SSD loss of performance over time?

[Shokti]

I'm considering getting a SSD to speed up boot and load times.

In particular I am considering the Samsung 840 Pro 256gigs: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009LI7CTY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A15LN6G9IDKD59

However, I have read that SSDs lose performance very quickly - some articles even suggesting drastic drops in the first week!

Is this true? If so, are SSDs still worth it?

I will install the OS and most software on it.

 

[rgd1101]

How old is the articles?

 

[USAFRet]

My Kingston 128 boot drive is 16 months, 24/7 operation.
100% life left, and still running at original speed.

Some early model SSD's did have issues with firmware or short lifespan. That has mostly gone away.

 

[laviniuc]

http://techreport.com/review/25889/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-500tb-update

 

[Shokti]

How old is the articles?

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive

"Unlike mechanical hard drives, current SSD technology suffers from a performance degradation phenomenon called write amplification, where the NAND cells show a measurable drop in performance, and will continue degrading throughout the life of the SSD. A technique called wear leveling is implemented to mitigate this effect, but due to the nature of the NAND chips, the drive will inevitably degrade at a noticeable rate.
"

 

[Shokti]

http://techreport.com/review/25889/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-500tb-update

Interesting, this article appears to suggest that the degradation phenomenon is something that happens over years, not weeks - and so really should be an non-issue for retail users like myself.

"Although the 840 Series is clearly in worse shape than the competition, these results need to be put into context. 500TB works out to 140GB of writes per day for 10 years. That's an insane amount even for power users, and it far exceeds the endurance specifications of our candidates. The HyperX 3K, which has the most generous endurance rating of the bunch, is guaranteed for 192TB of writes.
"

 

[rgd1101]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive#cite_note-anandtech_deterministic_perf-99
"Super Talent SSD: 16GB of Solid State Goodness" AnandTech. 2007-05-07. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
and they were running 16GB and XP. yes is that old.

 

[laviniuc]

yes, the problem you're describing was a results of the initial problems ssd-s had with write amplification and support. yes, the very first ssd generation had a lot of issues but lately we're out of the woods, actually have been for years, i have an ocz agility 3 60gb which when it launched was thought to be a suicidal drive. still going strong after 3 years of torture on win xp

the best thing you can do is check from once in a while the total host writes to make sure you're under 100gb/day and no problems. samsung has also a nice tool to make sure all os optimizations are set properly - samsung magician

 

[USAFRet]

And to put that into a time context:
They were reporting (for the Samsung Pro) first reallocation after 100TB written, and 1722 reallocated sectors after 500TB written

My Kingston boot drive (OS and all applications), has 2.95TB written to it after 16 months, 24/7, 12,499 hours use. This reported from CrystalDiskInfo.
Based on that, I shouldn't see the first reallocated sector for 45 years.

 

[laviniuc]

And to put that into a time context:
They were reporting (for the Samsung Pro) first reallocation after 100TB written, and 1722 reallocated sectors after 500TB written

My Kingston boot drive (OS and all applications), has 2.95TB written to it after 16 months, 24/7, 12,499 hours use. This reported from CrystalDiskInfo.
Based on that, I shouldn't see the first reallocated sector for 45 years.

nee, that's the samsung 840 with tlc actually, the 840 pro is alive and kicking no re allocations yet

 

[USAFRet]

And to put that into a time context:
They were reporting (for the Samsung Pro) first reallocation after 100TB written, and 1722 reallocated sectors after 500TB written

My Kingston boot drive (OS and all applications), has 2.95TB written to it after 16 months, 24/7, 12,499 hours use. This reported from CrystalDiskInfo.
Based on that, I shouldn't see the first reallocated sector for 45 years.

nee, that's the samsung 840 with tlc actually, the 840 pro is alive and kicking no re allocations yet

Ah. Yes. And for the Kingston Hyper X, none yet.

For the OP - decades, not weeks.

 

[Shokti]

Great, thanks everyone - that really puts my mind at ease about buying a SSD module!