Hard Disk: mechanical or SSD
During the purchase phase of a new PC or notebook you will surely have come across the acronyms HDD and SSD followed by a certain number of GB, have you always wondered what the difference was and what these acronyms meant? Do you need to increase the storage capacity of your PC? Are you looking for the only effective method to increase the performance of your PC? With this simple guide you will discover everything you need to know about hard drives and you will be able to choose the right solution for your needs.
What is a Hard Disk
Let's start from the basics. Hard disk means that hardware component which has the function of storing all our data and on which the operating system and software are installed; its memory capacity is calculated in GB (Gigabyte). If by logic our choice of hard disk should fall on the one with the greatest number of GB, we must first know the differences between the two types of memories, the classic mechanical hard disk and SSDs.
Hard Disk or SSD 
The two types essentially have the same function, the difference lies in their functioning and the technology they use, starting from this we will find some differences that will make us choose one or the other. The Hard Disk is a digital storage device. Inside we find a magnetized metal disk that spins via a very small motor, similarly to a turntable, we find a head that has the function of reading and writing data on its surface. Given the presence of moving mechanical parts, it is very common to hear a sometimes very annoying buzz coming from inside your PC. This type of solution offers excellent, convenient and reliable storage capacity. SSDs, on the other hand, are completely digital storage devices with no moving parts. Inside them we find various flash memories connected to each other. It works similarly to memory cards found inside cameras but much faster. One of the differences with mechanical hard drives is their silence and their smaller size.
Below we will see the main differences between the two systems, so you can choose the best solution, finally you will find our advice to guide you in configuring or choosing your new PC.
Storage capacity
The most common choice factor for a hard disk is its capacity, in fact the more GB or TB (around 1000GB) we have, the more files we can store. This is the first difference between Hard Disks and SSDs.
In fact, mechanical hard disks are king when it comes to storage capacity, they can even contain 20TB of data at a relatively low cost. SSDs, on the other hand, have significantly lower storage capacities than their counterparts, the most common sizes are 128Gb, 256Gb, 512Gb and the most expensive 1TB. Even if over time the capacity has increasingly increased, unfortunately it is not comparable to mechanical ones. If we need to store a lot of data, especially large ones, classic hard disks are the best solution.
Speed
With the introduction of new processors that are increasingly powerful and capable of processing an enormous amount of data, a bottleneck has been forming over time, due to the slowness in reading data from traditional hard disks, which is why they were introduced the new SSDs capable of giving us a truly fluid experience of our system. Speed is the big gap between mechanical hard disks and SSDs. In fact, in hard disks the reading/writing speed is determined by the rotation speed of the platters installed inside. Specifically, the methodology used by mechanical disks leads to data fragmentation which requires more head movements and therefore more time for reading or writing. In SSDs, however, the problem of data fragmentation does not exist, as the cells in which our data are stored are accessible at the same time, this leads to reading and writing speeds 5-6 times greater than the mechanical counterpart. This difference in technology translates into much higher performance when saving and retrieving our data but not only that, in fact our system and software actually reside in these media and therefore the faster the hard disk or SSD is, the more it will be our PC is responsive and snappy.
Dimensions and weight
Another tangible difference between mechanical hard drives and SSDs is the size and weight of the two. While traditional HDDs come in 3.5 or 2.5 inch formats and weigh several hundred grams, SSDs have various form factors. The most widespread is the classic 2.5 inch which has connectors in common with its mechanical cousins, but the M.2 and PCIe formats are becoming increasingly widespread, truly miniaturized devices with significantly superior performance to classic SSDs, but which On the other hand, they have a higher price.
Safety
When it comes to data inside a PC, whether it is an office or a home workstation, we want to be sure that it is safe. Precisely for this reason we see the difference between Hard Disk and SSD in data security fields. Traditional hard disks, having mechanical and moving parts inside, are highly affected by any accidental falls, in fact it is very likely that after a notebook falls we will incur data loss or even breakage of the disk. All this does not happen in SSDs as they do not have mechanical and moving parts inside, they are not affected by vibrations or accidental impacts. It must be pointed out, however, that they are not eternal and in fact the cells on which our data are stored tend to wear out, even if the time needed is very long.
Price
Here's the sore point for SSDs. In fact, even if the cost has dropped considerably over the years, to purchase an SSD with the same amount of GB we would have to spend double or more compared to a classic mechanical hard disk. However, it must be underlined that when we buy an SSD we must not only take into consideration the amount of storage but rather a much faster, more efficient and safer device that will give us a fluid and compact system.
Hybrid Hard Drives 
For the sake of completeness we also want to talk to you about hard disks nicknamed hybrids which in fact are positioned in the middle between mechanical ones and SSDs, SSHDs. In fact they are mechanical hard disks with a cache memory of a few GB, they are able to understand which files we use most often and store them in this fast memory so that they can be accessed quickly. They can be a valid alternative for those who have only one hard disk slot and need both speed and storage capacity. It should be noted, however, that the performance of an SSHD is lower than that of an SSD.
Our advice
At this point we have all the necessary elements to choose which type of hard disk we want on our PC. So it seems almost obvious that using an SSD is the best choice, but if we need to store a lot of data it is also the most expensive one. Our advice is to have an SSD dedicated to installing the operating system and all our software and a second mechanical hard disk dedicated exclusively to data. This is the choice we recommend as we will have all the advantages of a fast system with maximum performance and also enough space. If you instead want to increase the performance of your current PC, check what type of hard disk is installed and replace it with a fast SSD, this is the only method to increase the performance of your PC without having to change components such as processor and RAM. The difference will be immediately visible and guaranteed!
