Upgrading your data storage system and can’t choose between hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs)? To help you make the best choice for your business and ensure your data system is optimized, we’ll walk you through the features of HDDs and SSDs, as well as the pros and cons of each.

What is an HDD?

An HDD is a spinning hard disk that reads and writes data on a metal platter with a magnetic coating. The internals of an HDD look similar to an old record player — there’s a platter or a stack of platters, which spin around a spindle, and an armature called a read-write head. Data is stored onto the platter via tiny magnetic particles.

What is an SSD?

Unlike an HDD, an SSD does not have any internal moving parts. Instead, it uses integrated circuit assemblies to store, retrieve, and cache data. An SSD has two key components: flash memory chips and the controller (i.e., an embedded microprocessor). Flash memory contains storage memory, while the controller executes firmware-level software.

HDD vs. SSD: How are they different?

Let’s compare the two storage devices based on these five categories.

Speed
HDDs take a long time to access data because the disk must spin to find it. They typically have a spinning speed of around 5,400 to 7,200 rotations per minute.

In contrast, SSDs can complete the same task 200% faster since they rely on instantly accessible memory chips. That’s why a computer equipped with an SSD can boot an operating system and load apps much faster than one that uses an HDD. An SSD can copy and move large files at 500 MB per second, while an HDD can do the same at 30–150 MB per second. This means you can store 20 GB of data in less than 10 seconds with an SSD, but you would need at least two minutes with an HDD.

Capacity
Thanks to recent technological advancements, SSDs can now support terabytes of storage, just like HDDs. However, if you compare today’s lowest-priced laptops, you’d see that they’re either equipped with 128 GB SSD or 500 GB HDD. Why is there such a huge difference in storage capacity? It’s because SSDs come with prohibitively high price tags. Therefore, if you require a lot of storage space, HDD is the way to go.

Cost
For the same storage capacity, HDDs are less expensive than SSDs, which is why they’re often bundled in budget laptops and PCs. To keep its price competitive, a budget laptop typically can have only up to 512 GB SSD storage.

Some gaming laptops solve this speed-price dilemma by having both an SSD and an HDD — the SSD is for key applications and the HDD is for data. However, take note that most consumer and business laptops do not have room for multiple storage drives. Fortunately, you can easily find 1 TB external USB hard drives for under $50.

Durability
HDDs are more susceptible to shock and damage because they have various moving parts and components. This means that if you accidentally drop your laptop, your HDD might get damaged and your data will be lost. Moreover, the longer you use your HDD, the more it wears down and eventually ends up failing.

In contrast, because SSDs use a non-mechanical design of flash storage mounted on a circuit board, they are more durable and are better at keeping your data safe.

Noise
An HDD emits some noise when the drive spins back and forth to process data. In contrast, SSDs do not have moving parts, so it does not make any noise at all.

Conclusion

Overall, SSDs are the clear winner over HDDs. While more expensive, an SSD is the faster and far more durable data storage option in the long run.

If your computer can support multiple hard drives, you can use an SSD as the primary storage for your OS, applications, and most-used programs. Meanwhile, you can use an HDD to store pictures, documents, and other files that do not require quick access times and speeds.

Planning to purchase new hardware? Let our experts guide you so you can confidently make the right IT investments. Get in touch with us today.

Looking to boost your device’s performance? Choosing the right storage drive can make all the difference. In this post, we’ll break down the pros and cons of HDDs and SSDs, so you can find the best option based on your needs and budget.

What is an HDD?

An HDD is a spinning hard disk that reads and writes data on a metal platter with a magnetic coating. The internals of an HDD look similar to an old record player — there’s a platter or a stack of platters, which spin around a spindle, and an armature called a read-write head. Data is stored onto the platter via tiny magnetic particles.

What is an SSD?

Unlike an HDD, an SSD does not have any internal moving parts. Instead, it uses integrated circuit assemblies to store, retrieve, and cache data. An SSD has two key components: flash memory chips and the controller (i.e., an embedded microprocessor). Flash memory contains storage memory, while the controller executes firmware-level software.

HDD vs. SSD: How are they different?

Let’s compare the two storage devices based on these five categories.

Speed
HDDs take a long time to access data because the disk must spin to find it. They typically have a spinning speed of around 5,400 to 7,200 rotations per minute.

In contrast, SSDs can complete the same task 200% faster since they rely on instantly accessible memory chips. That’s why a computer equipped with an SSD can boot an operating system and load apps much faster than one that uses an HDD. An SSD can copy and move large files at 500 MB per second, while an HDD can do the same at 30–150 MB per second. This means you can store 20 GB of data in less than 10 seconds with an SSD, but you would need at least two minutes with an HDD.

