SSD Why, Which and for What

[ON27]

Hi there, I'm a pretty new guy to computer hardware. I've built my first Mid level rig recently and I need some information about SSDs!

I know some basics of 'em, but still have some confusions!

1) How much does the speed gets improved?

2) What to store on it (Only OS)?

3) What Size (memory) / brand?

4) PCIe or Standard?

5) Any drawbacks?!

 

My usage: Apps like Photoshop for drawing, 3D apps maybe, Gaming(high graphics) and Surfing.

 

Thank you!

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 stuff opens at normally less than half the time.

2. OS and programs depending on size. I can fie windows 7, adobe suite, autocad, maya, max and a few browsers and other programs on a 120gb ssd

3. Id go 240gb. I normally reccomend samsung, but adata is a good budget.

4. How much do you have to spend? Id stay away from pcie unless you have a lot of money.

5. Not really. SSDs have a lower power draw, lower failure rate

[themctipers]

~120 -> 550+

for squential.. theres also random, 4k and IOPS which is vastly better

 

you should store the OS first, and if you have some room store some games/apps that are large.

Size should be 250gb minimum I would recommend. I personally go for samsung/intel (but im a fanboy soooo)

PCIe is way quicker but way more epxneisve.

the drawback is its a bit expensive.. like $120 for 256gb..

[Simon771]

Why SSD? For faster boot time.

Your PC will turn on much faster than on standard HDD.

Speeds? Well normal hard drives are usually running at 100MB/s read/write.

M.2 SSD can go as fast as 2000MB/s read and 1500MB/s write speed. Something like Samsung 950 pro can do that.

 

Normal sata ssd like samsung evo 850, can get speeds to like 450/400MB/s.

So in general, sata SSD will be 4x faster than normal HDD.

M.2 SSDs can be 20x faster than HDD.

 

What should you use it for? Well I would use it for windows and aplications only.

Movie and other data can be on HDD.

 

Which brand? Samsung EVO 850 for SATA and Samsung 950 PRO for M.2. Probbably the best SSDs on market right now.

 

Drawback? You can only write certain amount of data on them. For example, you can write only 75TB data on samsung evo 850, 250GB ssd.

But even if you write 40GB per day on it, it will work for 5 years at least.

[TheSuspenceful]

2 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

Why SSD? For faster boot time.

Your PC will turn on much faster than on standard HDD.

Speeds? Well normal hard drives are usually running at 100MB/s read/write.

M.2 SSD can go as fast as 2000MB/s read and 1500MB/s write speed. Something like Samsung 950 pro can do that.

 

Normal sata ssd like samsung evo 850, can get speeds to like 450/400MB/s.

So in general, sata SSD will be 4x faster than normal HDD.

M.2 SSDs can be 20x faster than HDD.

 

What should you use it for? Well I would use it for windows and aplications only.

Movie and other data can be on HDD.

 

Which brand? Samsung EVO 850 for SATA and Samsung 950 PRO for M.2. Probbably the best SSDs on market right now.

 

Drawback? You can only write certain amount of data on them. For example, you can write only 75TB data on samsung evo 850, 250GB ssd.

But even if you write 40GB per day on it, it will work for 5 years at least.

I agree %100. Also, One major plus with Samsung SSDs is the Magician software 

[Fungal]

I'd recommend the ocz trion ssd's. Way cheaper than a 850 evo and the same speed.

[ON27]

54 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

1 stuff opens at normally less than half the time.

2. OS and programs depending on size. I can fie windows 7, adobe suite, autocad, maya, max and a few browsers and other programs on a 120gb ssd

3. Id go 240gb. I normally reccomend samsung, but adata is a good budget.

4. How much do you have to spend? Id stay away from pcie unless you have a lot of money.

5. Not really. SSDs have a lower power draw, lower failure rate

Agree about PCIe are costly. I've spent 2,600 USD (nearly)

[ON27]

50 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

Why SSD? For faster boot time.

Your PC will turn on much faster than on standard HDD.

Speeds? Well normal hard drives are usually running at 100MB/s read/write.

M.2 SSD can go as fast as 2000MB/s read and 1500MB/s write speed. Something like Samsung 950 pro can do that.

