Tech Check #8 HDD vs SSD

SSD vs HDD

One of the most important things when buying a laptop today is that how much and what kind of memory does it have. Should you go for the old and reliable HDDs? Or should you choose the SSDs? Today we present to you what's actually different in the 2, without going into the technicalities of it. 

HDD stands for Hard Disk Drive. They are the robust, high storage capacity drives that have been there for quite some time. SSD, on the other hand stands for Solid State Drive, the lighter counterpart with lesser storage capacity. 

Speed

Face it, Hard disks stand no chance here. SSDs are much faster than a HDD. The rotation speed of an HDD determines how fast it is. Compared to an HDD having a rotation speed of 5400rpm(this is the standard speed), an SSD would go about 10 times faster! Even if you go for a more modern 7200rpm HDD, the difference still remains a lot. And this is the speed which shows not only while transferring files,but also while booting and general system use. The secret is that there is no movement of the internal components in SSDs which speeds up the transfer process.

Storage

A 256GB SSD costs a little less than a 4TB Hard Disk Drive. Pretty clear why SSDs are not so common yet among the masses. With the data we want to store increasing day by day, it is a natural choice to go for HDDs so that we can store a large amount of data at a fraction of the price. 

Reliability

To be honest, it clearly depends on how you use your drive. Since HDDs have moving parts, they get physically damaged more easily. That is why your laptop couldn't recover from that time it fell. In comparison, SSDs are more resistant and can take some beating before going down.
Another factor we should consider is the read and write cycles. SSDs perform slightly better than HDDs when it comes to read and write cycles. 

BOTTOM LINE

Hard Disks and SSDs are actually 2 very different technologies. Both have their pros and cons. Rather than asking which is better,  the real question is what we want. If you can ditch performance over storage and want a light device, SSDs are your go-to choice but if you cannot, the conventional HDDs would be preferable. Its actually a trade-off. With more data being generated, you need to store it somewhere, and on the other hand, there's no point if you can't transfer it fast enough.
With SSDs being gradually adapted in the market, their prices will go down, though. And when that happens, HDDs will be obsolete, except at large data banks.


 Another Storage option to consider are hybrid drives, which bring the best of both to play. 

Hybrid Drives are basically HDDs with a little amount of in-built SSD storage. It basically divides the work between the two, the storage for the former leaving the transfer for the latter, still appearing as a single drive on your PC. This results in better boot times, and write speeds, while giving you the extra storage you need.