Question Spare SSD or Spare Spinning-Platter Hard Drive to Increase Laptop Storage Capacity?

[dekw04]

Hi everyone.

I would really like to know your opinions on something.

You see, I plan to put more storage into a laptop that I have using either a spare SSD or a spare spinning-platter hard drive.

Here are my options:

A 1 terabyte SSD, a 2 terabyte spinning platter hard drive, or a 4 terabyte spinning platter hard drive.

Which one do you think would be best?

The 1 terabyte SSD has no moving parts to break, would be faster, and may consumer less power yet the 2 and 4 terabyte spinning-platter drives are larger in comparison by roughly 1 to 3 terabytes, respectively.

However, spinning-platter based drives have moving parts (which can break down), are slower than SSDs, and, from what I hear, might make a laptop consume more power than an SSD would.

Considering all of these factors, which one do you think would be best to go with? The SSD or one of the spinning-platter drives?

P.S. I would be using one of these spare drives in addition to my laptop's hard drive (which is an SSD) to increase my laptop's storage capacity. The spare drive would not be used to run an operating system, but would probably be used for things like storing and watching videos, storing and viewing pictures, etc..

 

[taeioum]

Really up to you. Do you want speed and still (almost) a terabyte of storage? Or do you want crazy amounts of storage that isn't as fast?

Personally I'd opt for the SSD every time, as I would never need 2 or 4 (extra) terabytes in a laptop and speed is simply more important for my needs.

 

[herrwizo]

There is nothing wrong in using a mechanical drive for data storage purposes, as long as your system drive is SSD. That being said, you have to determine how much storage is enough for you. If 1TB is fine, go for SSD. If you need more, HDD is your only option.

 

[USAFRet]

All up to your space needs and budget.
Any of those configurations would work.

 

[R_1]

do you have an optical drive? you could have both.
dvd drive caddy. get a caddy put the HDD in there and you have the SSD and massive storage in a laptop.
example only not an endorsement, shop around. get the right height drive.
https://www.amazon.com/Zheino-9-5mm...?keywords=2nd+hdd+caddy&qid=1573222679&sr=8-4
example only, measure twice.

 

[geofelt]

With all that data, do you have a plan for EXTERNAL backup?

What kind of connections for are possible in your laptop?
m.2 or sata?

I would try to use a ssd wherever possible.

 

[Crosslhs82x2]

Last night I purchased a samsung 860 evo 2.5 and a 2tb WD my passport for $154.00 from Best Buy for my lenovo laptop with the Amd A8 it made a world of difference.
I should have went this route a long time ago.