Just bought an SSD

[Vilhem]

I like how people complain about the write lifespan of a SSD, this was a problem with the past with older controllers and shoddy quality NAND. Unless you're writing more than 1TB a day on your SSD you shouldn't worry about using up all of your NAND writes.


Stay away from crap brands like OCZ and untested/buggy controllers and you won't have to worry of such things.

Wut he said.

[Reika]

O noes, i'm using a OCZ Vertex 4. How long does it have left?!

[Dhalmel]

O noes, i'm using a OCZ Vertex 4. How long does it have left?!

Hopfully for years, don't get me wrong not all of OCZ is crap, but they have a very bad reputation of releasing SSDs before they're ready with immature firmware, cutting quality NAND with cheaper sets to save on costs(they did this with their RAM...we all know how this turned out), and releasing firmware patches that bricked SSDs.



They seem to be doing alot better with their Octane and Vertex 4 model drives, but I would be VERY weary of their budget SSDs.

[Wilksha]

I'm not really complaining about the shorter life span, I was merely pointing it out as a con. I personally don't like the the SSD lifespan being based on writes, but Looking at HDDs, they both have a similar life cycle. I think for HDD after so many years, each following year has Double the chance of the drive failing. Overall if you're not constantly writing data to a SSD, it should last just as long as a HDD. Remember all technology has an expiry, even if it's not mentioned. On things like a Vid Card or the CPU, the life span is heavily influenced on it's usage and keeping within safe operating temperature as suggested on most hardware boxes.
Take care of your tools and they will last a long time.

[Dhalmel]

I'm not really complaining about the shorter life span, I was merely pointing it out as a con. I personally don't like the the SSD lifespan being based on writes, but Looking at HDDs, they both have a similar life cycle. I think for HDD after so many years, each following year has Double the chance of the drive failing. Overall if you're not constantly writing data to a SSD, it should last just as long as a HDD. Remember all technology has an expiry, even if it's not mentioned. On things like a Vid Card or the CPU, the life span is heavily influenced on it's usage and keeping within safe operating temperature as suggested on most hardware boxes.
Take care of your tools and they will last a long time.

It wasn't really pointed towards you but users in general, there's people who do completely unnecessary things with their OS & caching that it does more harm than good just to save those few writes.


There's also those very very few idiots who are still running XP with a SSD...who complain about poor performance after a few months of use.

[Alhanelem]

It's not really the brand that matters but the controller that the brand name used.

Intel and Samsung design and manufacture their own controllers, unlike most of the other brands that get them from a third party. This means they have more quality control over the whole product compared to those that don't make all the components themselves (e.g. The two brands I named are not "most brands")

The brand does matter because not every brand uses the same controller nor does every brand design and manufacture their own.

It's really not hard to see the difference in the customer reviews (on Newegg). Some brands you'll see a lot of 5-eggs (because it worked) and a lot of 1-eggs (either the drive worked, or it didn't / failed quickly / was DOA) Other brands you'll see mostly 4s and 5s. This isn't an end-all deciding factor, so you also need to look at the actual comments- What are the low reviews complaining about? Why are there so many of them? Is the manufacturer offering responses?

Some brands are consistently better/worse than others. It's not entirely subjective.

[Dhalmel]

Intel and Samsung design and manufacture their own controllers, unlike most of the other brands that get them from a third party. This means they have more quality control over the whole product compared to those that don't make all the components themselves.

This is no longer true with Intel, they now use a modified Sand-force controller.

[Ayla]

I am using a Samsung 840 Pro 128GB, and I am quite happy with it.

[Reika]

Acually my SSD was automatically detected when I was installing Windows 7, installed right to it. I guess i made the right choice.

[Quesse]

I've had:

3 x OCZ Vertex 2 120GB
1 x OCZ Agility 3 120GB
1 x OCZ Vertex 4 240GB

They have all been extremely fast. I put an SSD in every system/laptop I own by default now. My latest upgrade, the Vertex 4, is amazing. I didn't think it could be faster but it is extremely quick.