SSD vs HDD: which storage to buy, and how much

Storage is where a small amount of knowledge saves real money, because the marketing pushes everyone towards the fastest drive when most data doesn't need it.

The three types

NVMe SSD. Fastest, plugs into an M.2 slot on the motherboard, no cables. Boot drives, games, active project files. Prices for 1 TB from reputable brands (Samsung, WD, Crucial, Kingston) are low enough now that this is the default for a system drive.

SATA SSD. The older 2.5-inch format. Slower than NVMe but still far faster than a hard drive, and cheaper per terabyte. Fine for a second drive or an older machine without M.2.

Hard drive (HDD). Spinning platters. Slow, but by far the cheapest per terabyte. Bulk storage of photos, video, backups. A 4 TB hard drive costs roughly what a 1 TB NVMe does.

The sensible split

A 1 TB NVMe for the operating system and whatever you use daily, plus a large hard drive or a NAS for everything else. Games consoles: the NVMe expansion is worth it for load times. Laptops: NVMe only, there's no room for anything else.

What the numbers mean

Sequential read/write speeds (the big MB/s figures) matter for large files. Random IOPS matter for everyday responsiveness and are rarely quoted. TBW (terabytes written) is the endurance rating; 600 TBW on a 1 TB drive is a normal figure and more than a home user writes in a decade. Warranty is the number that matters most: five years from Samsung, WD Black and Crucial's better lines; three from budget brands.

When prices drop

Storage tracks NAND flash prices, which move on their own cycle. Prime Day and Black Friday both bring genuine cuts, and drives are one of the few products where those events reliably beat the everyday price. Outside them, watch and buy on a dip.