SSD vs HDD

[PANICPR0NE]

Thoughts on using SSDs only for hard drive space?

My mom has been using an 80gb HDD for the past two years so I'm finally getting a chance to build her a new PC!

She has picked out two cases she really likes but I've noticed in both of them the 3.5in drives are a b**** and just in the way for everything.

120gb+240gb would be plenty of space for her.

So is it a good idea to just eliminate HDDs altogether?

[ShadowCaptain]

So is it a good idea to just eliminate HDDs altogether?

 

Sure you can go completely SSD, why get 2 ssds? maybe just get one 512gb one or just a 240gb one since it sound sound like she needs  much storage

 

As always, its worth keeping a backup, a cheap 500gb 2.5" external drive would be great to keep a copy of her data etc and keep it in a draw (unless you have a NAS or another backup solution)

[Johannes_Lazor]

If she was good with only 80gb only SSD's will suit her Perfectly.

[PANICPR0NE]

I have the 120gb laying around but idk if it got fired TBH so I'm thinking about picking up a corsair 250gb to be safe

PLUS

I really wanna get her into Sims again so a little extra room will help over the 80gb

[tmlhalo]

I used to only have SSD storage in my current machine. Eventually bought a 4TB HDD just because.

[PANICPR0NE]

I used to only have SSD storage in my current machine. Eventually bought a 4TB HDD just because.

These cases really shouldn't have ever had 3.5s or they should have been made to work better with stuff.

[Captain_WD]

Thoughts on using SSDs only for hard drive space?

My mom has been using an 80gb HDD for the past two years so I'm finally getting a chance to build her a new PC!

She has picked out two cases she really likes but I've noticed in both of them the 3.5in drives are a b**** and just in the way for everything.

120gb+240gb would be plenty of space for her.

So is it a good idea to just eliminate HDDs altogether?

 

 

Hey PANICPR0NE,

 

Both types of storage drives have their advantages and disadvantages. 

 

SSDs are compact, fast, don't have moving parts, emit far less heat and no vibrations and are not affected by movement. On the other hand they tend to be much more expensive in terms of $/GB, if you go larger than 512GB the prices increase rapidly, tend to have data writing limit (although this doesn't matter much in everyday computing) and are much more susceptible to static electricity. Also if not power on, they can hold data with no risk for far shorter time. Also, if it happens that you need to retrieve data from a SSD, it is nearly impossible when it fails even for data recovery companies due to the nature of storing data (electrical charges in the cells).

 

HDDs have been around for a while and there is a lot more diversity in terms of models, designs, prices and capacity. They are much cheaper in terms of $/GB, easier to troubleshoot, still more popular and fast enough for most daily routine work. It is much easier and cheaper to retrieve data from a failed hard drive compared to a failed solid state drive. HDDs degrade at a far slower pace when left unattended. The downsides would be that HDDs are more prone to damage from vibrations, physical damage and other external factors. Also they emit more heat, vibrations and consume more energy. HDDs also have moving parts which are more points of failure, but are still considered safe enough to hold important data and backups. 

 

I would say that if you can go with a single SSD and that storage space is enough - go for it and get a simple large-enough HDD for backing up the important data off site (externally).

 

Captain_WD.

[brandishwar]

Several have mentioned backups, certainly a decent topic to cover and one often overlooked. Having an external HDD would be great for backups, but given how little storage space is being used here, it might actually be overkill. 64GB USB 3.0 flash drives are dirt cheap now -- I can get them for as little as $20 here in Kansas City. Sure they're easier to misplace than an external hard drive, so it's a risk.

 

And in the case of the various systems I have in my house, after doing a fresh install of a system, I use Macrium Reflect to create an image of the drive so I have it backed up -- the initial drive images can easily fit onto a flash drive. I recently had to restore my wife's almost 4 year-old laptop, and I immediately created a fresh image after doing so given the sheer number of updates that had to be installed. So a USB 3.0 flash drive, either 32GB or 64GB should suffice for immediate backup purposes. Definitely do not use the same drive for storing the drive image and the periodic backups.

 

Along with that, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive each provide I think 20GB or 25GB of free storage space that can also be easily used for backups of the user profile, save files and the like.

[hogger129]

Thoughts on using SSDs only for hard drive space?

My mom has been using an 80gb HDD for the past two years so I'm finally getting a chance to build her a new PC!

She has picked out two cases she really likes but I've noticed in both of them the 3.5in drives are a b**** and just in the way for everything.

120gb+240gb would be plenty of space for her.

So is it a good idea to just eliminate HDDs altogether?

Use SSD for operating system and keep HDD for storage.  

[yippy3000]

My opinion right now is if you use less than 400GB of storage, just make life simple and go all SSD.  Multiple hard drives gets confusing for not power users with some files in their user folder and some on the hard drive.

 

As for backup, online backup from CrashPlan or backblaze is only $6/month, best thing you can do.

[PANICPR0NE]

My opinion right now is if you use less than 400GB of storage, just make life simple and go all SSD.  Multiple hard drives gets confusing for not power users with some files in their user folder and some on the hard drive.

 

As for backup, online backup from CrashPlan or backblaze is only $6/month, best thing you can do.

Yeah I am thinking a 256gb SSD should work fine for her...