by R. Drum

Created on: August 02, 2009

A mechanical hard disk drive (HDD) is a better upgrade for a desktop or notebook computer running Windows XP or Windows Vista. Microsoft recently announced that the next version of its Windows operating system, Windows 7, has been tuned to work better with SSDs, although there are still some unresolved issues. Windows XP and Vista users who buy SSDs won't see these improvements unless they upgrade to Windows 7 when it becomes available later this year.

Solid-state disk drives (SSDs) are undoubtedly the future of computer storage, but buying today's latest technology isn't always the wisest investment. I'd recommend a fast, high-quality HDD to the majority of readers who want to upgrade their current computer's storage capacity. SSD technology is still very expensive and has a few performance quirks. How much more expensive are SSDs compared to HDDs? Intel's new 160 gigabyte SSD X25-M model costs $440. Seagate's 160 gigabyte laptop HDD Momentus model costs $60. Desktop computers can buy a 320 gigabyte HDD, Western Digital's Caviar Blue model, for $60.

The least expensive laptop SSD I could find was $105, Ridata's 64 gigabyte SSD. For most laptop and desktop computer users, replacing the current internal HDD with a 64 gigabyte SSD is likely to be a downgrade, rather than an upgrade, of storage capacity. To check your computer's current storage capacity, click on My Computer, then highlight your hard drive, which is usually labeled C or D. Then, right-click, and on the drop-down list, select Properties. Look at the drive's capacity, expressed in gigabytes. If you are using a notebook that is 1 to 3 years old, your current HDD capacity is probably 120 or 160 gigabytes. If you want to upgrade your computer's storage capacity because your current HDD is running out of free space, it simply doesn't make sense to buy a lower capacity SSD and pay more than a HDD, or to spend more than $400 to get a SSD with a storage capacity equal to your current HDD.

If you are looking to upgrade your HDD, the better upgrade today is a larger capacity HDD with a rotational speed of 7,200 RPM. Older notebook HDDs spin at 4,200 or 5,400 RPM. Newer notebook HDDs, such as Seagate's Momentus model, spin at 7,200 RPM, and are noticeably faster when reading and writing files compared to older HDD models. Most desktop HDDs spin at 7,2000 RPM, and the newest models offer enormous storage capacity and very good performance. For example, Western Digital's top-performing Caviar Black desktop model provides 1,000 gigabytes (1 terabyte) of HDD storage capacity for about $90. HDD drives are much less expensive than SDDs, offer greater storage capacity, and therefore are a better value for the majority computer users who want to upgrade.

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