Customising hard drive options - solid-state drive?

Can someone explain to me what the difference between a solid-state drive and a Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm is? I am deciding between going with the 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 for $141.00 or the 128GB solid-state drive for $329. Clearly the solid-state drive is more expensive, but yet is only 128GB. Can anyone help?

They're actually both SATA. That's just the interface to connect to the computer. The 5400 rpm HDD works like a record. There are platters that spin (thus the rpm stat) and a "needle" reads it. The SSD stores your info on chips. The cheaper one is much slower and more susceptible to damage since it has moving parts, but it's what most people use b/c of the price. SSD prices are getting cheaper though and may become more popular b/c of it.

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    Message was edited by: Sossity

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    shldr2thewheel wrote:
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