Last week, I discovered that one of my hard drives had crashed. (Fortunately, I did not have any business or personal data stored on that drive, only programs.) Then, the next day, the solid-state drive that I had been wanting went on sale at Amazon. I took it as a sign that it was time to buy a solid-state drive. In honor of my drive's arrival yesterday, I thought it would be a good time to do a tip on solid-state drives.
Traditional hard drives have a large aluminum or ceramic platter on which the data is stored. A small motor spins the platters at anywhere from 5,000-15,000 times per second while an arm flies all over the drive reading the data your computer is requesting. This type of drive is cheap to manufacture, but if only one of those moving parts fail, the drive is gone.
Solid-state drives (SSDs) solve the problem of moving parts. They contain flash-based memory instead of the traditional moving parts. This memory is faster and more reliable than the memory contained in your USB flash drives. It is also faster, more reliable, and less shock-resistant than the traditional hard drives that have populated our computers for decades.
SSDs are more expensive than a comparable size traditional hard drive. SSDs of over 250 GB are rare, but available. By contrast, we are quickly getting to the point where traditional hard drives are measured in Terabytes (1000 GB). SSDs can reach 1 TB capacity, but they are not common because of the cost.
Which drive is right for you depends on how you plan to use it. If you like to store or edit videos and photos, you will probably want the cheaper traditional hard drives. Traditional hard drives are also the best choice for those looking for cheaper computers. Solid-state drives are good for those looking for speed over storage capacity, and the high durability makes them beneficial for those who use computers while on the road. Solid-state drives are also good places like recording studios where noise must be kept to a minimum.
About 10 years ago, manufacturers realized they could improve performance by combining the high storage capacity of traditional drives with the speed of a solid state drive. These drives use a small amount of SSD storage to serve as a cache for a larger traditional hard drive. While the drives do improve performance, the gains are minimal compared to the additional cost.
Finally, if you have multiple drive bays (more likely on a desktop than a laptop), you can do what I am doing: install multiple drives. In my case, I will have two 400 GB traditional drives along with my 250 GB solid-state drive. This will allow for ample storage space while still giving me the quick boot and program performance of a solid-state drive.
If you are looking for my recommendation, I recommend sticking with a traditional hard drive unless you are seeking one of the benefits of a solid-state drive. As technology develops and more people become interested in solid-state drives, the price is likely to come down to a more affordable range. Unless you have a reason to buy one, it makes little sense to invest in a solid-state drive now only to see the price come down in the next year.
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