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    Disk I/O Reference

    HDD vs SSD vs NVMe performance characteristics for system design

    Storage Performance Comparison

    IOPS, throughput, and latency characteristics by storage type

    HDD 5400 RPM

    Mechanical

    Random Read

    100 IOPS

    12ms latency

    Random Write

    100 IOPS

    12ms latency

    Sequential Read

    120 MB/s

    Sequential Write

    120 MB/s

    Random Read Performance
    Large capacity
    Low cost
    High latency
    Moving parts

    Best for:

    Cold storage • Backup archives • Media files

    $0.02-0.03 per GB

    HDD 7200 RPM

    Mechanical

    Random Read

    150 IOPS

    8ms latency

    Random Write

    150 IOPS

    8ms latency

    Sequential Read

    200 MB/s

    Sequential Write

    200 MB/s

    Random Read Performance
    Good capacity
    Moderate cost
    Moderate latency
    Moving parts

    Best for:

    File servers • Desktop storage • Surveillance systems

    $0.03-0.04 per GB

    SATA SSD

    Solid State

    Random Read

    90,000 IOPS

    0.1ms latency

    Random Write

    30,000 IOPS

    0.1ms latency

    Sequential Read

    550 MB/s

    Sequential Write

    520 MB/s

    Random Read Performance
    No moving parts
    Low latency
    Good reliability
    SATA interface limit

    Best for:

    Boot drives • Application storage • Database servers

    $0.10-0.20 per GB

    NVMe SSD

    Solid State

    Random Read

    600,000 IOPS

    0.02ms latency

    Random Write

    550,000 IOPS

    0.02ms latency

    Sequential Read

    7000 MB/s

    Sequential Write

    5000 MB/s

    Random Read Performance
    Ultra-low latency
    PCIe interface
    High throughput
    Premium cost

    Best for:

    High-performance computing • Real-time analytics • Gaming

    $0.15-0.30 per GB

    Enterprise NVMe

    Enterprise

    Random Read

    1,000,000 IOPS

    0.01ms latency

    Random Write

    1,000,000 IOPS

    0.01ms latency

    Sequential Read

    7500 MB/s

    Sequential Write

    7000 MB/s

    Random Read Performance
    Highest reliability
    Power loss protection
    Consistent performance
    High endurance

    Best for:

    Mission-critical databases • Financial trading • Enterprise applications

    $0.50-1.00 per GB

    Key Insights