Solid state drive is not a 'processor'. It is a storage type like the 'spinner' hard drive and no, it does not drain your laptop battery.
The SSD is going to replace the spinner. The main reason why SSD is still expensive for the consumers is because the big businesses are buying them up straight from the manufacturers. We are talking about NYSE, Amazon, Google, Boeing, GE, etc...etc...Every second gain and every IOPS increase ended up with million$$$ in sales. When they buy in volume, they get serious discounts. Whatever left over per quarter is for the average consumers. I get employee discount so I have several SSDs at home. A 64gb in my Linux desktop, a 64gb in my mobile USB storage, a 128gb in my laptop, a 40gb in basement server, and a 64gb spare for anything. All are MLC.
Do not be alarmed by the write limits for SSDs. They are FUD (fear uncertainty doubt) mongers. There are plenty of online sources that detailed how SSDs are spanked and it would take literally years before an SSD is rendered unwriteable. If a person is running Windows 7, odds are very good that he will install Windows 20 before his SSD fail. We have a dozen Verigy testers at work running SSDs full blast for the last couple years with no hiccups.
For example...
SSD Myths and Legends - "write endurance" article in StorageSearch.com
Is it possible to kill an SSD ? Yes, take 64gb of multi-level cell (MLC) and erase/write completely -- all 64gb -- over and over and over for a few years. You have to hit all 64gb.
That said, there are 'tiers' of SSD manufacturers. The 'tier 1' are the major names like Intel or Samsung or Sony and so on. They will demand no less than 'tier 1' product from their suppliers. These SSDs will last for years and even decades. OCZ was once 'tier 3', the lowest, now they are clawing up the chain to be a 'tier 1' SSD manufacturer. Buy Intel or Crucial or Samsung if one can afford it. Then take one's chances with OCZ or Patriot or some other offbeat brands.
Tier 1 products or 'dies' are those that passed manufacturing with literally no rework/retest. They fetch premium prices for both MLC and SLC types. If a die is built as 64gb it will go out the door as 64gb and that is a tier 1 die. If a die must be reworked/retested it may go out the door as 64gb but with fewer reserve cells so it may sell as a tier 2 die. If a die was built as 64gb but for whatever reason only 32gb (or less) is functional, then it would sell as a tier 3 die. Different manufacturers have different terminologies for these levels of quality dies but they are all the same in essence with the prime die the most expensive and desirable.
So it is possible to kill an SSD in as short as a few months or even weeks of use depending on manufacturer. But if the drive is from a well known brand whose brand reputation is important, then the user will experience failure of peripheral items such as the drive's controller or the circuit board to fail before the NAND cells themselves will fail.
Check your mobo's BIOS. If it is old enough, its controller may not recognize an SSD and that could be the cause of your problems. All my mobos are socket 775. That is how behind I am to the gamers. Yet all of them run SSDs with no problems.
