SSD vs HDD: Know the difference, and which should you buy?

SSD stands for Solid-state drive, It is faster, has lower latency, faster read/writes, and supports more input-output operations per second compared to HDD. Since no such rotation is needed in solid-state drives, they use less power and do not generate heat or noise. SSD drive performance is not impacted by fragmentation. It has no moving parts; it is essentially a memory chip, It is interconnected, integrated circuits (ICs) with an interface connector. There are three basic components - controller, cache, and capacitor. SSD drives are lighter than HDD drives because they do not have rotating disks, spindles, or motors. 

 

HDD stands for Hard disk drive. It is slower. It has higher latency, longer read/write times, and supports fewer IOPs (input-output operations per second) compared to SSD. HDD uses more electricity to rotate the platters, generating heat and noise. The performance of HDD drives becomes worse due to fragmentation; therefore, they need to be periodically defragmented.HDD contains moving parts - a motor-driven spindle that holds one or more flat circular disks (called platters) coated with a thin layer of magnetic material. Read-and-write heads are positioned on top of the disks; all this is encased in a metal case.HDDs are heavier than SSD drives.

 

Are Solid state drives better than Hard disk drives?

 

There is no straightforward answer to this question. First, you need to know how HDD and SSD work and then cross-match some parameters of HDD and SSD with your needs. Finally, you will decide which will be better for you. 

So, Read till the end and then pick one of them.

 

How do SSD and HDD work?

The HDD uses small moving parts to seek out data on a spinning platter mechanically. In contrast, SSD uses flash memory to store and access data. As a result, SSD can access your files and programs almost instantly.

Let's see some comparisons like price, storage capacity, and speed:

HDD vs. SSD: Price

· A 1TB internal 2.5-inch hard drive costs between $40 and $60 or less than that. The price of Hard drives (HDD) has decreased day by day.

· SSDs are more expensive than hard drives in terms of dollar per gigabyte. To buy a quality SSD of 1TB, you need to spend $125-$500 or more than that.

 

HDD vs. SSD: Capacity

· Commercial hard drives (HDDs) capacities range from 40GB up to 12TB for a while 8TB to 12TB size primarily used for servers and NAS devices. For Instance, you can get a 2TB hard drive for an affordable price, which offers you plenty of space.

· You can get an SSD with up to 4TB Storage capacity. You can try a smaller SSD, maybe around 160GB–256 GB.

HDD vs. SSD: Speed

· Solid-state drives (SSD) have always been much faster than traditional hard drives. In general, a SATA III hard drive speeds will be around 100MB/s (5,400 RPM) to 150MB/s (7,200 RPM).

· Average speeds for PCIe/M.2 SSDs will be from 1.2GB/s up to about 1.4GB/s. And if you've got the budget, you can reach 2.2GB/s.

 

When did you need to use an SSD or HDD?

 

1. You can use HDD for Disk arrays (NAS, RAID, etc.) where high capacity is needed, Desktops, when low cost is the priority, Media storage, etc.

2. You can use SSD for Notebooks, and laptops, where performance, lightweight, and areal storage density are desirable, Boot drives holding an operating system, Cache drives, Database servers, etc.

 

Best practice:

Use a smaller SSD like 256 GB for your operating system to take advantage of the SSD's higher speed and then you can use an HDD to store other files where speed isn't as important.

 

The Decision

Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) are very cheaper, and you will get more storage within your budget. However, Solid-State Drives (SSDs) are faster, lightweight, durable, and consume less energy. Now, it's time to make a decision on which storage drive will work best for you.