SSDs vs. Mechanical Disks — Which is Better?

SSDs may be expensive, but they’re well worth it when you consider their advantages. From life expectancy to physical size to power consumption, ServerWatch looks at why rewriteable storage shouldn’t be a pure pocket-based decision.

Have you ever heard the terms, head crash or stiction? Better yet, have you ever experienced either of them? These terms are just two of the unhappy occurrences associated with mechanical disks. What if disks didn’t spin? What if there were a way to create rewriteable storage in such a way that there were no platters, no spindles and no heads? You’d have a solid state disk with no moving parts. Solid state disks (SSDs) are all the rage for server vendors, SAN vendors, and appliance manufacturers. Why? Not because they’re cheap — they’re not. SSDs have several advantages over traditional mechanical (spinning) disks. Here are 10 of the most frequently quoted advantages of SSDs over mechanical disks.

1. Life Expectancy

Mechanical drives have an average life expectancy of three to five years. Many fail long before the lower end of the average, and few last beyond the upper end of the average. At three years, you should seriously consider a refresh. At five years, you’re skating on ice so thin it’s really just very cold water. Alternatively, SSDs have life expectancies reaching into decades, although trusting the 1 million to 2 million hour SSD expectancy claims seems as ridiculous as the 500,000-hour claims of mechanical drive manufacturers. Expect your SSDs to last two to three times longer than mechanical drives.

Learn the 9 other reasons why “SSDs Are Better Than Mechanical Disks” at ServerWatch

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