While buying a new PC, the only choice for a long time the only choice for the main storage was HDDs (Hard Disk Drives). But in recent time a type of main storage has emerged which is SSD (Solid State Drive). So what exactly is this SSD and does it do any better than our conventional HDD. You might have heard people recommending SSD if the user wants more speed out of his PC. So we’ll have a look at the insight of what differentiates SSD from HDD and do you really need one.
General Overview of HDD and SSD
HDDs have been in existence for a long time now, the first HDD was created by IBM in 1956. A hard drive consists of platters which store data magnetically and the data on the platter is read and written using read/write heads which are connected to mechanical moving arms. Over the time there have been certain changes, the density of data per inch has increased, size is smaller and internal cable interface has changed from IDE (or parallel ATA) to serial ATA.
But SSDs comparatively have a shorter history. SSD does not have any moving parts. You are probably familiar with USB memory sticks – then think of SSD as bigger, better and more sophisticated USB memory stick. A solid state drive uses NAND-based flash memory. SSD has a controller (embedded processor) to perform operations. A controller is an important factor in deciding the speed at which SSD works.
SSD provide better performance while HDD provide more storage for a lower price. SSD draws less power than HDD. No noise in SSD as no moving parts and also no vibration and little heat produced. No effect of magnet on SSD.
Differences
Both HDD and SSD are used to store data, but they have their respective set of characteristics that differ. We will focus on certain characteristics and will see how the respective storage type is better than other:
PRICE: SSD are more expensive than HDD in terms of cost per gigabyte. HDD use older technology so they are supposed to be cheaper, but SSDs are also cutting of the price, but are going to be comparatively costlier than HDD.
MAXIMIUM CAPACITY: 1 TB of HDD is considered to be as base storage for laptops and computers nowadays and you can easily get 4 TB of for notebooks and 10 TB for desktops. While in case of SSD for notebooks you can get 1 TB and for desktops 4 TB.
SPEED: An SSD fitted system will boot faster (in less than a minute). A hard drive will take time to boot up and even in normal use SSD will perform better.
DURABILITY: As SSD does not have any moving parts, so it will keep data safe if laptop is dropped.
The Right choice
Both storage have their own perks, most of the time it depends on the needs of the user. If the user needs a system which can provide that edge on the performance, like graphics designer or doing lots of video editing on heavy software or if using laptop roughly then the choice should be SSD.
But if the storage is the main priority, you store heavy amount of data and does not want to cross your budget then probably HDD would do great to you. Even a normal user can make up with his work every day using only HDDs.
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