Q1- Here at Wilders I have seen comments, by folks who I respect, saying that Hard Drives have, on average, a longer life than SSDs. I have a couple of USB Flash Drives that I have used frequently for the past 6-7 years, & they are both in good shape. So I am wondering: =>Why is it that SSDs don't usually last as long as HDs? Q2- For several months I have used my Samsung 1 TB SSD daily. I notice that it gets fairly warm when doing a job taking several minutes. Since "SS" means "Solid State," I assume that the only things actually moving in an SSD are the electrical impulses. So I am wondering: =>Why does my SSD get fairly warm after several minutes of use? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BTW, thanks to Mrkvonic's thread titled, "Kubuntu 24.04 slowly but majorly improving," I plan to order a new HP laptop 17.3" & install Kubuntu 24.04.1 LTS when it (the HP) gets here.. I will likely give the HP/Kubuntu package as a Christmas gift. (As for me -- I shall stick with Zorin -- we understand each other pretty good by now.)
The SSD myth comes from the start of the technology. Current SSDs will outlive any HD and there are some studies out there to prove it.
I find that to be the case most of the time. I had 2 Mushkin drives that died right after the warranty expired but that was several years ago and we have had bad luck with Sandisk drives, all of them have died. I have 2 Intels that are still going after 10 years, and all of the Crucial, Samsung, and Kingston drives are still going. I wouldn't be afraid to buy new SSDs at this point, but I will still avoid Sandisk. Others may have had better luck with them. As for heat, your CPU gets warm when it works hard as well with no moving parts. I wouldn't be too concerned about it.
I have a couple of SanDisk Extreme Pros that are still going fine after 10+ years, but SanDisk drives aren't what they used to be, since WD took them over. I also had an Intel and a Plextor that outlived their usefulness due to size. I've had Seagate HDDs that have lasted a long time (15+ years) and others that have failed after 10+ years. I've got a pair of WD Black drives that are about 12 years and are starting to show signs of failing. SSDs have a limited number of lifetime writes, due to how the technology works; the more you use them, the sooner they'll wear out. However, those lifetime numbers are getting longer all the time and it's more of an "on paper" limit, unless you're hammering the SSDs every day with TBs of writes. Also, it depends on how full your drives are; the more full they are, the sooner they'll wear. By long habit, I still format my SSDs with about 10-20% unallocated. As with anything made these days, quality varies between brands and even between models. It's like LED light bulbs; they're advertised as "last a lifetime" or "guaranteed for 10 years" or whatever, based on the sales pitch that LEDs don't wear out like incandescent bulbs do. However, I've rarely had an LED bulb last more than a few years -- it's the controller that usually burns out (from heat expansion) or just shoddy quality in the construction. This is entirely subjective but I don't think anything made these days has lasting quality. Those days are gone. (Why build something to last? It impacts sales). The more you use an SSD continuously, the more heat it will generate because of increased "electrical impulses". Think of a light bulb on a dimmer switch -- at high the bulb will generate a lot more heat than it will on low (and even LED bulbs generate heat in tandem with the light they emit). Extended duration or intensity of heat will have an adverse effect on any solid state device (SSD, processor, RAM, motherboard, smartphone, etc) -- heat is the bane of electronic components. Heat per se isn't anything to be concerned about, unless it gets to the point where it's too hot to touch (a rough indication). Fans can help in that regard, whether in a system or in an external enclosure. But, usually, as Jack said, heat itself isn't too much to be concerned about as it's just a byproduct of using all this amazing tech.
I should add that if using an external enclosure, look for aluminum instead of plastic. Plastic enclosures are terrible at radiating heat and so are harder on the enclosed device. If you're using an external SSD constantly (like a server or anything doing continuous reads/writes) then look for a metal enclosure with a fan. Anything you do to help shed that heat from the SSD will help, both with longevity and with performance.
I'm still using the two old Mushkins SSD's in a 2011 Dell XPS Laptop 1st Gen i7 CPU running Windows 10 that you recommended back then! Since then I use only Samsung SSD's on my newer Laptops.
I remember that, didn't know if you did. They were awesome drives until they died, the fastest ones I ever owned. I wish they would have lasted longer. I would have stuck with them.
For Q1, all replies great -- & very educational in many cases. For Q2, T-Rhex's reply -- excellent!!! I really enjoy the song that Samsung -- I do hope they stay at or above their present level of quality. BTW, does Samsung make a laptop computer? NOTED with interest: all who have posted on this thread (thus far) have been denizens of Wilders for 16 years or more.
I have a group of well over 10-years of Spindle Hard Drives i hated to part with. They run like Brand New but i been culling them down and replacing with SSD's now. Those HDD's were resilient over a decade or more. But SSD's offer the velocity!! Wiping and ditching everything from WD, to Toshiba, to Seagate to HGST. Farewell to the metal cases which powered 8.1's after XP for a long time of uninterrupted computing.
Each SSD has a limited number of writes, HDD is unlimited. That is said, it is unlikely your SSD will ever run out of writes, unless you use it heavily. My SSD has 90% health after 5 years, so it will die in ~50 years. It is fast and small, the heat has nowhere to go, to dissipate, thus the reason NVMe gets extremely hot, just like new small USBs, I only buy metal USBs.
I don't think I have enough data for it. I would need another decade of usage to be able to decide. Statistically, SSD ought to last longer, but then, they are not good for long-term offline storage, for instance. So it's a bit more complicated than a straight yes/no. Mrk
On my older Alienware 17R2 Laptop (2014) my Samsung SSD's don't run hot. The 860 Pro is a 2 1/2 inch drive that holds the OS and the 3 850 M.2's are in an OS made RAID 0 and the PM851 M.2 came with the system and I only use it for internal Back Ups and storage.
Exactly. Long term storage is probably better on HDDs*. On the other hand SSDs may be better fit for working copy of data on laptop, because of performance and not being as sensitive as HDDs to vibrations and impacts. *however it is good to re-evaluate migration to new storage with up to date connectors periodically i.e every year. What's good in having data that you can not access?
They are stronger, more reliable and can withstand and dissipate more heat, the new ones are so hot, that they can burn at the touch. My first one was Pretec i-Disk Bulletproof, I still use it. Otherwise there is SanDisk for home use and waterproof Samsung for travel. Code: https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/consumer-storage/usb-flash-drive/bar-plus https://shop.sandisk.com/products/usb-flash-drives/sandisk-ultra-luxe-usb-3-1
depends also of memory technology used : SLC, MLC, TLC, QLC https://www.techtarget.com/searchst...t=Single-level cell (SLC):,cell (QLC): 4 bits. I have 3 samsung 970 Pro MLC and some samsung 860 Pro MLC.
Speccy! https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy/download Also here on Wilders: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/speccy-update-released.382005/
