We remain committed to help you to buy PC Components, and this time we focus on other two major components, hard drives and SSDs.
First part: Buying guide: motherboard and processor
The developments for both have been very important, but we can assure you that today SSDs shine with their own light in the general consumer storage market.
When people ask me what is best to mount on a PC, if an HDD or an SSD, I usually ask them some questions that I think may be of help before describing the models that we have chosen.
Are you going to use the PC for gaming and high performance applications? If so, an SSD is worth it, otherwise it can be very debatable.
• Will you need to have enough space to download stuff? If the answer is yes, it is best to opt for a HDD, but it is also possible to mount an SSD as the main drive and a hard drive as secondary drive. If you are going to use it on a laptop is better to opt for external HDDs to accompany the SSD.
• Do you have a very tight budget? In these cases it is better to go for a high performance HDD with an SSD limit of 128 GB.
These are very simple but really important questions, because based on them you can make more informed decisions whether on going for an SSD, an HDD or both. In this article we already talked about this.
Without further ado, we will divide this guide on prices and ranges as we have done with the others, so it will be easier for you to consult.
Any questions, thoughts or opinions that you have, you can leave them in the comments, as always.
Hard drives
Hard drives offer large storage capacities and a performance that in general it’s quite good, but you always consider its own limitations.
Among the different ranges we can find low-consumption alternatives and other aimed at professionals, but in this guide we will focus on the drives for general consumption, obviously.
Basic Range: WD Blue 1TB SATA 3
An affordable hard drive and very thorough, able to deliver performances that are more than enough for any average user, even in demanding games and tasks, thanks to its 7,200 RPM speed and its optimizations that include a WD drive.
Medium range: WD Black 1TB SATA 3
It is a component that I have recommended for years and never received a single complaint, rather the opposite. It offers a good level of performance because it is able to achieve peak read and write speeds of 186 MB / s, and also integrates the latest WD technologies, which give you a high degree of backed reliability, in addition to five years warranty.
Alternative option: Seagate SSHD 1TB
A hard drive that comes with 8GB SSD, which acts as cache memory to speed up overall operation. It’s not like an SSD, much less, but it can make a small difference in relation to HDDs.
High Range: WD Velociraptor 1TB
I still remember a few years ago when these HDDs were the dream of every PC user. Clearly the advent of SSDs has changed this considerably, but they’re still the fastest conventional hard drives for the general consumer market, thanks its WD advanced technologies and its 10,000 RPM speed.
SSD Hard Drives
They have a higher cost per GB than conventional hard drives, but instead they offer far superior performance in every way, which makes them a highly desired and sought drive.
In general we can say that the best thing today is to have a SSD drive as the primary storage and a secondary HDD drive which may be normal quality, low-power or external, depending on the use that you are going to give it.
Basic Range: Corsair Force LS 120GB SATA III
It offers very good performance level, thanks to its reading and writing speeds of 560 MB / s and 530 MB / s, respectively, which along with its high reliability and low price makes it one of the best solutions within its range.
Medium Range: Samsung 840 Evo SSD 250GB Series
An SSD that offers a respectable storage capacity and maintains an affordable price, all without sacrificing performance or reliability, making it a highly recommended option. It reaches 540 MB / s-520 MB / s of read and writing speed.
High Range: SanDisk Extreme Pro 480GB SSD
It is a real gem, not only because it offers a storage capacity that makes it almost unnecessary to add another drive, but also has a very high performance and offers reliability beyond doubt, something certified by its 10-year warranty. It can reach 545 MB / s-515 MB / s of read and write speeds.
Alternative option: Samsung 840 Evo SSD Series 1TB SATA 3
A huge SSD that allow you to dispense of a second storage unit. Its price-performance ratio is very good, while a few years ago it would have been unthinkable, something that has a great impact, not only in the storage capacity, but also on its read and write speeds of up to 540 MB / s-520 MB.
Read More:
How to keep your SSD in optimum conditions