Capacity
Thanks to recent technological advancements, SSDs can now support terabytes of storage, just like HDDs. However, if you compare today’s lowest-priced laptops, you’d see that they’re either equipped with 128 GB SSD or 500 GB HDD. Why is there such a huge difference in storage capacity? It’s because SSDs come with prohibitively high price tags. Therefore, if you require a lot of storage space, HDD is the way to go.

Cost
For the same storage capacity, HDDs are less expensive than SSDs, which is why they’re often bundled in budget laptops and PCs. To keep its price competitive, a budget laptop typically can have only up to 512 GB SSD storage.

Some gaming laptops solve this speed-price dilemma by having both an SSD and an HDD — the SSD is for key applications and the HDD is for data. However, take note that most consumer and business laptops do not have room for multiple storage drives. Fortunately, you can easily find 1 TB external USB hard drives for under $50.

Durability
HDDs are more susceptible to shock and damage because they have various moving parts and components. This means that if you accidentally drop your laptop, your HDD might get damaged and your data will be lost. Moreover, the longer you use your HDD, the more it wears down and eventually ends up failing.

In contrast, because SSDs use a non-mechanical design of flash storage mounted on a circuit board, they are more durable and are better at keeping your data safe.

Noise
An HDD emits some noise when the drive spins back and forth to process data. In contrast, SSDs do not have moving parts, so it does not make any noise at all.

Conclusion

Overall, SSDs are the clear winner over HDDs. While more expensive, an SSD is the faster and far more durable data storage option in the long run.

If your computer can support multiple hard drives, you can use an SSD as the primary storage for your OS, applications, and most-used programs. Meanwhile, you can use an HDD to store pictures, documents, and other files that do not require quick access times and speeds.

Planning to purchase new hardware? Let our experts guide you so you can confidently make the right IT investments. Get in touch with us today.

When it comes to data storage, two main types of drives dominate the market: hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs). While HDDs, which use spinning disks to read and write data, have been the traditional choice, solid-state drives (SSDs), which rely on flash memory for faster performance and durability, are rapidly gaining popularity. This guide outlines the key differences between the two storage technologies.

What is an HDD?

An HDD is a spinning hard disk that reads and writes data on a metal platter with a magnetic coating. The internals of an HDD look similar to an old record player — there’s a platter or a stack of platters, which spin around a spindle, and an armature called a read-write head. Data is stored onto the platter via tiny magnetic particles.

What is an SSD?

Unlike an HDD, an SSD does not have any internal moving parts. Instead, it uses integrated circuit assemblies to store, retrieve, and cache data. An SSD has two key components: flash memory chips and the controller (i.e., an embedded microprocessor). Flash memory contains storage memory, while the controller executes firmware-level software.

HDD vs. SSD: How are they different?

Let’s compare the two storage devices based on these five categories.

Speed
HDDs take a long time to access data because the disk must spin to find it. They typically have a spinning speed of around 5,400 to 7,200 rotations per minute.

In contrast, SSDs can complete the same task 200% faster since they rely on instantly accessible memory chips. That’s why a computer equipped with an SSD can boot an operating system and load apps much faster than one that uses an HDD. An SSD can copy and move large files at 500 MB per second, while an HDD can do the same at 30–150 MB per second. This means you can store 20 GB of data in less than 10 seconds with an SSD, but you would need at least two minutes with an HDD.

Capacity
Thanks to recent technological advancements, SSDs can now support terabytes of storage, just like HDDs. However, if you compare today’s lowest-priced laptops, you’d see that they’re either equipped with 128 GB SSD or 500 GB HDD. Why is there such a huge difference in storage capacity? It’s because SSDs come with prohibitively high price tags. Therefore, if you require a lot of storage space, HDD is the way to go.

Cost
For the same storage capacity, HDDs are less expensive than SSDs, which is why they’re often bundled in budget laptops and PCs. To keep its price competitive, a budget laptop typically can have only up to 512 GB SSD storage.

Some gaming laptops solve this speed-price dilemma by having both an SSD and an HDD — the SSD is for key applications and the HDD is for data. However, take note that most consumer and business laptops do not have room for multiple storage drives. Fortunately, you can easily find 1 TB external USB hard drives for under $50.

Durability
HDDs are more susceptible to shock and damage because they have various moving parts and components. This means that if you accidentally drop your laptop, your HDD might get damaged and your data will be lost. Moreover, the longer you use your HDD, the more it wears down and eventually ends up failing.

