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SSD has been in the market for several years now but many people in Framingham haven’t considered upgrading their system by installing it yet. Until recently, SSDs were expensive and people were more concerned about space than speed. However, the prices have now dropped significantly, and almost everyone upgrades their systems to include it.
What is SSD?
SSD stands for Solid State Drive and it has been around for several years now. In fact, it can be considered old by information technology standards. Solid state drives, unlike hard disk drives; do not have any moving parts that spin to record data. A solid state drive is very similar to your flash drive or RAM. However, unlike RAM, it doesn’t lose memory if there’s no supply of electricity.
SSD vs. HDD
There are many who might want to stick to their old HDD, deterred by the cost of upgrading to a SSD. Before dismissing the device off the bat, consider the following points.
- No Spin-Up Time – With HDD, you need to wait until the platter starts to spin before your desktop powers up and boots. Depending on the HDD, the spin time can vary but it significantly slows down the boot time. A SSD, on the other hand, doesn’t have any moving parts and powers up instantly. You can go from a cold boot to running process in no time at all.
- Access Time and Speed – According to several benchmark tests, a SSD is about 80 to 100 times speedier than your normal HDD. Because SSD doesn’t need to seek out the data, on the spinning platter, it’s very snappy and calls information and loads processes quickly. Upgrading to a SSD would definitely speed up your computer.
- Reliability – There’s a debate raging in the market about SSD’s limited writing-cycle. Unlike HDD, which can be written and rewritten an infinite number of times, the cycle is finite on a SSD. Many people consider this a major flaw without even looking into the matter.
It’s very unlikely that an average user would ever need to replace a SSD because they’re used to the write-cycle. Take Intel X25-M drive as an example. It can endure about 20GB of data writes for 5 years. This means, you would need to delete and write 20GB of data every day for it to reach its maximum capacity in 5 years.
HDD, with all its moving parts, would eventually be worn down before a SSD needs to be replaced. Unless your laptop or computer is damaged, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever need to replace a SSD.
- Noise – To be fair, most modern, good quality HDDs are virtually noiseless. You might hear the faint spinning sound. However, some HDDs can be pretty noisy and distracting if you’re working in a quiet environment.
- Power Consumption – In comparison to HDD, a SSD drive consumes about 30% to 60% less power. That means, on a desktop you can expect to save about 6 to 10 watts every day, which compounds over the course of a year with heavy use. On laptops, it means that your charge would last longer.
In terms of cost, there’s no denying that a SSD is more expensive. However, with all the advantages in view, upgrading to a SSD is a smart choice as it drastically improves performance and offers value for money.