Solid State Drive VS Hard Disk Drive
Solid-state drive
A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the hierarchy of computer storage. It is also sometimes called a semiconductor storage device, a solid-state device or a solid-state disk, even though SSDs lack the physical spinning disks and movable read–write heads used in hard disk drives (HDDs) and floppy disks.
Compared with electromechanical drives, SSDs are typically more resistant to physical shock, run silently, and have higher input/output rates and lower latency. SSDs store data in semiconductor cells.
How much faster is an SSD compared with HDD drives and is it worth the price?
A solid state drive or SSD can speed up the performance of a computer significantly, often more than what a faster processor (CPU) or RAM can. A hard disk drive or HDD is cheaper and offers more storage (500 GB to 4 TB are common) while SSD disks are more expensive and generally available in 64 GB to 2 TB configurations.
SSDs Have Several Advantages Over HDD Drives.
Benchmark statistics - small read/writes
Data Transfer in an HDD vs. SSD
Which Type of SSD is the Fastest?
There are two different types of SSDs:
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment SSDS (SATA)
Peripheral Component Interconnect Express SSDs (PCIe)
Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe)
Comparison of NAND-based SSD and HDD
SSDs Have Several Advantages Over HDD Drives.
HDD versus SSD comparison chart |
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HDD |
SSD |
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· current rating is 3.58/5 (431 ratings) |
· current rating is 4.22/5 (553 ratings) |
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Stands for |
Hard Disk Drive |
Solid State Drive |
Speed |
HDD is slower. HDD has higher latency, longer read/write times, and supports fewer IOPs (input output operations per second) compared to SSD. |
SSD is faster. SSD has lower latency, faster read/writes, and supports more IOPs (input output operations per second) compared to HDD. |
Heat, Electricity, Noise |
Hard disk drives use more electricity to rotate the platters, generating heat and noise. |
Since no such rotation is needed in solid state drives, they use less power and do not generate heat or noise. |
Defragmentation |
The performance of HDD drives worsens due to fragmentation; therefore, they need to be periodically defragmented. |
SSD drive performance is not impacted by fragmentation. So defragmentation is not necessary. |
Components |
HDD contains moving parts - a motor-driven spindle that holds one or more flat circular disks (called platters) coated with a thin layer of magnetic material. Read-and-write heads are positioned on top of the disks; all this is encased in a metal cas |
SSD has no moving parts; it is essentially a memory chip. It is interconnected, integrated circuits (ICs) with an interface connector. There are three basic components - controller, cache and capacitor. |
Weight |
HDDs are heavier than SSD drives. |
SSD drives are lighter than HDD drives because they do not have the rotating disks, spindle and motor. |
Dealing with vibration |
The moving parts of HDDs make them susceptible to crashes and damage due to vibration. |
SSD drives can withstand vibration up to 2000Hz, which is much more than HDD. |
HDD disks use spinning platters of magnetic drives and read/write heads for operation. So start-up speed is slower for HDDs than SSDs because a spin-up for the disk is needed. Intel claims their SSD is 8 times faster than an HDD, thereby offering faster boot up times.
Benchmark statistics - small read/writes
- HDDs: Small reads – 175 IOPs, Small writes – 280 IOPs
- Flash SSDs: Small reads – 1075 IOPs (6x), Small writes – 21 IOPs (0.1x)
- DRAM SSDs: Small reads – 4091 IOPs (23x), Small writes – 4184 IOPs (14x)
IOPs stand for Input/Output Operations Per Second
Data Transfer in an HDD vs. SSD
In an HDD, data transfer is sequential. The physical read/write head "seeks" an appropriate point in the hard drive to execute the operation. This seek time can be significant. The transfer rate can also be influenced by file system fragmentation and the layout of the files. Finally, the mechanical nature of hard disks also introduces certain performance limitations.
In an SSD, data transfer is not sequential; it is random access so it is faster. There is consistent read performance because the physical location of data is irrelevant. SSDs have no read/write heads and thus no delays due to head motion (seeking).
There are two main reasons for falling SSD prices:
- Increasing density: 3D NAND technology was a breakthrough that allowed a quantum jump in SSD capacity because it allows for packing 32 or 64 times the capacity per die.
- Process efficiency: Flash storage manufacturing has become more efficient and die yields have increased significantly.
Which Type of SSD is the Fastest?
