Can someone explain the future of storage?

[Foxdog175]

So we know that the new Mac Pro will probably have up to 1TB of storage internally and it'll be up to us to buy an external storage enclosure. I've never owned an SSD, but I know they're much more expensive when you get up into the Terabyte-sized SSD's. I have around 4 TB's of data I'd need to store (including headroom for more).

My question is....why does nobody talk about HDD anymore as if it doesn't exist or it's being phased out? Maybe it's just me, but I can't afford 5 1TB SSD's @ (I'm guessing ~$600 a pop), especially considering you can buy 2-3TB HDD's for ~$150. Aside from the bootup drive (which the Mac Pro will cover internally), is there really a need to load up on SSD's? Or will most people be purchasing enclosures designed for 3.5" drives?

I guess my question is -- what's the future of storage? HDD or SSD?

Edit: I'm also curious about SSD longevity. I seem to be able to get several years per HDD and they're quite cheap to replace. Do the benefits of SSD outweigh the cost of having to replace them when they fail?

 

[sonicrobby]

SSD is the future. Since its relatively new, it will be expensive for large storage. Years ago you'd be paying the same for a 1TB HDD as you are for a 1TB SSD now.

I have a 512GB SSD in my Macbook, and its currently not enough. I am using a NAS, but Im not too font of the transfer speeds. I still have about 2.5TB of HDDs in my desktop that Im not using. I personally am looking into one of those 4-5 bay external HDD enclosures for all my data. They are about $200 so Im still hesitantly considering it. But until decent sized SSD storage becomes available for a reasonable price, I will be sticking to HDD for a few more years.

 

[Tesselator]

Both will continue for years to come and my hunch is that hybrid SSHD drives will replace HDDs as we currently know them. The first company to put 128 or 256 GB of fast NAND on a 4 or 6TB drive and offer it up for $200 will have a huge hit.

HDDs are still talked about. It's not like they've left the building or anything. SSDs are talked about more because more people have questions as they try to learn about them and figure out how to make the best use of the tech.

So the future is SSD, HDD, SSHD over SATA III, USB3.1 and TB2.

 

[Foxdog175]

Thanks for the replies. I assume it would it be safe to invest in an HDD enclosure then and stick with that for a few more years while SSD prices continue to drop.

 

[deconstruct60]

I guess my question is -- what's the future of storage? HDD or SSD?

reversing the order of your post a bit.....

Short answer is both. They both are going to be around. Sometimes in the same storage device.

Edit: I'm also curious about SSD longevity. I seem to be able to get several years per HDD and they're quite cheap to replace.

Most SSDs will last as about as long as HDDs do. They don't have dramatically better longevity. It is not dramatically worse either.

If you abuse a HDD or SDD they won't last as long but normal usage the device was designed for..... likely is going go to result in very similar longevity.

For approximately the same capacity SSDs will get cheaper to replace over time.

SSDs are not going to catch HDDs in term of $/GB. However, there are incrementally getting to the "big enough and affordable enough, I don't mind" stage.

So we know that the new Mac Pro will probably have up to 1TB of storage internally and it'll be up to us to buy an external storage enclosure.

1TB storage at launch. There is nothing to indicate that 1TB is a hard limit long term over the complete span of the new Mac Pro's lifecycle.

The external storage enclosure is not a requirement. Some folks data is already outside of the box.

I've never owned an SSD, but I know they're much more expensive when you get up into the Terabyte-sized SSD's. I have around 4 TB's of data I'd need to store (including headroom for more).

For most folks there is little to no reason to store every last drop of data on a SSD. It is not the future of data, but the history of data that there are broad categories that data fits into to. Some data is archival and library like. ( It is there so you can occasionally get to it). Some data is accessed on a much more frequent basis. There is zero good reasons why those two groups need to be on the exact same type of device.

Backup target volumes ( e.g., Time Machine) will likely remain HDD (or hybrid SSD+HDD based ) for a long time. Want to store a large media library? Probably will be using HDD related technology for at least the next 5-6 years.

