Inside your computer: What is an SSD?

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image001 In  our last article http://everythinggeraldton.com.au/2014/06/25/how-healthy-is-your-hard-disk/  we discussed some of the downsides of  magnetic or mechanical hard disk drives and how to protect yourself from data loss. One of the recommendations was to replace your old hard with an SSD (Solid State Drive).

What ‘s wrong with  mechanical hard drives?

 Due to all the moving parts in a mechanical hard drive they are subject to progressive deterioration. This means that over time your computer can get slower, crash and potentially lose data.

What is an SSD?

SSD is an acronym for Solid State Drive. Unlike the mechanical Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) solid state drives have no moving parts, instead the data is stored on flash RAM microchips.

How do SSDs and HDDs compare?

  • Power usage – SSDs consume less power than HDDs. This significantly extends laptop battery life
  • Speed – The boot time of a Microsoft windows operating system running on a HDD is generally 30 – 60 second, SSDs can reduce this time to as little as 5 seconds. The average transfer speed of a HDD is 80MB/s in comparison to most SSDs that can reach speeds up to 500MB/s
  • Noise – Due to the lack of moving parts SSDs emit no discernable sound. This makes them a great choice for home theatre systems and media centres
  • Shock Resistance - SSDs are a good choice for mobile systems due to their resistance to drops, bumps and g-forces. Movement can have devastating effects on mechanical drives, especially while data is being written. SSDs can withstand up to 1,500 g during operation or 25 times that of a HDD
  • Life Expectancy - HDDs have an average life expectancy of three to five years, that being said many fail long before this. Replacement of HDDs should be considered every 3-5 years, SSDs can last two to three times longer.

Find out more about SSDs here http://ocz.com/consumer/ssd-guide/ssd-vs-hdd

If you are looking to purchase a new computer, then ensuring it has an SSD is a great choice. SSDs also provide excellent “bang for your buck” if you are looking to upgrade your existing computer.

So, to conclude in the style of Daft Punk SSDs are "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"

By WATSON COMPUTERS