[SOLVED] Is it worth replacing my mass storage Hdd with an SSD?

[SigmaTheFox]

In the past year I've been having a lot of issues with hard drives failing on me. One day they work perfectly fine and the next they suddenly disconnect causing programs to crash without showing any errors in the drive checks...
I was thinking about replacing my mass storage drive where I have important files, programs and temp files stored to with a 1TB SSD since of course there are no mechanical parts that could fail...
Is it worth it? I'm more concerned of the lifetime of the SSD, right now I have around 300GB stored on my HDD, and as mentioned above, it's also used for temp files (including the Blender autosave which saves every 5 minutes files that can be 100+MB in some cases)

 

[Lutfij]

I think you primary concern would be the PSU since an HDD disconnecting would mean that it's not getting power midway or when you need it most. Might it be possible to share the PSU's make and model and it's age? Regardless you'd actually be best served if you included the specs to your entire build, in order for us to see if it's worthwhile investing on an SSD or perhaps just source a brand new HDD.

 

[SigmaTheFox]

I think you primary concern would be the PSU since an HDD disconnecting would mean that it's not getting power midway or when you need it most. Might it be possible to share the PSU's make and model and it's age? Regardless you'd actually be best served if you included the specs to your entire build, in order for us to see if it's worthwhile investing on an SSD or perhaps just source a brand new HDD.

CPU: i5 7400
GPU: gigabytes rtx2060 super windforce
RAM: corsair vengeance 16GB 2400MHz
MOBO: GA-B250M D3H
PSU: SeaSonic M12II 430W
SSD: Samsung 860 evo 250GB
Mass storage HDD: Western digital caviar green 1TB
Game HDD: toshiba P300 3TB

I built the PC mid 2016 and the parts I replaced are the GPU, RAM and mass storage drive. I went from a gtx 950 to the 2060S for render speeds July last year, from 1x8GB ram to brand new 2x8GB because June last year the old one seems to had a bad sector, and from a WD blue 1TB to the caviar green (which I had spare from 2012) a month before the RAM broke because the drive disconnected multiple times until eventually it stopped showing up in windows (in a bootable USB Linux it worked, where I moved the data and did multiple checks, which all resulted with no problems) and started making what seemed like scratching sounds.
In December I also replaced a sata cable just to be safe because the WD green disconnected a single time in November.
I know that the current PSU is below the recommended for the 2060S and was in fact planning on getting a new one once I have the money, but keeping my data save is a bit more important to me.

 

[faalin]

Get a new PSU, the GTX 950 recommends a 380W PSU while the 2060S recommends a 500w. Like lutfij said your probably running right on the edge of power delivery for that PSU.

 

[SigmaTheFox]

Get a new PSU, the GTX 950 recommends a 380W PSU while the 2060S recommends a 500w. Like lutfij said your probably running right on the edge of power delivery for that PSU.

I will, that was the next major upgrade I was going to do, but the primary question of if I should use an SSD for mass storage still stands, as the WD green is at around 500k load cycles which is way past the 300k maximum cycles (forgot to mention this) listed on WD's product spreadsheet, and you never know when it will actually fail

 

[faalin]

Depends on how much you want to spend. looking at PCpartpicker at 1TB drives, you can pick up a seagate baracuda sata for $40 or Team CX2 SSD sata for $84. If its only storage you could spend the same $84 and pick up a Seagate Barracuda 4TB.

dollars to GB platter drives are still the way to go for storage, unless you just won the lottery and price isnt a issue. Any way you look at it a drive can fail for no reason, i have SSD's that have been running for 5-6 years and ive had 1 fail within the first year. If you're worried about the information on the drive then a good backup solution is what you need to look at not the life/cycles of the drive.

 

[SigmaTheFox]

If its only storage you could spend the same $84 and pick up a Seagate Barracuda 4TB.

The things I currently have on the WD green are all my programs (except for those that have to be installed on the system drive), a few hundred GB of personal files and every kind of temporary file I can think of, including search indexing, browser and discord temporary files, autosave files.
So you could say this is the main drive, not the SSD I have windows installed on, and I do keep the very important stuff backed up on MegaSync.

Let's say the current drive fails, would it be worth it to spend extra and go for an SSD just to have something that won't wear out from just reading the entire time with this use case? or should I still go for a HDD? In case of HDD, which would you recommend for reliability?
I'm very sorry if it seems like I keep asking the same questions, it's just that the constant troubleshooting I had to do last year made me paranoid and I want to make sure I don't have to worry about stuff suddenly failing every month

 

[faalin]

Theres no golden minute or read/write cycle time for a drive, you could buy a SSD and the next day it just dies or could last 10 years. Same goes with hard drives, i have a computer at work that is sill running windows XP and is 25 years old with the original hard drive. Could it die tomorrow or last 10 more years, i dont know.

When it comes to is it worth spending the extra money only you can answer that question, i dont know your financial situation.

For me i look at what its needed for,
500Gb nvme OS
1TB nvme programs
6TB Steam games
6TB blizzard, origin, epic, ripped ISO images for old CD/DVD games, ROM files for atari,NES,SNES, PS1
6TB movies


For SSD's ive only used intel and samsung, for HDD my go to is Western digital, but my backup computer is running Seagate Ironwolf drives. If you dont leave your computer on all the time the WD blues are ok, i personally would go for blacks, and if your leaving the computer on all the time like me red pro.

 

[SigmaTheFox]

mmh I see, I normally use the PC for 6 hours a day (recently I've been limiting myself to only use it when really needed which usually is around 4 hours a day maybe once a week), so I guess based on what you said the WD Black would be the best for my use case, WD Blue if I can't afford the Black (€100, didn't know until now that it's this much more expensive here in italy) and SSD only if it's at a good price

 

[BogdanH]

I'm very sorry if it seems like I keep asking the same questions

- that's ok. The thing is (as some mentioned before me), it's very difficult to answer your question. And so, I can only say what I would do (and maybe remorse my decision a year later).

Fact is, classic HDDs don't really just die that often. Usually they wear out (SMART info), so you have enough time to save your data. But yes, s**t can happen. And so can with SSD. Means, it's your choice.
If your backup data is really that important (it always is), how about long term solution? Get a 2-bay NAS, throw in two HDD's (in RAID 1) and you're safe. Yes, is a bit more than just buying another drive, but that's what for NAS is made.