Buy an ssd: recommendations for choosing the right one

In this article we are going to help you choose how to buy an SSD and thus how to increase higher performance in your PC configuration. The SSD, which is a solid state drive, is no longer a novelty in the computing market.

It is already a few years old, but due to constant updates to the interface and technologies, the user may be confused when buying a new unit. Even more those people who have always had the conventional HDD and are also considering moving to an SSD , which is gradually falling in price and is therefore increasingly popular.

Index of contents

Guide to buying an SSD

In case you are still outside of what an SSD is, we are going to locate what exactly it is. The solid state disks or solid state disk are storage units that present great differences in terms of conventional hard disks .

The first big difference is in relation to its structure, while HDDs internally have moving parts forming a real gear for its operation, the SSD is completely different. Instead of this mechanism, SSDs have a semiconductor integrated circuit construction using flash memory, which is also found in other storage devices such as flash drives. With this differentiated design, the SSD can have great advantages in relation to the HDD, ranging from greater resistance to higher performance levels than HDDs.

In the image above you can see the visual difference between the two units. While the unit on the left (the HDD) uses moving parts to form the operating gear, the unit on the side (the SSD) works with a circuit board.

This construction difference has a very large impact on performance. Due to its circular format, data from HDDs that are held in the center of the circle is accessed at a slower rate than data contained at the outer edges. In contrast, with solid state drives, access time is uniform across the drive.

The benefits of exchanging the traditional hard drive of your desktop or laptop for an SSD are several. Take a look below:

• With an SSD the access times are reduced, providing a greater speed in the access to the memory. As there are no moving parts, your computer will not suffer interruptions due to disk errors, for example. The SSD's resistance levels are much higher than those of a hard drive . Much lighter and faster. A 2.5 inch drive (7mm for example), can be used in a super thin laptop like an Ultrabook. Thus, the SSD adapts to the most varied configurations. SSDs have more beautiful versions than conventional HDDs, since manufacturers produce special boxes for their units. HyperX, for example, launched an SSD drive alongside E-Sports, bringing an orange and black casing for the SSD. Lower power consumption. Higher bandwidth.

Sure, not everything is positive: Solid state drives also come with some drawbacks that you should consider before buying:

• The cost of each giga is much higher than that of a mechanical hard drive. The storage capacity is less in relation to hard drives. Whereas with hard drives you will find drives of up to 20 TB, the SSD currently has a maximum capacity of 2 to 4 TB, and having in these capacities a totally prohibitive price.

Features to choose correctly

At this point and you will surely have seen our guide to the best SSDs on the market, you will want to know a little more about them and which ones to choose.

Storage capacity

This is surely the first point that draws the attention of the vast majority of people when purchasing a new storage unit, whether it is an SSD or not. The suggestion here is very relative, as it depends on what the user is wanting with this unit on their computer. In a first scenario an SSD could be acquired just to reduce the boot time or the load of some programs. In this case, units with lower capacities are usually purchased, such as the 120 GB versions or even the 240 GB ones that are really cheap.

Instead, for raw storage, you can purchase larger forms ranging from 500GB to 2TB. Of course, SSDs with a large storage capacity will be more expensive. Another suggestion in case you want a drive with higher capacity, it would be better to purchase two separate drives and do RAID 0.

Instead of, for example, it is no longer necessary to pay a real fortune on a 960 GB SSD, you could buy two 480 GB models and perform the RAID technique that will unite the capacity and performance of the drives and transform them into one. After the SSD garbage collector has been improved. Therefore, we recommend you read our guide on how to optimize your SSD with Windows 10.

performance

This is the subject that least doubts generates for all those who are thinking of buying an SSD. And it's relatively easy to understand which one to buy if you're based on performance. The only problem is the variety of patterns today for the SSD. In addition to the SATA interface, there are also SSD drives via M.2 and PCI-Express connectors. Each one has its particularities and levels of performance.

In addition to that, there is another very important factor which is what relates to which line of solid state drives you are purchasing. Kingston, for example, has the V400 line, and all the models under the name of HyperX. You have to be careful to observe if the model that is being acquired is the simplest division or intended for gamers and enthusiasts.

As a comparison, we are going to pick up the V400 Series SSD against the Samsung 950 PRO, the two 240 GB models. In the V400 the maximum reading speed is up to 520 MB / s, while the recording speed is up to 500 MB / s. On the other hand, with the Samsung 950 PRO, the reading and writing speed is up to 2500 MB / s and 1500 MB / s of reading and writing respectively, being an NVMe disk.

So when you buy an SSD, in addition to the design and the large amount of information that manufacturers usually indicate in relation to the differences between an HDD and an SSD, you should be aware of the read and write numbers of the drives and compare the price relationship between them.

Recalling that all this that we have mentioned so far refers to the SATA standard, more precisely to SATA revision 3, or popularly known as SATA III, which is the interface that started with HDDs and has also been adopted for solid state drives, This allows that if your motherboard has SATA ports and you have a hard disk, when you want to go to a solid state drive, you only have to buy the SSD itself, without bothering to change any item.

Samsung 860 EVO MZ-76E250B / EU - 250 GB internal solid hard drive, black SATA interface; 550MB / s sequential reading; Sequential Write 520MB / s 67, 16 EUR

Of course, not all motherboards have SATA III ports. Older ones feature older revisions like SATA I and SATA II. For the SSD it is of utmost importance that it be used in a SATA III port.

Some tests have shown that by plugging the SSD into ports that are controlled by third-party chips like ASMedia's, widely found on various motherboards, the performance is slightly lower relative to the ports provided directly by the chipset. To find out which ports correspond to the chipset and the controller, consult the manual of your motherboard

We hope that with this guide we have resolved some doubts regarding the acquisition of an SSD. Now when you are shopping, you will have a greater base in relation to which elements to observe. What did you think of our guide on how to buy an SSD and its factors to consider? Did you find it useful? Your opinion matters a lot to us!