Tell me about your experiences with solid state drives

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I'm interested in them. I am even more interested in making a nice RAID1+0 configuration with some.

The only experience I've had with them being used as HDs is in these little netbooks at work... Doesn't bode well that the things spent most of their time crashed out cause they were piles.

They're too expensive for my budget, so I don't personally own any, but they are quite nearly identical to pendrives and compact flash. I suppose they'd do quite well in a raid, cause you don't have to worry about the fatal mechanical failures that often kill arrays with no warning.

I'd go for it, but they are insanely expensive.

I have an Asus EeePC with an aftermarket 64GB SSD. SSDs are all that are available for the EeePCs (it originally came with a 4GB SSD ).

So far, it's been great - fast boot and shutdown times, quick app start & processing. Just takes time to get used to the way it operates - the stuttering and (very) brief freeze as it reads & writes. Unlike a traditional HD, there's no platters (obviously you knew this), so data is read like a CD. But with a huge chunk of memory, as in SSD, it just stutters - then just shoots right quick through the operation.

It boots & shuts down quicker than my Acer (both run Linux), and it's much more durable as well. Only problem is that it gets really hot, but never overheats .

For a laptop or PC, I'd recommend NOT replacing your HD with a SSD until next year; Sony and other manufacturers have had massive problems with fragmentation in the drive, resulting in VERY slow computers. Defragmenting a SSD is apprarently much harder to do - and more complex - than doing it on a traditional HD. Maybe R&D will finally come up with a solution within a year or so.
Otherwise, it's better to leave SSDs to netbooks - the expense of a SSD in a laptop or PC alone is too much, and you can get a really nice HD for a great price right now. I upgraded my HD in my laptop from 32GB to 160GB for less than a hundred dollars. Plus, the newer HDs are less susceptible to shaking, damage & vibration.

Hope that helps.

Thanks. This is good to know.

I have a Dell M6400 laptop workstation with one and so far I have been very happy with it. It's very fast and great for doing CAD work. I have to travel a lot with it so less chance of vibration damage. When you buy a new laptop or PC they not terribly expensive from Dell.