Windows 7 - SSDs are fast, but do they last?

SSDs are fast, but do they last? | ZDNet

Not a bad read. The headline makes it sound like these drives are dangerous. The story however explains that the failure rates are pretty much inline with current mechanical hard drive failures. Thus, they aren't more dangerous and for the extra money you spend you get far better speeds.

I've got 2 systems with SSD's and both are running fine. Both are Intel SSD's.

I just built a system and put a Raptor 150 in it for the OS. That didn't last through the updates to Windows. LOL

Having ran SSDs for the OS for the past two years I will never go back to a spinner, not even a quick raptor.

I have only had problems with 2 SSDs one an early vertex that was sent back on RMA and replaced by OCZ within a week and that early generation drive is still going strong.

The other was with a SATA III drive from OWC with the SF controller and it locked itself up in safe mode so it went back to OWC and I picked up an M4 Crucial which is really nice.

I find it difficult to use a non-SSD computer, everything is just too slow.

Won't be going back to a HDD based system.

Considering the 'do they last' question, there is an on-going SSD endurance test:
SSD Write Endurance 25nm Vs 34nm

They are writing as fast as they can to see when they will fail.
Out of the 5 still testing, 4 have passed the manufacturer rated number of writes, most of them are rated below 200TB.

My first SSD is averaging 1TB writes per year, though I did reduce the amount of writes by moving some things to the HDD.
Even if you write 5TB a year it's rated around 40 years.
With some SSDs going to 5 year warranties, they are a safe investment.

As mentioned in the link, the failure rate isn't any worse than HDDs.

While I like my SSD, I'm still not in the camp yet that "won't use a computer without one". I have multiple computers that I use regularly without SSD's and I don't find them painful to use.

I'm pretty certain that my SSD will last far longer than I am ever going to want to use it. When I buy a computer component, I need 2-3 years and I will most likely move to something else. I'm pretty sure I'll replace my 80GB Intel with something faster, and bigger in less than 3 years time.

Thanks for the article Jan.

I think its kind of too early to do any real comparisons between the fail rates of SSD's vs spinners considering the relative short time SSD's have been around, and the fact that they are just now beginning to see mainstream use. For me the book is still open. However I've had no issues during the 8 months I've had my SSD drive.

Something else I'd like to point out - from some of the stuff I've read and heard some of the failures can be attributed to user error (excessive benchmarking). All we have to do is look at this thread (Show us your SSD performance) and you'll see some users obsessed with wringing every ounce of performance out of their SSD..... to the point of continuous benchmarking. This can obviously lead to degradation and failure.

While we all want to know what our PC is capable of ( I do) but constant testing is bound to cause degradation or failure.

My two cents.

Looks like an advert to me. They expected everyone to go out and buy one for their computer. Only problem is the stats don't rack up. So, their not worth it.

Where'd you read that???

If you want to argue pricing is a little steep, OK. However performance wise.... they're very much worth it.

And trust me pricing was an issue for me as well until they started dropping. I'll also tell you that nothing you do to your PC will give you the performance boost an SSD drive will.

My two cents.

Thanks for that link. - An interesting read.

I have yet to go with an SSD - primarily due to longevity concerns. This sheds some light on the matter.

+1, couldn't agree more, you can argue the price point but, definitely not the performance or longevity.

At my estimated maximum writing of maybe 2TB per year, the rated life from the manufacturer which is very conservative, is 90+ years.


Check the link in my previous post.

There are other endurance tests that reported 1PB (1,000 TB) of writes, the reason for stopping was not clear as it was a translation.
It appears to be that after writing to the drive for a year, they just gave up.

The ability of SSDs to perform writes has been grossly under estimated.