Introduction
With the increase of data on this freaking planet on daily basis, we need storage but only storage doesn’t solve our issue. In addition to storage we need performance also. So what to do for increasing the performance of our PC/Laptop. Which storage device should we choose among SSD, HDD or SSHD. This article is all about that, it will give you a brief idea about SSD, HDD and SSHD and after reading this I am sure you will able to decide that what should we choose for our PC/Laptop ?
HDD
Hard Disk Drives is abbreviated as HDD and is the component of the computer that can store data while the machine is powered down. The HDD is the main, and mostly the major storage hardware in any type of computer. HDD stores the OS, all programs, data files and it operates by running needles across a spinning disk. Today HDDs are the most common means of high capacity computer storage, with almost all types of PCs and Laptops.
SSD
SSD is the abbreviation of Solid State Drive. SSD stores computer data on non-volatile "flash" memory chips rather than by changing the surface properties of a magnetic or optical spinning disk. SSD has no moving parts that makes it more bestter over HDD in accessing stored information faster on PC/Laptop.
SSHD
SSHD is basically the combination of SSD & HDD. It stands for Solid State Hybrid Drive. It has some features from HDDs and some from SSDs. Solid State Hybrid Drive combine a small, fast and affordable amount of NAND flash memory with a traditional hard drive.
At this stage we are able to have a little bit idea about the SSDs, HDDs and SSHD. Now the question is which storage device should we choose among them? To answer this question we will take a look at the advantages of using these storage devices after that it will solely depends on your mindset and your requirement that what you want; performance, storage capacity or both.
Here are the points to understand the difference between SSDs and HDDs. We will discuss SSHD later in this article.
- Faster Performance
PC/Laptop with SSDs are much faster than the PC/Laptop with HDDs. SSDs equipped PC/Laptop boots quickly, faster file transfer, fast data access. HDD has higher latency, longer read/write times, and supports fewer IOPs (input output operations per second) compared to SSD. Hence here we can conclude that SSD wins over HDDs in terms of overall faster performance. Intel claims their SSD is 8 times faster than an HDD, thereby offering faster boot up times.
- Durability
An SSD has no moving parts, featured with non-mechanical design of NAND flash mounted on circuit boards, and are shock resistant up to 1500g/0.5ms, so it is more likely to keep your data safe as it is non-volatile. Hard Drives consist of various moving parts making them susceptible to shock and damage.
- Defragmentation
The HDDs need to be periodically defragmented to improve performance whereas SSDs don't need to worry about defragmentation, since there's no physical read head. Thus, SSDs are inherently faster than HDDs.
- Noise
HDDs use more electricity to rotate the platters, generating heat and noise but as SSDs has no moving parts, SSDs run silently with no noise at all.
- Weight
HDDs are heavier than SSD drives. Since SSDs do not have the rotating disks, spindle and motor hence they are lighter than the HDDs. According to ocz.com a storage device manufacturing company, Flash-based SSDs weigh considerably lesser than hard drives – only 77g vs. 752.5g for HDDs.
- Power efficiency
SSDs are more power efficient as compared to HDDs resulting in longer battery life of Laptop/Notebooks.
- Reliability
Since HDD has moving parts hence there is increase in the risk of mechanical failure. Unlike HDD drives, SSD disks do not have moving parts, so SSD reliability is higher.
- Price
It is the only attribute where HDDs wins over SSDs. SSDs are costlier than the HDDs. 1 TB external hard drive (HDD) cost for $55 on Amazon (see external hard drive best sellers) while a 1 TB SSD costs about $475. (see best sellers list for internal SSDs and external SSDs). Now from this data you can have an idea of how much SSDs are costlier than the HDDs.
You can see the top HDDs and SSDs with price in 2015 by expertreviews.co.uk website.
- Availabilty
SSDs are less available in the market, this is another area where HDDs wins little bit but nowadays it is easily available with the increase of e-commerce websites.
- Capacity
If we talk about capacity obviously HDDs offers more capacity than the SSDs while SSDs are only affordable at lower capacities. High-capacity SSDs are extremely expensive.
From the ten parameters explained above, you can easily take the decision on what to choose between SSDs and HDDs, but wait one more storage drive is left which is SSHD and falls in between of SSDs and HDDs. Let’s discuss more about SSHDs so that you get a clearer picture.
SSHDs
Somebody said that “necessity is the mother of invention”, in case of SSHD it’s also true. Because SSDs were more costly than the HDDs hence manufacturing companies developed a new range of storage device which has features of HDDs that means higher capacity & features of SSDs i.e. improved performance.
Seagate, a storage device manufacturing company states the following things about their SSHDs:
- For a richer gaming experience, Seagate SSHDs deliver faster map load speed for non-stop performance and play.
- Get the kick of an integrated solid state drive (SSD) with the massive 4TB capacity of a hard drive – all at a surprisingly low price!
- Boots Windows® 8 in less than 10 seconds.
- Performs upto 5× faster than 7200 RPM desktop hard drives. (As measured by PCMark Vantage storage benchmarking software).
- Improves overall system responsiveness by 30% or more.
Seagate has developed an interesting video also about performances of SSDs vs HDDs vs SSHDs.
Click here to watch the video and decide what is suitable for you.
References
- Wikipedia: Hard disk drive.
- Wikipedia: Solid-state drive
- http://www.ocz.com
- http://www.seagate.com
- http://in.pcmag.com
Conclusion
After knowing all the pros and cons about SSDs, HDDs and SSHDs; it depends on your requirements, budget and mindset that which type of storage for your PC and Laptop you want. Mac Airbook & Google Chromebook are made up of SSDs giving a great performance experience to users. Here's the selection criteria of all the three storage devices which may help you to take decision.
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Figure1: Storage selection criteria for HDDs, SSDs and SSHDs.
[ image credit: www.seagate.com ]