Plus that SSDs apparently have a very dirty manufacturing process, worse than the battery or screen in your laptop. I recently learned this because the EU is starting to require reporting CO2e for products (mentioned on a Dutch podcast: https://tweakers.net/geek/230852/tweakers-podcast-356-switch...). I don't know how a hard drive stacks up but if the SSD is the worst of all of a laptop's components, odds are that it's better and so one could make the decision to use one or the other based on whether an SSD is needed rather than just tossing it in because it's cheap
Probably it also matters if you get a bulky 3.5" HDD when all you need is a small flash chip with a few GB of persistent storage — the devil is in the details but I simply didn't realise this could be a part of the decision process
If this is really a significant concern for you, are you accounting for the CO2e of the (very significant) difference in energy consumption over the lifetime of the device?
It seems unlikely to me that in a full lifecycle accounting the spinning rust would come out ahead.
The figure already includes the lifetime energy consumption and it's comparatively insignificant. The calculation even includes expected disposal and recycling!
It sounded really comprehensive besides having to make assumptions about standard usage patterns, but then the usage is like 10% of the lifetime emissions so it makes a comparatively small difference if I'm a heavy gamer or leave it to sit and collect dust: 90% remains the same
> If this is really a significant concern for you
It literally affects everyone I'm afraid and simply not knowing about it (until now) doesn't stop warming either. Yes, this concerns everyone, although not everyone has the means to do something about it (like to buy the cleaner product)
Probably it also matters if you get a bulky 3.5" HDD when all you need is a small flash chip with a few GB of persistent storage — the devil is in the details but I simply didn't realise this could be a part of the decision process