Which is better – HDD or SSD?
SSD versus HDD is a frequently asked subject among computer enthusiasts. You have a variety of alternatives for saving data on your computer. One critical option will be whether to employ traditional hard disk drives, known as HDDs or solid-state drives, known as SSDs. But what’s the distinction? And how do you know which is optimal for your body type? Continue reading the summary or watch our Tech Edge video.
HDD – Hard Disk Drive
A hard disk drive stores data on a series of rotating platters. A head reads the information in the same manner as a vinyl record player makes a sound. This is a mechanical operation that occurs very quickly but is still restricted by the physics of the HDD head moving from one location on the platters to another.
SSD – Solid State Drive
Solid State Drives, on the other hand, use flash memory to store data. The memory controller can access it in a fully digital transaction. As a result, the phrase solid state refers to the absence of moving elements in SSDs. It also implies that they can access data more quickly than HDDs.
SSD More Reliable in Vibration Prone Environments
Given those fundamental differences, an SSD is likely to be the best choice if your PC is situated in a location prone to vibration or movement. According to tests, an SSD can withstand up to 25 times more stress and vibration than an HDD without harm or data loss.
To return to the record player analogy, picture how bad your listening experience would be if you attempted to play a record while driving along a rough road. When writing data to a spinning HDD, consider each of those skips to signify possible data loss or disk damage.
SSD is Faster
Another downside of HDDs is their slow speed, which is connected to the mechanical architecture we mentioned previously. It takes time for the desired segment of data on the spinning platter to align with the read head. This is referred to as access latency in the technical world. And it can have a substantial influence on performance, particularly on short, non-sequential read requests. SSDs, on the other hand, has a direct digital link to each storage space. This drastically minimizes the amount of time required to access it.
HDDs are Less Expensive
Because of its speed and durability, we generally suggest SSDs to the bulk of our industrial computing clients. However, while the price of SSDs has decreased over time, HDDs continue to have a cheaper cost per gigabyte. HDDs are still an option if you need to store huge volumes of data in a cost-effective manner, can handle access latency, and your installation is not susceptible to any vibration or impact pressures.
HDD Has Better Write Endurance
Another noteworthy feature of SSDs is that their flash cells can only be overwritten so many times. This constraint is known as write endurance, and it is usually measured in DWPD (drive writes per day) or TBW (terabytes written). The Transcend 652 series, for example, has a DWPD of 2. This implies you may fill the full SSD with data twice a day and it will survive the entire three-year guarantee period. As a result, applications requiring significant, frequent sequential disk writes, such as surveillance or picture capture, may be better serviced by HDDs in order to maximize drive longevity.
SSD vs. HDD – Power Considerations
Power delivery to your computer is also an important storage factor. Unexpected power outages can harm both HDDs and SSDs. Furthermore, leaving an SSD unpowered for extended periods of time might result in data loss over time. The impact on your application will be determined by how you use your data. That is why, when creating an industrial computer system, we always recommend collaborating with one of our solution architects.