The standard HDD (hard disk drive) has been the main storage device for computers for a long time. The main reason being its high storage capacity and low cost.

People now buy laptops for their computing needs and have to decide between getting either a Solid State Drive (SSD) or Hard Disk Drive (HDD) as the storage component. So which of the two is the better choice, SSD storage or HDD storage? There’s no straight-forward answer to this question as each user has different needs and need to evaluate the decision based on those needs, and of course budget.

Although the price of SSDs has been falling, the price per gigabyte advantage is still strong with HDDs. Yet, if performance and fast boot-up is your primary consideration and money is secondary, then SSD is the way to go.

How are SSDs Different from SSDs?

A hard disk drive uses a mechanical arm with a read/write head to move around and read information from the right location on a storage platter. This difference is what makes SSD speed so much faster.

The SSD has no moving parts like the mechanical arm in the HDD. It uses flash memory to store data, which provides better performance and reliability. Moreover, the SSD uses less power as compared to a standard HDD which results in a lower energy bill over time and for laptops, an increased battery life.

The SSD (solid-state drive) is slowly replacing the majority of hard disk drives. However, due to its price per unit of memory, it is not practical to use SSDs in all instances. Alternatively, one can use SSD as the primary drive for the operating system and for applications accessed more frequently and a HDD for storing documents, pictures, and music.

An SSD has access speeds of 35 to 100 microseconds, which is nearly 100 times faster than a hard disk drive. The faster access speed ensures that programs can run more quickly, which is very helpful for programs that access large amounts of data often like the operating system itself. A typical HDD takes about 5,000 to 10,000 microseconds to access data.

The comparison above is just to lay out the pros and cons for both options. To provide you even more insights, here are some points to take into consideration when deciding which drive is best for you:

An HDD might be the right choice if:

• You need lots of storage capacity, up to 10TB
• Don’t have too much budget
• Don’t need very fast computer boots and program execution

An SSD might be the right choice if:

• You are willing to pay for faster performance
• Don’t mind limited storage capacity or can work around that

Conclusion

Even though modern SSDs are very durable, the high price and low capacity poses a problem, and for that reason many data centers and techies use a combination of SSD and HDD as we have mentioned above.

This approach combines the best of both — the ultrafast, random data access of SSD with the relatively inexpensive, high capacity of HDD. If this sounds good to you, you’ll want to start shopping for a suitable solid-state drive.