[ale] semi OT - to SSD or not to SSD

[Ted W.]

On 10/27/2011 07:46 PM, Ron Frazier wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> In another recent thread, the subject of SSD and flash memory
> reliability came up, although that wasn't the title of the subject.  I
> want to explore that a bit.  In the other thread, I said I have
> personally seen failures in memory sticks, memory cards, a GPS that
> suddenly refused to work and refused initially to take a firmware
> update, and routers that occasionally flake out and need to have their
> firmware refreshed.  I also pointed out this quote from the Kingston
> website, which someone else linked to:
>
> [...]
>
> So, my question to the group is this:
>
> If you don't have an SSD, do you want or intend to get one to replace a
> primary HDD?
>
> If you get one, or if you have one, do you feel that your data on that
> device is in more danger and is more fragile than it would be on a HDD?
>
> I might be inclined to get an SSD if I had the money.  However, at this
> point, I have fairly serious misgivings about the long term reliability
> of the technology.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron
>

A modern SSD will typically have wear levelling technology built in to 
it as well as redundant memory chips to improve overall lifespan. It's 
important to note, however, that SSD lifespan will not be effectively 
maximized unless the installed operating system (Linux of course) 
includes support for TRIM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM). My 
company had the unfortunate experience of pre-maturely deploying SSDs to 
our developers to speed up svn checkout and build times w/o first 
confirming if it was supported in RHEL 5 (it is not) and had to deal 
with replacing $200 drives every 6-8 months (RHEL 6 now has support, as 
does any Linux distribution using kernel => 2.6.33)

I've recently made the switch to an SSD on all but one of my laptops 
(512GB SSDs are not practical, yet) and have been very happy with the 
results. Battery life has extended by about one to two hours on each 
device and I've yet to have one die on me (knock on wood). My only 
buying advice would be to stay away from the lower end brands and spend 
the extra money on an Intel or OCZ drive. I've got an Intel in my work 
laptop and an OCZ Agility3 in my personal laptop and haven't had a 
problem. I tried a Kingston at one point, however, and it failed within 
12 months on the same machine as the one I now have the OCZ drive in.

Alternatively, if you want to still use magnetic media but want a speed 
boost they have these hybrid drives now that combine a few GB of flash 
memory with a traditional platter in an attempt to bridge the gap 
between speed and price. I've not looked into them very much, however, 
and can't speak to their reliability or effectiveness.

--
Ted W.
Registered GNU/Linux user #413569