SSD Drives

Last week we discussed 3D printing. This week, we will be talking about another new technology known as a solid state drive (SSD). Think of a solid state drive as a flash drive installed inside your computer. Solid state drives are becoming more popular and are making some great strides when considering a new computer, even though the standard hard disk drives (HDD) have a large share of the market, people are intrigued with this new technology and why this drive is better and as well why they should consider this new type.

One of the biggest reasons is the speed of retrieving and saving files, and installing and running software. In addition, these drives are much faster when booting the computer.

Let’s look at some comparisons between a SSD verses a HDD so you have a clear understanding on how each drive works and which one will meet your needs.

Access Time
Solid State Drive – Access time speeds of 35 to 100 micro-seconds (100 times faster than a HDD). This means that programs can run more quickly. This is especially useful for programs that access large amounts of data.
Hard Disk Drive – Access time speeds of 5,000 to 10,000 micro-seconds to access data.

Price
Solid State Drive – Higher costs, less storage.
Hard Disk Drive – Much more reasonable priced especially for drives over 500GB of storage.

Reliability
Solid State Drive – The drive has no moving parts. It uses flash memory to store data, and provides better performance.
Hard Disk Drive – HDD have moving parts and magnetic platters. This means they will get more use and potentially will wear down faster and fail.

Capacity
Solid State Drive – Less capacity, anything over 512GB will cost more.
Hard Disk Drive – Several terabyte hard disk drives are available at a reasonable cost.

Power
Solid State Drive – Uses less power than the standard drive meaning lower energy bills over time and an increase of battery life for laptops.
Hard Disk Drive – Uses more power with moving parts and spinning platters.

Noise
Solid State Drive – Since they have no moving parts. There is very little noise generated.
Hard Disk Drive – With moving parts, the drive can sometimes be loudest component in your computer.

Size
Solid State Drive – Sizes come in 2.5″, 1.8″, and 1.0″ making more space available in a computer.
Hard Disk Drive – Sizes are usually 3.5 and 2.5 inches for desktops and laptops with no options for anything smaller.

Heat
Solid State Drive – Does not generate heat which increases the lifespan.
Hard Disk Drive – Generates more heat and can slowly damage electronics over time. The higher the heat, the greater the potential of damage being done.

Magnetism
Solid State Drive – Is not affected by magnetism.
Hard Disk Drive – Uses magnetism to write information, making it possible for information to be erased using strong magnets.

I hope that you found this information pn Solid State Drives (SSD) helpful.

Please feel free to forward this information to others. If you would like to learn more on this topic or would like to request an area of technology you are interested in, please send me an email.

Until next time…Happy Computing!!!