SSDs or Solid State Devices, in computer terms, are referred to as those storage devices that are capable of storing data persistently and can hold huge amounts of memory, the largest ones having a capacity of 16TB. They make use of flash memory and are also referred to as flash drives or flash cards. Unlike the traditional HDDs(Hard Disk Drives), they do not contain any mechanical parts like read or write arms, but make use of integrated circuits for their functioning. They are in great use, as they have an advantage over other storage devices for their speed.
There are a variety of things one has to consider before getting an SSD. Here, five main things that are to be explored are explained in detail.
The following are 5 things to consider before purchasing an SSD
Specifications
Most of the SSDs come with a physical size of about 2.5 inches, which is quite standardized and will fit perfectly into all kind of laptops. But then, to make them available for desktops, which requires SSDs with a 3.5-inch form factor, you can make use of adapters. They come with a height of about 7 mm thickness, which is why they look sleek and thin. You can consult your laptop guide to know whether it requires SSDs of greater thickness, to fit them perfectly into the ports. Also, these SSDs are pretty silent as they don’t make use of any mechanical parts to shrill out noises, which is found quite prominent in all HDDs. Considering the speed, SSDs with a serial interface of either 3GB or 6 GB can be considered.
Performance
SSDs make their stand when it comes to performance. Their speed is the main factor behind everyone switching over to SSDs from HDDs, as they can help transfer your files and boot up your system in milliseconds. It is also recommended to move forward to getting an SSD if you face problems in launching your programs at a slower pace. With a reading speed of about 550 MB/s, they have overtaken the functioning pace of HDDs by almost ten times.
Price
Currently, the price of SSDs has gone pretty down, as compared to that of a couple of years back. To get a good value for the given money, it is always preferred that one goes for an SSD with higher capacity. Typically, the price varies from brand to brand, depending on the quality. On an average, a 125 GB SSD costs around $75, while a 250 GB comes with a pricing of about $100. The approximate cost of 1TB SSD comes around $550.
Durability
As SSDs don’t contain much of mechanical parts, they are free from wear and tear and are highly durable. If they are of good quality, then they might even survive up to six years. But they are more prone to power failures when compared to HDDs.
Storage Capacity
SSDs use the concept of garbage collection whereby they write chunks of data into pages, which has to be moved somewhere else and erased when new data comes in. To maintain such functionalities, SSDs having a capacity of about 4TB can be considered for desktops, while those of 1TB are sufficient for notebook laptops.
