TECH TALK: Why speed is of the essence when it comes to your computer

With a traditional HDD (Hard Disk Drive) you will notice it can take a little to turn on your PC/Laptop and get to where you can actually do something on it.

Whereas, with a SSD, you can do whatever you want to do in literally seconds.

Yes, I said seconds.

Why? A traditional Hard Drive spins like an LP record with an arm going across reading data.

Record speeds were 78, 45, and 33 RPM (Revolutions Per Minute) - although 78 was way before my time by the way.

A Hard Drive spins up to 7,00 times per minute. The Solid State reads with no moving parts so it picks up information automatically rather than waiting for a disk to spin.

I have timed some SSDs and on average it takes about 12 seconds from booting the machine to being able to go online. That’s fast!

As with all things, there is a downside.

The traditional drives can be bought at a reasonable price with huge amounts of storage.

Solid State Drives, most of the time, are more expensive and have less storage space - unless you want to pay a fortune.

So, if you have a laptop and you don’t store much on it, you might be ok with the likes of a 240 GB SSD.

But, if you have a PC (some laptops), you can balance this out by putting Windows and programmes only on your SSD and having traditional drives as your storage area.

Another good thing about that is, if you have to reinstall Windows at any point, your data is on another drive and it will be only to reload your programmes.

This is precisely how I have my rig set up.

Another lovely thing about the SSD is reliability. As I mentioned earlier, there are no moving parts in the SSD and it is also immune to data loss from powerful magnetism.

It is also very environmentally friendly! It uses less power than the standard Hard Drive which means a lower energy bill over time and better battery life.

Because of no moving parts, it generates less heat.

This helps to increase its life span and reliability.

I know it is a lot to take in.

But if you are in the market for a new computer or an upgrade, I would highly recommend this to be put on your ‘must have’ list of components.

Ask your favourite computer specialist about the SSD, some will be able to demonstrate them and even show you what they look like as well as offer friendly advice.