It is been a topic for debate from the time solid-state drives came into the market. Everyone doing their research on SSD vs HDD which is best for their new laptop or personal computer. Frankly, as there is no one answer and nothing is best, both storage types have their merits and demerits. And based on your requirements there is a solution consisting of both SSD and HDD or anyone. So lets deep dive into SSD vs HDD.
Hard drives first came on the market in the 1960s, at that time it was not available for consumers and were bulky and big. With time sizes and weight both came down significantly, and we can see 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch hard drives for consumers in the market.
SSD came into the market in the late 2000s with a rising market for notebooks. They were portable, fast and expensive at the same time. Its affordability was the main reason for anyone not choosing solid-state drives. It also comes in a 2.5-inch form factor, and in recent times it is much sorter.
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SSD vs HDD: How Do They Work?
Hard drives are here for more than a decade and are well-tested and trusted for storage by consumers as well as businesses. With long development, they have shrunk in weight and size.
Hard drives have spinning magnetic disks inside which rotate, and a header which reads and writes data in the magnetic disks in the form of binary data. All disks together make the whole storage space and are divided logically by your operating system.
Other hand solid state drives use NAND which uses flash memory as its base technology. It also does not have any moving parts like hard drives. And addition to that there is an SSD controller which keeps track of data and many other things. Hopefully you have got a better idea about the working of SSD vs HDD.
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SSD vs HDD: Reliability, Performance and Durability
Solid-state drives do not have any moving parts like hard drives so they are less prone to damage due to drops or shocks. They use modern NAND flash modules for storage, which helps in faster read-write speeds, less latency and better performance in peak usage. Most solid-state drives come with a 2,3 or 5-year warranty, which states their longevity. To measure their longevity manufacturers rate the solid-state drives in terms of hours they can run before failure or TB written whichever crosses fast. By seeing that and depending upon your workload you can expect how much your SSD will last. In addition, SSDs have TRIM technology that helps so that all cells wear out equally.
And if you perform frequent read-write operations or work with big files that are constantly accessed, SSD will suit your workflow better.
With the operating system and all other programs installed in your SSD, you can expect short boot times, immediate response and faster speeds while transferring files. With speeds, of more than 450Mbps SSDs are a must be recommended.
Many modern SSDs come with DRAM caching or SLC caching which improves the performance further.
There are also NVMe SSDs which offer much higher speeds than SATA-based SSDs. This type of SSD uses NVMe protocol which is optimized for SSDs.
Hard drives came a long way from the 1960s. They are much faster from their inception but obviously not as fast as a solid-state drive. HDDs come with moving parts which causes durability issues from accidental drops or shocks during transport.
Also with a moving platter and header response time to find a file, or go to a specific location is limited. You will find noticeable delays and an increase in response time than SSDs.
If you have your programs and operating system installed on your hard drive loading time will be higher and after the first boot, your computer will need significant time loading all the essential services and programs in the main memory. It also limits the headroom of doing other tasks as speed is limited. The speed of a hard drive is measured in RPM. Modern HDDs come with a 5400 RPM or a 7200 RPM rotating magnetic disk.
They also come with a small cache memory to overcome delayed responses.
Without any damage and in perfect condition, they last long enough to store important memories. But there is a higher risk of failure and losing your data in Hard drives than solid state drives and in the longer run, SSDs last longer than HDD.
With all the points discussed if you carry important data, and fast response time matters in your workflow, you should definitely consider an SSD.
And if you are looking to simply expand your storage capacity for multimedia usage or do not need quick responses like SSDs, HDDs are a good choice.
At this point hopefully you already know, SSD vs HDD which is better in Reliability, Performance and Durability.
SSD Vs HDD: Price Point
From the beginning, SSDs are always priced higher, and for people who wanted large storage drives HDDs are the only feasible options for normal consumers.
Eventually, the prices of SSDs are lower enough for normal consumers to afford. With an entry-level capacity of 128 GB it is much more accessible to a wider audience and people can use it as a boot drive and jump into the SSD game. We can find options under 7000 for a 500GB SSD and for a 1TB SSD price goes above 10K.
