Over the past few months, I have started thinking about replacing the hard disk drive in my primary Tablet PC – the HP EliteBook 2740w – with a solid state drive, also known as an SSD .

In my search, Other World Computing was recommended to me. I contacted them, and got to communicate with Larry O’Connor, founder and CEO.

My questions for him centered on two things, one, what is it about SSDs that I should be interested in, and two, why OWC.

Why SSDs
John Obeto, AbsolutelyWindows: Does the Thailand flooding open the way for SSDs to enter mainstream consciousness?

Larry O’Connor: It doesn’t hurt, and with 2.5” drive pricing up, it has paved the way for buyers to consider making do with a smaller capacity SSD for what is now a smaller delta vs. a higher cap 2.5” hard drive.

120GB seems to be the sweet spot where we see customers jumping to the performance benefit of an SSD vs. 250-500GB HDD. 3 months ago the delta was about $150 between 250GB HDD and 120GB SSD... Today it’s about 1/2 that, and even less vs. 320 and 500GB. 60GB and smaller caps have been too small for these customers, but the 120GB seems to be where enough capacity is there to make that switch with all the performance benefits said SSDs bring. 120GB is our #1 selling capacity, 240GB is just barely behind that.

The Thai flood and the resulting warnings from HD suppliers to the channels and the media has made people think twice about doing the same old thing. In addition, at the manufacturing level we're seeing system suppliers who are making a conscious decision to "upgrade" from a now slightly higher priced HD to a reasonable capacity SSD because it gives them something very positive to talk to the consumer about and say "yes it's a little more expensive but it's rugged, reliable, skimpy on power usage, cooler operating, makes your system lighter and really won't crash." It's true and is being well received.

AbsolutelyWindows: Apart from speed, do SSD drives offer other benefits?

Larry O’Connor: Power Savings, no noise/silent, and effectively shock resistant – data integrity/safety/accessibility from drive not affected at all by impacts that would render a hard drive either inoperable or with access issues even if heads went to park before impact.

Long term reliability from having no moving parts is a definite plus as well – there isn’t ‘wear and tear’ on any moving mechanism that can result mechanical failure because nothing mechanical to fail.

According to the chip manufacturers data stored on SSD will last up to 100 years even without power added. We don't believe that's a big thing because few of us will really sit around and "test it" but data reliability is a big concern. People really like the fact that you can eliminate the system fan (and noise) and even when the HD is whisper quiet there is noise. SSD uses considerably less power so using it "off the grid" can be done for longer periods.

AbsolutelyWindows: SSDs are currently priced somewhat stratospherically compared to spindle-based disks. Do you see a tightening of the price delta soon?

Larry O’Connor: We’re years and years away from SSDs being on par with hard drives in terms of cost per gigabyte.

Being an integrator as you are John, you know there are enterprise apps that make it more desirable beyond raw cost. Solid state is ideal for active files/processing, databases, OS, apps, etc. - with mass hard drive storage great for archival/static (completed – now for read only typical use) type data.

At the consumer level we're hearing people who demand the instant-on, longer use time just as they get with their tablets/smartphones. Before power up, boot up was expected/tolerated but now consumers know there is an instant on solution and they want to see all of their units work that way and the benefits live a lot longer than the initial unit cost.

That said – cost per gig of SSDs should fall over the next couple years at a percentile rate that is faster than that of hard drives with starting point based on pre-flood HD capacity costs. It will get better and better but there will be a place for both. People will have the HD for the big bucket storage and medium sized SSD for the responsive activities.

AbsolutelyWindows: One of the concerns I have heard pertains to reliability and lifecycle. Can SSDs compete with hard disk drives in those metrics?

Larry O’Connor: They already do and absolutely.

As with any semiconductor device -- as you know - once it gets past the infant mortality phase,e the stuff just runs and runs like the Eveready Bunny.

Manufacturer presentations from the Flash Memory Summit and Mobile Computing Conference early this year and those which I've seen and IT management use as guidelines shows we will both probably retire before issues arise. But even with that said speed, performance improvements will get people to upgrade and...remember there's a portion of Moore's Law also at work here.

