Solid-state drives have been viewed as the future of storage for years now, and they’re still being improved upon to this day. What makes it faster than the good old hard disk drive, and why should you care about read and write speeds? Learn all this and more by reading on.
What is a Solid-State Drive (SSD)?
A solid-state drive, or SSD for short, is a storage device that uses electrical components to read and write data for your computer. Compared to a hard disk drive, which is a literal spinning disk much like a CD or DVD, a solid-state drive has no moving parts, meaning that it’s faster and more reliable in the long run.
Why Should You Use An SSD?
Faster than a hard drive
This has been mentioned plenty of times now, but it’s worth saying again to really drive the point home — SSDs are much faster than hard disk drives (we’ll call them HDDs from now on for brevity’s sake). SSDs are completely digital, meaning that data is stored much faster than a hard disk. While HDDs are limited by the speed at which the disk moves, SSDs have much, much higher limitations, and in fact, SSDs are so fast that often the main thing that limits their speed is their connection to the computer and not the device itself. That’s just how powerful SSDs are compared to HDDs.
Makes your computer run faster
So, you already understand that SSDs are faster than HDDs, but how does that impact performance? Sure, you can transfer files faster than normal, but is there any other merit to owning them? Well, there is— it makes pretty much everything in your computer run faster, and by a significant margin. Here’s how.
Imagine that your PC is a room. Let’s say that your desk is the computer’s Desktop and that you have two shelves. One is called "HDD" and is an old cabinet with tons of drawers inside drawers, and the cabinet is on the other side of the room. Then, you have another cabinet called "SSD," and it’s right beside your desk with all the files laid bare and easily grabbable at arm's length.
Suppose you want to open a file. To get one from "HDD," you’d have to walk to the other side of the room, open the drawers to open the drawers inside them, grab the file, and walk all the way back before you can actually open it. To open the file from "SSD," you just have to pull out the file right beside you, and you’re good to go.
Apps function similarly with computers. HDDs are much slower, meaning that it takes longer for your computer to run them. Meanwhile, SSDs can easily access files thanks to their speed, so you’ll find that apps and games will load up much faster thanks to SSDs.
Types of SSD Connections
SSDs can be categorized based on how they’re connected to the motherboard. These are the two main connection types:
SATA
SATA is a connection type that’s used for HDDs and, consequently, SSDs. SATA is designed primarily for HDDs, making them relatively slow. The fastest you can go with SATA connections is 600MB/s, which may be fast for some, but not as good if you’re using demanding apps or games.
PCIe
PCIe is a connection type that’s much faster as it connects more directly to the CPU, which is the brain of your computer. Thanks to its more direct connection, you can expect speeds of gigabytes per second or more, many times faster than even the fastest of SATA SSDs. If you want raw speed, then you’ll want to use PCIe SSDs instead of SATA SSDs.
Types of SSD Protocols
SSD protocols, in a nutshell, are the ways your computer handles the data of your SSD. There are two types of protocols used for SSDs:
AHCI
Advanced Host Controller Interface, or AHCI for short, is a protocol that was designed primarily for HDDs, and not SSDs. The AHCI interface was made to support the slow, high latency performance of HDDs, which bottlenecks the performance of SSDs that use this protocol. SATA buses run on AHCI protocols, which is one reason why it’s so slow.
NVMe
NVMe is a protocol designed for low-latency, high-speed storage devices such as SSDs. This makes it so that your SSDs stay fast, and most PCIe-based SSDs use this protocol.
Solid-State Drive (SSD) FAQ
Q: Are SATA SSDs worth it?
A: If you currently use a hard disk drive, SATA SSDs will offer significant performance upgrades even if they aren’t as fast as their NVME counterparts.
Q: Are NVMe SSDs faster than SATA SSDs?
A: In general, yes. As NVMe SSDs usually run on PCIe connections, they aren’t bottlenecked in the same way that SATA SSDs are.
Q: What is an M.2 SSD?
A: M.2 isn’t a type of interface or protocol, but rather a form factor of SSDs. M.2 SSDs connect to the M.2 slot of your motherboard, hence the name.