In contrast, because SSDs use a non-mechanical design of flash storage mounted on a circuit board, they are more durable and are better at keeping your data safe.

Noise
An HDD emits some noise when the drive spins back and forth to process data. In contrast, SSDs do not have moving parts, so it does not make any noise at all.

Conclusion

Overall, SSDs are the clear winner over HDDs. While more expensive, an SSD is the faster and far more durable data storage option in the long run.

If your computer can support multiple hard drives, you can use an SSD as the primary storage for your OS, applications, and most-used programs. Meanwhile, you can use an HDD to store pictures, documents, and other files that do not require quick access times and speeds.

Planning to purchase new hardware? Let our experts guide you so you can confidently make the right IT investments. Get in touch with us today.

Egnyte introduced some new generative AI tools today, and revealed more of what’s coming on the AI roadmap. The company also pointed out that it has been incorporating AI into the platform for over a decade, and is not simply jumping on the bandwagon of the moment.

Today, it’s announcing a ChatGPT-like interface where customers can interact with the content stored in Egnyte to do things like create summaries of documents or review transcripts of video and audio to generate a list of key points or summaries.

​​The company isn’t new to AI, but in the past, as with many enterprise companies announcing generative AI this year, it was taking care of background tasks like privacy, security and infrastructure management. Today’s announcement brings AI to the forefront to any business user who wants to interact with the content stored in Egnyte.

“We’re opening up the intelligence engine for every single user on the platform, which includes every business user from all departments. What that will enable them to do is through a chat-based interface, they will be able to ask and answer questions,” David Spitz, chief strategy officer at Egnyte told TechCrunch.

In the future, the company plans to allow customers to query across a set of documents in a single folder or across multiple folders to locate content related to a particular subject, and that will bring powerful search capabilities to the content repository.

“Later this year, we’re introducing the ability to ask questions across sets of documents, which is like next generation search. You can think of it like natural language-based search,” Spitz said. This could help users find photos with a particular object in an image library, or summarize the last four years of drug discovery for a life sciences application.

Egnyte co-founder and CEO Vineet Jain says they are building their solutions on existing foundational models. Today, the models are built on GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 via Microsoft Azure, but he says they still need to fine tune these models for the specific requirements of their customers, who often have very specific language in areas like life sciences and financial services.

“The new products use the large language models from Azure [and OpenAI] – GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 – to which we have added proprietary mechanisms to verify that the results are accurate and appropriate and to prevent hallucinations. We also worked closely with Microsoft to ensure that no customer data could be shared with the foundational models or other customers, and to ensure that any information generated by the models would respect the access controls of the customer,” Jain said.

While today’s announcement is in line with what many enterprise companies are doing, it is essential for Egnyte to have its own spin on it to remain competitive. Box announced generative AI capabilities will be coming to the platform this year in May, for example.

Egnyte has never been one to be pushed by the tech of the moment, taking its time and building up a business while competitors took bigger chunks of investment capital and tried to move faster. The company, which launched in 2013, surpassed $200 million in revenue in the first quarter this year with revenue growth of around 25%.

Like other enterprise companies announcing these capabilities, Egnyte is offering the new tooling to a limited number of customers for now while tweaking it in production environments. It’s vague on when it will be more generally available, but probably some time later this year.

Egnyte has never been a startup in a hurry and has been content to take a slow, but steady growth trajectory over its 16-year history. Today it’s a $200 million company growing at around 25% a year. That’s pretty impressive for a private company at a time when many enterprise SaaS companies are struggling to get to double digits.

In a crowded storage, governance and security market it has managed to chug along with solid growth, while avoiding flashy funding rounds of its competitors. Consider that Box raised over $1 billion before it went public in 2015. Meanwhile Dropbox, which went public in 2018, raised even more at $1.7 billion.

Egnyte has raised a modest $137 million — its last fundraise was $75 million five years ago — and has yet to go public, not that it doesn’t want to at some point. That is still very much a goal of CEO and co-founder Vineet Jain, if the economy and the markets would ever cooperate.

“Fortunately for us, we have no valuation overhang. So that is not the constraint and on the overall business side, all the core KPIs whether it’s the dollar-based retention, profitability, improving profitability, the growth rate is still a very healthy 25%. And we’ve never been a flashy company,” Jain told TechCrunch+.

The company has built a business brick by brick looking at niches like financial services, architecture, engineering and construction, and life sciences. This approach has served it well, not leaning on any particular industry.

