[SOLVED] How Much Write + Read Endurance Does A 250GB SSD Have (No Gaming) ?

[worstalentscout]

i've read that article about testing done on a number of 250GB SSDs of various brands......and the worst performing SSD (with TLC NAND) wrote 200TB before having problems.......

is that possible ?........Over-Provisioning will take up to 20GB ?......then the OS and never-ending updates will eat up 50-70GB ?........with Anti-Virus + Spotify + other apps .........maybe left 150GB of free space........

so if this 250GB SSD is used as a boot drive only......no gaming at all.............how long can 150GB free space last before the SSD breaks down ?

 

[tennis2]

No need to worry about endurance.

I'd recommend getting a 500GB SSD though. No need to pinch yourself on storage space for the additional cost of a couple pizzas

 

[SkyNetRising]

Yes - you need to worry about endurance.
Latest QLC and TLC drives have abysmal endurance ratings compared to earlier SLC and MLC drives.

 

[worstalentscout]

Yes - you need to worry about endurance.
Latest QLC and TLC drives have abysmal endurance ratings compared to earlier SLC and MLC drives.

what about age of the SSD.......would a SSD physically last 10 years or more.......or it'll break down even without excessive writing ?

does reading reduce the endurance too ?

 

[hotaru.hino]

A lot of SSDs from well reputable companies like Samsung and Crucial will usually have a TBW endurance rating. For example, Samsung advertises a 150 TBW endurance rating for their 250 GB 980 SSD. So basically you have a manufacturer guarantee of at least 150TB you can write to the drive. So how long will this last?

Well, going by my current stats, I've clocked in at about 10TB on my current SSD in a year. However I've also done things like move around VM images and whatnot so I may be on the higher end of the spectrum. But either way, if that rate is constant, I'm still going to get 15 years out of Samsung's 250GB SSD and that's going to last a while.

Also there's no such thing as "read endurance."

 

[USAFRet]

Depends on the specific drive you're referring to.

And it isn't nearly as simple as how much space is consumed or free.


But, if we consider a 250GB drive from a quality manufacturer...it may have a warranty TBW of 200TBW.
You'll be unlikely to reach that 200TB any time soon. Certainly not before the (typical) 5 year warranty runs out.

Will it last "10 years"?
Who knows...but probably.
Will it still be a viable size in 10 years...unlike.y.

10 years ago, a 64GB or 120GB was just fine.
Today, not.


In my system, I have 7x SSD (see specs below), some going back to 2014.
All of them combined, the TBW does not come up to 100TBW. This is in basically 24/7 use.
Take that as you will.

 

[worstalentscout]

A lot of SSDs from well reputable companies like Samsung and Crucial will usually have a TBW endurance rating. For example, Samsung advertises a 150 TBW endurance rating for their 250 GB 980 SSD. So basically you have a manufacturer guarantee of at least 150TB you can write to the drive. So how long will this last?

Well, going by my current stats, I've clocked in at about 10TB on my current SSD in a year. However I've also done things like move around VM images and whatnot so I may be on the higher end of the spectrum. But either way, if that rate is constant, I'm still going to get 15 years out of Samsung's 250GB SSD and that's going to last a while.

Also there's no such thing as "read endurance."

many thanks indeed for the info................i wonder if i were to ''retire'' an old SSD......can i use it as an external storage.......or will data loss occur since the SSD is old and well used.......?

 

[worstalentscout]

Depends on the specific drive you're referring to.

And it isn't nearly as simple as how much space is consumed or free.


But, if we consider a 250GB drive from a quality manufacturer...it may have a warranty TBW of 200TBW.
You'll be unlikely to reach that 200TB any time soon. Certainly not before the (typical) 5 year warranty runs out.

Will it last "10 years"?
Who knows...but probably.
Will it still be a viable size in 10 years...unlike.y.

10 years ago, a 64GB or 120GB was just fine.
Today, not.


In my system, I have 7x SSD (see specs below), some going back to 2014.
All of them combined, the TBW does not come up to 100TBW. This is in basically 24/7 use.
Take that as you will.

wow......7 SSDs at the same time ??!!

i wonder if an old retired SSD like 7-8 years down the road......could it be used as external storage ??......or the memory cells would have degraded too much for it to be reliable ?

i read that age is the most important factor in SSD longevity........so maybe even a lightly used SSD might be unable to hold data reliably after say 7-8 years ?