AbsolutelyWindows: With this market opportunity, will you and others in your sector be ramping up SSD storage capacities soon?

Larry O’Connor: There are various considerations when it comes to higher capacity drives. The short answer is yes – for sure... But we’re certainly taking the long road to do it the right way. While it is true that the Thai floods affected "short term" supplies (say up to a year plus) but there are some very strong potential for SSD in more and more applications.

AbsolutelyWindows: In a Twitter conversation a short while back, hybrid hard drives were mentioned. Do you see them making a play here?

Larry O’Connor: This is the second effort for Seagate with a hybrid drive and...it's better. I think they do offer a decent compromise – but still come no where close to true SSD performance, and real world experience doesn’t completely line up with the lab advertised spec.

Once said – the Seagate Hybrids are incredibly fast compared to hard drive only models and are a great compromise for high capacity with segment leading performance... Best of all worlds- Hybrid is your secondary drive and a true SSD is primary. :)

Long term better will be OS level integration of SSD and hard drive capacities on system whereby the OS fully manages what is being stored/worked on where/when/first –then moved... Single volume size of HD that the OS maintains for what used when. All ultimately stored on hard drive – but most used apps, OS, and active files best maintained with priority on SSD portion and can be duped off during low load periods. OS, IMHO, is best to manage prioritization and as good as independent algorithms are on the hybrids, still far from ideal in real-world + in fairness not enough SSD portion on drive to really do the best job.

Noted storage guru and author, Greg Shultz, introduced me to hybrid drives, which is another technology we are considering, though for larger capacities.

Why put my laptop, and my computing fate in the hands of OWC?

 

AbsolutelyWindows: Tell me about OWC, the company, and the products.

Larry O’Connor: Where can I start?

We build, and have done so for decades – storage, memory, accessories, and enhancement products that provide additional functionality, enhance, and/or extend the useful lifespan of laptops, desktops, towers, and servers + portable devices as well.

Focusing on market needs and areas we can do better than the current – these products have evolved, product lines expanded over these years based on the needs and requests from our customers. Listening to our customers and providing top customer service and support to these customers is the win-win for all as we are only here because of our customers.

Ultimately – all about having the best products and solutions + providing them competitively as well.

AbsolutelyWindows: I understand that prior to now, you have focused on the Apple aftermarket. Anecdotally, I have to say that the Mac market is quite demanding. Can I assume that high quality focus will be directed at PCs too?

Larry O’Connor: When we get an order/request from a customer we don't care if he/she has a Mac or Windows PC. He/she has a question, problem, issue and we solve it. We do our product design/manufacturing work in the same manner. We want that customer to buy the product install/use it and not have to think twice except when he/she is asked for a recommendation from a firm to buy from. Or when they want more product. We are serving customers...not Apple!

AbsolutelyWindows: Your products are designed, sold, and supported from the United States. This is a rarity, for which I thank you. Is this by accident, or by design?

Larry O’Connor: Absolutely by design. We build a lot of product in the USA as well – including our memory, SSDs, and many accessories. Final assembly is also done at our HQ on all of our storage solutions and plenty of other products where possible as well. Wish we could do more here. All of our engineering, product design/testing is done here at our HQ. As with almost any company we source globally but when those parts come in the back door they immediately become Other World Computing Products and that means they are tested, assembled, tested, supported by our people.

AbsolutelyWindows: Coming back to the Apple Mac thing, are your products premium products, or do you have a range that PC users might enjoy?

Larry O’Connor: Excluding products for tablets, iPods, or phones – nearly 100% of our own branded product is supported right now for Windows and Linux as well as Macs. With the same exclusion, the same can be said of about 95% of the products we offer via our flagship macsales.com/pcsales.com sites. Pcsales.com will soon have a better personality/personality split that focuses on the PC compatibility of items. True the Mac market is growing very nicely both nationally and internationally but we still see major potential and opportunities in the Win/Linux worlds. We're growing this family as rapidly as possible.

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