When choosing between HDD or SSD, you need to know the differences they have, taking into account factors such as price, use and storage capacity. With this care, you run less risk of making a wrong purchase and compromising the business budget, especially if it is already tight.
Initially, we will explain separately what an HDD and an SSD are. Next, we will present a comparison between them, considering several factors to facilitate your understanding of which option best meets your needs. Keep reading!
What is an HDD?
HDD, or Hard Disk Drive, is a device used to store data from computers. From personal information to data used only by the operational system: everything can be stored long-term on a hard drive.
An HDD used to be physically huge and could hold a finite amount of data. But the gadget has advanced, and now it can store gigabytes or even terabytes of data. It has also gotten less expensive.
To prevent an HDD from having its performance compromised, even by small dust particles, a sealed metal case is used. It is important to highlight another point about hard drives: their size. Nowadays, it is possible to get an HDD even the size of a matchbox, but in computers and notebooks, the appropriate size is usually a little larger.
More specifically, computers, workstations and servers they often use 3.5-inch hard drives. Notebooks and mini PCsuse 2.5 inch HDD.
What is an SSD?
The SSD, or solid state drive, is a more modern generation of data storage on computers. The memory used in this device is flash-based, offering good performance, especially if we consider applications that require the use of many resources.
Furthermore, the SSD has no moving parts inside, making it resistant to a fall, for example. Explaining a little about flash memory, what happens is the recording, transfer and deletion of data electronically and silently.
Because it has no moving parts, the SSD is very fast and silent. However, this implies an additional price compared to HDD. Companies that purchase SSD want to store so-called non-volatile data. In other words, they are those records that persist in the machine’s permanent memory, even if it is turned off.
Making a quick comparison with the HDD, the SSD is smaller and lighter, in addition to having a very robust data recovery mechanism.
HDD or SSD: what are the differences?
The differences between HDD and SSD go beyond size and weight. In the following subtopics, we will compare both, considering fundamental aspects such as speed, storage capacity, durability, price and recommended use. Check out!
Speed
The speed of SSD is a lot higher than that of HDD concerning perusing and composing. The justification for this is that the SSD doesn’t have to “stand by” for an actual plate to turn to get to the information since it doesn’t have moving parts inside.
Storage capacity
While HDD is a magnetic storage device, SSD is based on flash memory technology. It uses chips inside to store data, all electronically.
Because of this, the overall performance of the SSD is much greater than the hard disk, with the solid disk drive having almost instantaneous access times, while the HDD requires the internal disks to rotate and the mechanical arm to move into position. correct before data can be read or written.
Durability
When we talk about durability, the concept of lifespan. This is nothing more than the time taken by the storage device before it starts to fail or significant errors occur.
In the case of hard drives, this useful life is determined by the mechanical rate of the physical components, including the rotating magnetic disks, the read/write arm and the motor. The duration may be a few years, but this will depend on the quality of the device and the usage environment.
In SSDs, the useful life is determined depending on the number of write cycles that the memory cells flash are able to withstand before they begin to fail. Each of these cells can be programmed and erased a finite number of times before the first signs of wear appear.
The phenomenon that gives this wear its name is called cell erasure. In practice, over time, the SSD may no longer be able to reliably retain data, causing read and write errors. However, there is not much reason for users to worry, as this useful life is usually quite long, satisfactorily meeting the needs of a company and common users.
Price
Initially, SSDs were much more expensive than HDDs because of the high costs of producing devices with flash memory. Furthermore, demand for SSD was not yet high, meaning the product could not be produced on a large scale.
However, production costs were decreasing in proportion to the increase in demand for these models. Therefore, currently, although the HDD is still cheaper, the difference is significantly smaller — even more so when considering the cost-benefit and durability of both.
Recommended use
If you need storage but are limited in resources, it is preferable to buy HDD. However, if your need is fast performance and responsiveness, especially for resource-intensive applications, the recommendation is to opt for SSD.
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