Help Me Choose: Storage

The Storage drive permanently stores and gives access to the operating system, software applications, files and data on your PC. The storage drive is the only long-term storage on your PC, so it’s a good idea to consider how you are going to use your computer

What Hard Drive Do I Need?
How Much Storage Do I Need?
FAQ

What Hard Drive Do I Need?

Solid State Drive (SSD)

An SSD, or Solid State Drive, is a type of storage device that doesn’t have moving parts that provide user with longer battery life, improved shock resistance and faster data transfer than HDDs.

Benefits of a solid-state drive:

Lightweight and cooler than standard hard drives
Greatly outperforms HDDs in read/write speeds
Improved performance
Durability
Better for mobile users

SATA Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

Hard Disk Drive is a data storage device that uses magnetic storage to store and retrieve information on one or multiple platters. HDDs are more sensitive to shock and vibration because they use mechanical parts to transfer data onto disks.

Benefits of using this type of drive:

• Cost per GB is lower compared to SSD
• Much higher number of write and rewrites compared to SSD

Dual-Drives

Some systems have a dual-drive configuration, they are equipped with both HDD and SSD storage devices, allowing the best of both worlds.

Benefits include:

Primary drive: SSD for quick load times on key applications and tasks, such as Operating System, Photoshop and Video Games.
Secondary drive: HDD for cost effective storage for photos and video.

How Much Storage Do I Need?

The storage drive is the only long-term storage on your PC, so it’s a good idea to consider how you are going to use your computer and ask yourself some of the following questions that will help you to define storage capacity, performance and security you need.

Are you going to play video games, consume media, store a few photos and videos?
Are you the type of user that is looking for high storage capacity and low cost for home media centers, large back-ups, video and photos?
Do you regularly use programs such as AutoCAD, Adobe Suite or other programs for design or editing?
Are you going to use your computer to browse the internet, check email, work on documents for school or work?
Are you working with sensitive information?

Storage Drive Size	Storage Performance
Less than 256 GB	Acceptable storage for email and office productivity applications, internet browsing, and other basic functions.
256 GB – 1 TB	Adequate storage for most photo, music and video libraries as well as meeting typical office tasks like word processing or building spreadsheets.
More than 1 TB	Abundant Storage for large digital libraries, modern video games and content created in applications like Adobe Creative Suite.

By Media Type

Media Type	Average file size	128 GB	256 GB	500 GB	1,000 GB (1 TB)
Music	4MB per 4 minute song	Up to 31,000 songs	Up to 62,000 songs	Up to 125,000 songs	Up to 250,000 songs
Video (HD)	8.3GB per hour	Up to 15 hours	Up to 30 hours	Up to 60 hours	Up to 120 hours
Photos	3.5MB per 6MP image	Up to 35,500 images	Up to 71,000 images	Up to 142,000 images	Up to 285,000 images
DVD-quality movies	Number of 1.5hr Movies — DVD Quality	Up to 33 movies	Up to 66 movies	Up to 133 movies	Up to 260 movies

FAQ

: eMMC (embedded Multi-Media Card) is a type of storage that is offered in an industry-standard BGA package consisting of both flash memory and a flash memory controller integrated on the same silicon die. Performance of eMMC storage is somewhere in between speed of HDDs and SSDs. eMMCs are often paired with cloud storage, i.e. files are stored on a remote server.

Benefits of using eMMC
• Better performance compared to HDD
• Completely quiet compared to HDD
• Low cost/performance solution compared to SSD

Downside of eMMC
• Not easily replaceable
• Limited capacity being the common capacity range 32GB to 128GB
• Slower performance when compared to SSD
• eMMCs are often paired with cloud storage, i.e. files are stored on a remote server

: All storage is not created equal! Quad-level cell (QLC) technology adds more bits to every memory cell, so you can get up to 1 TB of SSD storage capacity in a small footprint that’s ideal for thin and light PCs. This technology also makes it possible to transfer data at PCIe speeds!

Intel® Core™ Processors

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