Question Questions/help regarding the SSD

[BrianThompson]

Hi! I'll try to be as straightforward as possible, but bear with me since I'm not much of a tech genius or anything. Recently I bought a new PC which has a 2 TB SSD in it (so far in my life I've had 2 PCs and both of them only had the HDD). Based on my research, my understanding has been that HDDs last longer than SSDs because the SSDs have a limited number of ''writes'' which wear out the SSD over time. Due to my limited knowledge on the subject and the fact that I'm a proponent of functionality and longevity over anything, I've steered clear of SSDs because I figured they would break down sooner than the HDD. As the years have progressed, I started to question that logic.

My questions are related to the ''writes'' that the SSD apparently lives and dies by. I did my research on the ''writes'', but for the life of me, I haven't been able to find a straight answer to the question what is considered a write and what isn't. I just don't understand it. The main reason I'm asking is because I'll be using the PC for gaming and I'm planning on installing only games on the SSD and nothing else because of all the advantages everyone says the SSD has over the HDD (better performance, speed etc.).

Since my old PC lasted for almost 8 years, I'd like to make sure my new one lasts at least as long (that includes the SSD) and so I'm trying to understand how the SSD works in order to preserve it for as long as possible. So, all that said, my questions: Will playing games installed on an SSD affect the SSD in a way that it will consume the ''writes'' extremely fast and wear it out within a year or something? How many ''writes'' occur during playing a game? For example, I found out that a typical SSD has a capacity of about 50000 to 100000 write cycles in it. Does saving a game once count as 1 of those writes or 10 or 100? Because I tend to save the game a lot during playing games (probably a dozen times an hour). Does simply starting the game count as 1 of those writes? When the game loads textures and stuff each time, does that count as write? Does me merely spending time in a game for too long causes the write cycles to build up?

I know installing the game on the SSD counts as a write because it's logical, but other than that, I have no idea what else and it's confusing, but also kinda scary since I don't want to have to buy another SSD within a year because I saved the game too much or something, you know? I pretty much play like 3 games on a PC, maybe 4 and once I install them once, I won't be uninstalling them or reinstalling them or anything. I'm just confused and I'd really appreciate if someone could explain it to me how it works within the realm of gaming so that I know how to approach it and what to watch out for. I know the questions may sound dumb, but like I said, I'm not a tech genius or anything, I just like PC games from time to time.

 

[USAFRet]

Based on my research, my understanding has been that HDDs last longer than SSDs because the SSDs have a limited number of ''writes'' which wear out the SSD over time.

Not necessarily.
That "limit" is HUGE. In normal consumer use, you will never get to the drive wearing out from too many write cycles.

I have SSDs in 24/7 use that are over a decade old.
None of the dozen or so SSDs have, in my use, ever come close to the warranty TBW number. Not even a little bit.
The write cycles of all 6 drives in my main PC, all SSD, cumulatively, do not reach the warranty number of a single one.

This is literally nothing to worry about.


Now..the drive may die of something else.
Or data may get corrupted/deleted/whatever...
Keep good backups.

 

[CountMike]

Hi! I'll try to be as straightforward as possible, but bear with me since I'm not much of a tech genius or anything. Recently I bought a new PC which has a 2 TB SSD in it (so far in my life I've had 2 PCs and both of them only had the HDD). Based on my research, my understanding has been that HDDs last longer than SSDs because the SSDs have a limited number of ''writes'' which wear out the SSD over time. Due to my limited knowledge on the subject and the fact that I'm a proponent of functionality and longevity over anything, I've steered clear of SSDs because I figured they would break down sooner than the HDD. As the years have progressed, I started to question that logic.

My questions are related to the ''writes'' that the SSD apparently lives and dies by. I did my research on the ''writes'', but for the life of me, I haven't been able to find a straight answer to the question what is considered a write and what isn't. I just don't understand it. The main reason I'm asking is because I'll be using the PC for gaming and I'm planning on installing only games on the SSD and nothing else because of all the advantages everyone says the SSD has over the HDD (better performance, speed etc.).

