SSD VS SATA: Which Will Help You Most?

Nabila Afsana January 4, 2021

0 257 11 minutes read

Is your PC out of space and need a bigger hard drive, or maybe you are noticing larger files loading more to open. Whatever the situation, you should think about your hard drive. But do you ever learn about the differences between SSD VS SATA, which are the best storage category in the computer market?

SSDs store data in flash memory that can access easily, even they don’t delete data when the device power connection off. This was a revolutionary change also to decrease hard drive physical characteristics. Thus, the present laptop computers appear smaller and lighter.

What is SATA? It is not really a hard drive, like SSD. Just work to connect storage-related everything to your motherboard; maximum hard drives have used that interface to boost their features. Those storage devices are referred to as Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive.

Let’s figure out the advantages, disadvantages, or endurance imparity between them.

A Comparison Between SSD VS SATA

In addition to RAM, every computer allows a secondary storage drive for saving information permanently. These storage devices are often removable or upgradeable so that a user can quickly expand the computer’s storage capacity. Therefore, there have three data storage solutions in the market area: SATA, solid-state drives, or hard disk drives. Since the first two options have won the smartest and most productive features, we originate comparisons between them to show you what could help maximum.

SSD	SATA
Type
Spinning platter disk	Flash memory
Sound quality
Quieter	Noisier
Lifespan
More	Less
Best for
Laptop	desktop
Cost
Expensive	Less expensive
Popular Manufactures
Intel SamsungToshiba HPCrucial Western Digital or more	Toshiba Samsung Western Digital Seagate BarraCuda Crucial Water Panther or more

Hurry! Take Our Best Recommendations For You

SSD

SATA

1. Western Digital 500GB– Best budget friendly option for normal use

Available on Amazon

1. Seagate BarraCuda 8TB – Best for server graphic design or server application

Available on Amazon

2. Western Digital 1TB – Best for gaming purpose

Available on Amazon

2. WD Black 6TB – Best for heavier computing work

Available on Amazon

3. SanDisk Ultra 3D NAND 1TB – Best for laptop use

Available on Amazon

3. Western Digital Black 4 TB – Best for general browsing

Available on Amazon

4. Crucial MX500 500GB– Best for old computer

Available on Amazon

4. Toshiba (HDWE160XZSTA) X300 6TB – Best for online gaming

Available on Amazon

5. Samsung (MZ-V7S1T0B/AM) 970 – Best for graphics design

Available on Amazon

5. 500GB Toshiba 2.5-inch – Best for laptop

Available on Amazon

6. Intel Optane SSD 905P – Best for super-fast speed

Available on Amazon

6. WP Arsenal 10TB – Best for gaming

Available on Amazon

SSD and SATA Hard Drive: a Brief Explanation

SSD mainly appears in the computer market as an alternative to HDD that carry spinning disk to read or write data. Still, the solid-state storage device becomes faster with non –mechanical nature. But it appears with flash memory through electronic non-volatile computer storage medium, which allows electrical erase and reprogrammable functions.

SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) is a bus interface for exchanging data between a computer’s central circuit board and storage device. In reality, it is the modern data transfer protocol for a hard disk drive that comes in the line of replacing old days Parallel ATA or PATA in 2003. You probably know that people were using PATA to connect HDD into the motherboard with a medium of IDE communication channel.

A typical HDD with a physical SATA interface will have two cables (data connector and power connector) for the desktop, but inside the laptop, these connectors remain engaged with a hardwired connection or a very short ribbon cable on the drive. Particularly, it has its own speed rate, and for this reason, you will see in any HDDs offer SATA 2 for 3Gbps or SATA 3 for 6GBps.

The majority of SATA- bus drives maintain the SATA III/SATA 6bps in a standard form; thus, users are getting faster loading speed for programs, pictures, and larger documents. Besides, this interface also can apply to an older computer that lacks newer SSD connector types. For increasing data transferability, the best way is to boot the speed of an old computer with a spinning hard drive by cloning it to SSD.

In fine, hopefully, you understand the SATA hard drive is the representative of aged HDD where solid-state-drive is a blazing fast storage drive.

1. Distinctive protection with durability: SSD VS SATA Hard Drive

With a small size and lightweight, the SSD offers more durability while it has no moving parts. Further not require the use of magnetic fields to reduce extreme harsh environments. You will feel better safety to protect accidental drops since it comes without the actuator arms, which generally maintain in SATA hard drive.

