Hard Drive Alternative

SSD stands for Solid State Drive. It is a storage device that has no moving parts. Comparable to the concepts of memory cards or flash drives. Since it does not rely on moving parts to function like a hard drive does, it reads and writes file faster and subquently is more durable.

Having an SSD as a boot device will significantly decrease the boot time of a computer, which is an ideal thing especially if that computer is used for work. When demanding applications like games, animation, photo editing, video editing, etc. are loaded from an SSD, it will not only decrease startup time, but the performance, reading, and writing speed while being used will be improved.

Of course since it's more advanced compared to hard drive, it is commonly priced higher per gigabyte. Some consumers may opt for an SSD due to its durability, but it doesn't mean it is completely unbreakable. The most unavoidable cause of SSD degradation is writing to a file. Reading from a file does not put stress on SSD's much, but writing files constantly will shorten it's lifespan, like any other storage device. Overheating is always an issue. SSD's may be shock (vibration) resistant due to the absence of moving parts, but it's still vulnerable to temperature.

As of December, 2016 the price difference of SSD's compared to hard drives are closing. And the quality and lifespan of SSD's are also improving, probably making it the ideal choice in the near future for storage. But, while this is happening, there are other technologies being built like M.2 drive; to over-simplify things, it's just like an SSD, but in a form remotely similar to a  RAM module, and has faster reads and writes due to its utilization of PCI expansion slots, instead of the traditional SATA ports.