MTBF on ATV

[chefwong]

just replaced 2 mac minis and a dell mini pc with all ATV for our Set Top Display Locations.
A thought - as the ATV is driven by flash memory. Since it's a streaming device - primarily taking on R/W . What's the lifespan of said flash driven devices ?

 

[cruisin]

Aside from a dud, the lifespan should be more than the lifespan on smartphones and computers as the R/W demands are small. The capacitors in the device will die before wear becomes a problem. And if you consider the lack of moving parts it even has a chance to outlast a traditional hard drive.

Modern flash drives that replace hard drives have controllers that spread wear evenly and even have reserved space to cover a small amount of early failure. Simpler flash devices like microSD cards don't have these features and so are not suited for heavy use.