SSD vs HDD Tested: What’s the Difference and Which Is Better?

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Should you buy an HDD or SSD? Here's all you need to know.

SSD vs HDD Tested: What’s the Difference and Which Is Better? : Read more
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Interesting SSD vs HDD article here, but something very important is missing: You missed discussing the differences in data retention/storage time "on the shelf" (or in secure storage). If my research is good, you don't want to store historical/archive data on a SSD. Search for (no quotes) "how long can a ssd hold store data without power". Ditto with flash/thumb drives for similar reasons. Also search for (no quotes) "how long can a hard drive hold data without power". I think you'll find that the consensus on powered off drives is that you can get about 2 years on a SSD and 5 years on a HDD. This is why we have optical storage like M-Disk (ie. ~50GB per DL blue-ray m-disk, and 1000 year storage). All these are important considerations in my book, especially if you want to keep your IT job long term. Hope that helps.
Regards . . .
 
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cryoburner said:
Those numbers seem abnormally high. I rather doubt the "average person" writes 20-40GB per day browsing the web and using office applications. What do they do, reinstall Windows every time they use their computer? : P

Most people probably don't average more than 10GB per day, or more than a few TB per year. Even those regularly downloading and installing large games to their SSD probably won't be doing so every-other day. Those seem more like they should be the "power user" numbers. And for the most part, the only people I could see writing "upwards of 100-200GB" per day to an SSD might be certain professional video editors and possibly some other niche use cases. Most other "content creators" and "power users" probably don't even hit that 20-40GB range. Of course, I'd be interested if there were some study showing otherwise, but I suspect those numbers were just made up. : P

Really, SSD write endurance shouldn't be much of a concern for just about anyone not doing something like heavy video editing on a daily basis. Pretty much any 500GB SSD, even the QLC models, should be rated for at least 100TBW of endurance, and the 1TB models should be at least double that, which I can't see being a problem within the usable life of most systems.
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Sure, there will also be many who writes less or writes more. But, have you ever logged your system's writes? Factor in write amplification? I have on several systems for the past 6 years as well as various local client PCs. I've also read various users experiences and workloads and manufacturer data. Those numbers are not made up.

I consider myself a power user. Most of my main system drives have about 40-80GB written a day on average. From what I gather, 10-15GB is on the very low side for someone who uses their PC most of the day with various streaming services nowadays and a higher estimate of 20-30GB a day is more accurate.

Higher resolution video calls for higher bit rates when streaming. And raw video is very large in size. Just a few minutes of footage can be 10s of GB... Windows updates are growing in size and have a steady rollout. Pair that with multiple virtual machines and writing multiplies... Games are getting larger and larger, which is leading to much greater initial downloads and updates sizes. The new Call of Duty is 175GB alone.... Torrenting can cause heavy wear and tear...
 
BretAB said:
Interesting SSD vs HDD article here, but something very important is missing: You missed discussing the differences in data retention/storage time "on the shelf" (or in secure storage). If my research is good, you don't want to store historical/archive data on a SSD. Search for (no quotes) "how long can a ssd hold store data without power". Ditto with flash/thumb drives for similar reasons. Also search for (no quotes) "how long can a hard drive hold data without power". I think you'll find that the consensus on powered off drives is that you can get about 2 years on a SSD and 5 years on a HDD. This is why we have optical storage like M-Disk (ie. ~50GB per DL blue-ray m-disk, and 1000 year storage). All these are important considerations in my book, especially if you want to keep your IT job long term. Hope that helps.
Regards . . .
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In this article from AnandTech you can see that the retention figures you're talking about are at the end of an SSD's rated life. A 'fresh' SSD should be able to retain data for a multiple of that period. Also note the 52 weeks of retention are at an average power-off temperature of 30 degrees throughout its lifetime, which is above realistic in most environments, and that it's best to operate it at a slightly warm temperature to ensure the best data retention without throttling the controller. Therefore heat spreaders are almost always preferred over heatsinks (except in the case of PCIE 4.0), and SATA based drives are often better left uncooled.
 
