SSD vs. SSHD vs. HDD: which is better?
Tags: ssd, hdd, sshd
Published: 2022-11-28 07:11:59



Hybrid drives promise fast, cost-effective performance for primary and secondary storage. Here's what you need to know about the pros and cons compared to SSDs and HDDs.

Most enterprise storage systems are now flash-based, especially for primary data storage. Still, in times of tight budgets, it pays to look for drives that combine flash SSDs with HDDs to provide additional secondary capacity at an affordable price. Several vendors offer these solid-state hybrid drives that combine a high-capacity traditional hard drive with high-speed SSD technology.


What is a hard drive?
HDD is an acronym for hard disk drive. In other words, a hard drive is a traditional hard drive with mechanical heads that move on spinning platters. Hard drives offer high storage capacity at a low cost per gigabyte. However, the reliance on mechanical components limits the overall performance of a hard drive.

What is an SSD?
SSD stands for [Solid State Drive](https://www.allhdd.com/solid-state-drive/). Instead of storing data on magnetic platters like hard drives, SSDs store data on NAND flash memory. Because SSDs have no moving parts, they far outperform HDDs, making them the better option for overall performance. Best of all, SSDs generally consume less power and emit less heat than HDDs while operating quietly.

However, there are some disadvantages associated with SSDs. SSDs generally have lower capacities than HDDs, with a higher price per gigabyte, although higher capacity models have become available in recent years. Also, the memory cells used to store data wear out over time. Early SSDs had relatively short lifespans, but newer models have failure rates more similar to HDDs.

What is an SSHD?
SSHD stands for Solid State Hybrid Drive. It is also known as hybrid hard drive. An SSHD is a device designed to give you the best of both worlds by combining flash memory and hard drive storage in one device. SSHDs have built-in solid-state storage, but also use HDD technology to provide additional storage space.

What is the difference between HDD, SSD and SSHD?
In general, HDDs offer the highest capacity at the lowest cost per gigabyte, while SSDs tend to have smaller capacities but much better performance at a higher cost per gigabyte. Historically, SSHDs have sat somewhere in the middle.

Although using an SSHD is still a viable option in many cases, the market for SSHDs seems to be shrinking. A Newegg search for the term SSHD only returned a few dozen options. This is likely because SSDs have become more affordable in recent years and SSD manufacturers have been able to improve storage capacity and drive longevity. Therefore, it often makes sense to just use an SSD instead of an SSHD.

To put that difference into perspective, Allhdd is currently selling a 2TB Seagate FireCuda SSHD for $238.26. This 2.5-inch drive contains 2TB of hard drive storage and 8GB of flash memory. According to the manufacturer, the flash drive acceleration technology can reduce loading times up to five times compared to what would be possible without flash memory.

For comparison, Allhdd sells a Seagate FireCuda All-Flash drive with 2TB of storage for $325.69. In other words, there's an $87.43 difference between the hybrid model and a comparable all-flash model. The all-flash drive offers 560/540 Mbps sequential read/write speeds, while the hybrid model is held back by its 5400 RPM support (read/write speeds not listed).

It should be noted that Seagate's FireCuda drives are high-end drives aimed at gamers. It's possible to get a 2TB all-flash drive for less than the cost of a 2TB FireCuda SSHD. For example, Allhdd currently sells a 2TB Samsung MLC SSD for $174.11. The sequential read/write speeds for this drive are 560 and 530 Mbps respectively, which is almost as fast as the FireCuda SSD.