SSD vs HDD Price Comparison in 2023

Nowadays, we’re spoiled for choice when it comes to storage. We got USB drives, Hard Drives, SSDs, and even cloud storage.

But for the most part, if you wanna keep a large number of files for local storage then you’d most likely look into either Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) or Solid State Drives (SSDs).

To put it simply, you will be getting much faster speeds when it comes to loading or transferring files with an SSD while HDDs are much slower but are rather cheaper.

In general, most SATA HDDs will have read and write speeds of around 100 to 150 MB/s while SSDs can manage much more.

Then there’s also the difference between SATA SSDs and PCIe NVMe SSDs, apart from being smaller and needing a different slot, PCIe NVMe SSDs are also notably faster than SATA SSDs.

PCIe NVMe SSD (Left), SATA SSD (Right)

Most SATA SSDs usually have read and write speeds of about 500 MB/s, although this could vary slightly.

PCIe NVMe SSDs can manage faster speeds with PCIe Gen 3 going up to 2,000 to 3,000 MB/s and PCIe Gen 4 now reaching 5,000 to 7,000 MB/s depending on the specific drive.

Below is a list of a few SSDs and HDDs available in the Philippines along with our conclusion on which you should get.

On average HDDs have an average price of about PHP 2USD 0.03INR 3EUR 0.03CNY 0.25/GB of storage, while SATA SSDs average roughly PHP 4.7USD 0.08INR 7EUR 0.08CNY 0.58/GB of storage, and PCIe NVMe SSDs average about PHP 5.4USD 0.09INR 8EUR 0.09CNY 0.67/GB of storage.

Thus, we can clearly see that overall HDDs are still more affordable when it comes to getting the most storage for your money. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.

PCIe NVMe SSD (Left), SATA HDD (Right)

Cause it may very well be worth spending a little extra to get the much faster speeds of SSDs. Most especially that a few years ago SSDs used to be way more expensive than HDDs.

But now in 2023, we can clearly see that gap has narrowed a lot with even some SSDs being priced below PHP 3,000USD 51INR 4,334EUR 49CNY 372, meaning you’d only have to spend a few hundred pesos extra to get much faster speeds, which is a trade-off that we think is worthwhile the investment.

However, HDDs do still have the edge when it comes to raw storage capacity, as most SSDs up to 1TB have seen much more affordable prices, some larger capacity SSDs that are 2TB, 4TB, or more are still rather expensive compared to larger capacity HDDs that still remain a much more affordable option.

So that leaves us with our conclusion that if you’re looking for fast storage of up to 1TB on a single drive, then it’s probably best to get an SSD whether it be SATA or PCIe NVMe for much faster speeds.

But if you need upwards of 2TB of storage or more, then it’s probably best to get an HDD while pairing it with a faster SSD to install your operating system so that you simply get the best of both worlds.

Editor’s Note / Disclaimer: The SSDs/HDDs mentioned are not all that are available on the market. Prices noted are gathered from official stores and retailers at the time of writing. Your price may vary depending on retailers or current deals.