Laptop Buying Guide: What type of storage and drives do I need?

Laptop Buying Guide
What type of storage and drives do I need?

Even though cloud computing and online storage can help eliminate some of the need for physical drive space, it's always nice to have a large hard drive in your laptop. On the other hand, while optical drives used to be commonplace, they're quickly becoming optional in laptops with displays that are 13 inches or smaller.

Drives: Hard drive | Optical drives | Swappable vs. fixed drives | External drives

Hard Drives: HDD and SSD

Traditional HDDs provide basic, inexpensive space to save programs and files indefinitely--or at least for the life of the drive. This type of "spinning platter" hard drive, which is the standard for both desktop and laptop PCs, has grown steadily in capacity, and now laptops can be found with drives up to 500GB in size. Be warned that capacity alone does not make a good hard drive. The hard disk's rotational speed also makes a big difference; a 7,200rpm notebook disk delivers significantly faster performance than a 5,400rpm model, though a faster drive may also shorten your laptop's battery life.

SSD drives, or solid-state drives, have no moving parts, and, unlike traditional hard disks, are less likely to be physically damaged by movement, and generate little to no heat. They are similar to the SD cards found in digital cameras and other devices, or the internal memory in the iPhone, PSP Go, and other portable devices. Keep in mind that SSD drives are more expensive and usually offer smaller capacities than HDD storage. In terms of performance, they offer hypothetical advantages, but in real-world terms, the results are a mixed bag.

When getting a hard drive, it's always good to get more than you might think you need.

Optical drives: DVD and Blu-ray

While nearly every laptop used to have a CD/DVD-burning drive not so long ago, today many Netbooks and thin-and-lights don't include an optical drive at all. They're still useful for installing software from a disc, burning backups of media, and importing music CDs, as well as for playing DVDs, of course, but with downloadable media growing in popularity, optical drives aren't quite as appealing as they once were.

Blu-ray drives, which can play back high-def Blu-ray movies, are being incorporated into higher-end multimedia notebooks, but make sure the laptop has a 1080p resolution screen (1,900x1,080) capable of playing back Blu-ray content at full quality.

External drives

External drives--storage and media-burning options that hook up to your notebook via USB, FireWire, or eSATA cables--come in many shapes and sizes, and can be traditional platter hard drives, SSD storage drives, or even outboard optical drives.

Also note that USB-connected flash-memory thumb drives are becoming so cheap and compact that buying one or two for backup and extra storage space is nearly an impulse decision. Having a thumb drive on your keychain is a great way to transfer data to and your PC.

Source: CNET Reviews

Image: hardwarecentral.com