When you choose the type of SSD for your device, you need to consider the speed, readability, noise, and power usage.A solid state drive (SSD) is an extra storage unit for your computer that stores data using flash memory.
There are two different types of SSDs:
1. Serial Advanced Technology Attachment SSDs (SATA) and
2. Peripheral Component Interconnect express SSDs or Non-Volatile Memory express SSDs (PCIe/NVMe/PCIe-NVMe).
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment SSDS (SATA)
SATA SSDs tend to be the slower of the two since it uses the same interface as hard drives. However, even though they may be the slowest grade, they will still speed your computer up four or five times more than a hard drive would. Your chances of finding someone using a SATA are still high because they have been around for quite some time.
The most common type of SATA is the 2.5 inch SATA SSD since it can be used on older computers. The average speed of SATAs are around 500-550 Mbps and will max out at 600 Mbps or 6 Gbps.
Mini-SATA SSDs
mSATA SSDs are just smaller versions of SATA SSDS. They are mainly used for smaller devices like phones, tablets, notebooks, and very thin laptops but that doesn’t mean you can’t use it for your computer. They still have all the specifications of a 2.5 inch SATA SSD with the maximum speed of 600 Mbps.
M.2 SSDs
M.2 SSDs are small and rectangular sticks of ram most commonly used in mobile devices and thin laptops because of their flat and compact card format. However, they can still be used on computers only if your motherboard has the slot for it. They are faster and thus more expensive than SATA SSDs and can store up to 2 terabytes of data. The most common sizes for M.2 SSDs are 2242, 2260, 2280, and 22110. The numbers indicate the size of the SSDs by width and length.
For
example,
an M.2 2280 is 22mm (length) x 80mm (width).
An M.2 2242 is 22mm x 42mm.
Peripheral Component Interconnect Express SSDs (PCIe)
PCIe SSDs have more bandwidth and will provide three to four times the speed and performance than SATA SSDs, which means that PCIe SSDs are the fastest type of SSDs. They are high-speed interface and performance expansion cards that are plugged into the motherboard and will generally go along well with graphics cards and sound cards.
PCIe SSDs are expansion cards that connects your computer to its peripherals. They are usually recommended if you are a gamer since you want the fastest performance speed when playing your game. As long as you don’t care about the price, you can get a PCIe SSD for your computer. PCIe SSDs tend to be more expensive than SATA SSDs for obvious reasons, but not if you want more storage space compared to performance, then you would be using SATA.
Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe)
NVMe are built especially for flash and new generation SSDs that deliver the best performance and have the highest response times. It works well with PCIe SSDs to transfer data rapidly to and from your computer and storage card.
NVMe SSDs transfers data at a high performance speed of around 3,000-3,500 Mbps or 3-3.5 Gbps. You can transfer a 30 GB file to your computer in about 15 seconds or less.
Add-In Card SSDs (AIC)
SSD AICs are generally supposed to have a much faster speed than most of the other drives because it operates on a PCIe express bus rather than a SATA. As mentioned above, PCIe is the faster type of SSD and therefore will have a higher performance speed than SATA so AICs would have the potential to be a lot faster. Also, AICs are more preferred than M.2 drives since they can access more lanes on PCIe. They can only be used on desktops so their drive plugs into the motherboard and are most commonly used for RAID controllers or graphic cards.
Hard Drive Disks (HDD)
They cost a lot less because of their slower performance, but they have high battery drainage. Additionally, they are generally used for a more practical storage card to store file and media like photos or videos.
HDDs, despite their slow speeds, can store a lot more data than SSDs. SSDs have a storage capacity range of 64 GB to 4 TB while HDDs can store 250 GB to 14 TB of data.
Which SSD Should You Use?
The type of SSD you should use depends on your device. Check your motherboard and find out what kind of slots you have. Different devices will support different types of drives.
HDDs are generally for those who want to store a lot of old pictures and videos that they won’t have to check up on.
As to whether your data will be corrupted transferring depends on the drive’s readability. Usually, SSDs are more reliable because they don’t need any moving parts to operate while HDDs need to write your data onto a disk, thus risking the chance of corrupt data.
by Aziz Saigal Which-type-of-ssd-is-the-fastest
As of 2019, cells can contain between 1 and 4 bits of data. SSD storage devices vary in their properties according to the number of bits stored in each cell, with single-bit cells ("Single Level Cells" or "SLC") being generally the most reliable, durable, fast, and expensive type, compared with 2- and 3-bit cells ("Multi-Level Cells/MLC" and "Triple-Level Cells/TLC"), and finally quad-bit cells ("QLC") being used for consumer devices that do not require such extreme properties and are the cheapest per gigabyte of the four.