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USAFRet said:
This is specifically what backups are for.
Data in more than one place and device.

SSD, HDD, DVD, whatever.
Dead is dead.

I had a 3TB HDD die...completely dead.
Backups saved the day.
I also had a 1TB SSD die. Completely dead.
Again, backups saved the day.

Don't rely on it being a spinning drive to die gracefully. Dead is dead.
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I had backed up everything. Unfortunately the backup software couldn't read its own backups and therefore no backups. And yes, every backup had an integrity check run and I also looked at the backups when they were made.
 
nofanneeded said:
I know but they garantee that my data is safe ... Which is more safe than home servers ... one fire at home can destroy it.
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Guarantee, right up until the moment they change their terms of use or policies.
Or start charging for was was previously free.
Or until they get hacked.
Or until you need to recover 600+GB of data, from a mostly slow connection.
Or until you need to recover your OS drive.

Having some of your data in 'the cloud' can be part of a good backup routine.
It should not be the only place.
 
Here is my opinion and experience with SSDs. I have used 950/960 Pro, 960Evo, 850 Pro, 860 Evo, Crucial MX500 etc........Used to be crazy about SSD and keep buying to test.

1. Even the cheapest and worst performing SSD is still a big big jump over any HDD. Those without DRAM ones.... they looks slow on number but you will still notice a massive jump in your boot and app/game loading times. If you are extremely tight on budget, just go for the cheapest you can find.

2. Don't be overly obsessed with performance numbers. Under normal usage you will be hard pressed to find a difference between NVMe and SATA SSDs. Although NVMe can go alot faster, they are mostly limited to sequential transfers. Normal daily usage involves lots of small files rather than a few large files. This is why transfer rates are very low. Its best to got for NVMe if your budget allows. If not, doesn't matter.

3. Size does matter.... Get a bigger drive. Doesn't make sense to get 120GBs, at least 250GB. (I would recommend 500GB or 1TB ones). You get a small speed boost as well.

Thats my 2 cents.
 
There's some things that aren't taken into account here about SSDs vs HDDs.

Especially the data recoverability with HDDs is actually doable, sending it to a lab to replace mechanical components that have failed is absolutely doable.

As far as long term storage benefits, SSDs can lose data while stored in long term storage while HDDs do not have that issue.

And again, recoverability in the long term for HDDs storage still applies.

For anything that requires long term storage I would not use anything other than an HDDs to ensure that the data can be recovered.
 
I wouldnt suggest the cheapest ssd out there due to reliability concerns. Remember, your data is sometimes the most important part of your pc.

Buy an inexpensive model with known reliability and performance (such as a kingston a400 or pny cs900)

I am not an adata fan tbh.
 
The a400 is one of the most popular drives out there. It wouldnt be as popular if they were terrible.

Mines working fine and never has given me any issues at all.

The pny is really fast for the money. Also pny should be easy to deal with avout the ssd if it fails, although pny is a pain with gpu rma.
 
This is why I don't support either. https://www.extremetech.com/extreme...itching-cheaper-components-after-good-reviews

I don't care how good they might be now. How you treat your customers, is enough reason for me, to avoid them. Just like how I refuse to buy Asus products, due to their horrible customer support.

The MX500 is a superior drive, has a better warranty, and priced comparatively, to the Kingston and PNY drives, at least at 500gb class drives.

PCPartPicker Part List

Storage: Kingston A400 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($52.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Crucial MX500 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: PNY CS900 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($58.45 @ Amazon)
Total: $171.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-21 14:55 EDT-0400
 
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My biggest question would be what is the best option for long term storage period. Let's say you have hard drives of family videos, pictures, memories, etc that you do not plan on changing. Which option is best for storing this?
 
juandon said:
My biggest question would be what is the best option for long term storage period. Let's say you have hard drives of family videos, pictures, memories, etc that you do not plan on changing. Which option is best for storing this?
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Either type drive, but refreshed and checked regularly.

