Hard drives are starting to be a thing of the past. They are starting to get replaced by flash memory. Flash memory may be more expensive but it is allot better than a conventional hard drive. A hard drive consists of motors and mechanics. Flash memory consists of memory banks, no mechanics involved. One of cnet’s reporters recently got to review dell’s newest laptop that utilizes flash memory. The only downside to flash memory is the price, it is very expensive and you can’t get a huge amount of memory for a huge price.

Is the quiet and extra battery life worth nearly a $900 premium? In a word, no, but you’ve got to look at the future. Although in the price stratosphere now, flash drives will start to compete more directly with drives over the next four years. Flash memory density continues to increase at a rapid pace, doubling almost every year, and large manufacturers like Samsung, Toshiba, SanDisk and Intel have or are opening factories geared at churning out flash. Taken together, this will lead to an easy availability of chips, better capabilities, and recurring price wars.

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