 

[USAFRet]

"data loss' should never be an issue. Old drive or new...this is what backups are for.
The ONLY SSD that has died on me, out of a couple dozen, was a 3 year old SanDisk.
100% of the 605G data that was on it at the time, recovered from the backup that ran at 4AM that morning.

Use a drive until it dies.
Replace, and recover the data from your backup routine.

 

[worstalentscout]

"data loss' should never be an issue. Old drive or new...this is what backups are for.
The ONLY SSD that has died on me, out of a couple dozen, was a 3 year old SanDisk.
100% of the 605G data that was on it at the time, recovered from the backup that ran at 4AM that morning.

Use a drive until it dies.
Replace, and recover the data from your backup routine.

sad to say.....i'm not computer-savvy at all.......i only back-up pics and vids on external hard drive.....

so when my old pc had issues.......all my data ''got stuck'' on my SSD.......i thought i could just put the SSD in another pc and boot up..........

 

[John Chesterfield]

wow......7 SSDs at the same time ??!!

i wonder if an old retired SSD like 7-8 years down the road......could it be used as external storage ??......or the memory cells would have degraded too much for it to be reliable ?

i read that age is the most important factor in SSD longevity........so maybe even a lightly used SSD might be unable to hold data reliably after say 7-8 years ?

I'm running 6 of them. And when I eventually transfer the OS from the original 250GB Samsung Evo SATA to a new NVME drive, I'll replace the 250 SATA disk with a 2TB one for game library files. I then plan to populate the second NVME slot with another 2TB for game libraries as this board can run both NVME drives and all 6 SATA ports simultaneously, which will give a total of 8 SSDs and around 11TB of game library space.

Thing is, this runs fine as is, is fast enough for everything I do. And with 7TB of game library space now, I still have 2.3TB available with around 80 games installed. I'm just lazy, I can't be bothered uninstalling stuff and just get a new SSD if I run out of space. So the above may never even happen..

 

[John Chesterfield]

To give you an idea, this is the Crystal Disk info for my 250GB Samsung Evo, which has been my boot drive for around 4 OS installs and around 5-6 years:

 

[worstalentscout]

To give you an idea, this is the Crystal Disk info for my 250GB Samsung Evo, which has been my boot drive for around 4 OS installs and around 5-6 years:

perhaps it's used as a boot drive only so the total writes are so low after 5-6 years ?

my SSD has over 5000GB written in about 10 months........it contains all pics and vids and other things though......

 

[John Chesterfield]

perhaps it's used as a boot drive only so the total writes are so low after 5-6 years ?

my SSD has over 5000GB written in about 10 months........it contains all pics and vids and other things though......

On the contrary, it's being written to constantly whereas my game library drives hardly get written to.

 

[worstalentscout]

On the contrary, it's being written to constantly whereas my game library drives hardly get written to.

now what if i were to download a video........is it possible to have it downloaded directly onto the 2nd drive instead of the boot drive ?

that will further increase the lifespan of the boot drive then ?

 

[USAFRet]

perhaps it's used as a boot drive only so the total writes are so low after 5-6 years ?

my SSD has over 5000GB written in about 10 months........it contains all pics and vids and other things though......

5TB in 10 months?
totally acceptable.

 

[worstalentscout]

5TB in 10 months?
totally acceptable.

hi, i sent you a private message, did you receive it ?

 

[USAFRet]

hi, i sent you a private message, did you receive it ?

Yes, and thinking about the response.

Bottom line, though...that is what backups are for.

 

[hotaru.hino]

my SSD has over 5000GB written in about 10 months........it contains all pics and vids and other things though......

Keep in mind there's always going to be an initial huge hump in write usage because well, you're putting everything onto it. Either way, that's still well over a decade of usage if you keep that consistent.

 

[worstalentscout]

Keep in mind there's always going to be an initial huge hump in write usage because well, you're putting everything onto it. Either way, that's still well over a decade of usage if you keep that consistent.

noted.....thanks !

 

[worstalentscout]

Yes, and thinking about the response.

Bottom line, though...that is what backups are for.

please take your time.......sorry for the trouble........and many thanks !