HDD vs SSD
SSD is primary consideration for more and more webmasters when looking for server hosting. What kind of advantages come with this product and what kind of role it's playing in web hosting industry? Ok, let's go ahead to check out and see if we have the chance to take it's advantages.
SSD and HDD Overview
Solid state drive(SSD) also known as a solid-state disk is data storage device that used to store persistent data. In terms of function SSD's serve the same purpose as your typical hard disk drive (HDD). SSD is famous for it's fast speed distinguished from traditional hard disk drive(HDDs). Further details about ssd on wikipedia.
HDD vs SSD
Since both types disks are in same terms of functions, which is better to apply for your hosting server? I believe many people even not heard of SSD for various reasons. Here're the main comparison between the two products, I believe you will get a basic idea about SSD.
Pricing — Although price for both type disks are decreased a lot comparing to earlier days, SSD is still several times expensive than HDD.
Power consuming — Technically, SSDs should consume less power because they do not have any rotating magnetic platters in them. The traditional hard disk drives being mechanical, take in more current to keep the parts inside moving.
Reliability — A flash based SSD is actually a hundred times faster than HDD. From user experience, SSD be able to sustain about 40 years of constant, non-stop, writing before they would start failing! Even the best HDD could not get such great records.
To make the comparison more clear, here's a table list
| HDD vs SSD | Hard Disk Drive(HDD) | Solid State Drive(SSD) |
| Pricing | About $$0.11 per GB | About $1.80 per GB |
| I/O Speed | 50 ~ 100MB/S | 200 ~ 250MB/S |
| Life Span | 171 years | 228 years |
| Power Consumption | 7 Watt average | 2 Watt average |
| Heat | 3 times more than SSD's | 1/3 the amount of HDD |
Do you need SSD?
If you're going to purchase a new compputer or hosting server, you might need to learn about the following check points:
First, why do you want an SSD? Do you just want to improve your server performance or increase your storage space? The answer will help you make the right decision. If you’re looking for extra storage, you may choose traditional hard disk drive directly to save your budget. If your goal is to accelerate performance, SSD is absolutely the best choice comparing to HDD.
Second, there are numerous types of SSDs, so you need to figure out which one is the best for your particular machine. To do this, check out this Kingston Technology guideline that will walk you through the painless process.
Third, check how much you would like to pay for this server. If you have limited budget and looking for decent server specs, you might go with HDD directly. The bad SSD product will give you pains.
Which web hosting provider offers SSD?
As you see from above comparison, SSD is not affordable for regular use purpose. With SSD comes increased I/O performance – which is good for heavy traffic websites such as forum, ecommerce and social community websites etc. Till present, multiple major web hosting providers have upgraded the system OS drive to SSD from hosting servers, No price change but much better performance.
Hosting providers like Inmotion and Arvixe have upgraded all their server setups with SSD for guaranteed performance. Not only for shared server, VPS and reseller are also configured for SSD by default. At the meanwhile, it can be optional choice on dedicated server setup too.
Check out Arvixe SSD web hosting plans www.Arvixe.com