The life sciences market has quieted in recent years, and Egnyte has been able to keep going while other areas have compensated for the slowing or lost revenue. Jain says his company hasn’t been immune to the vagaries of the economy of the last year or two, but he has managed to keep his company profitable, steady and growing.

“Despite a tightening in spend from an enterprise buyer perspective, we keep finding multiple demand funnels, whether they’re industry specific or geography specific, so something ebbs, something else flows,” Jain said.

As the company looks to the future, going public will take care of itself at some point, but for now, he’s content to run Egnyte the old fashioned way. Consider that it has been profitable over the last four quarters and is adding cash to the books, perhaps explaining why it hasn’t had to go back to the fundraising well five years after the last raise. The next funding event would appear to be that IPO, whenever that happens.

Slow, steady, and ready to list

If there’s one thing that gets the attention of investors, even in uncertain times like these, it’s data efficiency. Data is the fuel for machine learning models and getting it from point A to point B can be expensive and time consuming. That’s why a startup that can help make that process move faster with less friction is probably going to be valuable.

Such is the case with Weka, a company that has come up with a way to virtualize data to make it easier to move between sources without having to make a copy first. Today, the company announced a $135 million Series D investment on a $750 million valuation, big numbers in today’s conservative funding environment.

CEO and co-founder Liran Zvibel says the company originally focused on increasing data throughput for high performance computing scenarios.

“The initial focus was high performance computing environments. And that’s really where the first phase of the company started. But increasingly, over the last two or three years, people have been taking concepts from high performance computing, scientific computing and applying them in a commercial context, trying to build large enterprise workloads,” Zvibel told TechCrunch.

He says that although network and compute have sped up, especially with the increased use of GPUs to help power data-intensive workloads, storage has remained a legacy bottleneck, and that’s the weak link his company is trying to attack.

“Most people have made the leap to GPUs, and they made the leap to fast networking, but they’re trying to underpin it with storage technology and storage architectures from the 1990s,” he said.

He claims to have invented an entirely new way of moving data. “We’ve invented a whole set of new algorithms, data structures, control structures, even network protocols. We’re not leveraging TCP/IP. We have a network protocol that allows you to leverage RDMA zero copy-like performance even on a public cloud,” he said.

“And we sat down, we implemented all of that new new kind of computer science theory. And now we can actually show customers the huge advantages they can get with this new approach.”

He admits the technology in some ways sounds like it’s science fiction, so companies often start small to prove it works, and once they do they sign much bigger deals. “When we come in and we tell the story, it sounds like a fairy tale or a science fiction. So customers tend to start small. When they realize we’re actually doing what we say we do then then they really go into hyperdrive,” he said.

The company offers their solution as a service, but sometimes it’s delivered on prem and increasingly in the cloud with 43% of transactions in Q3 coming from public cloud business.

They currently have 300 employees and expect to double in the next 12-18 months. He says that hiring a diverse workforce is top of mind for the company. “At the end of the day, we’re hiring the best talent we can find because building that is the most important thing, but we are putting a lot of thought and effort on turning over every rock to make sure we are more and more diverse.”

Today’s round of funding came from a large group that includes traditional VC firms, as well as many strategic investors. The list includes 10D, Atreides Management, Celesta Capital, Gemini Israel Ventures, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Hitachi Ventures, Key1 Capital, Lumir Ventures, Micron Ventures, Mirae Asset Capital, MoreTech Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, NVIDIA, Qualcomm Ventures and Samsung Catalyst.

Today’s $750 million valuation doubles the previous valuation, according to the company. Weka has now raised over $293 million, per Crunchbase.

Weka announces $135M investment on $750M valuation to change how companies move data by Ron Miller originally published on TechCrunch

If you’re looking for a new Mac, you might be wondering if you should get one with a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD). While HDDs are cheaper, SSDs offer many advantages that make them the better choice. Here are some reasons you should get a Mac with an SSD.

SSDs are more reliable

All types of disk drives are more likely to fail with age, but SSDs are more resistant to age-related degradation than HDDs. This is because most modern SSDs use NAND flash memory, which is not as susceptible to the wear and tear that HDDs experience with their spinning disks.

Moreover, HDDs utilize magnets to write data, so exposing your Mac to a powerful magnet may erase all of its contents. This is an unlikely scenario with SSDs since they don’t have parts with magnetic coatings that can be easily damaged by a magnetic field.

SSDs are more durable

HDDs have delicate moving parts like drive platters and read arms, which are prone to breaking if you drop your Mac or if you bump or jostle it around too much. SSDs, on the other hand, have no moving parts, so they’re much more resistant to physical damage.

