Question Is it now time for SSDs to replace HDDs?

[whm1974]

So looking over at Newegg, is seems that decent SSDs in useful sizes is now priced low enough that most DIY builders should use SSDs instead of HDDs aside from a few use cases if they haven't already.

Prices for MX500 500GB and 1TB SSDs:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820156174
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820156173

Not bad at all and from what I'm understanding they should be even lower cost in a few years. And just to think, I paid $650 each for 2 1TB M500s in 2013 when I built my Rig.

You can get no name brands SSDs even cheaper but.....

Hell we can even put together a decent basic system for under ~$500 with 8GB ram, quad core CPU, and 500GB SSD. With no OS.

 

[Amol S.]

But what about those who are not DIY and also laptops? In those cases, its the manufacturer the device that gives the final cost.

 

[Billy Tallis]

It's been the case for a few years now that every consumer machine should have an SSD as primary storage, even if it's a low-end budget machine. There's no other component upgrade that provides such a strong return on investment, and for most consumers their capacity needs haven't been growing anywhere near as fast as the affordability of SSDs. We're approaching the point where even gamers with large Steam libraries can go all solid-state, but I get the feeling that AAA games are by far the biggest drivers of increased demand for local storage capacity, since streaming video has almost completely displaced local storage.

For most consumers, the only place for mechanical drives is a NAS or external drive used for backups. Hard drives will remain more cost-effective in this niche for quite a while.

 

[Ketchup]

I put together a very low budget system for a friend, I think it was in the $400 range, with an SSD, and that was 4 years ago. Only reason to have a HDD in a home DIY is for space, and even then, make it your secondary drive.

 

[whm1974]

But what about those who are not DIY and also laptops? In those cases, its the manufacturer the device that gives the final cost.

Well those Form Factors as well of course.

 

[skyking]

i'm pondering a new server build, and for sure the boot will be an SSD. I'll still want a couple of TB in raid1 for storage.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm putting together some build soon:
1) Ryzen R5 1600 CPU $115
2) Gigabyte AX370-Gaming / Gaming-5 ATX mobo (refurb / open-box) $50-53
3) Kit of DDR4-3000 RAM (currently $80 for OLOy brand)
4) Rosewill Magnetar ATX case $50 (open-box) -OR- Rosewill Stryker M ATX case $54 (new)
5) PSU - TBD (currently $100 for a 750W 80Plus Gold from top brands, without rebate, cheaper with rebate)
6) SSD - picked up some 480GB Kodak (yeah, I know, right?) SATA 2.5" SSDs for $44 shipped

total: $442 before OS costs

Using 1TB MX500 SATA 2.5" SSD from OP, it would be around $520, and around $600 if using a non-refurb mobo.

Still, a pretty decent rig for the money.

Oh! Forgot the GPU, suite to taste, but Ryzen CPUs require a GPU. So more like $1000 for a gaming build.

Edit: This post was a response to this from the OP, in case anyone wonders why I posted a build in an SSD thread:

Hell we can even put together a decent basic system for under ~$500 with 8GB ram, quad core CPU, and 500GB SSD. With no OS.

I just wanted to show that it basically was true, and my build even had a 6C/12T rather than a 4C/4T.

 

[whm1974]

I'm putting together some build soon:
1) Ryzen R5 1600 CPU $115
2) Gigabyte AX370-Gaming / Gaming-5 ATX mobo (refurb / open-box) $50-53
3) Kit of DDR4-3000 RAM (currently $80 for OLOy brand)
4) Rosewill Magnetar ATX case $50
5) PSU - TBD (currently $100 for a 750W 80Plus Gold from top brands, without rebate, cheaper with rebate)
6) SSD - picked up some 480GB Kodak (yeah, I know, right?) SATA 2.5" SSDs for $44 shipped

total: $442 before OS costs

Using 1TB MX500 SATA 2.5" SSD from OP, it would be around $520, and around $600 if using a non-refurb mobo.

Still, a pretty decent rig for the money.

Oh! Forgot the GPU, suite to taste, but Ryzen CPUs require a GPU. So more like $1000 for a gaming build.

Not a bad price given the specs. Windows Home or Pro?

 

[Amol S.]