It does no good to assume a spinning drive will last 10 years on the shelf, but your particular drive froze up at 9 years 6 months.

Additionally, formats and sizes change. Used to be IDE, then SATA. Now moving into M.2.
 
Personally I would go for an archival hdd. Slow, but cheap and designed to be reliable.

Personally i have had multiple hard drives fail but never an ssd.

You could attribute this to the fact i have been using hdds for longer than ssds.

All drives fail though, so the best bet is to have a backup.
 
logainofhades said:
This is why I don't support either. https://www.extremetech.com/extreme...itching-cheaper-components-after-good-reviews

I don't care how good they might be now. How you treat your customers, is enough reason for me, to avoid them. Just like how I refuse to buy Asus products, due to their horrible customer support.

The MX500 is a superior drive, has a better warranty, and priced comparatively, to the Kingston and PNY drives, at least at 500gb class drives.

PCPartPicker Part List

Storage: Kingston A400 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($52.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Crucial MX500 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: PNY CS900 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($58.45 @ Amazon)
Total: $171.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-21 14:55 EDT-0400
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Reminds me of evga sending golden b3s to reviewers so non reviewers got an inferior product.
 
USAFRet said:
Guarantee, right up until the moment they change their terms of use or policies.
Or start charging for was was previously free.
Or until they get hacked.
Or until you need to recover 600+GB of data, from a mostly slow connection.
Or until you need to recover your OS drive.

Having some of your data in 'the cloud' can be part of a good backup routine.
It should not be the only place.
Click to expand...

What is the best solution in your opinion ? I had the idea of back up drives and I put the HDD in a fire/water proof safe but this is very expensive.

I am currently using 2TB cloud plan.
 
nofanneeded said:
What is the best solution in your opinion ? I had the idea of back up drives and I put the HDD in a fire/water proof safe but this is very expensive.
Click to expand...
2 or 3 different copies of this data.
You can use a cloud solution, but don't rely on that as your only solution.

For me:
Stuff in the PC
Backed up to the NAS
Which is backed up to an external thing in the house
And a drive containing life critical data in a desk drawer at work. That is my "cloud". Scans of passports, drivers licenses, pics of kids, etc, etc, etc. This drive is updated every few months.

A fireproof safe can be a good idea. As part of a comprehensive solution. And I wouldn't trust any drive that was simply stored away for years.
 
Hard drives can be unpredictable.

I have a seagate 2tb extremal usb hdd that is about 5 years old.

Without me knowing, the drive was put in the cold and moist basement for years and ofc the extrenal hdd stopped working. I extracted the barracuda 3.5in hdd inside which worked.

Then i dropped the drive from my deskt to the hardwood floor. It still worked so i installed into my nas and used it for months.

Recently the drive was killed by a failed sata to molex adapter that caught fire. With some help here i bypassed the failed tvs diode and resistors so the drive works now.

This drive should have died 3 times abut still keeps on going.

I also have a 160gb 2.5in ide hdd from 2006 that ran daily untill 2012 or 13. Then it sat in a drawer untill 2019. Literally plugged it in a few months ago and eventually got it working over usb. Still works fine.

On the other hand, i had a 2.5inhdd which died within a few months of power on time.

You never know.
 
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nofanneeded said:
and dont bother to tell me what it means. in a respectful Article people dont use acronyms . be professional.

you DONT use acronyms in TITLES , Bad Journalism
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Let me fix that for you:

Don't bother to tell me what TLDR means. In a respectable article, people don't use acronyms. Be professional.

You DON'T use acronyms in TITLES; that is poor journalism.
 
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nofanneeded said:
Big no , This is not like NATO , or RAM , TLDR is like a street langage between funny people in the PC thatis not a name of an entity ... just like IMO and other stuff , no one puts this a pargraph title in BOLD ALONE anywhere ! I Read Tomshardware since Thomas Pabst , and Toms hardware is not professional anymore and are allowing childich ways of writing.

Sorry Tomshardware is going down very quickly and the forums entries proves this.
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You are welcome to not read it anymore and go away
 
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