SSD vs HDD Pros And Cons

You need a hard drive, but which type should you choose? Getting a handle on Ssd Vs Hdd Pros And Cons can help to bring some clarity.

When purchasing a hard drive there are several main points to consider and they all depend on what exactly your computing needs are.

You need to ask yourself:

• How important is speed?
• Is the drive formatted for my operating system?
• What is my budget?
• Do I need a lot of space now and in the future?
• Is the durability and security of the device important to me?

Let’s look closer at the SSD and HDD and see how they fit into your computing solution needs.

What is an SSD drive?

SSDs generally speaking are the more popular internal storage option for higher-end laptops today.

When they do their reads and writes they use no moving parts during the processing because it uses flash memory.

By using flash memory instead of moving parts, makes SSDs more durable and have higher performance than HDDs.

Even when unplugged from their power source SSDs continue to hold an electrical charge because they use metal oxide semiconductors.

SSD pros and cons

SSD pros

Speed: Since SSDs have no moving parts they are faster than HDDs. Actually around four times faster for a typical SSD reads/writes about 550/520 megabytes per second respectively compared to HDDs read/write speed of around 125 MBps.

This makes SSDs the drive of choice for serious gamers who reap the benefit of faster game loading times.

Noise: Because SSDs are non-mechanical with no moving parts they make no noise during their read or write processing.

Durability and Energy Efficiency: Thanks again to the lack of moving parts a solid state drive is more durable and energy-efficient which helps it to run cooler as well.

SSD cons

Limited lifespan: SSDs have a finite number of times that they can be written to and read from called terabytes written (TBW). They are long-lasting drives but know they too have got limited use.

Price: SSDs are about two to four times more expensive than HDDs.

These ads give a visual comparison of how these prices differ.

SSD price compare:

• Crucial MX500 SSD 1TB
• SAMSUNG 980 SSD 1TB
• Western Digital SSD 1TB
• SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB

HDD price compare:

• Seagate BarraCuda 8TB Internal Hard Drive HDD
• Seagate IronWolf 8TB NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD
• Western Digital 4TB WD Blue PC Hard Drive HDD
• Western Digital 4TB WD Purple Surveillance Internal Hard Drive HDD

What is an HDD hard drive?

Most desktop PCs come with internal hard disk drives to store and retrieve installed applications, large files, and the operating system.

This technology has been around for several decades with continual improvements to its capacity and diminishing size.

Unlike SSDs, HDDs have moving parts such as:

• Spinning disks, or the platters that read and write magnetic data
• A head actuator
• Read/write actuator arm

A faster spinning platter provides faster read/write speeds. You will appreciate this speed as it provides faster loading applications and faster operating system responses.

HDD pros and cons

HDD pros

Storage Capacity: If you have requirements for more storage space, you should consider an HDD.

As an example, check out the Seagate Exos X18 18TB Enterprise HDD

This is not a typo it’s 18 tb!

 

Economical: When you purchase an HDD it costs a fraction per gigabyte compared to the cost of a solid-state drive.

HDD cons

Durability: With all the moving parts in this drive from the spindles, heads, and platters, one of the drawbacks is the potential to fail. We did not say the likelihood to fail but this is not a hard drive that will stand up well to being dropped and banged around.

Slow: At least compared to SSDs. The cheaper HDDs have 5,400 RPM. So to overcome this disadvantage we recommend that you go with the 7,200 RPM drives if you purchase an HDD.

Noise: The mechanical parts are to blame. The slower the HDD the quieter they tend to be and visa versa.

Size: HDDs are naturally larger than SSDs because they have platters, spindles, and motors to house

Which is better HDD or SSD?

Looking at SSD vs HDD Pros And Cons, we have seen that the larger capacity HDDs are more affordable than their SSD counterparts. The SSDs are faster, quieter, and more energy-efficient.

It is not a matter of which one is better but which is better for your particular needs.