HDD VS SSD Hard Drives
When you are looking to buy a new computer or laptop or if you are researching ways to upgrade your machine you’ll see a lot of references to both hard drives and SSDs but which one is best for you?
In a few tears to come if you are to buy a laptop most likely you are to find the Solid-State drive as the primary boot. Drive.
Have you noted why most of the Gaming laptops have moved to SSD boot?
Let’s get into action and give you the difference between HDDs and SSDs
HDD
Commonly known as hard disk drives. This are the old school storage devices that is situated inside a laptop/pc. The HDDs has spinning disks in them where data is stored magnetically.
Features
- Mechanical moving part
- 5400 or 7200 rotations per minute
- Low price
- Low speed
- 5 inches form factor for laptops
- 5 inches form factor for desktops
SSD
Commonly known as solid state drives. This are Newer storage devices that are also situated inside a laptop/pc The SSDs have integrated circuits where their data is stored since they do not have any moving parts
Features
- SSDs require less power due to their non=mechanical nature
- No moving parts
- Flash Technology
- High price
- High speed
Copy Speed
| HDD | SSD |
| · 30- 150 MB/S | · 500MB/S
· 3000-3500 MB/S on New NVME SSDs |
Copying and moving huge files e.g. Movies, is where the difference is most apparent
SSD vs HDD which is Better?
- SSDs have shorter wait times when you’re starting up and fewer delays when opening apps or doing heavy computing tasks compared to HDDS. These faster speeds lead to performance benefits in several areas, such as when logging in and waiting for apps and services to start up, or when performing storage-intensive tasks such as copying a large file. With an HDD, performance slows significantly, while an SSD can continue to work on other tasks.
- You might have heard of these interfaces—SATA and PCI Express (PCIe). SATA is an older, slower, legacy technology, while PCIe is newer and faster. SSDs with PCIe interfaces will typically be much, much faster than HDDs with SATA.
- SSDs for computers are available in 120 GB to 4 TB capacities, whereas HDDs can go anywhere from 250 GB to 8 TB
- SSDs in general are more reliable than HDDs, which again is a function of having no moving parts because without movement, SSDs aren’t affected by vibration
- SSDs commonly use less power and result in longer battery life because data access is much faster and the device is idle more often. With their spinning disks, HDDs require more power when they start up than SSDs.
| HDDS | SSDS |
| · Heavy downloaders and Multimedia users; This require more space where you can get more space up to 8 TB hard drive | · Road warriors; People who move frequently and always moving with their machine require SSD laptops since they have no moving parts in them they are solid |
| · Graphic arts and engineering professionals; Their storage fill up and wear out faster hence adding or replacing hard drives is cheaper compared to SSD | · Speed demons; If you need quick boot up and speed up processes in your laptop a machine with SSD is of more preference |
| · Budget Buyers; if working under a budget Hard drive laptop are relatively cheaper compared to SSD laptops | · Graphic arts and engineering professionals; Don’t be confused I know we said they need hard drives but on the other hand they also require SSDs due to their speed since they may require to handle different tasks at a time, these users are prime candidates for dual drive systems |
| · General Users; If you’ll be using your laptop for general use of laptop i.e. typing watching sending and receiving emails, HDD laptop is more economical and will satisfy your needs | · Audio Engineers and Musicians; If you are recording or mastering audio sounds you require a quiet machine as your working since you don’t want scratchy sounds hence use of SSD is more efficient. |
What Fits Your Need?
HYBRID DRIVES- SSHD
An SSHD is still slower than even an SSD, but it’s a good chunk faster than a plain old hard disk. Basically, if you want lots of storage at a reasonable price an SSHD is a good choice. This would combine a hard drive’s large storage capacity with the performance of an SSD, at a price only slightly higher than that of a typical hard drive. The memory acts as a barrier for frequently used files, so your system has the potential for booting and launching your most important apps faster, even though you can’t directly install anything in that space yourself.
They work best for people like road warriors who need both lots of storage and fast boot times
Features
- Mid-Price
- Speed
- High Storage
DUAL DRIVE (SSD + HDD)
This is the best set up for best performance the manufacturer installs an SSD as the primary drive (C:) for the operating system and apps, and add a larger-capacity spinning hard drive for storing files e.g. (1 TB + 256GB SSD)
For any multiple-drive system: You need physical space inside the PC chassis to hold two (or more) drives, which means that this kind of arrangements are practical only in PC desktops and some big-chassis, high-end (usually gaming-oriented) laptops.
Last but not least, an SSD plus Hard drive on systems using technologies like Intel’s Optane Memory that comes as an M.2 module acts as an SSD like cache that helps the system boot more speedily and launch programs from the main boot drive. As on a hybrid drive, the Optane Memory is not directly accessible by the end user.
The Storage for Tomorrow
We are not sure whether SSDs will come to fully replace HDDs since the price of SSDs is coming down but its still expensive for them to replace the large data that some users have in their pc’s or Laptops.
Let us wait and see as Technology unfolds itself with Time.
Looking for Affordable Laptops in Kenya with extra Space. Check out on this list from our computer shop in Nairobi.