Which factor mainly contributes to SSDs having higher price than HDDs?

• A. They use more expensive flash memory
• B. They require spinning platters
• C. They are physically larger
• D. They produce more heat

Answer: (A)

The main factor is the cost of the storage medium itself. SSDs rely on NAND flash memory, which is more expensive per gigabyte to manufacture than the magnetic disks used in hard drives. Hard drives have benefited from decades of mass production and very high data-density magnetic platters, driving their cost per GB down. SSDs also include controllers and firmware to manage wear leveling and error handling, but the memory costs dominate the higher price. The other options don’t drive the price in the same way: SSDs don’t require spinning platters, their physical size isn’t the core price driver, and heat is a byproduct rather than the main cost factor.