Alongside, the SSD allows lower power consumption so that your PC can run cooler to give a comfortable working performance. Temperature fact will no longer create humidity to lead to oxidization of metals inside the drives.

On the other hand, SATA storage disks eventually generate read/ write heads. These moving parts start to fly in the working time but remain stopped when the system is off. So, it is more likely to have a limitation if your laptop fall or may be shaken. Not the only possibility of physical damage but also have shape temperature anxiety.

Check Price on Amazon

We can take solid-state storage as a winner that always confirms better reliability to keep your data safe. So, the best recommendation is SanDisk Ultra 3D NAND 1TB from the best famous brand, perhaps with undisturbed maintenance will ensure gratification entirely.

Similarity
SSD	SATA Hard Drive
Flawless support
Yes	Yes
Rebuild Assist function
Yes	Yes

Distinction
SSD	SATA
Shockproof
Yes	No
Vibration
No	Yes

2. Examine Data Transmission Speed: SSD VS SATA Hard Drive

The Speed difference looks significantly between the two hard drives. Typically, SATA features the same quality as traditional hard disk drives where the other becomes more advance. You can get extremely fast working capability within the SSD with sequential read/write operations.

This is the only hard drive that provides less than 2 minutes for moving or copying huge files. For instance, you can process data with 500MB per second (MB/s), and if we talk about the latest NVME SSDs where will take 3000-3500 MB per second.

SATA also a nice hard drive with sound transmission speeds as it supports operating systems and motherboards virtually. Transferring data components inside your PC probably go through slower; the first version can achieve a transfer rate of 150MB/s; after that, the next latest revision increased the maximum transmission speed to 16 Gbit/s with overlapping tracks on media, which known as SATA Express.

Check Price on Amazon

Compare with SATA, the speed range accurately introduce SSD towards the champion internal or external storage drive. Thus, we choose Western Digital 1 TB to offer you more than enough speed volume while sequential read speeds up to 560 MB/s, also include sequential write speeds up to 530 MB/s obtain for the demanding computing applications.

Similarity
SSD	SATA Hard Drive
Rewriteable storage
Yes	Yes
Proven technology
Yes	Yes

Distinction
SSD	SATA Hard Drive
Higher signaling rates
More	Less
Open-source solution
No	Yes

3. Maximum and Standard Storage Capacities: SSD VS SATA Hard Drive

The demand for a storage solution has grown in the past few years, and for this reason, hard drives enhance storage capacity. The primary characteristics of both are the amount of storage measure in gigabytes and terabytes, but with rotary hard drive features, SATA carries a higher degree.

The SSD gets the upper hand if you search for massive space since it has a wide range of advantages for enterprise or server use. It is more likely to find 500GB to 1 TB units for any primary drives in a computing system, more to anyone can get 2 TB. Of particular concern, there can be found 4 TB available with a few stand-alone models, rater some high–end computers such as Apple Mac Pro offer 8 TB also.

Lower demanding uses for the home, data storage as well as backup support SATA hard drive but not access higher demanding applications. Therefore, storage capacity increases surprised where data remain physically written in the disk. A single drive primarily executes at least 500 GB, and the latest revision offers you 16 TB with cheap storage.

Check Price on Amazon

Even though SSD achieves the winner place regarding speed or durability, but higher storage facilities go for SATA. Therefore we recommend WP Arsenal 10 TB from the Water Phanter brand. This is the best type of hard drive producer group in the modern computer market that utilizes low latency hardware for the utmost performance.

Distinctive
SSD	SATA Hard Drive
Fragmentation concern
No	Yes
IOPS ( Input – output operation per second )
More	Less

Similarity
SSD	SATA Hard Drive
MTBF ( Mean time between Failure )
Less than HDD	Less than HDD
Data recovery
Yes	Yes

4. Form Factors Need to Consider: SSD VS SATA Hard Drive

Form factor refers to the physical dimensions for the hard drive; usually, SSD provides excess options when it dominated the market for a long time, but SATA only came in 2003. Flash memory doesn’t have any spinning platters; that is why a solid-state drive can be manufactured in a small size easily but not the other.

Using a flash chip and a controller attached, SSD becomes ultra-thin, experience several SSD variations currently: SATA SSDs, mSATA SSDs, M.2 SSDs, and PCI Express SSDs, each particularly suited for a separate application. The most popular form factor is 2.5 inches come with SSD; this mainly offered for desktops, server’s storage systems, built around hard disk drive as well.

