Maximum PC

I am considering an SSD drive. However, I have heard some comments about them that concern me. I would like to hear from as many people as possible, the more opinions (pro or con) the better! I heard that this type of storage device is the same thing or based on the same technology as flash memory, like thumb drives, that it has no reliable MTF (is this true? - no mean time to failure rate???). What is the expected life of an SSD currently? Like flash memory, will these storage devices just suddenly up and die on me? I have had thumb drives and camera memory just die, suddenly and without any warning - DOA! Second concern, how much actual performance increase is there really with these drives over a standard 7200 RPM HD? I hear its a few seconds shaved on boot and a "quicker" execution on loading programs. Is this the ONLY benefit to SSD drives, or am I under the wrong impression? Why is the TRIM command important? I have heard about it, but I don't know what it is or how to use it. Is this a DOS system command under Command Prompt? Please fill me in on whatever you know to be true, and if you have links or references that are good sources of information, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

SSD's have shown to be more reliable than magnetic media. Your biggest concern is the latest and greatest controller design having a fault that blows the memory up.

Usually when SSD's run out of write cycles (IE when you over write the space too much) they become read only. So don't worry about it.

All about trim and what it does for your ssd drive:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM

I read somewhere that IBM has some software for XP users to do the Trim funcion on their new IBM SSD drives....found it:

http://www.Intel.com/design/flash/nand/ ... /index.htm

Nasty

Wow...there's a lot of myths still hanging around.

TRIM is not needed. I guess it's how you interpret it, but you should clearly see that TRIM just marks blocks for usage by the OS and doesn't actually fix anything. Same thing that's done with spindle discs on chkdsk/f and is just a different method. So do all spindles need Chkdsk? No...it's an OS command just as TRIM is. If the controller is smart enough, it can work well and not need a TRIM command. Intel and OCZ have killer controllers, should be the trend from here on out, and TRIM should not be a factor. I have an early SSD with no TRIM and haven't ran into a single issue with it on any OS it's been ran under...it's just a plain myth that it's needed. I have a PCI-E SSD as well, no TRIM...no problem.

Urmumsacow brings to light the other myth that SSD's have a short lifespan when they don't. In the worst case scenario and you belt the drive to death 24/7, they only last 3 years. Well in the normal usage they last 100 years which I can't say for any of my spindle drives that are dieing off. Let's just call it a draw here and expect your SSD to last as long (if not longer) than a typical Spindle drive. There's spare space built in for this on all drives of any kind.

These aren't flash drives, and any comments comparing the two are just plain silly and ignorant. A 1932 Ford is based on a frame, a body, and an internal combustion piston engine so a Ferrari must be the same thing then. What thumb drive has a Sandforce controller?

I don't know about trim not being needed...according to this Intel article it is needed to keep the drive running at out of the box performance and it was written with XP in mind as well:

http://www.Intel.com/pressroom/archive/ ... 26comp.htm

Nasty

That's NOT an article, that's an Advertisement blurb; from 2009 none the less. Where's the meat of "why" TRIM is needed, why they think so, and why you and I don't agree. I don't use TRIM and run fine. Intel just says it's needed, but wait until their next controller that's due any day now where they don't push it at all. To question TRIM's need has us re-explaining how an SSD basically works all over again.

Try AnandTech for some real unbiased meat to chew on. No matter what Intel says, TRIM isn't needed. Intel and Sandforce both live fine without it, doesn't slow down, and gets a LOT deeper than that. I have the old '06/07-era POS SSD's w/o TRIM, and they're running fine still too. So what does TRIM do? It just flags sectors just like ChkDsk does for spindle disks. When does TRIM kick in? It's up to the OS.

This is what AnandTech has to say about trim:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738/10

According to the article Trim is needed to keep the drive factory fresh. If you haven't tried it on your drive, do so. I would benchmark it first then Trim it, run the same benchmark again and see if there is a difference. I haven't purchased a ssd yet but will for my next rig or I would try it. If you are running win7 it is done in the background automatically, so there would be no difference between the benchmark runs. The article in my first post pointed out the fact you can Trim in XP with their software.

Nasty

I should have bought a SSD instead of a airsoft gun...damn.

Same as paintball I assume. All hobbies have a price plan it seems, and never stops at just one component. We've got a huge weekend and I'm scrambling to find a mask finally. I can get the greatest gear out there, but when I can't see 2 minutes in...it all fails. I'll trade you 2 SSD's for one good mask!

the worst bottleneck in a persons rig is their permanent storage. alot of the times the RAM, CPU, and chipsets are able to send alot more data through than what can be retrieved by the hdd's. your average 7200 RPM hdd has read/writes a little over the 100 MB's mark not uncommon for 110-125 MB/s most SSD's now days are far over 200 MB/s. plus your seek times are on an SSD are near instantaneous in comparison (this makes a larger difference than most realize)

take a look at servers for example. without a robust hdd array the servers disks are working like mad and you haven't even taxed the CPU or ram yet. (some applications will vary)

my hdd upgrades are my favorite. you notice faster boots, the feel of an outright snappier system, and faster load times from applications and games. (just think about having that much faster access to your swap file yes it is still used even with 8 GB of ram)

without TRIM/some form of aggressive garbage collection an SSD will slow down extensively. you may have read that this is primarily due to how your OS deletes things. if you setup your SSD's in RAID there is no trim support. (I think some Intel SSD's have a raid trim passthrough working, I could be wrong) so then you are relying on the drives garbage collection the difference is TRIM works now, garbage collection works when the drive is idle.

as far as mean time before failure.
I have been using both of my SSD's in raid with the swap file on it the whole bit. it has been over a year and they are still just as fast and functional as ever. most people on the ocz forums say don't worry about the write/rewrite cycles they will be happy for years.

If you can believe the manufacturer's claims on SSDs, the MTBF on these drives is around two million hours. Also, keep in mind that an SSDs reliability and life expectancy will depend on a number of factors: motherboard BIOS compatibility, the quality of power being delivered by the PSU [if you have the money to spend on an SSD, you should invest in a high-quality PSU that has overvoltage protection and active PFC (Power Factor Correction), as well as a good UPS or surge protector (not just a power strip!)], the firmware revision on the drive (you should always update the firmware to the latest version during the installation process), the actual quality of the drive that you receive from the vendor (some can actually be DOA for some reason, but this should be the exception, not the rule), as well as the technical expertise of the person performing the installation (when you do decide to purchase an SSD, make sure you do your homework concerning the manufacturer's recommended installation procedures for the drive and follow the instructions to the letter!). One of the biggest headaches (at least according to what I have read) is the motherboard BIOS' ability to detect the drive after the system goes into standby or sleep mode. This is due to the various ways that different motherboards manage the standby or sleep mode function, and I would avoid it (letting the system go into standby mode, that is) at all costs if you purchase an SSD. The boot and access times on an SSD are wicked fast and using an SSD as your boot drive will generally improve you WEI score dramatically (my WEI score for hard drive data transfers went from 5.9 on a WD Caviar 250 GB 7200 rpm hard drive to 7.8 on an OCZ SSD) when compared to a mechanical hard drive. I also noticed that Windows Updates (for my Window 7 Ultimate 64-bit OS) install quicker as well.