The decision to move to an SSD (solid state drive) has been made easier in recent times by sky-rocketing hard drive prices which are expected to last until at least mid way through 2012.

This coupled with reports from SSD users about how they could never go back to a regular hard drive as their primary OS drive is raising many questions about whether now is the time to upgrade to an SSD.

While only you can decide whether you’re willing to fork out SSD prices, which start at around R1,000 for 60GB drives, if you are ready to take the plunge here are some things to consider.

Capacity

How much is enough? One of the main concerns when buying an SSD is that the capacity is so much smaller than a regular hard drive (high capacity SSDs exist, but their price makes them irrelevant for most consumers).

Users have become so used to an abundance of disk space that the thought of getting by with a 60GB SSD as their primary OS drive is impossible. However if users get into some good habits, such as not dumping files and folders on their desktop and changing their default browser downloads folder to a separate drive, all of a sudden the OS drive doesn’t need to be much more than 60GB.

A 60GB SSD is normally enough for the operating system and programs if you have other hard drives used for storage. However, if you’re only able to use one hard drive (in the case of a high-end laptop for example), 128GB is a must.

OCZ Vertex 3 pro, one of the fastest around

Another factor to consider is that larger capacity drives are often faster than their smaller capacity brethren.

This is because of NAND flash density, and the amount of channels used by the controller in the SSD. The same 10 lane controller will be used in various capacity drives, though in the smaller 32 or 40GB variants perhaps only 4 of the 10 lanes will be used to access the NAND flash memory.

Higher capacity drives will use more of the controller lanes, and use denser capacity NAND flash, both of which result in higher performance. This is a very basic explanation, for a more in depth look at speed and capacity of SSD’s, take a look at this Tom’s Hardware article.

Intel SSD 320, fast enough, super reliable

Controllers

Speaking of controllers, these vary from device to device and have a big impact in how the drive performs.

Some controllers, like those from Sandforce, are used by many different manufacturers. OCZ, G.Skill and others all make use of various Sandforce controllers in their SSD drives. Controllers such as those developed by Intel are only found in Intel and partner drives.

Here is a list of the common controllers as well as their standout characteristics:

Sandforce: Sandforce have some of the fastest general usage controllers on the market, including the current locally available performance king (OCZ Vertex 3). However drive reliability has been a concern for a few consumers. My own experience with previous generation Sandforce controllers wasn’t good – I had two Sandforce SF-1200 based drives completely die on me at random.

Intel: Intel produces their own controller, and while it may not set the world on fire when it comes to performance, the drives are unmatched when it comes to reliability. With drive failure rates of less than 0.6 percent, drives with Intel controllers, such as the Intel 320, are your best bet for long term reliability. The controller is also feature rich with things such as full disk encryption as a bonus to the reliability.

Marvell: Marvell controllers are found on a range of drives including some Intel models such as the 510, and Crucial M4/Micron C400. While they may not be as fast as the Sandforce controllers across the board, there are certain scenarios such as light workloads (most day to day consumer PC activity) where they are as good, if not better than the Sandforce drives.

Crucial M4 SSD, a good compromise

So what should you get?

There is no best drive on the market for everybody. That being said, there are certain drives that stand out when you apply set criteria. When it comes to SSDs, a great place for comprehensive reviews is StorageReview.com, they even have a leader board which details their pick of the current best drives in categories ranging from Performance to Value to Speciality.

As always, research products that fit into your budget thoroughly before buying, and in the end chose the one suits your needs best, whether that be maximum performance, value for money, or reliability.

Oh, and remember to bear all of the above in mind.