Choosing an SSD for your computer requires thought, planning, and some know how. Here are the basics of how to choose an SSD.
An SSD can provide significantly faster boot up times than a standard hard drive by utilizing the RAM on the motherboard rather than containing its own. It uses less power, can hold more data per square inch, and is far less susceptible to physical damage. However, this doesn’t mean that an SSD is “better” than a standard hard drive, they are just different.
Depending on how you use your computer, how much you need it store, how long you want it to last, how much money or how big of a space issue you have, how frequently you’ll need to replace, how much speed you want it to have, how much data you’ll be storing at once (important when using cloud-based storage applications), and how often your files are used will determine how likely an SSD is right for you.
Things To Consider When Buying SSD
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First
The thing that should be taken into consideration is how often the data on the drive will change. If it’s not changing very often, the performance benefits of an SSD is lost and an HDD may be better for you (if you can live with how slow they are). If changes to files happens frequently, the faster load times make SSDs your best bet.
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Second
Second thing to consider is how much data is stored at one time. If the amount of data on your drive at once is very small (such as how much is stored in RAM), SSDs are not ideal because they cannot hold much data per square inch. When choosing between SSDs and HDDs it’s important to keep how much you’ll be using the computer at one time in mind.
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Third
Thirdly, how long do you want your computer to last? The life of an SSD is affected by how many times the drive’s data is rewritten and how often it’s shocked. A machine that gets used once a day may require more shock protection than one getting knocked around in a bag ready for school or work.
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Four
The next thing to consider is how much money you want to spend. The price of SSDs is coming down and they will soon be on par with how expensive HDDs currently are, but the initial investment may not fit your budget. This does not mean that an HDD is better than an SSD for how much it costs though since both drives have their own advantages and disadvantages.
An SSD is more fragile than an HDD. The drive has no moving parts, but is made up of delicate microchips that are sensitive to physical shock. If the computer it’s housed in falls or is bumped around frequently, consider how often this will be happening and how much impact this would have on how often you’ll need to replace the drive.
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Five
Finally, how much speed do you need? SSDs can be a lot faster than HDDs in some cases, but how important is how quickly your computer starts up and how fast games load? A PC that doesn’t get a lot of use may not require as high performance from it’s storage device, so an HDD may have the same performance as an SSD.
The choice between SSDs and HDDs is a personal one, but understanding how much space you need, how often the data on the drive changes, how long you want your computer to last, how much money you have to spend, how much physical impact it will be exposed to, and how much speed you need.
