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SSD Lifespan

Barney63

Barney63

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 9, 2014
799
1
Bolton, UK.
Does anybody know the expected lifespan of the SM and SD 256GB SSDs?
Say with about 170GB of data and home use.

Barney
 
Barney63 said:
Does anybody know the expected lifespan of the SM and SD 256GB SSDs?
Say with about 170GB of data and home use.

Barney
Click to expand...
What do you mean by 170GB? Is that how full you expect the disk to be? If that's the case, I'd recommend 512GB if you're planning on keeping the system more than a year or 2. Remember you need to keep 10 to 20% of your system disk free for best performance.
 
Exactly…
In a year or two, you will have more!
The extra space will be nice to have now, and later, you will likely use it.
 
I also have 2TB of external storage so the size of the SSD isn't critical.
The point of the thread was the how long the drive will physically last ie the number of read/write cycles.
I had seen some reports somewhere suggesting that some would only last a couple of years.

Barney
 
Barney63 said:
I also have 2TB of external storage so the size of the SSD isn't critical.
The point of the thread was the how long the drive will physically last ie the number of read/write cycles.
I had seen some reports somewhere suggesting that some would only last a couple of years.

Barney
Click to expand...

I don't think you should worry. It will last a long time.
 
koban4max said:
6 months...just get samsung. evo.
Click to expand...

Dumbest statement I've ever seen.

The SM0256F is basically a Samsung XP941, utilizing MLC NAND like the 840 Pro.

So an Evo will not last longer than a Pro/XP941, because the Evo uses the less durable TLC NAND.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6459/samsung-ssd-840-testing-the-endurance-of-tlc-nand

Scroll down to the SSD Lifespan Estimation table, and you'll see that the Evo (TLC) lasts significantly less than the Pro (MLC).

My iMac, on light usage (web surfing, iTunes, posting in the MR forums and a short 10 minute session on Windows 8.1 in VMware) has written 22GB already (2h 30m since boot).
 
yjchua95 said:
Dumbest statement I've ever seen.

The SM0256F is basically a Samsung XP941, utilizing MLC NAND like the 840 Pro.

So an Evo will not last longer than a Pro/XP941, because the Evo uses the less durable TLC NAND.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6459/samsung-ssd-840-testing-the-endurance-of-tlc-nand

Scroll down to the SSD Lifespan Estimation table, and you'll see that the Evo (TLC) lasts significantly less than the Pro (MLC).

My iMac, on light usage (web surfing, iTunes, posting in the MR forums and a short 10 minute session on Windows 8.1 in VMware) has written 22GB already (2h 30m since boot).
Click to expand...

Depending how you use it...sure 6 months could happen.
 
It will probably last longer than the life of the other parts of the computer. The read/write cycles for an 840 pro are very high.
 
ionjohn says it exactly right in the post above.

Just use the SSD and keep it properly backed up.

It will last as long as it lasts.

At some point, it will fail -- as all spinning hard drives eventually fail. When that happens, buy a replacement (they're getting cheaper all the time), restore from your backup, and change drives (assuming the drive can be swapped out).
 
yjchua95 said:
Dumbest statement I've ever seen.

The SM0256F is basically a Samsung XP941, utilizing MLC NAND like the 840 Pro.

So an Evo will not last longer than a Pro/XP941, because the Evo uses the less durable TLC NAND.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6459/samsung-ssd-840-testing-the-endurance-of-tlc-nand

Scroll down to the SSD Lifespan Estimation table, and you'll see that the Evo (TLC) lasts significantly less than the Pro (MLC).

My iMac, on light usage (web surfing, iTunes, posting in the MR forums and a short 10 minute session on Windows 8.1 in VMware) has written 22GB already (2h 30m since boot).
Click to expand...

I would go for the EVO since you can get a higher capacity SSD which counters the durability of the 840 Pro. If you buy the 1 TB 840 EVO, you get amazing storage with amazing reliability.

A small capacity SSD with TLC is asking for trouble of course. But Samsung got great warranty based on my experience :p
 
Last edited:
I see that my "home use" writes about 40Gig a day, so that works out to @ 14 Terrabytes a year.

I don't know how much "write lifespan" a 250Gb 840 EVO has, hopefully someone can reply, and we'll be able to get a reasonable idea how long a 40Gig write a day will last?

Thanks for any replies.
 
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