THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO PC STORAGE

HDD or SSD?

The first thing to decide is if you want to go for a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD). But what's the difference?

SSDs are the newer technology and offer much better performance than the older HDDs. They have far superior read/write speeds than HDDs and run more quietly and efficiently. What you get from this is a snappier system. Install Windows (or your operating system of choice) onto your SSD and your PC will boot up in seconds. Also, any program installed on a SSD will take advantage of those read/write speeds and perform much quicker for you.

So, SSD it is then?

Not so fast. SSDs are more expensive, although they are coming down in price all the time.

If mass storage is your thing, traditional HDDs offer much greater capacity. You can't get SSDs with an 8TB capacity just yet.

Also, SSDs are not all the same either. There are a couple of things to consider.

Firstly, SSD's come in 2 forms: 2.5 inch drives and M.2 drives.

2.5 inch drives connect to your motherboard via SATA cables, much like a HDD, whereas M.2 drives connect directly to the motherboard (if your motherboard is compatible), but still use SATA to transfer data. Both of these drives operate at the same speeds as they are limited by the bandwidth capacity of the SATA connections they utilise, which stands at 600MB/s for SATA III and 300MB/s for SATA II.

There is a faster SSD on the market, however. M.2 drives are also available which use NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) technology. This vastly increases their read/write speeds to an incredible 3500MB/s, which makes them a premium option and a perfect option as a boot drive.

Can I upgrade my HDD to an SSD?

If your current system runs with a regular SATA HDD then you can upgrade to an SSD reasonably simply. It is a service we offer, but it can be done yourself by following one of the many good tutorials available online.

If you would like some help with upgrading to an SSD or further advice, please feel free to contact us.