Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
bus it uses. Solid-state hard drives use the same fast SATA or PATA interface as mechanical
hard drives, and they have similar caches and controllers to mechanical hard drives.
Solid-state drives offer many benefi ts over mechanical ones and have few drawbacks.
The primary drawback at this writing is price; mechanical drives are less expensive for
equivalent storage capacity. Table 2.8 summarizes the pros and cons of each technology.
TABLE 2.8
Solid-state vs. mechanical hard disk drives
Advantages Solid State
Mechanical
Disadvantages
Solid State
Mechanical
Faster start-up time
Lower cost per
megabyte
Higher cost per
megabyte
Slower startup time
Faster access, because
there is no seek time
for a read/write head to
locate data
Theoretically
unlimited writes
to media
Limited lifetime,
based on
number of
writes
Head seek time a
factor, mitigated by
disc revolution speed
Silent operation, no
moving parts
Still has greater
storage capacity
Less resilient to shock
and damage
Low heat output and power
consumption
High mechanical reliability
(no moving parts)
Resilient to shock and
damage
Large data density (per
square centimeter)
EXERCISE 2.6
Shopping for Hard Drives
Visit the websites of some hard disk drive manufacturers, and compare their least and most
expensive mechanical and solid-state hard drives. Here are some sites to try:
Western Digital:
www.wdc.com/en/products/catalog/
Seagate:
www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/internal-storage/
What conclusions can you draw from this research? What were the main differentiating
factors between the drives?
