LA50 printer for six years that spent 6 hours a day clacking away, pissing and moaning about 40db of white noise seems a bit... well, I lack the words in polite company.