3D XPoint memory (sold by Intel under the Optane brand) stores data by changing the electrical resistance of cells instead of storing electrical charges in cells, and SSDs made from RAM can be used for high speed, when data persistence after power loss is not required, or may use battery power to retain data when its usual power source is unavailable.
Hybrid drives or solid-state hybrid drives (SSHDs), such as Apple'sFusion Drive, combine features of SSDs and HDDs in the same unit using both flash memory and spinning magnetic disks in order to improve the performance of frequently-accessed data. Bcache achieves a similar effect purely in software, using combinations of dedicated regular SSDs and HDDs.
SSDs based on NAND Flash will slowly leak charge over time if left for long periods without power. This causes worn-out drives (that have exceeded their endurance rating) to start losing data typically after one year (if stored at 30 °C) to two years (at 25 °C) in storage; for new drives it takes longer. Therefore, SSDs are not suitable for archival storage.
SSDs have a limited lifetime number of writes, and also slow down as they reach their full storage capacity.
The host interface is physically a connector with the signalling managed by the SSD's controller. It is most often one of the interfaces found in HDDs. They include:
- Serial attached SCSI (SAS-3, 12.0 Gbit/s) – generally found on servers
- Serial ATA and mSATA variant (SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gbit/s)
- PCI Express (PCIe 3.0 ×4, 31.5 Gbit/s)
- M.2 (6.0 Gbit/s for SATA 3.0 logical device interface, 31.5 Gbit/s for PCIe 3.0 ×4)
- U.2 (PCIe 3.0 ×4)
- Fibre Channel (128 Gbit/s) – almost exclusively found on servers
- USB (10 Gbit/s)
- Parallel ATA (UDMA, 1064 Mbit/s) – mostly replaced by SATA
- (Parallel) SCSI ( 40 Mbit/s- 2560 Mbit/s) – generally found on servers, mostly replaced by SAS; last SCSI-based SSD was introduced in 2004
SSDs support various logical device interfaces, such as Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) and NVMe. Logical device interfaces define the command sets used by operating systems to communicate with SSDs and host bus adapters (HBAs).
The following table shows a detailed overview of the advantages and disadvantages of both technologies. Comparisons reflect typical characteristics, and may not hold for a specific device.
Attribute or characteristic |
Solid-state drive |
Hard disk drive |
Price per capacity |
SSDs generally are more expensive than HDDs and expected to remain so into the 2020s SSD price as of first quarter 2018 around 30 cents (US) per gigabyte based on 4 TB models. |
|
Storage capacity |
In 2018, SSDs were available in sizes up to 100 TB, but less costly, 120 to 512 GB models were more common. |
In 2018, HDDs of up to 16 TB were available. |
Reliability – data retention |
If left without power, worn out SSDs typically start to lose data after about one to two years in storage, depending on temperature. New drives are supposed to retain data for about ten years. MLC and TLC based devices tend to lose data earlier than SLC-based devices. SSDs are not suited for archival use. |
If kept in a dry environment at low temperatures, HDDs can retain their data for a very long period of time even without power. However, the mechanical parts tend to become clotted over time and the drive fails to spin up after a few years in storage. |
Reliability – longevity |
SSDs have no moving parts to fail mechanically so in theory, should be more reliable than HDDs. However, in practice this is unclear. Each block of a flash-based SSD can only be erased (and therefore written) a limited number of times before it fails. The controllers manage this limitation so that drives can last for many years under normal use. SSDs based on DRAM do not have a limited number of writes. However the failure of a controller can make an SSD unusable. Reliability varies significantly across different SSD manufacturers and models with return rates reaching 40% for specific drives. Many SSDs critically fail on power outages; a December 2013 survey of many SSDs found that only some of them are able to survive multiple power outages. A Facebook study found that sparse data layout across an SSD's physical address space (e.g., non-contiguously allocated data), dense data layout (e.g., contiguous data) and higher operating temperature (which correlates with the power used to transmit data) each lead to increased failure rates among SSDs. However, SSDs have undergone many revisions that have made them more reliable and long lasting. New SSDs in the market today use power loss protection circuits, wear leveling techniques and thermal throttling to ensure longevity. |
