Do HDDs Use Less Electricity Than High-Density SSDs?
Blocks&Files, Friday, August 11,2023
Scality analysts have said that, in some use cases, disk drives can use less power than SSDs - specifically when compared with high-density SSDs when the storage is in active use.
Hard disk drives (HDDs) have physical platters that are kept spinning by electric motors and also read/write heads that are moved across platter surfaces by electricity as well. Solid state drives (SSDs), in which data writing and reading relies on electrical currents, have no mechanical moving parts and so, you would assume, need less electricity. The company says this is true when HDDs and SSDs are inactive but not when data is being accessed.
Scality CMO Paul Speciale says in a blog: 'Surprisingly, our research here at Scality has found that high-density SSDs don't have a power consumption or power-density advantage over HDD. In fact, we see the reverse today.'