2 Terabyte internal 3.5 in hard drive recommendation?

Starlight · 2014-05-24T11:10:04.000Z

Hybrids?

Not a vast amount of point with SSD pricing where it is. If you have a laptop with only one slot for a drive, sure, but…

Papageno · 2014-05-24T11:39:21.000Z

So, just for “shiggles” as they say, what’s a good 256ish GB SSD going for these days? How long is one supposed to last with daily use?

Starlight · 2014-05-24T11:42:24.000Z

Not sure on American pricing, but SSD’s will last longer than a hard disk, for home usage. (Basically, unless you’re doing something like putting a database which writes a ton of data per day…and sure, you still want to record video to a spinning disk, for instance)

Woolen_Horde · 2014-05-24T11:43:15.000Z

Papageno:

So, just for “shiggles” as they say, what’s a good 256ish GB SSD going for these days? How long is one supposed to last with daily use?

The Tech Report

The SSD Endurance Experiment: Data retention after 600TB

Our SSD Endurance Experiment has crossed the 600TB threshold, and we've performed an extended data retention test to celebrate the occasion.

dgallina · 2014-05-24T11:50:10.000Z

I’d still much rather buy an MLC flash drive vs TLC…

Papageno · 2014-05-24T12:13:13.000Z

dgallina:

I’d still much rather buy an MLC flash drive vs TLC…

I’m pretty much a babe in the woods on SSDs–are those two different technologies?

pg1 · 2014-05-24T12:42:53.000Z

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5067/understanding-tlc-nand

That’s the best article I’ve found on it (more than 2 years old now). Basically SLC>MLC>TLC but no one mass produces SLC so it’s extremely expensive and increasingly rare. Even TLC appears to last long enough for normal use but I don’t think one would use TLC in a server you’d probably at least use MLC or an expensive SLC SSD.

RickH · 2014-05-24T12:57:17.000Z

Papageno:

So, just for “shiggles” as they say, what’s a good 256ish GB SSD going for these days? How long is one supposed to last with daily use?

The Corsair 120gb I bought in October 2010 lasted until late 2013. Then I started having random BSODs until I relplaced it with a Samsung 256gb, it cost around $160 on sale.

Starlight · 2014-05-24T13:12:21.000Z

Honestly, the fears about endurance have been overblown.
TLC drives are absolute fine for windows, apps, etc.

You want to avoid them for;

Databases and other commercial high-write environments
Recording audio/video
Any RAID arrays where TRIM doesn’t work

stusser · 2014-05-24T19:18:09.000Z

Exactly. Get an 840 EVO. I would. Even the 128GB model is fine, but prices have fallen so steeply that the 256MB is the minimum you should really go for.

Woolen_Horde · 2014-05-24T19:38:49.000Z

dgallina:

I’d still much rather buy an MLC flash drive vs TLC…

I have the Samsung 840 EVO 500GB, and based on my usage, it’ll take me about 50 years to hit the 300TB write limit (and that’s when the drive started encountering bad sectors and using NAND that was held in reserve, as you can see from the techreport endurance test, the drive is still going at 600 TB). It’ll be obsolete by as much as four decades before it hits 300 TB.

Papageno · 2014-05-25T14:54:35.000Z

So, not really worth it to get the Samsung 840 Pro (for my next system, probably late this year/early next)?

Starlight · 2014-05-25T15:13:44.000Z

I wouldn’t bother paying the premium over the EVO, no.
And by that time there might well be better options…

stusser · 2014-05-26T06:29:47.000Z

I agree, I would take the money saved and buy a larger 840 EVO. The way SSDs work with wear limiting and write distribution, the more space you have, the longer they last and the faster they run.

jpinard · 2014-05-29T00:11:23.000Z

Games That have benefited tremendously with SSD-ONLY installs:

Kerbal Space Program
ArmA 2 & 3
Guild Wars 2
Star Wars the Old Republic
The Sims 3

Editer · 2014-05-29T15:01:36.000Z

Microsoft Flight Sim is a totally different game on SSD, especially if you have lots of add-ons.

RichVR · 2014-05-29T16:56:07.000Z

I’ve actually thought of loading Xplane 9 onto an SSD. And that includes all of the world data. That might be fun.