Difference between SSD and HDD

[hnijhar]

so what is the differrence between hdd and ssd. how will it benifit my computer build?
will it make programs more responsive? will programs open faster? my hard drive is 7200 rpm is that good?

i would like my programs not to freeze/not responding.

will ssd help?

will it make gaming better?

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[WyomingKnott]

You should read some of the articles and / or threads on this well-worn topic before posting a question. Tom's even did an article on the effect of an SSD on typical office applications: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/solid-state-drive-work-tests,3064.html , and one on gameplay: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-rift-ssd,3062.html . Please read these; they will tell you more than I can.

The primary advantage of an SSD over an HDD is that the access time ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_drive_performance_characteristics#Access_time ) is somewhere between much, much faster and negligible. So the most common real-world read and write patterns, which are random, will run much faster than with any HDD. The next advantages are faster sustained serial throughput, less heat, lower power usage, and higher profit margins for the manufacturer.

The main effect of an SSD on a home rig will be in improved boot times and program loading times. The SSD will load levels / maps of your games faster, but will not increase frame rates.

The problems that cause your computer to lock up are almost always due to something other than a hard drive speed issue.

7200 RPM is "good;" it is fairly standard. I ran a 15,000 RPM VelociRaptor as my system drive, to reduce response time, until I got an SSD. The SSD blows the VelociRaptor away.

 

[Chainzsaw]

In short:

SSD will decrease your boot time, decrease the time to open up games and programs and installing.

It will not increase game's frames per second.

Take a look at this chart:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/revodrive-3-x2,2967-8.html

SSD's have a response time of about .07 Milliseconds.

Hard drives have a response time of about starting at 7-8 milliseconds all the way up to 30+ depending on which drive is used.

If you take those into account, the SSD drive already communicates 100X faster (minnimum) than a conventional HDD. You will notice your system is snappier with an SSD compared to a HDD.

Since i switched to an SSD boot drive, I do not think I could ever go back to a HDD based boot drive.

 

[joecarver]

The difference will be unbelievable, especially if you value quick boot and application loading times.

The two posters above me pretty much covered it, although I suppose you can't have too many people telling you to upgrade!