In addition, SSDs can withstand higher temperatures than HDDs without losing data. This means that SSDs are less likely to be affected by heat buildup from extended use or from being stored in a high-temperature environment.

Finally, SSDs have a longer life span than HDDs. Although consumer SSDs have a limited number of reads and writes, they can still last for 700 TB of writes before failing. To give you some perspective, 40 GB of data every day for 50 years would amount to 700 TB. In other words, you won’t have to worry about overusing your SSD anytime soon.

SSDs are faster

The data access speeds of HDDs are limited by the fact that they have spinning disks. The data on an HDD is stored on these disks in sectors and tracks, and the read/write head has to physically move to the correct location on the disk in order to access the data. This physical movement takes time, which means that it can take a while to start up your computer and load files.

By contrast, SSDs store data on interconnected flash-memory chips. These chips can be accessed much faster than the spinning disks of an HDD, which means that your Mac will boot up more quickly and files will load faster. This allows you to perform data-intensive tasks without waiting for your computer to catch up.

SSDs are quieter

HDDs tend to produce a fair amount of noise because of their spinning disks. This noise is generally not loud enough to be a bother, but it can be noticeable in quiet environments.

Meanwhile, SSDs don’t make any noise at all, mainly due to their nonmechanical nature. Because there are no moving parts, a Mac with an SSD is generally quieter, even when it’s performing intensive tasks.

SSDs are more energy-efficient

SSDs consume far less power than HDDs and, as a result, need considerably less energy to function. Even when operating at full speed, SSDs use roughly 50% less energy than HDDs. This is also thanks to the fact that SSDs have no moving parts that must be powered in order for them to read, write, and access data.

This lower power consumption can translate into longer battery life for laptops. So, if you’re looking for a MacBook that will last through a long flight or an all-day meeting, you’re better off getting one with an SSD.

Overall, it’s clear that SSDs have a lot of advantages over HDDs. A reliable SSD will improve your Mac’s performance, which can also result in better productivity and efficiency. If you’re ready to upgrade your Mac with an SSD or have any questions about data storage, call us today.

Solid-state drives (SSDs) are fast becoming the standard for data storage because of their many advantages over hard disk drives (HDDs). Here are the top five reasons SSDs are better than HDDs for Macs.

SSDs are more reliable

All types of disk drives are more likely to fail with age, but SSDs are more resistant to age-related degradation than HDDs. This is because most modern SSDs use NAND flash memory, which is not as susceptible to the wear and tear that HDDs experience with their spinning disks.

Moreover, HDDs utilize magnets to write data, so exposing your Mac to a powerful magnet may erase all of its contents. This is an unlikely scenario with SSDs since they don’t have parts with magnetic coatings that can be easily damaged by a magnetic field.

SSDs are more durable

HDDs have delicate moving parts like drive platters and read arms, which are prone to breaking if you drop your Mac or if you bump or jostle it around too much. SSDs, on the other hand, have no moving parts, so they’re much more resistant to physical damage.

In addition, SSDs can withstand higher temperatures than HDDs without losing data. This means that SSDs are less likely to be affected by heat buildup from extended use or from being stored in a high-temperature environment.

Finally, SSDs have a longer life span than HDDs. Although consumer SSDs have a limited number of reads and writes, they can still last for 700 TB of writes before failing. To give you some perspective, 40 GB of data every day for 50 years would amount to 700 TB. In other words, you won’t have to worry about overusing your SSD anytime soon.

SSDs are faster

The data access speeds of HDDs are limited by the fact that they have spinning disks. The data on an HDD is stored on these disks in sectors and tracks, and the read/write head has to physically move to the correct location on the disk in order to access the data. This physical movement takes time, which means that it can take a while to start up your computer and load files.

By contrast, SSDs store data on interconnected flash-memory chips. These chips can be accessed much faster than the spinning disks of an HDD, which means that your Mac will boot up more quickly and files will load faster. This allows you to perform data-intensive tasks without waiting for your computer to catch up.

SSDs are quieter

HDDs tend to produce a fair amount of noise because of their spinning disks. This noise is generally not loud enough to be a bother, but it can be noticeable in quiet environments.

Meanwhile, SSDs don’t make any noise at all, mainly due to their nonmechanical nature. Because there are no moving parts, a Mac with an SSD is generally quieter, even when it’s performing intensive tasks.