 

Normal sata ssd like samsung evo 850, can get speeds to like 450/400MB/s.

So in general, sata SSD will be 4x faster than normal HDD.

M.2 SSDs can be 20x faster than HDD.

 

What should you use it for? Well I would use it for windows and aplications only.

Movie and other data can be on HDD.

 

Which brand? Samsung EVO 850 for SATA and Samsung 950 PRO for M.2. Probbably the best SSDs on market right now.

 

Drawback? You can only write certain amount of data on them. For example, you can write only 75TB data on samsung evo 850, 250GB ssd.

But even if you write 40GB per day on it, it will work for 5 years at least.

It dies after that?!

And whats about that M.2 and all?!

[ON27]

31 minutes ago, Fungal said:

I'd recommend the ocz trion ssd's. Way cheaper than a 850 evo and the same speed.

OCZ is $40 costly than Evo in my "country"...  

[Captain_WD]

3 hours ago, ON27 said:

~snip~

Hey there ON27

 

Here are my two cents on top of the guys' comments:

SSDs do improve pretty much all of the PC's performance since the storage being the slowest performing part is the bottleneck of every computer. Besides the faster transfer speeds SSDs also have massively improved access and seek times which enable them to fetch data faster and thus improve the general feel and responsiveness of the whole system. 

 

You can store pretty much anything on the SSD but you have to have two things in mind:

- SSDs have limited amount of write cycles so if you use a lot of write-intensive applications this might degrade the SSD's performance and lifespan. Still, I have yet to see a person reach that limit with regular consumer usage before encountering other issues or simply upgrading to a better/faster/larger SSD.

- Not all types of usage depend on the storage's performance and you are not very likely to see improvements with them if you put them on the SSD. This includes music, movies, videos, photos and other media as well as gaming. You won't notice any changes in FPS nor in the graphics' quality as gaming relies on the storage's performance solely for the loading times. 

 

You should also note that when a SSD reaches its write limit it does not fail but rather enters in a read-only mode. 

 

The lack of moving parts make SSDs quiet, free from vibrations, emit far less heat and are not susceptible to damage from vibrations. 

 

The capacity depends entirely on your needs. The general rule of thumb is that larger in capacity SSDs are generally faster. 

 

The PCIe vs SATA is again dependent on the need for performance. Naturally, the PCIe SSDs perform far better but are harder to manage (if you want RAID or other support) and are more costly per GB. 

 

As with anything, there are some potential drawbacks:

- Price would be the most obvious and most popular one. The price per GB is far bigger with SSDs compared to HDDs.

- Extracting data from a failed SSD is nearly impossible so it's far safer to have your data on a HDD if you are looking at potential data loss cases. 

- If left without power (stored in a drawer or something of the sort) SSDs may have some of the data degraded or corrupted due to the nature of storing the data whereas there's no problem leaving a HDD for a long time without using it at all. 

 

I would get a SSD for the OS and the editing applications as well as for the current projects that you are working on and leave everything else (games, media and done projects) for the HDD.

 

Let me know if you need more info or if you have any questions! 

 

Captain_WD.

[Simon771]

3 hours ago, ON27 said:

It dies after that?!

And whats about that M.2 and all?!

I'm not sure if it just dies, but I have been using my samsung evo 850 250gb for more than a year and I think I'm standard user.

Total data written is 9TB in my case.

But keep in mind that I used that SSD for 7 months in my laptop as the only storage. So all movies were downloaded on it. 

 

Unless you are using ssd for some server/nas, I think that you shouldn't worry about that. 75TB is a long way to go.

[Captain_WD]

22 hours ago, Simon771 said:

~snip~

As I pointed out, SSDs enter in a read-only mode when they reach their limit. The one set by the manufacturer is usually lower than the actual limit and as you pointed out a regular user would reach that limit in quite a while and it is far more likely to encounter an issue with the drive or to simply upgrade it before reaching that limit. 

 

You can look some tests online and see how much actual data can a SLC, MLC and a TLC SSD can sustain before having its performance degrade and eventually stop writing. 

 

Captain_WD.