If you were thinking about buying a new computer or laptop, you should seriously consider upgrading from your old mechanical hard drive to a solid-state hard drive or SSD. Most people try to max out the memory as the most typical upgrade. When you upgrade the system memory, you will see a slight speed improvement, but the most significant benefit is the ability to open more applications simultaneously. Going from a mechanical hard drive to a solid-state hard drive is a much more significant speed improvement. A mechanical hard drive has a physical platter that spins like a record player. When you open up a file or an application, the drive (HD) has to seek through the platter to locate these data bits.

The significant benefit with solid-state hard drives is there are no moving parts; this translates to usually doubling the system’s speed! As systems get older, the hard drive is usually what slows down. Much like a car it has a motor that has a bearing. This wears out over time resulting in a sluggish computer. Upgrading to a solid-state hard drive has other benefits besides speed too. If your system drops or sustains damage without a spinning platter in your computer or laptop, you’re more likely to survive the impact.

There are some drawbacks with solid-state like longevity and if a solid-state hard drive fails it usually completely dies quickly and data recovery isn’t as easy. It’s always a good idea to back up your computer even if you have a mechanical hard drive you always run the risk of a virus or other failure. Upgrading your computer by installing a solid-state hard drive is a lot cheaper than replacing the computer or laptop. Depending on the size, a solid-state hard drive can range from $60 to $200 depending on the size, brand and performance. You’ll need to decide if you need to save all your applications and data. If you have applications that you can’t live without, I would recommend doing a clone which will be a carbon copy of your old hard drive if it’s in good enough shape to do so. You can download applications that will help you copy or migrate your data pretty simply.

If you’re not the tech type you can always bring it to our store we can do the upgrade and migration for you. It’s always completely free at Mixcat Computers to get a diagnosis and quote on any repair. Why not stop in today and see if upgrading to a solid-state hard drive would work for you. It will save you a lot of money over replacing your system with a new computer.