Question: I recently started carrying my SSD to and from work rather than my entire computer. So I bought a case on Amazon to protect it while it is in my bag.
I was surprised to find that the case was literally just a plastic box with struts inside to hold the SSD in place. I wondered why there weren’t any pads or cushions to absorb shocks.
Then I realized that it’s an SSD, and it doesn’t have any moving parts, as opposed to an HDD. So shocks are irrelevant. Or are they?
My question is whether an SSD is shock-proof due to the absence of moving parts, so I don’t have to be too careful about dropping it, etc. More generally, I’m interested in how sturdy SSDs are. I know that HDDs could be quite sensitive due to the large number of very fine and small moving parts. An SSD seems structurally more resistant to damage. Is my intuition right? What sorts of damages do I need to look out for? Are SSDs as sensitive to magnets and electrostatic shock as HDDs?
Answer: That depends on the drive, but they are very sturdy compared to rotating hard drives. Let’s take a look at the Intel 530 SSD for example:
Temperature
? Operating: 0 C to 70 C
? Non-Operating: -55 C to 95 C
Reliability
Shock (operating and non-operating): 1,500 G/0.5 msec
Vibration
Operating: 2.17 GRMS (5-700 Hz)
Non-operating: 3.13 GRMS (5-800 Hz)
What does this exactly mean?
I don’t really know. But let’s compare them to a Western Digital Black 3TB hard drive:
Temperature
- Operating: 5 C to 55 C
- Non-Operating: -40 C to 70 C
Reliablity
- Shock (operating write) 30G/2msec, (operating read) 65G/2msec, (non-operating) 300G/2msec
I don’t know of a way to estimate G-forces in shocks, but you can see by those numbers that a solid-state drive is much, much more resilient to those forces.