SSD's are great, but like many things, they do have their cons. Quick list:
Pros:
- There isn't your usual arm, platter, etc. There are no moving parts, so there's much more reliability in terms of being reliable mechanically.
- Due to there being no moving parts, no need for the drive to spin up, etc... they're fast.
- Virtually no noise due to there being no spinning motor or platter. No more grinding noise! I'm pretty sure some SSD's have cooling fans, but they aren't anything at noise level compared to modern fans.
- Small form factor, most if not all are 2.5".
- Low power consumption.
Cons:
- To be completely honest, the only "real" and largest con is price for the storage density. No matter the size you get, the price you pay is very high these days. A reliable ~64GB SSD can go upwards of a hundred or more US dollars.
- Data recovery is very difficult with an SSD. Once the SSD becomes faulty, etc, recovering the data may not be possible.
- As SSD's are still relatively new technology, they're prone to "random failure". There are many underlying factors and this should not be a deal breaker when purchasing an SSD as firmware updates are released fairly regularly if necessary.
etc..
As far as reliable brands go, there are many: Intel, Crucial, Samsung, Corsair, etc.
