First, I’d like to make it clear that SSD is superior to HDD, so if you had the option of a 500 GB SSD to a 500 GB HDD, you should definitely go with the SSD. However, it is interesting to find out whether a 256 GB SSD beats 500 GB HDD. This boils down to two major factors.

First is speed. With an SSD your operating system will take a shorter time to boot up, applications will take a shorter time to load, and files will take a significantly shorter time to open and save. So, if 256 GB is enough for you then you definitely want to go SSD.

If you do not mind sacrificing speed for storage, say you are love movies & you need to store them locally. Then HDD is your storage of choice. The price per GB of storage for an HDD is lower than the SSD’s price meaning that you can get a 500GB HDD for the price of a 265 GB SSD. This leaves you with more storage but with slower speeds.

It’s also important to mention that SDDs are quiet while HDD may produce a humming noise, almost like when you compare memory cards and traditional video cassettes, due to this concept in their technology an SSD does not vibrate while an HDD does vibrate. The SSD can not be affected by magnetism while an HDD may be corrupted or even erased by magnets. Also, battery consumption of an SSD is also lower than the battery consumption of an HDD, which may be up to a 30 minutes difference in battery life.

Finally, if by any case you will be using your PC for any pro work, say you are a photographer, video editor, gamer, programmer, etc. and you are limited to a tight budget, here is a tip for you. You can opt to buy a 156 GB SSD, this means that you will have a fast machine. Then buy an external HDD of a terabyte and keep upgrading. This will be both cheap and efficient.

Follow @castynet on Twitter