Hardcore gamer or just an average joe? Thinking of replacing your HDD with a new SSD for a better gaming experience?
Hold your horses, read this first before you make any extra move, I’ve compiled the best information online on this topic and decided to serve to you on a silver platter, so don’t wast my hard work, okay? 😀
To be honest, I’m not much of a gamer myself but I decided to write about it anyway, eventually I’m a tech geek and of course, I’d love to try out SSDs since I heard good things about it.
OK, enough talking now and let’s get right into it.
HDD:
HDD stands for Hard Disk Drives which basically uses magnetic materials to store data and contains high speed rotating magnetic disks that rotates at anywhere from 5,400 to 15,000 RPM, of course, the definition goes beyond that but let me put this way instead of writing a very long paragraph about it with a lot of information that you really don’t need.
SSD:
SSDs, on the other hand, stands for Solid State Drive that depends on flash memory made of logic gates such as NANDs and NORs to store data and it’s a fully electronic device unlike HDD which is a mechanical device, that means it doesn’t rotate or make any noise like HDDs.
HDD vs SSD:
So what’re the main differences between HDD & SSD?
Speed:
As most of you already know, SSDs are most known for its high data transferring speed, it’s 2 or 3 or even 4.5 times faster than HDDs, also it takes much less time to open files or boot windows than HDD does.
Price:
SSDs cost way more than HDDs, so if you prefer speed over capacity then go for SSD otherwise stick to HDD for much more capacity for the same price.
As for laptop gaming, SSDs consume less power than HDD, so if you play a lot then choose laptops with SSD storage to save more time for other tasks or longer gaming hours.
Lastly, SSDs are more quiet, more reliable and much faster than HDD, also a plus point for SSD, if you care that much about magnetic effects on your data, SSDs don’t get affected by them unlike HDDs, I don’t have to mention that I watched a youtube video of a laptop wiped out of data using a giant electric magnet, so if you’re paranoid and afraid of losing your precious data don’t think twice and get an SSD (I know, I sound too salesy :D)
Check out this amazing comparison table between HDD and SSD from https://www.storagereview.com :
HDD vs SSD for Gaming
Basically, SSDs won’t provide you with any extra FPS, it’s just the same as HDD, sorry to disappoint ya 🙁
It was proven by testing 7 different games with the same specs, the main comparison was between boot load times and FPS, especially boot load time (because you know, it won’t make a difference if you want more frames per second).
So let’s just say the following comparison is for Boot Load Time (times is in seconds):
Game 1:
HDD: 54, SSD: 27
Game 2:
HDD: 15, SSD: 4
Game 1:
HDD: 35, SSD: 24
Game 2:
HDD: 35, SSD: 21
Game 1:
HDD: 46, SSD: 19
Game 2:
HDD: 11, SSD: 8
Game 2:
HDD: 16, SSD: 6
So as you may have noticed, there’s a huge difference, only if you care about fast boot loading.
Is SSD Worth it for Gaming?
As I mentioned above, the only noticeable difference is the boot load time, no extra FPS for you my friend, but for overall performance, it’s well worth it getting an SSD if you want your operating system to load faster as well as programs like Photoshop and other Adobe products that you use on a daily basis in addition to of course any other program that matters to you, check the image below to better understand what I’m talking about:
Source: https://www.gamingscan.com/ssd-vs-hdd-gaming/
Again, a huge difference when it comes to boot loading time or (Application open time).
Also, if you’re using software like Adobe Premiere Pro or any kind of video editing software, having an SSD will reduce rendering and exporting time by approximately 36%.
What is Better SSD or HDD?
So, you’re may be confused right now, what’s better for me SSD or HDD? Okay so to sum it up, SSD will give you more speed, fast operating system boot loading, fast application opening, and of course not to mention the huge data transferring speed (up to 500 MB/s compared to maybe 120 MB/s for HDD).
But not all things are pretty and pink, SSD has its own cons too, it’s much more expensive and has less timespan than HDD, also it has a limited capacity of 4TB max compared to 10TB for HDD.
If you’re a big spender go for SSD as the only data storage you have.
(Recommended) If you’re an economic person and don’t want to spend a lot go for a combination of both (SSD & HDD), it’s called a Hybrid, that’s what some trusted tech geeks recommend and here’s why:
The SSD will contain your operating system besides other important programs that you use daily or use for work, and of course, it’ll have the most important games to you that you wanna see load faster, The HDD, on the other hand, will have your not so important files or data such as let’s say pictures & music and basic stuff that you have on your computer.
Or if you’re an average person who doesn’t care that much about boot load time and can wait patiently for the game to start or the program to open…etc then go for an HDD for more storage capacity with the same price of an SSD or less.