SSDs are more energy-efficient

SSDs consume far less power than HDDs and, as a result, need considerably less energy to function. Even when operating at full speed, SSDs use roughly 50% less energy than HDDs. This is also thanks to the fact that SSDs have no moving parts that must be powered in order for them to read, write, and access data.

This lower power consumption can translate into longer battery life for laptops. So, if you’re looking for a MacBook that will last through a long flight or an all-day meeting, you’re better off getting one with an SSD.

Overall, it’s clear that SSDs have a lot of advantages over HDDs. A reliable SSD will improve your Mac’s performance, which can also result in better productivity and efficiency. If you’re ready to upgrade your Mac with an SSD or have any questions about data storage, call us today.

If your once snappy Mac now feels like it’s dragging its feet, a solid-state drive (SSD) upgrade could be just the thing that will breathe new life into it. But even if your Mac is still running pretty well, the benefits of an SSD upgrade may convince you to make the switch from a hard disk drive (HDD). Here’s a look at some of the key advantages of SSDs over HDDs.

SSDs are more reliable

All types of disk drives are more likely to fail with age, but SSDs are more resistant to age-related degradation than HDDs. This is because most modern SSDs use NAND flash memory, which is not as susceptible to the wear and tear that HDDs experience with their spinning disks.

Moreover, HDDs utilize magnets to write data, so exposing your Mac to a powerful magnet may erase all of its contents. This is an unlikely scenario with SSDs since they don’t have parts with magnetic coatings that can be easily damaged by a magnetic field.

SSDs are more durable

HDDs have delicate moving parts like drive platters and read arms, which are prone to breaking if you drop your Mac or if you bump or jostle it around too much. SSDs, on the other hand, have no moving parts, so they’re much more resistant to physical damage.

In addition, SSDs can withstand higher temperatures than HDDs without losing data. This means that SSDs are less likely to be affected by heat buildup from extended use or from being stored in a high-temperature environment.

Finally, SSDs have a longer life span than HDDs. Although consumer SSDs have a limited number of reads and writes, they can still last for 700 TB of writes before failing. To give you some perspective, 40 GB of data every day for 50 years would amount to 700 TB. In other words, you won’t have to worry about overusing your SSD anytime soon.

SSDs are faster

The data access speeds of HDDs are limited by the fact that they have spinning disks. The data on an HDD is stored on these disks in sectors and tracks, and the read/write head has to physically move to the correct location on the disk in order to access the data. This physical movement takes time, which means that it can take a while to start up your computer and load files.

By contrast, SSDs store data on interconnected flash-memory chips. These chips can be accessed much faster than the spinning disks of an HDD, which means that your Mac will boot up more quickly and files will load faster. This allows you to perform data-intensive tasks without waiting for your computer to catch up.

SSDs are quieter

HDDs tend to produce a fair amount of noise because of their spinning disks. This noise is generally not loud enough to be a bother, but it can be noticeable in quiet environments.

Meanwhile, SSDs don’t make any noise at all, mainly due to their nonmechanical nature. Because there are no moving parts, a Mac with an SSD is generally quieter, even when it’s performing intensive tasks.

SSDs are more energy-efficient

SSDs consume far less power than HDDs and, as a result, need considerably less energy to function. Even when operating at full speed, SSDs use roughly 50% less energy than HDDs. This is also thanks to the fact that SSDs have no moving parts that must be powered in order for them to read, write, and access data.

This lower power consumption can translate into longer battery life for laptops. So, if you’re looking for a MacBook that will last through a long flight or an all-day meeting, you’re better off getting one with an SSD.

Overall, it’s clear that SSDs have a lot of advantages over HDDs. A reliable SSD will improve your Mac’s performance, which can also result in better productivity and efficiency. If you’re ready to upgrade your Mac with an SSD or have any questions about data storage, call us today.

If you’re in the market for a new computer or laptop, you may be given a choice to configure your system with either a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD). Both drives store data but work in different ways. In this blog post, we’ll discuss their differences so you can determine which one is right for you.

What is an HDD?

An HDD is a spinning hard disk that reads and writes data on a metal platter with a magnetic coating. The internals of an HDD look similar to an old record player — there’s a platter or a stack of platters, which spin around a spindle, and an armature called a read-write head. Data is stored onto the platter via tiny magnetic particles.

What is an SSD?

Unlike an HDD, an SSD does not have any internal moving parts. Instead, it uses integrated circuit assemblies to store, retrieve, and cache data. An SSD has two key components: flash memory chips and the controller (i.e., an embedded microprocessor). Flash memory contains storage memory, while the controller executes firmware-level software.