Since my old PC lasted for almost 8 years, I'd like to make sure my new one lasts at least as long (that includes the SSD) and so I'm trying to understand how the SSD works in order to preserve it for as long as possible. So, all that said, my questions: Will playing games installed on an SSD affect the SSD in a way that it will consume the ''writes'' extremely fast and wear it out within a year or something? How many ''writes'' occur during playing a game? For example, I found out that a typical SSD has a capacity of about 50000 to 100000 write cycles in it. Does saving a game once count as 1 of those writes or 10 or 100? Because I tend to save the game a lot during playing games (probably a dozen times an hour). Does simply starting the game count as 1 of those writes? When the game loads textures and stuff each time, does that count as write? Does me merely spending time in a game for too long causes the write cycles to build up?

I know installing the game on the SSD counts as a write because it's logical, but other than that, I have no idea what else and it's confusing, but also kinda scary since I don't want to have to buy another SSD within a year because I saved the game too much or something, you know? I pretty much play like 3 games on a PC, maybe 4 and once I install them once, I won't be uninstalling them or reinstalling them or anything. I'm just confused and I'd really appreciate if someone could explain it to me how it works within the realm of gaming so that I know how to approach it and what to watch out for. I know the questions may sound dumb, but like I said, I'm not a tech genius or anything, I just like PC games from time to time.

Writes are considered same as in any SSD or HDD or even SD cards, any bit and byte in any way or reason recorded to media. If there are just pure data on it,writes are limited to what you copy or install on it. If used as BOOT disk with OS on it, OS would almost non stop read, delete, replace/write to it but in small amounts.
Mechanical HDDs also have limited number of of writes but are not generally published. First SSD and other solid state storage had pretty small write endurance so manufacturers included some estimates in form of TBW (To Be Written) to include in warranty and still do same thing for same reason but in reality that is close to indefinite.
Anyway, all storage should be treated as it will die and second so backup is only way to preserve your data because it could be more valuable than drive itself.

 

[Moonstick2]

For example, I found out that a typical SSD has a capacity of about 50000 to 100000 write cycles in it. Does saving a game once count as 1 of those writes or 10 or 100? Because I tend to save the game a lot during playing games (probably a dozen times an hour). Does simply starting the game count as 1 of those writes? When the game loads textures and stuff each time, does that count as write? Does me merely spending time in a game for too long causes the write cycles to build up?

Write cycles apply to cells, which are the little blocks where the SSD stores the data. Cells are typically 1 - 4 bits so 2 - 8 cells per byte, but without getting into the technicalities it's a reasonable rule of thumb to say that the number of write-cycles can be considered the number of times you can overwrite the entire drive. The SSD puts a lot of effort into spreading writes out too, to avoid a few hundred thousand writes being applied over and over to the same bunch of cells and wearing them out while leaving the rest of the drive pristine.

So to answer your questions, saving a game once counts as ~1 write but only to a portion of the drive. 10 saves might be 10 writes to one part of the drive or 1 write to 10 different parts or some mix, depending on how the SSD decides to do it on the day. Loading only counts as a read. When all's said and done, as pointed out above you're very unlikely ever to reach anything like the full number of write cycles across the entire drive. It's really nothing for the home user to worry about.

Since my old PC lasted for almost 8 years, I'd like to make sure my new one lasts at least as long (that includes the SSD) ...

Same as with HDDs, you can never be sure a drive will last so many years. I've got a 10 year old SSD that I used to use for games for 6 years, Windows for 4 years and is now working quite happily as an internal backup drive. There was also an SSD only used for Windows that died without warning after six years. An HDD could fail just as easily or last just as long.

As said above, make sure you've got several proper backups of your data, don't worry about writes, and if your drive does die it's just one of those things and highly unlikely to be anything you did.