Other hands we can easily find a 1TB HDD under 4K and a 2TB HDD under 6K, so hard drives offer a value perspective for buyers wanted storage at the lowest cost. With all its drawbacks it is feasible for both consumers who can not afford it and can afford it.
So you can choose and buy according to your budget and needs. Hopefully you will be able to choose between a SSD vs HDD considering their price.
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SSD vs HDD: Form Factors
In today’s world we have 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drives which can be connected with a SATA expansion slot and there is M.2 expansion slot for both SATA and NVMe SSDs.
HDDs come in both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch form factors, but with smaller form factors of laptops, they ship with a 2.5-inch HDD or an expansion slot. And many modern laptops only come with an SSD.
Today’s SSD mostly comes in a 2.5-inch form factor or a smaller M.2 form factor in 42mm, 60mm, 80mm, and 120mm lengths. Laptop manufacturers are also moving for the M.2 form factor for their smaller size, omitting the 2.5-inch form factor for expansion.
So for expansion, we can also expand with external storage anytime with external SSDs or HDDs which can be connected via USB port.
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SSD vs HDD: Connectivity
Modern hard drives are connected to your motherboard via a 6Gbps SATA expansion slot, and also cheaper SSDs connect through a SATA expansion slot.
NVMe SSDs use an M.2 expansion slot and use a direct PCIe link for faster speeds compared to the SATA-based SSDs. There are also M.2 based SATA SSD which offer similar speeds to a SATA SSD.
This gives you the different connectivity options available in SSD vs HDD.
SSD Vs HDD: Capacity
Hard disks and solid state drives both come with common capacities like 500GB, 1TB, 2TB or 4TB.
If you need more than 4TB of storage HDD is cheaper with each extra Tera Bytes.
If money is not a problem, an SSD with a capacity of 20TB is also available. But they are catered towards businesses rather than normal consumers and are also super expensive for that matter.
For normal consumers ideal configuration would be a 256GB or a 512GB SSD or higher as per your budget as a boot drive and according to the need a hard drive for additional storage.
Users who are building a NAS should consider hard drives with higher endurance like the Seagate IronWolf series.
For all-day usage like in surveillance systems should use options like WD Purple.
So you know now what you have to buy SSD vs HDD for your needs.
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Our Recommended SSD and HDD
Best 500GB SATA SSD
Here are a few options that I recommend for 500GB SATA SSD:
Best 500GB NVMe SSD
Here are a few options that I recommend for 500GB NVMe SSD:
Best 1TB NVMe SSD
Here are a few options that I recommend for a 1TB NVMe SSD:
Best HDD in India
Here are a few options that I recommend for HDD :
| Internal HDD | Product Link |
|---|---|
| 1. Seagate Barracuda 1TB Internal Hard Drive HDD (2.5 Inch) | Check Offer Price |
| 2. Seagate Barracuda 2 TB Internal Hard Drive HDD (3.5 Inch) | Check Offer Price |
Best Surveillance HDD
Here are a few options that I recommend for surveillance HDD:
| Surveillance HDD | Product Link |
|---|---|
| 1. Western Digital 2TB WD Purple Surveillance Internal Hard Drive HDD | Check Offer Price |
| 2. Seagate SkyHawk 2 TB Surveillance Internal Hard Drive HDD | Check Offer Price |
Best NAS HDD
Here are a few options that I recommend for NAS:
| 8TB NAS HDD | Product Link |
|---|---|
| 1. Seagate IronWolf 8 TB NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD | Check Offer Price |
Final Thoughts
So what should we choose? If you don’t need any extra storage capacity a single 500GB SSD should be enough for programs and a few games.
For extra storage, we can choose hard drives at any time, and if you use a laptop external SSD or HDD is a good choice.
And for the users for whom money is not a problem can definitely make their entire systems on SSD, and who can not afford a combination of SSD and HDD is a perfect choice. An SSD in your system definitely helps in day-to-day tasks and enhances your experience.
An all-hard disk system is not recommended with today’s heavy applications, but manageable if your usage is very limited.
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