Should You Get a Solid State Drive?
One of the newest accessories you’ll find in new laptops is something called a SSD. The SSD, or solid state drive, is a different kind of hard drive. This is the kind of storage you’ll find in flash drives, mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, and Chromebooks too. Installing a SSD has become a popular upgrade for older MacBooks. So, should you get one for your laptop? Before you do, consider the pros and cons.
The Pros
No Moving Parts
The traditional hard drive (called a hard disk drive or HDD) is what we all grew up with. If you were to take it apart, inside you would find disks inside called platters; they look like DVDs and are coated with magnetic film. This is where all your files are stored. Above them is an arm holding a read-and-write head that actually writes the data to the platters. The arm doesn’t touch the platter; it hovers a few nanometers over the platters and alters the magnetic field.
If your computer gets dropped or smacked, then that could cause the arm to break and hit the platters. This is called a disk crash, and it means you’ll lose your files. (You’ll know this has happened if you turn on your computer and hear a clicking, scraping, or grinding noise.)
Platters spin a lot; in fact, some HDDs have platters that spin 7,200 times per minute. All that movement generates a lot of heat. That means you need to keep your vents clear so your computer doesn’t overheat. If you have a HDD, you’ll also need a fan inside your computer. My old laptop would get very hot, and the fan would be so loud that it sounded like a plane taking off.
Unlike a HDD, a SSD has no moving parts. That means less need for a fan, less noise, and less heat. A computer with a SSD is slightly tougher than one with a hard disk. (That said, please don’t drop your laptop to test it.)
They Take Up Less Space
The amount file storage space on hard disks has increased tremendously in my lifetime. Twenty years ago, it wasn’t uncommon to see desktop computers with 10GB hard drives. Now, laptops start at 1TB. (One TB equals roughly a thousand GB.) But while their storage space has gotten bigger, the actual physical dimensions of hard disks haven’t changed that much. You can only make a hard disk so small, and it needs a fan and vents to keep it cool.
SSDs weigh less than their older counterparts. For example, compare this Seagate Barracuda with this Samsung SSD. Both can store 1TB of files, but the Samsung weighs half as much. For something even smaller, try an M.2 SSD, which fits in a slot on your motherboard.
They Boot Up Faster
When you turn on your computer, it takes a while to get ready. The platters inside the drive need time to get up to the proper speed. But a SSD takes less time than a HDD. This video demonstrates the difference between the two. Watch the computer on the right:
The Cons
They’re More Expensive
Every year, the cost of storage gets lower. This is also the case with SSDs, but they are still, on average, more expensive than the average hard disk of the same storage size.
Smaller Storage Capacity
The storage capacity of SSDs has increased over the past few years. The first group of people who upgraded their MacBooks, for example, would get SSDs with 128GB or 256GB of space. Now you can find drives that are bigger, but you have a higher chance of finding more space on a hard disk. If you need a drive that has more than 2GB, you may be better off with a hard disk.
Even though SSDs can be more expensive and slightly smaller, they have benefits. A laptop with a SSD can be faster, lighter, and better able to withstand the stress of daily life. It’s definitely something worth considering.
