200px wide
1300 378 676
+61 7 3120 0640
[email protected]
CALL US
EMAIL US
  • Corporate Services
    • Managed Cloud Services
      • Private Cloud
      • Hybrid Cloud
      • Cloud Consulting
      • Microsoft SharePoint
      • Microsoft Office 365
      • Power BI
      • Amazon Web Services
      • Microsoft Azure
      • Colocation & Server Hosting
    • Managed Network Services
      • Business Internet
      • Managed Wi-Fi
      • Network Security
      • Private WAN
    • IT Support Services
      • Managed IT Services
      • IT Consulting
      • Outsource Your IT Department
      • IT Audit & Review
      • Project Services
      • Virtual CIO Services
      • Corporate Apple Services
      • Production Studio and Design
      • Mobile Device Management
      • IT Support Brisbane
    • Business Telephony
      • Hosted PBX
      • On-Premise PBX
      • Microsoft Teams
      • Microsoft Teams Calling
      • Call Centre Services
    • Hardware and Software Procurement
    • Supported Industries
  • Education Services
    • Education Device Procurement & Technology in Schools
    • IT Support for Education Services
    • Mobile Device Management for Schools
    • Professional Development for Teachers
    • Apple Solution Expert
  • Case Studies
  • News
  • About Us
    • Why Choose Us?
    • Our Team
    • Client Testimonials
    • Partners and Awards
    • Careers
  • Contact Us

Solid State Drives vs Traditional Hard Drives. Which is right for you?

April 19, 2016 By eStormAdmin


  Gone are the days of simply choosing the drive that had the largest capacity that your budget could afford. Solid-state drives have made huge advances in recent years and have started to become affordable for the average consumer. So which should you choose?

 

hard_drive_western_digital_sataHard-Disk Drives

These are the traditional type of computer storage and have been around for decades with minor changes under the hood. Due to there age, they’re a mature technology and considered by many as the default storage medium. Basically they are rotating magnetic platters and with read/write heads that move across the surface to access the data. These drives are called “mechanical” because of the moving parts, and are susceptible to failure from time to time… usually at the least convenient time.

They are available in several speeds that are measured by how fast the platters spin.  Most drives in desktop PC’s are 7,200 RPM, but in laptops you may find 5,400 RPM.  Occasionally in servers or higher end storage you will find 10,000 RPM.  The faster they are, the more expensive they are.  You can increase performance and speed by using other technology such as RAID, but that’s another article.

Modern drives are readily available in up to 8TB these days, with 2 or 3TB being considered pretty standard.

In summary. HDDs are best used when you need to store a lot of data, and high performance is not essential. As a result, HDDs are the norm for a desktop computer, and every day home consumer.

ssdSolid-State Drives

Solid-state drives essentially perform the same role as a HDD. But rather than using mechanical moving parts, they use NAND flash memory. This means they are far more robust than traditional hard drives, and offer significantly greater performance.

Solid state drives normally connect using the same SATA interface as a HDD, but a few can use PCI for very high performance applications. Data access is typically a fraction of a millisecond and data transfer can be in excess of 500MB per second.

With those fast data access speeds, your operating system usually boots within a few seconds.

So far this all sounds pretty good!  So where’s the catch?  As always, it comes down to money.  This performance, when compared to HDDs, does not come cheap. If you want to spend the same money as you would on a HDD, but you want the performance of SSD, expect to be dealing with a much smaller capacity. The capacity of SSDs range from about 60GB to 2TB with the larger cost around $1300. In most cases, this is above the budget of the average consumer. It is however becoming popular to buy a smaller SSD for installing applications and your operating system, and then a larger traditional HDD for storing your data such as photos, music and movies.  Be warned though, HDDs would often give warning signs of imminent failure… SSDs will tend to simply go from working perfectly, to being completely dead in the blink of an eye.  BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP!

 

momentus-100021850-largeHybrid

 

A hybrid hard drive is a mixture of a traditional HDD drive and a small solid-state/flash drive in a single package. The drive monitors the usage of data being read and keeps a copy of the most frequently accessed data on the flash memory as a cache. This results in SSD like performance at a fraction of the cost. They cost slightly more than traditional hard drives but nowhere near as much as solid state drives. They can often make an ideal cost effective solution.

 

All in all, I’m a fan of SSD.  And for me, if it’s in the budget, I will always get, and always recommend SSD.

Filed Under: Brisbane IT Support And Managed Services – EStorm Australia, Hardware, Infrastructure, IT Support, Managed IT Support Melbourne

Mobile Guardian Partnership

eStorm has partnered with Exclaimer!

A Quick Guide to Microsoft Teams Calling

Tags

amazon Apple apps brisbane lions business network security cloud computing cloud management cloud migration cybercrime cybersecurity education email scam emerging technology facebook Google HomePod hybrid cloud management IT Events IT managed service provider it outsourcing IT services it strategy Microsoft microsoft office 365 Mircosoft password security phishing Phone Solutions remax australia remote work two-factor authentication virtual desktop infrastructure windows workplace productivity

Latest News

  • Mobile Guardian Partnership
  • eStorm has partnered with Exclaimer!
  • A Quick Guide to Microsoft Teams Calling
  • Best Practices for Backing Up Your Data
  • The Pros and Cons of Chromebooks: Are They Suitable for Students?

eStorm Australia Head Office

Level 1, 16 Old Cleveland Road
Stones Corner, QLD 4120
P: 1300 378 676
P: +61 7 3120 0640
E: [email protected]

Service Centre Springfield

1/145 Sinnathamby Boulevard,
Springfield Central, QLD, 4300
P: (07) 3180 4228
E: [email protected]

Service Centre Toowoomba

11/12 Prescott St,
Toowoomba City, QLD, 4350
P: (07) 4596 6268
E: [email protected]

Interstate Contact

Sydney
P: (02) 9188 5148
Melbourne
P: (03) 9088 6431

Client Tools

Pay Invoice
Remote Support
Additional Support
Create a Ticket

QAssure - 10805 - eStorm
GITC: Q-4675

Find us on LinkedIn Follow us on Facebook Find us on YouTube

© 2019 eStorm Australia. All Rights Reserved.

Terms of ServiceRefund PolicyPrivacy Policy