I'm putting together some build soon:
1) Ryzen R5 1600 CPU $115
2) Gigabyte AX370-Gaming / Gaming-5 ATX mobo (refurb / open-box) $50-53
3) Kit of DDR4-3000 RAM (currently $80 for OLOy brand)
4) Rosewill Magnetar ATX case $50
5) PSU - TBD (currently $100 for a 750W 80Plus Gold from top brands, without rebate, cheaper with rebate)
6) SSD - picked up some 480GB Kodak (yeah, I know, right?) SATA 2.5" SSDs for $44 shipped

total: $442 before OS costs

Using 1TB MX500 SATA 2.5" SSD from OP, it would be around $520, and around $600 if using a non-refurb mobo.

Still, a pretty decent rig for the money.

Oh! Forgot the GPU, suite to taste, but Ryzen CPUs require a GPU. So more like $1000 for a gaming build.

Microcenter is selling a new non-refurbished gaming dell pc with a 1tb HDD for just $700 - $ 800, which is 75% the price.
https://www.microcenter.com/product/511389/xps-8930-desktop-computer

Oh best buy is selling a new non-refurbished gaming cyberpower pc with a 1tb HDD for just $400 - $500 for just half the price.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberp...-1tb-hard-drive-black/6225212.p?skuId=6225212

 

[VirtualLarry]

Microcenter is selling a new non-refurbished gaming dell pc with a 1tb HDD for just $700 - $ 800, which is 75% the price.
https://www.microcenter.com/product/511389/xps-8930-desktop-computer

Oh best buy is selling a new non-refurbished gaming cyberpower pc with a 1tb HDD for just $400 - $500 for just half the price.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberp...-1tb-hard-drive-black/6225212.p?skuId=6225212

Are you serious? That BestBuy gaming PC, has a GT 1030, and that CyberPower PC, has a 3-module FX-6300. You can't be serious..

My budget allows for a 1TB SSD, rather than 1TB HDD, and enough room in the budget for a higher-end RTX 2060 card. My rig would blow away either of those rigs for actual gaming.

You want unbalanced / weak parts, go buy a retail store pre-built "Gaming PC". Yeah, GT1030 for "serious gaming", LOL!

Edit: At least the CyberPower PC comes with a 2GB RX 560, which is arguably at the lower-end of "gaming GPU", more suited for e-sports titles than AAA titles. But yeah, if you only have $500 to spend, it's not a horrible deal, but I think that I've built similar rigs, for a little bit less, but using, for example, a factory refurb GPU ($70 for F.R. RX 560 2GB, rather than $110 for new on Newegg), and an online Windows key.

The idea that a 3-module / 6-"core" FX-6300 is in any way comparable to a Ryzen R5 1600 6C/12T CPU is a bit of a stretch here. The 4C/4T Ryzen R3 1200 is faster in gaming than an FX-8350, in most titles. (Maybe with a slight OC to 3.8Ghz.) And the R5 1600 is like 2X the CPU power of the R3 1200, at similar clocks, with SMT enabled.

The i7-8700 CPU in that Dell Gaming PC, is not a bad CPU, not at all, probably slightly faster than the stock-speed R5 1600, but the GT1030 for a GPU really just kind of kills it. Add $350 for an RTX2060 to replace it, and maybe another $100 for a PSU, and then it comes out more expensive than my build. Of course, it is a Dell, with a Dell warranty too, so that's not necessarily a horrible thing. You'll just pay more for it.

The kicker is, though, that my build (at the $600 price-point, pre-GPU / pre-OS purchase) has a 1TB MX500 SATA SSD in that price, whereas those gaming PCs from MC and BB both have 1TB HDDs. And at the $600 price-point, nothing in that post was refurbished (*). (*) The Magnetar case was open-box, it was the only place I could still find a couple of them on the internet. Trust me, I looked. But you can get new cases for the same price-point, pretty-much, and I did. I picked up a pair of Rosewill Stryker M cases, with dual blue LED 120mm intake fans, an exhaust fan, top-mounted rad / fan mount with magnetic dust filter, and a couple of 5.25" bays beside. Those were $53.99 ea., when you bought two, direct from Rosewill. (Close enough in price to the Magnetar cases to be an equivalent substitute, IMHO.)

 

[whm1974]

Are you serious? That BestBuy gaming PC, has a GT 1030, and that CyberPower PC, has a 3-module FX-6300. You can't be serious..

Yeah I wouldn't buy a rig with an FX processor or a 1030 either. Wouldn't the Ryzen 2200G out perform the FX in CPU performance?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Wouldn't the Ryzen 2200G out perform the FX in CPU performance?

I think so, at least for gaming. Maybe not video-editing, one of the FX CPU family's few strong points.

 

[Amol S.]

Yeah I wouldn't buy a rig with an FX processor or a 1030 either. Wouldn't the Ryzen 2200G out perform the FX in CPU performance?