HDD vs. SSD: How are they different?

We’ll compare the two storage devices based on these five categories.

1. Speed
HDDs take a long time to access data because the disk must spin to find it. They typically have a spinning speed of around 5,400 to 7,200 rotations per minute.

In contrast, SSDs can complete the same task 200% faster since they rely on instantly accessible memory chips. That’s why a computer equipped with an SSD can boot an operating system and load apps much faster than one that uses an HDD. An SSD can copy and move large files at 500 MB per second, while an HDD can do the same at 30–150 MB per second. This means you can copy a 20 GB movie in less than 10 seconds with an SSD, but you would need at least two minutes with an HDD.

2. Capacity
Thanks to recent technological advancements, SSDs can now support terabytes of storage, just like HDDs. However, if you compare today’s lowest-priced laptops, you’d see that they’re either equipped with 128 GB SSD or 500 GB HDD. Why is there such a huge difference in storage capacity? It’s because SSDs come with prohibitively high price tags. Therefore, if you require a lot of storage space, HDD is the way to go.

3. Cost
For the same storage capacity, HDDs are less expensive than SSDs, which is why they’re often bundled in budget laptops and PCs. To keep its price competitive, a budget laptop typically can have only up to 512 GB SSD storage.

Some gaming laptops solve this speed-price dilemma by having both an SSD and an HDD — SSD for key applications and HDD for data. However, take note that most consumer and business laptops do not have room for multiple storage drives. Fortunately, you can easily find 1 TB external USB hard drives for under $50.

4. Durability
HDDs are more susceptible to shock and damage because they have various moving parts and components. This means that if you accidentally drop your laptop, your HDD might get damaged and your data will be lost. Moreover, the longer you use your HDD, the more it wears down and eventually ends up failing.

In contrast, because SSDs use a nonmechanical design of flash storage mounted on a circuit board, they are more durable and are better at keeping your data safe.

5. Noise
An HDD emits some noise when the drive spins back and forth to process data. In contrast, SSDs do not have moving parts so it does not make any noise at all.

Conclusion
Overall, SSD is the clear winner over HDD. While more expensive, SSD is the faster and far more durable data storage option in the long run.

If your computer can support multiple hard drives, you can use an SSD as the primary storage for your OS, applications, and most-used programs. You can then use an HDD to store pictures, documents, and other files that do not require quick access times and speeds.

Planning to purchase new hardware? Let our experts guide you so you can confidently make the right IT investments. Get in touch with us today.

Hard disk drives have been the predominant storage device for desktop computers and laptops for a long time. But solid state drives (SSDs) are now quickly becoming the norm. If you’re choosing between the two, it’s important to know their differences so you can get the one that best fits your needs.

What is an HDD?

An HDD is a spinning hard disk that reads and writes data on a metal platter with a magnetic coating. The internals of an HDD look similar to an old record player — there’s a platter or a stack of platters, which spin around a spindle, and an armature called a read-write head. Data is stored onto the platter via tiny magnetic particles.

What is an SSD?

Unlike an HDD, an SSD does not have any internal moving parts. Instead, it uses integrated circuit assemblies to store, retrieve, and cache data. An SSD has two key components: flash memory chips and the controller (i.e., an embedded microprocessor). Flash memory contains storage memory, while the controller executes firmware-level software.

HDD vs. SSD: How are they different?

We’ll compare the two storage devices based on these five categories.

1. Speed
HDDs take a long time to access data because the disk must spin to find it. They typically have a spinning speed of around 5,400 to 7,200 rotations per minute.

In contrast, SSDs can complete the same task 200% faster since they rely on instantly accessible memory chips. That’s why a computer equipped with an SSD can boot an operating system and load apps much faster than one that uses an HDD. An SSD can copy and move large files at 500 MB per second, while an HDD can do the same at 30–150 MB per second. This means you can copy a 20 GB movie in less than 10 seconds with an SSD, but you would need at least two minutes with an HDD.

2. Capacity
Thanks to recent technological advancements, SSDs can now support terabytes of storage, just like HDDs. However, if you compare today’s lowest-priced laptops, you’d see that they’re either equipped with 128 GB SSD or 500 GB HDD. Why is there such a huge difference in storage capacity? It’s because SSDs come with prohibitively high price tags. Therefore, if you require a lot of storage space, HDD is the way to go.

3. Cost
For the same storage capacity, HDDs are less expensive than SSDs, which is why they’re often bundled in budget laptops and PCs. To keep its price competitive, a budget laptop typically can have only up to 512 GB SSD storage.