HDDs have moving parts, and are subject to potential mechanical failures from the resulting wear and tear so in theory, should be less reliable than SSDs. However, in practice this is unclear. The storage medium itself (magnetic platter) does not essentially degrade from reading and write operations. According to a study performed by Carnegie Mellon University for both consumer and enterprise-grade HDDs, their average failure rate is 6 years, and life expectancy is 9–11 years. However the risk of a sudden, catastrophic data loss can be lower for HDDs. When stored offline (unpowered on the shelf) in long term, the magnetic medium of HDD retains data significantly longer than flash memory used in SSDs. |
Start-up time |
Almost instantaneous; no mechanical components to prepare. May need a few milliseconds to come out of an automatic power-saving mode. |
Drive spin-up may take several seconds. A system with many drives may need to stagger spin-up to limit peak power drawn, which is briefly high when an HDD is first started. |
Sequential access performance |
In consumer products the maximum transfer rate typically ranges from about 200 MB/s to 3500 MB/s, depending on the drive. Enterprise SSDs can have multi-gigabyte per second throughput. |
Once the head is positioned, when reading or writing a continuous track, a modern HDD can transfer data at about 200 MB/s. Data transfer rate depends also upon rotational speed, which can range from 3,600 to 15,000 rpm and also upon the track (reading from the outer tracks is faster). Data transfer speed can be up to 480 MB/s(experimental). |
Random access performance |
Random access time typically under 0.1 ms. As data can be retrieved directly from various locations of the flash memory, access time is usually not a big performance bottleneck. Read performance does not change based on where data is stored. In applications, where hard disk drive seeks are the limiting factor, this results in faster boot and application launch times (see Amdahl's law). SSD technology can deliver rather consistent read/write speed, but when many individual smaller blocks are accessed, performance is reduced. Flash memory must be erased before it can be rewritten to. This requires an excess number of write operations over and above that intended (a phenomenon known as write amplification), which negatively impacts performance. SSDs typically exhibit a small, steady reduction in write performance over their lifetime, although the average write speed of some drives can improve with age. |
Read latency time is much higher than SSDs.Random access time ranges from 2.9 (high end server drive) to 12 ms (laptop HDD) due to the need to move the heads and wait for the data to rotate under the magnetic head. Read time is different for every different seek, since the location of the data and the location of the head are likely different. If data from different areas of the platter must be accessed, as with fragmented files, response times will be increased by the need to seek each fragment. |
Impact of file system fragmentation |
There is limited benefit to reading data sequentially (beyond typical FS block sizes, say 4 KiB), making fragmentation negligible for SSDs. Defragmentation would cause wear by making additional writes of the NAND flash cells, which have a limited cycle life. However, even with SSDs there is a practical limit on how much fragmentation certain file systems can sustain; once that limit is reached, subsequent file allocations fail. Consequently, defragmentation may still be necessary, although to a lesser degree. |
Some file systems, like NTFS, become fragmented over time if frequently written; periodic defragmentation is required to maintain optimum performance.This is usually not an issue in modern file systems. |
SSDs have no moving parts and therefore are silent, although, on some SSDs, high pitch noise from the high voltage generator (for erasing blocks) may occur. |
HDDs have moving parts (heads, actuator, and spindle motor) and make characteristic sounds of whirring and clicking; noise levels vary depending on the RPM, but can be significant (while often much lower than the sound from the cooling fans). Laptop hard drives are relatively quiet. |
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Temperature control[] |
A Facebook study found that at operating temperatures above 40 °C (104 °F), the failure rate among SSDs increases with temperature. However, this was not the case with newer drives that employ thermal throttling, albeit at a potential cost to performance. In practice, SSDs usually do not require any special cooling and can tolerate higher temperatures than HDDs. Some SSDs, including high-end enterprise models installed as add-on cards or 2.5-inch bay devices, may ship with heat sinks to dissipate generated heat, requiring certain volumes of airflow to operate. |
Ambient temperatures above 35 °C (95 °F) can shorten the life of a hard disk, and reliability will be compromised at drive temperatures above 55 °C (131 °F). Fan cooling may be required if temperatures would otherwise exceed these values. In practice, modern HDDs may be used with no special arrangements for cooling. |
