Hard disk drives could appear outdated and ineffective, now that strong state drives hold plummeting in value. But even with how comparatively low-cost SSDs are at present, shopping for a tough disk drive as a substitute of an SSD can nonetheless make sense—it simply is dependent upon what you’re utilizing it for and what your PC setup is like.

Here’s when it is best to contemplate a spinning-platter drive as a substitute of an SSD.

Looking for extra choices? If so, try PCWorld’s roundup of the best external drives available right now.

You’re seeking to increase your storage

Seagate

If you solely have one drive in your PC, then sure, an SSD is a better option. Your boot instances shall be sooner, your video games and different information will load faster, and your laptop will really feel extra responsive. Swapping a HDD boot drive for an SSD is the primary suggestion I make to folks seeking to breathe new life into their PC.

But if you happen to want extra storage, a tough disk drive normally works simply superb, until you’ll be studying and writing to the disk usually or if velocity is a precedence. You don’t should have house in your PC for an HDD to benefit from the associated fee and capability advantages, both—exterior HDDs are a superb choice. The velocity of the particular drive issues greater than the way it connects to your PC.

You don’t need to spend so much on a drive

PCWorld

Right now, a 1TB SSD prices as little $55—and that’s not on sale. It’s astonishingly low, on condition that the value was double lower than a 12 months in the past.

But for a similar value, you may get a 2TB HDD, which provides you rather more house for movies, photographs, and different information. That value profit solely improves as capability will increase. A 4TB SSD will run you about $200 (or roughly the price of a 14TB HDD); in the meantime, a 4TB exhausting disk drive will solely set you again about $75. Hard disk drives supply extra storage for much less cash.

Not solely are they good for storing information you don’t entry as usually, however they’re a less expensive strategy to get sufficient backup storage, too. The rule of 3-2-1 says you want at the very least three copies of your information, two totally different storage gadgets (or companies if you happen to contain the cloud), and at the very least one copy off-site. Cloud storage is handy, however when you’ve got lots of information, a backup drive (or drives, to make sure one copy is stored in a special bodily location) is cheaper over the lengthy haul.

You want a LOT of storage

Western Digital

For all their strengths, SSDs are hampered by one factor—capability. Unlike HDDs, they’ve expanded extra slowly to incorporate bigger capacities. If you need tons of storage, a HDD extra readily suits the invoice. 

Right now client SSDs max out at 8TB, whereas client HDDs high out round 22TB. (And as coated above, there’s a giant value distinction between related capacities in consequence.) A single exhausting disk drive buy can rather more meaningfully increase your accessible house, particularly if you happen to’re seeking to construct a NAS unit or a house server. In truth, along with your value financial savings, you’ll be able to in all probability pay for the NAS unit or house server {hardware}.

However! An SSD is rarely a nasty selection

As helpful as HDDs can nonetheless be, not having one in your PC (even when it’s the higher match) isn’t a mistake. Sure, a PC with nothing however SSDs could be overkill or slightly small in dimension on your scenario, however your system will run quick and easy. When SSDs finally grow to be accessible in giant capacities (above 10TB) on the similar costs of as we speak’s HDDs, they’ll grow to be the default.

But till then, a hard-disk drive isn’t an antiquated piece of expertise. It nonetheless has loads of usefulness in the suitable PC setup and likewise can prevent lots of money.