Apart from a desktop computer, SATA hard drives give facility to laptops, video gaming consoles, or servers with higher capacity. Then, it usually appears like the other types of 2.5 for laptop or 3.5 inches for desktop. Most of the manufacturers have used the following concern among the consumer or business computing devices.

Check Price on Amazon

Smaller form factors deliver higher efficient use of limited space, further generating greater flexibility for replacing components to reduce extra material. So, we choose Crucial MX500 500GB with 2.5 inches on account of laptop. But larger form factor always demanded desktop type computing devices where you can take Toshiba ( HDWE160XZSTA) X300 6TB that accomplish 3.5 inches.

Check Price on Amazon

Similarity
SSD	SATA Hard Drive
Proper Physical fitting
Efficient	Efficient
Drive bay
Yes	Yes

Distinction
SSD	SATA Hard Drive
Size
Smaller	Larger
Manufacturing limitation
No	Yes

5. Price Requirement to Get the Best Product: SSD VS SATA Hard Drive

The first thing maybe comes to your mind about cost. A reasonable budget always ensures a good product with consumer demand. According to this concept, SSD naturally becomes costlier than SATA with a given capacity. Contrary, you can get a more considerable ability at a lesser from SATA.

If you want a 1 TB internal SSD drive, it will take around $ 100 since it offers more modern technology. With this demanded bucks form factor can be 2, 5 inches in terms of dollar per gigabytes. Even the 2 TB probably falls into a budget range where you have to pay $300 – $ 400 at least.

Rather than a flash memory chip, SATA maintains a lower cost profile since it brings slower, less stable features with the magnetic disk drive. Typically you can buy them within less than two times the rate in comparison to SSD storage devices. The differences dramatically appear because 12 TB SATA and the 3.5 form factor sell for $300 – $ 350.

Check Price on Amazon

With high disk size, SATA holds low cost; despite that, their quality conversely appears flourishing. This is Western Digital 6 TB, which carries an average level capacity of only $ 169, especially to support creative or gaming purposes in consideration of desktop. But for laptop use, we love in SanDisk Ultra 3D NAND 1TB that will keep $ 109.

Check Price on Amazon

6. Lifespan within High–end Performance: SSD VS SATA Hard Drive

This is the top critical question of how long does hard drive last. Basically, several issues determine a good lifespan quality like size, brand, type, and environment. Even a hard drive can fail before its guaranteed time if you read/ write excessive data frequently and don’t have enough seriousness for electrical and dust alerts.

Though lifespan depends on technology, the solid-state drive can be expected to last as long as or even longer than the other types. It makes you surprised that a joint study from Google and the University of Toronto find the age of the SSD plays the role for wear out when it stops working. Alongside, the age limitation will go to around ten years.

SATA storage drives hold features just like the same HDD, then working quality also becomes the same with lifespan. With a three years warranty, you can take for maximum benefit but should have a plan for replacement at about that point. There is also enough disk with five years where consumers will spend extra bucks for it.

Check Price on Amazon

No matter how much you will spend for an excellent hard drive, you are probably waiting to use it comprehensively; thus, we take Samsung (MZ-V7S1T0B/AM) 970 that comes with five years limited warranty exceptionally will provide long term level up performance.

What Can be Your Best Choice Between SATA VS SSD?

Like the computer chip, you will find transistor and other components as flash memory have no mechanical parts; as a result, solid-state drive builds in two types: Nor and Nand. They both contain cells, but the wiring system differs. The first one maintains more wire in parallel, where the second provides a little wire in greater density; thus, the flash memory of SSD is the predominant technology, will give you more rapid speed with less cost.

The high amounts of Nand wafer production lead to the disequilibrium between supply and demand; in this way, prices have been going down over the past few years; additionally, server market demand also decreases because of massive storage SATA hard drive. In 2020, solid-state drive pricing faced a steep rise this year on average 10% drop, possibly will fall 15% more next year.

As a whole, SSDs are ruling the demanding drive market with numerous goods brands. The manufacturers are continuously trying to improve product features; SATA hard drives also focus on their average quality through an external interface, better handling RAID, or even easy cable management.

In sober fact from the battle SSD vs. SATA hard drive both are genuine, If you are a regular computer user and don’t have interest spending extra cost, SATA drives may be an exact option for you as they show higher storage capacity, even they can help for gaming or graphics work also.

But SSD especially for the consumers who like the super speed with better security. Along with keep in mind best for a laptop where SATA drive preferable to desktop.