Compare SSDs with HDDs: A Brief Overview

If you’re looking to purchase a new computer or laptop or want to upgrade your existing system, you’re probably going to come across SSD and HDD drives in your research. There are two main storage options to consider including Solid State Drives (SSDs) and Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) but it’s important for you to know that which is the best solution for your storage needs. In this post we are discussing the main differences between SSDs and HDDs such as performance, speed, capacity and cost.

What is an HDD?

HDD stands for Hard Disk Drive. An HDD is a data storage device that connects directly with the system motherboard inside the computer. A traditional HDD can store an operating system, applications, and files, with a circular disc known as a platter which stores the data. An HDD store all the information on thin, metal disks that can spin at around 7,200 RPM. They are available in two common form factors: 2.5 inch (commonly used in laptops) and 3.5 inch (desktop computers).

What is an SSD?

SSD stands for Solid State Drive or Solid State Disk. A solid-state drive (SSD) is newer than HDD technology that contain no moving parts and uses NAND flash memory. An SSD (solid state drive) works in a completely different way and stores data on interconnected flash memory chips. The latest SSD technology is NVMe which offers fastest data transfer speeds up to 3,500/3,300 MB/s.

Type of Applications

When it comes to compare SSDs vs HDDs in terms of technical specifications and performance, it is simple to make reference and relate to the type of applications that you want to use – whether an SSD or HDD is right for you.

Solid State Drives:

Travel Friendly: Users who travel a lot, or work in the field, will benefit from the quick performance an SSD can offer, especially when needing to boot up a laptop from sleep mode quickly.

Gamers: Gamers who rely on games to load and perform well will see a difference in how their games load when installed to an SSD compared to an HDD.

Musicians: Musicians will benefit from the performance increase an SSD can offer and the quieter sounds compared to a noisy HDD.

Hard Disk Drives:

Budget Friendly: If you’re on a budget, HDDs are cheaper than SSDs. Budget PCs and laptops often contain HDDs.

Graphics Photo editors and video software can take up a fair amount of storage. As well as the software itself, photos and videos in certain formats can fill up storage quickly.

Multimedia: HDDs have large storage capacities at affordable prices, so they are ideal for users who want to store lots of images, videos, and other media.

Storage Capacity:

When it comes to capacity, SSDs are available in 120 GB to 4 TB capacities, whereas HDDs storage range available in between 40GB to 12TB. When measuring cost per capacity, HDDs are on top, but as SSDs drop in price, this will become less of a differentiator for HDDs.

Speed:

The speed difference between an SSD and HDD entirely depends on the hardware. An SSD is four times faster than an HDD when it comes to read speed and same when comparing write speed. they are the clear winner in terms of speed and performance.

Performance Comparison:

On comparing SSD vs HDD based on application performance, SSD works better than HDD. The performance of HDD may be affected due to fragmentations. But in SSD, there is no impact of fragmentation on the performance. The main components of HDD are enclosed in a metal case. The platter holds the motor, which is to be driven. While in SSD, there is only a sticky flash memory that is more reliable.

The Cost:

One of the big differences between SSDs and HDDs is their cost. If you’re looking for large storage capacity, HDDs are cheaper overall because SSDs tend to be more expensive than HDDs per gigabyte. SATA III SSDs are cheaper than PCIe SSDs because of using older technology. You can choose a 256GB SSD at a similar price to an HDD, but the specs will be better.

SSD vs HDD – Major Differences:

SSD has faster read and write speed as compared to HDD	HDD is cheaper than SSD
SSD consumes less power than HDD	It has a large base storage capacity than SSD
It is a noise-free operation	HDD is much more accessible than SSD
SSD supports Disk encryption whereas HDD does not	Data recovery from HDD is not so complicated
SSD has a longer lifespan as compared to HDD	It is easily available in the market whereas SSD does not
The boot time is approx 10 sec which is better than HDD	It has higher read-write cycles

Which one is the Best? SSD or HDD?

It all depends upon the device which you are using to store data for Desktop and Laptops. If HDD is cheaper, so SSD is faster and more durable. SSD uses less energy to store a large amount of data than HDD. If you are still confused that which storage drive is best for your machine, then don’t hesitate to contact us. Our hardware expert will help to find the right device as per your system configuration.

Also Read:

Top 10 Enterprise Solid State Drives for High Performance Computing