Hard disk drives (HDDs) have been ruling the non-volatile storage landscape on laptops and desktops for about, oh, six decades. But solid-state drives (SSDs) can do the important work of storing and accessing data in ways that are safer and faster. Here are several reasons you should consider an SSD with your next PC purchase.

Fast Access to Data

There's no question about it: Because SSDs use flash memory, they are simply faster than HDDs when it comes to storing and accessing data. A hard disk holding your operating system for bootup could take a few minutes; SSDs holding an OS can generally do all the loading in a minute. Programs load faster, files load faster, and data transfers faster. SSDs are the Flash in a race against HDDs which are, at best, The Whizzer.

No Need to Defragment

Fragmentation of data on an HDD is a problem going back decades. Because of the way data is stored on a disk, it's not always contiguous. The head used to access data has to jump around the disk constantly to get to blocks of data, which slows access way down, even if the disk is spinning at 7,200 revolutions per minute (RPM) with all the modern tech possible. Fragmented data still happens with HDDs, and it gets especially bad as drives fill up. You don't have that with solid-state drives. SSDs don't care where the blocks are. They'll scoop up what's needed and show you the data with the same speed. You never have to run a defragmentation utility on an SSD to make it perform better.

Silence Is Golden

HDDs are full of moving parts. A spinning platter, a moving head, etc. And that means even in the most high-end drive, there's going to be some noise, even if it's minute. (If it's a horrifying screech, pray for your data.) On the other hand, SSDs have no moving parts. The non-mechanical storage is entirely on silicon, meaning there is zero noise.

Less Chance of Damage

Remember that thing about no moving parts? That's also what makes SSDs practically immune to getting hurt. Sure, there are "ruggedized" laptops that aim to protect the components inside, but an SSD is still going to be more damage-resistant than an HDD.

Less Power Needed

An SSD being non-mechanical means that it doesn't have to spin up to speed to get going. Like starting a cold car engine on a winter morning, that same start time on an HDD is a true energy sucker. That translates to SSDs saving you some money on the electric bill, or at least extending the battery a bit.

Lower Prices Than Ever

There's no question that SSDs are more expensive than HDDs. A visit to Dell.com to customize a laptop shows that the same model with a 2TB 5,400 RPM HDD would cost as much as getting one with a 512GB SSD. That's a quarter of the storage for the same price. And because SSDs cost more, you won't really find them as an option in ultra-cheap budget laptops.

That said, SSD prices are lower than they've ever been and will probably continue to drop. Look at external SSD drives, for example. Today, the Samsung Portable SSD T5 costs $799.99 for 2TB of storage. Four years ago, the 1TB Samsung SSD 850 Pro was the same price. The latter has since dropped in price to $399.99.

That still doesn't mean they're cheap commodity items like an HDD, however. An HDD is always going to be less expensive. For example, the 8TB Western Digital My Book costs $249.99.

When to Stick With HDD

Of course, there are times when you may want to stick with a hard disk drive in a new PC. If you need a huge amount of storage space, you still probably should go with an HDD—an SSD equivalent may require a new mortgage. Stick with HDDs to save money; they may only cost a few cents per GB compared with expensive SSDs.

People with big files may also want to go with an HDD: think video collectors, graphics artists, designers, etc. with huge numbers of large files. (Then again, you could always just use the cloud.)

SSDs also aren't that great for hardware-based encryption. That usually relies on data being set down in a contiguous chunk like you'd find in a HDD after some defragmentation; SSDs don't care where the data in flash memory is, it just pulls it up. But that makes it hard to encrypt in hardware.

And don't get stuck on SSD needs if the PC manufacturer you prefer doesn't offer them or have a big variety. SSD availability can sometimes be iffy, and some PC makers eschew them just for cost purposes. You can always buy a separate internal SSD to install if you've got the skills.

Also, since HDDs are great for lots of cheap archival space, you can get the best of both worlds by going for an SSD as a boot drive and a larger HDD for extra storage

But overall, if you want speed, resilience, and silence—and did we mention speed?—go SSD in that new PC.