Solid State Drives sales have rapidly increased throughout the past few years, from around 39 million units in to an estimated million in Wondering which one is right for you? And do you need an SSD at all? Consider your use case: If you need a large amount of storage at an affordable price and don't plan on using it as an everyday drive running your operating system, i. In that case, you'll want a connection compatible with your motherboard, most likely SATA. If you're looking for the fastest possible drive and neither price nor storage capacity are an issue, consider an SSD and check whether your computer has a PCIe slot.
In addition to non-ultrabook laptops, that also makes them ideal as external drives. Before installing a new hard drive , take the following precautions to prevent damaging your hardware. Before you open the case and begin fiddling with the hardware, shut your system down.
Then turn off the mains power switch. You'll find the switch at the back of your case. Once turned off, hold the power button down for a few seconds to discharge any remaining power. Electrostatic shock can wreck your drive as soon as you take it out of its packaging. An electrostatic shock comes from a static energy build-up in your body. As you touch the metallic case of the drive, you transfer that energy, which can then fry vital components.
Luckily, most new hardware arrives in an anti-static bag and should come with a handling warning, too. Moreover, some modern components have integrated anti-shock technology that should prevent hardware damage from an unexpected static shock.
But just because your drive has shock protection, it doesn't mean you shouldn't be wary of affecting other hardware components. The easiest way to protect your hardware is to ground yourself. PSU models available today have a wattage ranging from watts.
A hard drive consumes between 15 to 30 watts while an optical drive uses about 20 to 30 watts power. While these wattage numbers are not much of a concern for an average PC, but if you have a large number of drives connected than the power consumption becomes a concern.
The best way to determine the power consumption of your PC parts and the recommend PSU wattage to get is to use the automated online calculators:.
Here we looked in depth at how many SATA cables do you need in order to connect and operate your drives. For an average build, the available SATA power cables or connectors and the provided data cables with the PSU and motherboard should be adequate to meet the requirements of most users. If you need to add more drives, then you will need to procure more cables and connectors.
Always choose a high-quality cable that would protect you from the risks of any mishap. Lifewire Technology Review Board Member.
Article reviewed on May 16, Tweet Share Email. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again.
You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Tell us why! More from Lifewire. The 10 Best Hard Drives for Gaming in Your Privacy Rights. So what does SATA cable look like? As far as the data cable goes, this is a very thin ribbon like cable with identical 7 pin connectors on either end and a distinct L-shaped key in the middle. This also an L shaped key in the center. It should be noted, however, that SATA data cables can come in many different lengths. For instance, you can fin d mm, mm and 1m SATA cables.
Depending upon how large your PC case is and how far the SATA ports on the motherboard from the hard drive are, you may need different sized cables. A motherboard typically comes with a few SATA cables. However, if you have more drives to connect than you may have to procure others separately.
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