I think so, at least for gaming. Maybe not video-editing, one of the FX CPU family's few strong points.

Meh, I don't care about frame rate on games if its not AAA or even if it is AAA, if it shows something, then that's good for me, unless if it is a FPS game (but I rarely play FPS games and I never play AAA FPS games). I only care about frame rate on videos, thats it.

 

[whm1974]

Meh, I don't care about frame rate on games if its not AAA or even if it is AAA, if it shows something, then that's good for me, unless if it is a FPS game (but I rarely play FPS games and I never play AAA FPS games). I only care about frame rate on videos, thats it.

The 2200G will play videos just fine, even at 4K.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

We're approaching the point where even gamers with large Steam libraries can go all solid-state, but I get the feeling that AAA games are by far the biggest drivers of increased demand for local storage capacity, since streaming video has almost completely displaced local storage.

I don't think you're wrong in that assessment.

There are two additional drivers for capacity. Home recorded 4K video, and photos. Particularly photos in RAW format. Large libraries of either does tend to use some storage space. But again, mostly for archiving. Which fits better on a NAS or external drive.

 

[Markfw]

But what about those who are not DIY and also laptops? In those cases, its the manufacturer the device that gives the final cost.

I might be DIY but all my laptops have now been converted to SSD's. $57 for the 500 gig WD blue is my biggest, most are $30 256 gig drives.

 

[corkyg]

"Is it now time for SSDs to replace HDDs?"

Yes!

 

[crashtech]

It's past time. Several years past time.

 

[mindless1]

Sort of a generic question you can answer yourself based on your own subjective needs for performance vs capacity at a particular budget.

Most people find it most cost effective to leverage both, using SSD where performance is needed and HDD where capacity does (bulk storage).

You listed 500GB and 1TB but I would not want to assume that is enough these days, with more and more video out there and so much of it 1080p if not 4K... things you might not even think about, for example I have several(?) GB's worth of youtube repair videos for my vehicles. I might be file hoarder, but it's nice to have the capacity to do that.

Both an SSD and HDD (in or external) for same system makes sense, if you don't have a GbE (or very well performing wifi) connected fileserver for things that aren't performance critical.

 

[Amol S.]

I might be DIY but all my laptops have now been converted to SSD's. $57 for the 500 gig WD blue is my biggest, most are $30 256 gig drives.

256Gb is not good enough for me



At one point I went to low as 500GB free space remaining. That was before I got a external HDD WD 4TB.

Many programs that I have like VS 2015 Community Edition and VS 2017 Community Edition I can not move there, and would have to reinstall them, which means buying them now. I also have VS 2013 Express and Android Studio installed as well. Also Virtual box and any OS disk images on this Local Disk as well. I did not install VS 2019 Community Edition yet.

I have other programs installed as well.

 

[mindless1]

I don't think you're wrong in that assessment.

There are two additional drivers for capacity. Home recorded 4K video, and photos. Particularly photos in RAW format. Large libraries of either does tend to use some storage space. But again, mostly for archiving. Which fits better on a NAS or external drive.

I think that's wrong. Even on youtube, I will often download videos for a local copy, and P2P filesharing isn't going away any year soon, just more content to acquire.

I see streaming more as a replacement to CATV, not at all a reduction in local storage. If anything it may be providing more content for local storage, much easier to rip/otherwise-acquire than video capturing CATV used to be.

 

[whm1974]

So it is best to use SSDs, for OS and applications, and HDDs for data and media then?

 

[Ajay]

The time came a few years ago. Now decent SSDs are cheap, so it’s silly not to use one for your main drive.

 

[UsandThem]

So it is best to use SSDs, for OS and applications, and HDDs for data and media then?

OS - A!ways on a SSD.

Applications - Depends on the application. Some are much faster on a SSD, some are relatively insignificant. However, I would bet the next Windows version and new programs will begin to truly take advantage of all that performance. Windows 10 does it somewhat today (like installing the OS or its updates).

That said, I've eliminated all spinners in my PCs, and I only use them now for external back-up drives.

 

[whm1974]

OS - A!ways on a SSD.

Applications - Depends on the application. Some are much faster on a SSD, some are relatively insignificant. However, I would bet the next Windows version and new programs will begin to truly take advantage of all that performance. Windows 10 does it somewhat today (like installing the OS or its updates).

That said, I've eliminated all spinners in my PCs, and I only use them now for external back-up drives.

I don't have any spinners either aside from backup drives.