Speed.

Modern SSDs reach sequential* read/write speeds of 500MB/s typically. More exotic types reach 1500MB/s and beyond.

Compare this to the meagre 100MB/s you can expect from a typical spinning HDD.

With random I/O* the difference is even bigger. This speed difference is most noticeable during startup and shutdown, but also while opening files or loading programs. Storage is almost always the bottleneck of perceived PC speed.

Resilience.

SSDs have no moving parts. Classic HDDs have magnetic platters spinning at 5000+RPM with a read/write arm moving quickly across the surface with only a few nanometers between the head and the platter.
This makes that SSDs are much more resilient to shocks. Drop/jolt your laptop with a classic HDD and you’re in trouble, SSD will be just fine.

Durability/safety.

HDD lifespan is determined mostly by operating time. SSD lifespan is determined mostly by write-cycles. If you only read from an SSD it will last forever (in theory). In a typical laptop usage scenario, an SSD will outlast a spinning drive since you typically don’t write gigabytes of data every day. Other usages (bulk storage) might give different results. YMMV.

SSDs typically fail in a nicer way. Usually an SSD starts losing capacity before losing data and you have plenty of time to replace it without worrying about data.** (YMMV). Spinning disks sometimes die completely without warning (sometimes they are nice and warn you with clicking/squeaking noises).

Power consumption.

SSDs consume considerably less power than conventional HDDs. This has a positive impact on laptop batterylife.

Weight.

SSDs are typically less heavy.

Noise.

Since SSDs have no moving parts, they are perfectly silent***. Spinning HDDs can be noisy and annoying.

* sequential ~ small number of large files.
* Random I/O ~ large amount of small files.

** SSDs have a modular design: a drive is built from many chips each containing many blocks. If one block fails, the SSD doesn’t fail as a whole, it simply loses a bit of capacity. A block typically fails during (attempt to) write, which means no data is lost. The data is simply moved elsewhere and the block allocated out in firmware.

*** some SSDs (especially high performance M.2/NVME drives make a slight buzzing noise when under load, comparable to coil whine in a GPU but much less noticeable. A lot less noisy then spinning disk anyway.

We can replace your hard drive to a faster SSD without losing data. Contact your local IT and Tech Mates now on 0452 323 571.

Should you get a laptop with an SSD