My question is....why does nobody talk about HDD anymore as if it doesn't exist or it's being phased out?

Because for an increasing larger group of users the capacity and price of SSDs is good enough for what they actively interact with. Folks who drop files into the trash can and hit "empty trash" tend not have storage requirements that grow an addition TB every year.

 

[mcnallym]

The reason you see that type of information floating around and not discussing HDD's is that people on here are discussing maximising there performance and SSD is way quicker then HDD.

However if for archiving purposes or old projects that completed but still need to retain then is much cheaper to store on HDD.

Enterprise has what they call Tiered Storage, it isn't an area that I work in, but effectively works like you have SSD's for data you are accessing on a regular basis, but then you have HDD for data that will need to access, but you don't need to work on a regular basis.

Fusion Drives is a consumer version of this in that you have the Flash part providing the quick accesss to data, OS etc that is accessed frequently with the data that not accessed often left on the regular HDD of the Fusion Drive.

The newer Drobo Mini and Drobo 5 series allow you to place an mSata SSD on them to provide faster access to commonly accessed data.

Please note I am not saying that these implementations are the best thing since sliced bread but it is likely the first products and they will improve as come along in development.

As such we already starting to get some of that type of solutions available to us now.

 

[Foxdog175]

I greatly appreciate the replies -- thanks everyone.

I have a 512GB SSD in my Macbook, and its currently not enough. I am using a NAS, but Im not too font of the transfer speeds.

I was looking around at the highest rated HDD's and where I was looking, they happened to be NAS. I don't need anything special to utilize them, do I? Is that just a marketing term for their tech?

 

[drsox]

I greatly appreciate the replies -- thanks everyone.



I was looking around at the highest rated HDD's and where I was looking, they happened to be NAS. I don't need anything special to utilize them, do I? Is that just a marketing term for their tech?

What specifically is your question here ? The HDD with the maximum data rate or the HDD system with the maximum data rate or the highest rated drives for Enterprise use (i.e. reliability) ? NAS is a system of using drives (mostly HDDs) whose data rate depends on the structure and the type of I/O.

 

[Tesselator]

Thanks for the replies. I assume it would it be safe to invest in an HDD enclosure then and stick with that for a few more years while SSD prices continue to drop.

Yes indeed! Currently SSDs are best used as boot and application storage devices - unless you have a lot of money to invest (relatively speaking). With 200MB/s 3TB drives costing $125 each, RAID0 with a backup is still preferable for application data and project files. It is changing rapidly and when 800GB or 1TB SSDs are costing under three or four hundred bucks it'll be a different story maybe. Keep in mind two 3TB drives in RAID0 is approximately the same speed as a single large SSD for application data and other large (over 256k) file I/O.

 

[sonicrobby]

I greatly appreciate the replies -- thanks everyone.



I was looking around at the highest rated HDD's and where I was looking, they happened to be NAS. I don't need anything special to utilize them, do I? Is that just a marketing term for their tech?

Im not very knowledgeable on NAS (Network Attached Storage), since I only have a Time Capsule, so it all came together. All i think that is required for them is an enclosure that is caplable of NAS, you can find some empty enclosures on newegg. But I want to say you can throw in any hardrive and it would work. Also it depends on which enclosures you look at. Some may require a direct connection to a router, some may have wireless recieving tech built in. Again Im not 100% on any of this though.

 

[Foxdog175]

Alright. I'll wait to see what Apple comes up with (if they create an enclosure around launch) and go from there. At least I know I'll be sticking with HDD for now though. Thanks again guys!

 

[phoenixsan]

Trend.....

suggests or favors SSD over normal spinning HDD. But you have a point in your argument, because SDD over 512 GB are expensive right now. Maybe if the technology or the prices improve, 1 TB SSDs become more accesible. Meanwhile, rotanting HDDs will stay with us, because the price an size favors them. So, maybe the better approach is use the SSD as boot drive and App installation and the HDDs for data archiving. That would be the actual practice. Future? Depends in price and how the technology evolves, bottom line......