Question

Instructions

Read the Digital Trends article "Solid state drives are speedier than hard disk drives. Are they worth it?" and answer the following questions and submit in a Word doc:

1. Compare SSDs vs. HDDs in terms of reading and writing data. What are the differences?
2. How are SSDs and HDDs compared in terms of durability? Explain how an SSD can wear out.
3. What does TRIM do? (See related link)
4. Compare SSDs and HDDs in terms of cost.
5. Explain why a hybrid drive might be a better option.

Now, find at least one source online written within the last three months that contains a review of several SSD drive or hybrid drive models. (Note: this cannot be a blog; it should be a trade journal or product review site.)

1. Which models were recommended for both price and performance. (Note: these may be viewed as separate criteria or the best of both.)
a. Why were the models selected ranked highest?
b. What is the current price range for these models
2. Do you currently own an SSD or hybrid drive?

a. If yes, what are the pros/cons?

b. If not, when you purchase your next laptop or desktop, will you look for an SSD or hybrid drive for your secondary storage device? Why or why not? Would you give up price for performance? Size for performance?

3. Source(s) used and post date. Full URLs are required.

Answer 1

Answer:'

HDDs...

•   Use magnetic platters and moving parts to store data.

•   Are the legacy data storage standard for PCs, servers and enterprise storage arrays.

•   Have lower price tags than SSDs on a per-GB basis.

•   Are slower than SSDs.

•   Use more electricity than SSDs and require more cooling.

SSDs...

•   Use semiconductor chips to store data and have no moving parts.

•   Are gaining popularity but remain a pricey storage alternative for PCs, servers and storage systems.

•   Have higher price tags than HDDs on a per-GB basis.

•   Are much faster than HDDs

•   Use less electricity than HDDs and run cooler.

	SSD	HDD
Price	$0.25-$0.27 per GB average	$0.2-$0.03 per GB average
Lifespan	30-80% test developed bad block in their lifetime	3.5% developed bad sectors comparatively
Ideal for	High performance processing Residing in APA or Tier 0/1 media in hybrid arrays	High capacity nearline tiers Long-term retained data
Read/write speeds	200 MB/s to 2500 MB/s	up to 200 MB/s
Benefits	Higher performance for faster read/write operations and fast load times	Less expensive Mature technology and massive installed user base
Drawbacks	May not be as durable/reliable as HDDs Not good for long-term archival data	Mechanical components take longer to read-write than SSDs

SSD speed

•   SSD read write speed: SSD speed wins, due to high IOPs (In and Out per Second). SSD has no moving parts and thus no physical seek limits, so the IOPs is higher than that of HDD.

•   Faster Access: an SSD can access memory addresses much faster than the HDD can move drive heads. This dramatically higher performance places SSD in the ideal position for high IOPs. Top performance storage tiers frequently uses only SSD, although a storage tier one step down may combine high performance SSD with a high performing 15RPM HDD.

HDD Speed

•   HDD Read Write Speed: HDD is slower, because of its design. In a hard disk array, the controllers direct read/write requests to physical disk locations. The platter spins and disk drive heads move to the designated location.

•   Access time issues: With SSDs, non-contiguous writes come into play, meaning the read head has to seek for information in disparate locations. This adds latency. All this physical movement creates slow downs that SSD do not suffer from.

3)

SSD TRIM is an Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) command that enables an operating system to inform a NAND flash solid-state drive (SSD) which data blocks it can erase because they are no longer in use. The use of TRIM can improve the performance of writing data to SSDs and contribute to longer SSD life.

4)

SSD vs HDD Price Comparison

Finally, we come to the crux of the SSD vs HDD debate: cost.

On a per-gigabyte (GB) basis, SSDs are more expensive than HDDs. The gap has narrowed significantly over the years, but SSD prices remain much more expensive in this regard. Let's take a look:

Model	Capacity	List Price	$/GB (GB = 1,000 MB)
SSD: Samsung MZ-V7P1T0BW SSD 970 PRO NVMe M.2	1TB	$499.99	$0.49
SSD: Intel SC2KG480G701 DC (Data Center) S4600 Series SATA 2.5-inch	480GB	$419.99	$0.87
SSD: Crucial CT250MX500SSD11 MX500 Series SATA 2.5-inch	250GB	$72.99	$0.29
HDD: Western Digital WD121KRYZ WD GOLD Series SATA 3.5-inch	12TB	$473.99	$0.039
HDD: Seagate ST8000DM004 Barracuda Pro SATA 3.5-inch	8TB	$224.99	$0.028

5)

but most data center managers buy hybrid arrays with SSD and HDD working in tandem. SSD costs are too high to justify nearline and secondary storage media. And although SSD is capable of higher capacity, data centers primarily need capacity for aging data, which favors HDD. Higher capacity comes at a very high cost and has little business justification – so for many situations HDD works just fine.

The enterprise data storage marketplace has already drawn the same conclusion; HDD handles more workload than SSD.