Having a Solid State Drive, or an SSD in your computer comes with some advantages and disadvantages. First, what is an SSD and what does it do for you?

A solid state drive (SSD) is where your data is stored on your computer. This data includes the computer’s operating system and could also include your documents, music collection, pictures of your last vacation or your favorite movies you’ve stored on your desktop. An SSD will save this data on interconnected flash memory chips that retain the data even when there’s no power present. This means when you turn your computer off or unplug it, the data will still be stored and ready to use once you boot your computer back up.

Most computers come equipped with a hard drive disk (HDD), which stores data just like the SSD, but on a spinning disk instead of memory chips. It takes longer to access data from a spinning disk than it does from memory chips.  If you were to look at an HDD outside of your computer it would essentially look like a flat metal disk with a magnetic coating, and the coating is where your data lives. With most computers you have the ability to remove your hard drive and replace it with a faster or larger capacity drive. So the question remains, should you purchase new computers with an SSD instead of a hard drive or even replace the drive in your existing computer?

So, what is so great about SSD’s? They are faster for sure, with no moving parts, but with greater speed comes greater cost. If you were to obtain a regular HDD with the same capacity, it would be slower, but much cheaper. Consider purchasing new PCs with SSDs when replacement is due to increase productivity.

All of that said, SSDs are superior products which improve productivity and save time for business owners. Pagoda Technologies recommends all their clients make use of them whenever feasible.