Let the hive mind of Engadget get that for you.
"As someone who doesn't reside in the USA, I was wondering what would be the best way to get internet for my computer in the US for a couple of weeks? If it were Europe I know I'd look for some prepaid data. Is there anything similar offered by American carriers? A MiFi or a data SIM that I can tether from would work, but I'm trying to maintain a tight budget. Help!"
I've tried SSD. Speed is nice, but not at this price. Not to mention the incompatibility issues with so much hardware. I've got some of the Seagate Momentus XT drives on order. If they give something even close to SSD, that's the way of the future IMHO.
@Narg These aren't talking about speed. They are for endurance and high-life applications. For example: Look at the form factor. Find a netbook with a similar drive. Check the specs. For example, the original Acer Aspire one has either a Samsung or an Intel SSD that it about one half of a 1.8" HDD. It's a similar PCB to the SATA one pictured above except that the interface is PATA ZIF. rather than explain just how painful it is to use Windows XP on it, let me just quote Wikipedia:
Solid state drives
"Early 8 GB models come with the Intel Z-P230, model SSDPAMM0008G1. This SSD has been criticized for its slow read and write speed. Intel lists the drive's maximum speeds as 38 MB/s read and 10 MB/s write.[28] Later models come with the slightly faster Samsung P-SSD 1800."
The lack of any kind of cache memory means that it is WAY slower than any HDD due to constant hitches and freezes and the OS performs writes in the background.
@CZroe Granted, I wouldn't mind upgrading to one of these. ;)