Solved HDD Vs SSD

AntonisCy · Oct 11, 2021

This thread has nothing (mainly) to do this Windows 11 but since i am not registered to other forums i thought i could ask here.

When i bought my new PC a few years ago i went with an HDD instead of an SSD mainly because i heard that SSDs cant stand a lot of "write/delete" cycles.

I download a lot of stuff, delete and download again on my PC. So i thought the life of the SSD would be significantly lower than an HDD.

So i sacrificed speed for longevity.

Was i right?

I would like to replace the drive in the future to taste the speeds of an SSD drive but then i am afraid i will burn out the drive too soon.

Am i thinking right?

Thanks

BunnyJ · Oct 11, 2021

I've been using SSD's for years and I have never run into any issues. Personally, I would never use an HDD as my primary drive again.

SSD Lifespan: How Long do Solid-State Drives Last? - N-able

Read about the common lifespan of SSD and what you can do to prepare for when your solid-state drive fails.

www.n-able.com

From link

NtSFstEddie · Oct 11, 2021

You don't want to "replace" the HDD with a SSD.You should add the SSD to your PC as your system drive,to run windows and other programs from,use your HDD for storage and you will get the speed of the SSD with the durability of a HDD.

BunnyJ · Oct 11, 2021

NtSFstEddie said:
You don't want to "replace" the HDD with a SSD.You should add the SSD to your PC as your system drive,to run windows and other programs from,use your HDD for storage and you will get the speed of the SSD with the durability of a HDD.

Speed of an SSD?

hsehestedt · Oct 11, 2021

I'm one of those people paranoid about stuff wearing out and leaving me in the cold. Until I finally tried an SSD and realized how many years it would take me to wear one out.

I hammer my SSDs - I tend to write many ISO images every single day. When I was writing my program to automatically inject updates into Windows images I was going through probably about 30 test cycles a day writing nice big Windows ISO images to the drive, plus a duplicate temporary copy of each one and I still have well over 90% life left in the drive.

TIP: Look up the TBW (TeraBytes Written) spec for any SSD you may be interested in. Take that number and divide by 1,825. That will give you the amount of data that you can write every day if you want to have a 5 year lifespan (365 days per year x 5 = 1,825).

Example: An SSD with a 1200 TBW rating will allow for about 657GB data written EVERY DAY over a 5 year period.

Note that doubling the size of an SSD doubles the TBW rating. For example, a 1TB drive will have a TBW rating twice that of the 500GB drive from the same SSD line. So, if lifespan is a major consideration, upsize the SSD not just for greater capacity, but greater lifespan.

EDIT: The whole point of the above is to say that unless you are an unusually seriously heavy writer of a lot of data, you are unlikely to wear out an SSD for many years.

I have about 15 SSDs. Never had a problem with a single one

NtSFstEddie · Oct 11, 2021

BunnyJ said:
Speed of an SSD?

Really?You have obviously never had the agony of using a PC with a HDD.It takes forever to do anything.

ThrashZone · Oct 11, 2021

Hi,
I still have ssd's from 8 years ago that show 99% life

BunnyJ · Oct 11, 2021

NtSFstEddie said:
Really?You have obviously never had the agony of using a PC with a HDD.It takes forever to do anything.

I thought you meant that an HDD was faster.

hsehestedt · Oct 11, 2021

Another thought...

If you are undecided, pick up a smallish SSD, say 500GB to test. You can get a 500GB for $50 or less. Add it as a secondary drive to start so you are not committing your OS to it yet. My guess is that you will get addicted to the speed in like 2 seconds flat :)

Wynona · Oct 11, 2021

AntonisCy said:
This thread has nothing (mainly) to do this Windows 11 but since i am not registered to other forums i thought i could ask here.

When i bought my new PC a few years ago i went with an HDD instead of an SSD mainly because i heard that SSDs cant stand a lot of "write/delete" cycles.

I download a lot of stuff, delete and download again on my PC. So i thought the life of the SSD would be significantly lower than an HDD.

So i sacrificed speed for longevity.

Was i right?