Some gaming laptops solve this speed-price dilemma by having both an SSD and an HDD — SSD for key applications and HDD for data. However, take note that most consumer and business laptops do not have room for multiple storage drives. Fortunately, you can easily find 1 TB external USB hard drives for under $50.

4. Durability
HDDs are more susceptible to shock and damage because they have various moving parts and components. This means that if you accidentally drop your laptop, your HDD might get damaged and your data will be lost. Moreover, the longer you use your HDD, the more it wears down and eventually ends up failing.

In contrast, because SSDs use a nonmechanical design of flash storage mounted on a circuit board, they are more durable and are better at keeping your data safe.

5. Noise
An HDD emits some noise when the drive spins back and forth to process data. In contrast, SSDs do not have moving parts so it does not make any noise at all.

Conclusion
Overall, SSD is the clear winner over HDD. While more expensive, SSD is the faster and far more durable data storage option in the long run.

If your computer can support multiple hard drives, you can use an SSD as the primary storage for your OS, applications, and most-used programs. You can then use an HDD to store pictures, documents, and other files that do not require quick access times and speeds.

Planning to purchase new hardware? Let our experts guide you so you can confidently make the right IT investments. Get in touch with us today.

PCs and laptops typically came with hard disk drives (HDDs), but buyers can now also have the option to configure their system with either HDDs, solid state drives (SSDs), or in some cases both. In this blog, we’ll compare both storage drives so you can make the best decision for your needs.

What is an HDD?

An HDD is a spinning hard disk that reads and writes data on a metal platter with a magnetic coating. The internals of an HDD look similar to an old record player — there’s a platter or a stack of platters, which spin around a spindle, and an armature called a read-write head. Data is stored onto the platter via tiny magnetic particles.

What is an SSD?

Unlike an HDD, an SSD does not have any internal moving parts. Instead, it uses integrated circuit assemblies to store, retrieve, and cache data. An SSD has two key components: flash memory chips and the controller (i.e., an embedded microprocessor). Flash memory contains storage memory, while the controller executes firmware-level software.

HDD vs. SSD: How are they different?

We’ll compare the two storage devices based on these five categories.

1. Speed
HDDs take a long time to access data because the disk must spin to find it. They typically have a spinning speed of around 5,400 to 7,200 rotations per minute.

In contrast, SSDs can complete the same task 200% faster since they rely on instantly accessible memory chips. That’s why a computer equipped with an SSD can boot an operating system and load apps much faster than one that uses an HDD. An SSD can copy and move large files at 500 MB per second, while an HDD can do the same at 30–150 MB per second. This means you can copy a 20 GB movie in less than 10 seconds with an SSD, but you would need at least two minutes with an HDD.

2. Capacity
Thanks to recent technological advancements, SSDs can now support terabytes of storage, just like HDDs. However, if you compare today’s lowest-priced laptops, you’d see that they’re either equipped with 128 GB SSD or 500 GB HDD. Why is there such a huge difference in storage capacity? It’s because SSDs come with prohibitively high price tags. Therefore, if you require a lot of storage space, HDD is the way to go.

3. Cost
For the same storage capacity, HDDs are less expensive than SSDs, which is why they’re often bundled in budget laptops and PCs. To keep its price competitive, a budget laptop typically can have only up to 512 GB SSD storage.

Some gaming laptops solve this speed-price dilemma by having both an SSD and an HDD — SSD for key applications and HDD for data. However, take note that most consumer and business laptops do not have room for multiple storage drives. Fortunately, you can easily find 1 TB external USB hard drives for under $50.

4. Durability
HDDs are more susceptible to shock and damage because they have various moving parts and components. This means that if you accidentally drop your laptop, your HDD might get damaged and your data will be lost. Moreover, the longer you use your HDD, the more it wears down and eventually ends up failing.

In contrast, because SSDs use a nonmechanical design of flash storage mounted on a circuit board, they are more durable and are better at keeping your data safe.

5. Noise
An HDD emits some noise when the drive spins back and forth to process data. In contrast, SSDs do not have moving parts so it does not make any noise at all.

Conclusion
Overall, SSD is the clear winner over HDD. While more expensive, SSD is the faster and far more durable data storage option in the long run.

If your computer can support multiple hard drives, you can use an SSD as the primary storage for your OS, applications, and most-used programs. You can then use an HDD to store pictures, documents, and other files that do not require quick access times and speeds.

Planning to purchase new hardware? Let our experts guide you so you can confidently make the right IT investments. Get in touch with us today.