In 2010 a 1 TB desktop hard drive cost under $100, but solid-state drives were still exotic: an 80 to 128 GB SSD cost $200 to $300. Enthusiasts installed them as boot drives to cut Windows 7 startup from a minute to seconds; the MacBook Air was the first mainstream laptop to go flash-only.
- Maker
- Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi; Intel, OCZ, Crucial for SSDs
- Released
- 2010
Specifications
| Hard drive | 500 GB laptop, 1 to 2 TB desktop, 5400 or 7200 rpm |
|---|---|
| SSD | 60 to 128 GB typical, SATA 3 Gb/s or the new 6 Gb/s |
| Price | About $0.08 per GB for HDD versus about $2 to $3 per GB for SSD |
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