I would like to replace the drive in the future to taste the speeds of an SSD drive but then i am afraid i will burn out the drive too soon.

Am i thinking right?

Thanks

When SSDs were first built, there was a reported problem with too many write/delete cycles making the drive wear out faster; however, they've been much improved since then. This PC came with Windows 10 and programs on a 500 GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD for data.

The system is fast enough for me.

clam1952 · Oct 11, 2021

ThrashZone said:
Hi,
I still have ssd's from 8 years ago that show 99% life

Still got 3 OCZ Agillity 3s from 10 years ago two on 99% health one on 100%, not convinced that HDS values are actually accurate in the case of SSDs though as they never seem to change.

PerpetualCycle · Oct 11, 2021

AntonisCy said:
This thread has nothing (mainly) to do this Windows 11 but since i am not registered to other forums i thought i could ask here.

When i bought my new PC a few years ago i went with an HDD instead of an SSD mainly because i heard that SSDs cant stand a lot of "write/delete" cycles.

I download a lot of stuff, delete and download again on my PC. So i thought the life of the SSD would be significantly lower than an HDD.

So i sacrificed speed for longevity.

Was i right?

I would like to replace the drive in the future to taste the speeds of an SSD drive but then i am afraid i will burn out the drive too soon.

Am i thinking right?

Thanks

SSD have sophisticated wear level processing and have several processor cores in the ssd controller chip to make sure that they will last as long as possible. Modern higher capacity MLC and TLC (2 bits/cell and 3 bits/cell nvme can last > 100 years under normal use for instance.- they will break by some other means or become obsolete before that happens.

The industry has move from MLC to TLC for consumer SSD. Just avoid getting a QLC (4 bits/cell) SSD, they are much slower and won't last as long (though still long). It is usually difficult, from the marketing, whether a given SSD is is TLC or QLC. You can usually google reviews of a particular model and find out. Samsung is in generally the most trustworthy brand.

How to Buy the Right SSD: A Guide for 2024

Find the right SSD to speed up your rig

www.tomshardware.com

pparks1 · Oct 11, 2021

Yes, in theory SSD's do have a limited lifespan. With that said, most of us will long outgrow the capacity of our drives long before we reach the end of the drives write cycles.

I have SSD's that are 10+ years old and they still work, but they are 80GB drives and aren't used for anything anymore because they are simply too small.

Enjoy more, worry less!

ThrashZone · Oct 11, 2021

Hi,
Believe QVO ssd's are the new hdd of ssd's
Slow writes but good read speeds so good for data drives.

barman58 · Oct 11, 2021

If you have the right hardware you can go hybrid for the HDD, My last setup used a 500GB M2 SSD as the system drive, a 500GB SSD as fast access drive for software databases and an 8TB HDD for data - The Data drive was buffered through a 32GB Intel Optane memory module, in the secondary M2 Slot which increased the data transfer rate to the Data Drive, (Write Speed) considerably

The are are a number of different technologies available and when mixed can give a good "Bang per Buck" return I can recommend the Optane Memory method for anyone with a spare M2 slot who writes a lot of Data, forgot to fit the optane into my current system, still have it somewhere have a spare M2 too so will have to find the module and fit it next time I do an interior case clean

PerpetualCycle · Oct 11, 2021

QVO = SamsungsQLC SSD.

The QLC sustained sequential write speeds are around HDD speed or less. I think the Hybrid SSD/HDD won't last much longer - QLC SSD sill knock them out of the market.

ThrashZone · Oct 11, 2021

geneo said:
QVO = Samsungs QLC SSD.

Hi,
Yeah cheap just don't use it for an os disk lol

AntonisCy · Oct 11, 2021

Thank you to every one for their replies.

Guess i might be getting my self an SSD soon

clam1952 · Oct 11, 2021

geneo said:
QVO = Samsungs QLC SSD.

Friend of mine is on his third replacement 860 QVO for some reason they keep failing.

Marcus Vinicus · Oct 11, 2021

I've never had a SSD fail and have been using them for years. I got rid of the old clunking 3.5 inch HDD's a while back and haven't for a moment missed them.

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