SSD vs HDD? What do each bring to the computer?

SSD's offer very fast random read/write performance, fragmentation isn't an issue, the lack of any moving parts makes them inherintly more reliable than a hard disk, and SSD's are dead silent. The better SSD's also have good sequential read/write speeds.

Hard disks offer very fast sequential read/write performance, and offer a lot of capacity for their price.

If you're looking for a drive to run an OS from, then an SSD is the way to go. Operating systems make a lot of small random reads and writes, which is exactly what SSD's are good at. If you're looking for lots of storage space on the cheap, hard disks are still the best choice.

SSDs are more expensive, but I've heard that they are much faster than HDDs. I'd personally wait until SSDs become more affordable, though. That dollar-per-gigabyte ratio is just too high for me right now.

SSDs are very fast drives, because it uses flash memory; the same stuff that is in flash drives. The only thing that holds flash drives back is the connection...USB. I have to say that SSDs are very expensive for the storage that it holds.

If you want a fast form of storage in your computer, than you have to use solid state drive. If you need a lot of storage in your computer, than you have to use a standard HDD running at 7200 RPM.

I have built a few gaming systems with SSD's for people and a common setup I use is a 64GB ssd for the OS and a few key apps (larger programs like microsoft office and others that load quickly on any drive will go on a 1TB drive (I mainly use the WD black 7200RPM 1TB drives)

If you get a SSD, it will vastly improve the boot speed of any OS you have installed. it will also make programs launch much quicker (in many cases they will feel like they were already in memory)

PS avoid the intel x25v if you want SSD, I have tested it and it works well but for boot speeds and apps opening but the poor write speeds will cause problems for video editors and other programs that will work the virtual memory really hard )

many companies make faster drives but overall it is not worth the money as of yet. 64GB is a ok size but it quickly fills up

I recommend waiting for prices to go down and storage to go up.

Install the OS on a smaller SSD probbably doesnt need to be bigger than 40GB Put the rest on a HUGE HDD running at 7200rpm

It is true that most SSDs are faster than most HDDs, however there are exceptions. Some SSDs are very slow.

If the computer you're installing SSD/HDDs into is a:

1. Notebook, an SSD is the way. This is because you can't fit a number of HDDs into a typical notebook.
2. Desktop, you'd be better off cutting the costs by buying multiple HDDs and setting them up with a RAID configuration. You'd get better overall speed, reliability and capacity at a lower price this way. See this question.

There are exceptions to this, based on your usage. To answer your question, SSDs typically have 0ms seek time, due to the fact that they don't use mechanical parts. This makes them great for things like caching/virtual memory and other things that don't need defragmenting. You can't defragment an SSD currently, which makes them a poor choice for any filesystem that is constantly changing (ie. complete Windows installation). In fact, it almost completely makes the cache memory in an SSD superfluous for this purpose. HDDs have a high seek time, however they can be defragmented to take advantage of sequential reading on filesystems that change constantly. If your filesystem changes structurally alot (eg. you add, delete, copy files a lot), you'd be better off with a RAID of HDDs if possible. That's not really possible in a notebook, though.

I have had bad experience with SSD's. The one in my mom's netbook is super slow. SSD's are also expensive, and offer less space.

THis question i think will be more realavent in about 2 years as will the question of the rare earth elements that said components derive from........

I like the idea of using a SSD as the Operating System drive and one or more HDD for applications and what not. The issue here is some older programs that do not use the Environmental variables in windows will constantly try to install on the C: drive which in the scenario i mentioned would bee the OS and SSD drive but you would want them to install on the D: or what ever the other drive letter was.

Again not so much an issue now days but was more so with XP then it is now in the world of Windows 7

If you want real speed though the trick is not always in the type of drive you have, this can help but the ideal thing I have found is to get a drive with alot more space then you need and never fill it past 70% or it will crawl. Make sure your temporary files are cleared once a month at least (i do it once a week) and defrag once a month. Better yet set-up Windows to defrag your machine once a month if you leave it on like I do.

Why don't we stick with normal hard drives and wait for the insane prices go down. Sure they are great, but $120 for 40gb is way too much.