When it comes to trading computers, speed and reliability are essential. You should always use a Solid State Drive (SSD) for your trading computer. SSDs are much faster and more reliable than conventional magnetic hard drives. Many types of SSDs operate at different speeds. But with so many SSDs on the market, it can be tough to know which one is right for your needs.

Here’s a quick rundown of the different types of SSDs available and what they’re best suited for:

  • SATA III SSDs: These were among the first generational types of SSD. They offer good speed (500MB/s read/write) and reliability but are not as fast as some of the other types of SSDs that have entered the market. Best used for light work in low-power and desktops.
  • M.2 SSDs: M.2 SSDs are the most common type of SSD and offer faster speeds (1,200 to 1,800 MB/s). They are also very small in size, making them ideal for laptops and other devices where space is limited.
  • NVMe SSDs: NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a newer type of interface that connects an SSD to the motherboard. NVMe SSDs offer the fastest speeds (up to 3,500 MB/s) and are typically used in gaming computers and other high-performance devices. These are perfect for trading computers, where quick data reads and writes allow faster chart loading.

Now that you know a little more about the different types of SSDs available, how do you choose the right one for your needs? We’ve already pointed out that NVMe SSDs are best for trading computers, but what about size? Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. The size of the SSD you need will depend on the amount of data you need to store. A small SSD will suffice if you only need to store a few gigabytes of data. However, if you need to store hundreds of gigabytes or even terabytes of data, you will need a larger SSD.

Pro Tips for Protecting Your Computer’s SSD and Data

Having an SSD in your trading computer has a lot of advantages, it’s also becoming the standard for computers in general. As such, general knowledge of how to maintain your SSD and protect your data is also important. Here are some tips to help you protect your trading computer’s functionality:

Maintenance

SSDs should never be defragmented as this will lead to reduced performance and premature failure. Defragmentation is a process that rearranges the data on a drive to store it in contiguous blocks. This can help improve performance on magnetic hard drives, but SSDs benefit from having the data fragmented as it will be spread amongst the various NANDs, which will enhance the performance of your SSD.

Data Protection

We recommend image backups (such as Paragon software) for your trading computer to protect your data in the event of an SSD failure. SSDs are much more reliable than hard drives but can still fail. Image backups allow you to quickly and easily restore your data if your SSD dies. An image backup copies the entire drive and stores it as a large file on a backup drive. This drive should be the magnetic Hard Disk Drive if possible, due to higher reliability, and is necessary because image files are too big to backup to cloud storage.

System Recovery

Image backups can also combat viruses, resolve issues with Windows, and quickly recover from a solid-state drive failure. They also act as a time machine for your Trading Computer to allow you to travel to a point when everything was working correctly. We find this is extremely helpful for our clients when upgrading indicator sets or restoring Windows after a feature update goes awry.