MLC, TLC, IOPs, How fast of an SSD do I really need?

[Design1stcode2nd]

When I built my PC 3 years ago I was mainly concerned about reliability as my previous system had HDD issues so now I have 2x 2TB WD drives in Raid1.

Now I'm thinking of switching to an SSD with a new version of windows and I’m finding a plethora of data out there. I understand the gist of it SLC, MLC are faster but more expensive and TLC is cheaper but slower (I’m generalizing).

Anyway on to my question of how fast, aka how expensive of a drive do I need? My usage is 90% gaming (MOBA, MMO, RTS, FPS, some single-player games) the rest will be normal productivity, image editing, tax prep, Word, Youtube etc. The only real data transfer would be video and photos but then that would go on an HDD anyway.

So should I opt for a OCZ Trion 150 or similar or do I need to pony up for a Samsung Evo?

Second question, there is little risk of data loss/crash with an SSD as it will just get to a point (if you use it enough) that you can’t write to it anymore and would need to clone it to a new SSD. Is that statement correct?

Now at some point after this I’ll need to ask the best way to format and repurpose those 2x 2tb drives as just data drives (probably in the same configuration RAID 1 just without the OS that is on them now).

 

[Samer1970]

1-I prefer Samsung Evo/Pro for best performance / warranty . but it all depends on your budget .

2-you can go for NVMe drives like The intel 750 cards (the only option for your motherboard if you choose NVME) but you dont "need" it , it is just very fast "enthusiast" comparable to 4xSSD in Raid 0 performance . you need to check your bios and see if it can boot that card or not.

3- SSD has TBW (tera byte write) maximum writing , some SSD have 70TBW write , some 300TBW .. some enterprise thousands TBW , in General if you dont write alot , it will survive many years .. but dont expect SSD to last forever , they have Limits to how much you can write on them.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Even slow SSDs feel fast compared to spinning platter HDDs. The big advantage is not the high throughput numbers that saturate a SATA III interface but in the multiples of times faster access times, which don't vary much across the whole storage capacity of an SSD vs a HDD.

There are a few gotchas however. Don't go super cheap with an SSD that doesn't have a DRAM buffer. Performance and longevity suffer unnecessarily from the cost cutting maneuver.

As long as you aren't performing large numbers of writes to your SSD all the time, they make great daily drivers. They aren't any more prone to problems than HDDs, unless of course you abuse them.