SSD Sucks (Power)

Will the energy-efficient harddrive please take a step forward? Not so fast, SSD!

For those who are unaware, SSDs (Solid State Drives) are the latest thing in storing your data. As their name suggests, they contain no moving parts. This is great when it comes to stability. How many times have you dropped your laptop and crossed your fingers, hoping the harddrive didn’t just go to crap? SSDs will make this fear less palpable.

It was commonly believed that SSDs, with their lack of moving parts, would require less energy than regular harddrives. This would be an additional (and significant) benefit for mobile computing. But the guys over at Tom’s Hardware have been running some tests, and their results are shocking; SSDs use more power.

This revelation comes from how both styles of storage consume power. Your standard harddrive is always consuming energy, but it does so at varying levels. They only peak in consumption when they’re seeking out random data. The SSDs, however, don’t consume energy based on its needs - it’s either ON or OFF. The result? SSDs ultimately consume more power. You can check out the discovery process and full results over at Tom’s Hardware.