Intel® Core™ Processors
Learn More about Intel

Help Me Choose: Storage

Hard Drives

The Storage drive permanently stores and gives access to the operating system, software applications, files and data on your PC. The storage drive is the only long-term storage on your PC, so it’s a good idea to consider how you are going to use your computer.

What Hard Drive Do I Need?

Capacity requirements
More gigabytes means more capacity. High-capacity hard drives give a scalable foundation that adapts to your changing needs.

The importance of data
Hardware encryption protects sensitive data from malicious attacks. A hardware-based encryption solution, like a self-encrypting drive (SED), guards data without negatively impacting PC performance. Dell’s SED is TCG Opal compliant and Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certified.

Solid State Drive (SSD)

An SSD, or Solid State Drive, is a type of storage device that doesn’t have moving parts that provide user with longer battery life, improved shock resistance and faster data transfer than HDDs.

Benefits of a solid-state drive:

  • Lightweight and cooler than standard hard drives
  • Greatly outperforms HDDs in read/write speeds
  • Improved performance
  • Durability
  • Better for mobile users

SATA Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

Hard Disk Drive is a data storage device that uses magnetic storage to store and retrieve information on one or multiple platters. HDDs are more sensitive to shock and vibration because they use mechanical parts to transfer data onto disks.

Benefits of using this type of drive:

  • Cost per GB is lower compared to SSD
  • Much higher number of write and rewrites compared to SSD

Dual-Drives

Some systems have a dual-drive configuration, they are equipped with both HDD and SSD storage devices, allowing the best of both worlds.

Benefits include:

  • Primary drive: SSD for quick load times on key applications and tasks, such as Operating System, Photoshop and Video Games.
  • Secondary drive: HDD for cost effective storage for photos and video.

RAID storage

RAID offers data redundancy on multiple drives or backs up your system to external storage as another way to prevent data loss.

RAID-0/"stripping"

It writes data across all of the disks in the RAID array, improving performance. The accessible capacity is equal to the sum of the capacities of all disks in the array. However, if one disk fails in a RAID-0 configuration, data on all disks will be lost.

RAID-1/"mirroring"

It writes identical data to two separate disks. This creates a redundancy allowing the computer to continue operating normally in the event of a single Hard Drive malfunction. The accessible capacity is equal to the capacity of the smallest drive. This type of RAID is ideal for mission critical systems to help minimize downtime.

Choose If you need:
128GB or 256 GB Solid-State Drive Maximum system performance and reliability
500GB Solid-State Hybrid Hard Drive in either standard or high performance configurations Increased system performance
RAID-0 with two 1TB 3.5" Hard Drives (where available) Maximum capacity
500GB 5400 rpm SED HDD With FIPS or 500 GB Hybrid SED SSHD The latest hardware-encryption technology for the highest level of security
1TB 3.5" HDD Enough capacity to meet most current and future needs
2nd HDD With RAID-1 (where available) Data backup to ensure your data is there when you need it
Intel® Core™ Processors
Learn More about Intel