The hot thing right now in PC computing is the use of solid-state drives. You know those small flash drives that everyone loves to carry around nowadays. They’re small, convenient, and don’t have a lot of moving parts. Now imagine using those as the main form of storage on your PC.
Until recently, people only had one choice when it came to data storage on their computers: the traditional hard drive. These are usually composed of spinning metal discs full of magnetic content. The industry standard since the 1980s, they are the kings of storage. That is until solid-state drives came on to the market.
The Advantages of Using an SSD
Solid-state drives use flash memory chips that came into popularity in the early 2000s. People didn’t like them at first because they were pretty expensive and only had a small capacity. Recent years though have upped their capacity and, although they are still expensive, have placed them within reach of the ordinary consumer.
There are several advantages to using an SSD. First of all, there are no moving parts. Unlike a traditional hard drive, you won’t hear the disc spinning and crunching numbers as it stores and retrieves your data. Thanks to this, SSDs are usually a lot more durable than their traditional counterparts.
Second, SSDs have the advantage in terms of convenience. Traditional hard drives are limited to a specific size and shape. This is because they need the space for the spinning disc. SSDs can be in any form that the maker can fit the chips into.
Finally, you will want an SSD because it is fast. Compared to traditional hard drives, SSDs can access data lightning fast. Instead of waiting minutes, your programs will load in seconds.
The Top Choices
If those advantages have piqued your interest, you’ll want to take a look at what’s available on the market. Take note that it’s best to buy an SSD and a traditional hard drive. Have your essential programs stored on your SSD, while your traditional hard drive can handle mass storage. Anyway, here are three of the best SSD buys right now.
a) Samsung 960 Pro. Released last November, the 960 Pro is a new face on the market and is starting to impress. Samsung decided to be risky and go a non-traditional route and has it hooked up to your computer via the PCIe lane. Yes, instead of a SATA port, you can just put it on your motherboard like a video card.
The result is a small and very fast SSD. With 497 GB of space ready-to-use, you can install a lot of programs on the drive, with space left behind for more. If you thought the SATA-based SSDs were fast, then the 960 Pro blows them out of the water.
b) WD Blue 1TB. When people think of SSDs, they still think of small storage capacities. With the WD Blue SSD, that is proven untrue. With a 1 TB storage capacity, you will be able to actually put everything you need on it.
With Western Digital’s reputation in the storage market, this drive looks to be a dependable replacement for your standard drive. It is available in both the SATA version and the M.2 version, which hooks up to your PCI Express slot.
c) Toshiba Q300. Coming from Japanese super-brand Toshiba, this SSD uses the latest in flash-drive technology to deliver an excellent level of performance. The main reason you will want to buy it is that it can manage to perform well despite being so cheap. Noticeably more affordable than its competitors, you’ll want to buy this as a nice upgrade to your PC.
Try one of these SSDs out now to feel the speedy difference between traditional and solid-state drives.