Lowest operating temperature[ |
SSDs can operate at −55 °C (−67 °F). |
Most modern HDDs can operate at 0 °C (32 °F). |
Highest altitude when operating |
SSDs have no issues on this. |
HDDs can operate safely at an altitude of at most 3,000 meters (10,000 ft). HDDs will fail to operate at altitudes above 12,000 meters (40,000 ft). With the introduction of helium-filled (sealed) HDDs, this is expected to be less of an issue. |
Moving from a cold environment to a warmer environment |
SSDs have no issues with this. Due to the thermal throttling mechanism SSDs are kept secure and prevented from the temperature imbalance. |
A certain amount of acclimation time may be needed when moving some HDDs from a cold environment to a warmer environment before operating them; depending upon humidity, condensation could occur on heads and/or disks and operating it immediately will result in damage to such components. Modern helium HDDs are sealed and do not have such a problem. |
Breather hole |
SSDs do not require a breather hole. |
Most modern HDDs require a breather hole in order to function properly. Helium-filled devices are sealed and do not have a hole. |
Susceptibility to environmental factors |
No moving parts, very resistant to shock, vibration, movement, and contamination. |
Heads flying above rapidly rotating platters are susceptible to shock, vibration, movement, and contamination which could damage the medium. |
Installation and mounting |
Not sensitive to orientation, vibration, or shock. Usually no exposed circuitry. Circuitry may be exposed in a card form device and it must not be short-circuited by conductive materials. |
Circuitry may be exposed, and it must not be short-circuited by conductive materials (such as the metal chassis of a computer). Should be mounted to protect against vibration and shock. Some HDDs should not be installed in a tilted position. |
Susceptibility to magnetic fields |
Low impact on flash memory, but an electromagnetic pulse will damage any electrical system, especially integrated circuits. |
In general, magnets or magnetic surges may result in data corruption or mechanical damage to the drive internals. Drive's metal case provides a low level of shielding to the magnetic platters. |
Weight and size |
SSDs, essentially semiconductor memory devices mounted on a circuit board, are small and lightweight. They often follow the same form factors as HDDs (2.5-inch or 1.8-inch) or are bare PCBs (M.2 and mSATA). The enclosures on most mainstream models, if any, are made mostly of plastic or lightweight metal. High performance models often have heatsinks attached to the device, or have bulky cases that serves as its heatsink, increasing its weight. |
HDDs are generally heavier than SSDs, as the enclosures are made mostly of metal, and they contain heavy objects such as motors and large magnets. 3.5-inch drives typically weigh around 700 grams (1.5 lb). |
Secure writing limitations |
NAND flash memory cannot be overwritten, but has to be rewritten to previously erased blocks. If a software encryption program encrypts data already on the SSD, the overwritten data is still unsecured, unencrypted, and accessible (drive-based hardware encryption does not have this problem). Also data cannot be securely erased by overwriting the original file without special "Secure Erase" procedures built into the drive. |
HDDs can overwrite data directly on the drive in any particular sector. However, the drive's firmware may exchange damaged blocks with spare areas, so bits and pieces may still be present. Some manufacturers' HDDs fill the entire drive with zeroes, including relocated sectors, on ATA Secure Erase Enhanced Erase command. |
Read/write performance symmetry |
Less expensive SSDs typically have write speeds significantly lower than their read speeds. Higher performing SSDs have similar read and write speeds. |
HDDs generally have slightly longer (worse) seek times for writing than for reading. |
Free block availability and TRIM |
SSD write performance is significantly impacted by the availability of free, programmable blocks. Previously written data blocks no longer in use can be reclaimed by TRIM; however, even with TRIM, fewer free blocks cause slower performance. |
HDDs are not affected by free blocks and do not benefit from TRIM. |
Power consumption |
High performance flash-based SSDs generally require half to a third of the power of HDDs. High-performance DRAM SSDs generally require as much power as HDDs, and must be connected to power even when the rest of the system is shut down. Emerging technologies like DevSlp can minimize power requirements of idle drives. |
The lowest-power HDDs (1.8-inch size) can use as little as 0.35 watts when idle. 2.5-inch drives typically use 2 to 5 watts. The highest-performance 3.5-inch drives can use up to about 20 watts. |
Maximum areal storage density (Terabits per square inch) |
2.8 |
1.2] |
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