A traditional hard drive (HDD) has several components to it. To begin with, there’s a metal disc with a magnetic coating that stores the data and a read/write arm that finds and records information on the drive. This is old school technology for a computer, especially when you consider how quickly the industry is advancing. It is, however, better than the 50, 24”-wide hard drives used in 1956 to achieve 3.75 Mb of memory. Today, a 3.5” drive is standard and can reach as high as 10 Tb, the compact size of the drive allowing computer manufacturers to build sleeker, faster computers with even more processing and storage capabilities.
Now, why would there be a need for something different than the hard drive that everyone knows and loves? First of all, they have several flaws. Their power capabilities are capped by the read/write arm as well as the amount of data that you can fit into a magnetic field. In addition, they can become extremely bogged down with information, causing the whole computer to run slower than a user would like. Finally, due to it’s moving parts, if the computer is dropped at all, the arm or the disc of the HDD could become damaged.
Thus, the SSD was invented. The Solid State Drive is the newest hard drive technology. As its name implies, the drive is one solid piece. There are no moving parts! Data is stored on flash memory chips, very similar to the science behind a thumb drive. The best part is that it can retain the data without power. It could be argued that switching your computer from HDD to SSD is the single best upgrade that you can do to improve your rig. But why spend the money when there is nothing wrong with your computer now?
Here’s Why:
An SSD is durable:
Because there are no moving parts, the possibility of damaging the components in an SSD are greatly decreased. They also consist of only one single, solid piece, making them extremely hard to break. If you drop your computer, the chances of your SSD being damaged are much less than your HDD.
An SSD is extremely quick:
SSDs boot computers in seconds now, as compared to minutes with an HDD. They’re also able to launch and run apps much faster. As a whole, SSDs are significantly faster. There’s no read/write arm that has to find the information and then return it back to the system.
No fragmentation:
Fragmentation is when data stored on a hard drive is scattered around the hard drive disk platter. This occurs usually due to a lack of space for larger files. With SSDs, this doesn’t occur. The SSD is not physically reading anything, so there is not one single location where a file can be stored or found. This makes the SSD faster and prevents the information from becoming broken or lost.
An SSD doesn’t make much noise, if at all:
Again, since there are no moving parts, there is nothing that an SSD can do to make noise.
An SSD will last for a long, long time:
The longevity of an SSD is phenomenal. They will wear down slower than any HDD. With technology advancing so rapidly, you would have to upgrade your SSD just to keep up with the times before replacing one that brakes.
Both SSDs and HDDs have their advantages individually, but SSDs takes the cake here. With the advanced capabilities, an SSD can enhance your computer exponentially. SSDs are perfect for everyone, and can even be used in combination with hard drives for optimal performance. If you’ve been considering upgrading your computer, upgrading to an SSD could be the single best upgrade that you do for your rig. And that’s what an SSD can do for you!