Decisions it makes related to how to store, retrieve, cache and clean up data can determine the overall SSD speed.
The controller is a very important factor in determining the SSD read write speed.
In other words, the data storage life of an SSD can outlive you!Īn SSD does not have a mechanical arm to read and write data, it instead relies on an embedded processor (or “brain”) called a controller to perform operations related to reading and writing data. Regardless, that rumor is certainly not true with today’s technology, as you can read and write to an SSD all day long and the data storage integrity will be maintained for well over 200 years. During the early days of SSDs, rumors floated around saying stored data would wear off and be lost after only a few years. This is of course an essential characteristic of any type of permanent memory. What does non-volatile mean you ask? The simple answer is that you can turn off the disk and it won’t “forget” what was stored on it. As an analogy, what’s quicker? Having to walk across the room to retrieve a book to get information or simply magically having that book open in front of you when you need it? That’s how an HDD compares to an SSD it simply requires more physical labor (mechanical movement) to get information.Ī typical SSD uses what is called NAND-based flash memory. This difference is what makes SSD speed so much faster. Rather, information is stored in microchips. Conversely, a hard disk drive uses a mechanical arm with a read/write head to move around and read information from the right location on a storage platter. Like memory stick storage, there are no moving parts to an SSD. You’re probably familiar with USB memory sticks – SSD can be thought of as an oversized and more sophisticated version of the humble USB memory stick.
You might be shopping for a computer or storage upgrade and simply wondering what the heck SSD actually means? To begin, SSD stands for Solid State Drive. We’ll make no assumptions here and keep this article on a level that anyone can understand. Yet, if performance and fast bootup is your primary consideration and money is secondary, then SSD speed is the way to go. For the remainder of this article, we will make a comparison of SSD and HDD storage and go over the good, the bad, and the ugly of both. Even though the price of SSDs has been falling, the price per gigabyte advantage is still strongly with HDDs. So which of the two is the better choice, SSD storage or HDD storage? There’s no straight-forward answer to this question each buyer has different needs and you have to evaluate the decision based on those needs, your preferences, and of course budget. Most people now buy laptops for their computing needs and have to make the decision between getting either a Solid State Drive (SSD) or Hard Disk Drive (HDD) as the storage component. For the remainder of this article, we will make a comparison of SSD and HDD storage and go over the good, the bad, and the ugly of both. Yet, if performance and fast bootup is your primary consideration and money is secondary, then SSD speed is the way to go.