HDD vs SSD: what to choose for PC and laptop

The battle of HDD vs SSD is compared with the battle of Intel against AMD, or GeForce against Radeon. The judgment is incorrect. Information storages have different technologies and are significantly different from each other. The choice depends on the method of application. And the current announcement by SSD manufacturers about the end of the HDD era is a marketing ploy. This is a business. And expensive and merciless.

HDD vs SSD: what is the difference

 

HDD is a hard disk operating on the principle of electromagnetism. Inside the device there are metal plates that are charged with a special electronic device. The peculiarity of the hard disk is that the plates (pancakes) have a huge supply of durability. And the duration of using the HDD rests only in electronics. The controller is responsible for the operability, which processes the information and controls the head for reading and writing code on the plates. In fact, if the manufacturer took care of the quality of the electronics, the hard drive can last more than 10 years. And what is important for an actively used drive - each disk cell is capable of overwriting an infinite number of times.

SSD is a solid-state drive built on a chipset. There are no rotating mechanisms or heads in the device. Writing and reading information occurs by directly accessing the controller to the cells. The duration of the SSD, indicated by manufacturers in millions of hours, is a fiction. The main indicator of longevity is the ability of cells to be rewritten N-th number of times. Accordingly, attention should be paid when buying a resource record. Measured in terabytes. On average, one cell of a microcircuit can withstand rewriting from 10 to 100 times. Manufacturers are working to improve the technology, but so far have not advanced.

 

HDD vs SSD: which is better

 

In terms of overall system performance, an SSD drive is better, as it has faster access to cells for reading and writing information. Hard drives HDD takes time to promote pancakes, search for information and access cells.

The durability of use is determined as follows:

You need to clearly understand for what purposes you need a storage device. To speed up the operating system and for games - definitely SSD. Backup file storage or media server - only HDD. The fact is that the information of a hard drive magnetized to disk can not only be rewritten millions of times, but can also store data for an unlimited time. You can destroy the recording only with an electromagnetic pulse, or physically damage the disc. But the chip requires constant recharge. If you completely write down the SSD and put it off for a couple of years in a desk drawer, then when you connect, you can detect data loss.

Therefore, the buyer needs to make a choice of HDD vs SSD. There is an alternative solution - to buy 2 disks: both solid-state and hard. One for games and the system, the second for storage and multimedia. In this case, the user will receive both speed in work and reliability. There are also hybrid drives (SSHD) on the market. This is when an SSD chip is built into a regular HDD. Judging by customer reviews, the technology is unreliable, plus such devices are expensive. Therefore, you do not need to buy them.

Regarding brands. Worthy drives SSD released only two manufacturers: Samsung and Kingston. Companies have their own factories making electronics from scratch. The price of brand products is far from the budget segment, but reliability and durability are on top. Among HDD manufacturers, Toshiba, WD, and Seagete are making excellent drives. Manufacturers boldly give a long-term guarantee on goods, which is what causes the trust of customers.