SSD safe sleep really an issue?

[mikepro]

I'm in the process of installing my 256GB Crucial M4. Will post a thread later on my experience.

I'm wondering - is it really all that bad to NOT disable the safe sleep? I have enough room now, so not worried about losing the 8GB of space. But is it really damaging or detrimental to the life of the drive in any way a normal user will notice to always write that data when you close the lid (say happens 5 times a day)? I kind of like the security of it, plus I also really do not want to have to stress or worry about managing my SSD, worry about excessive writes, etc. I want to just use it, enjoy it, and forget about it. In the same vein, probably not going to enable or worry about TRIM unless I experience issues.


What say you, guru's?

 

[Weaselboy]

The amount of extra writes caused by safe sleep are not enough to significantly impact the life of the SSD. Those NAND cells are going to last though years and years (there are various studies showing anywhere from 20 to 30 years at 20GB or so a day) of writing and your computer will likely be long dead before this becomes an issue. Just pop your SSD in and use it. Don't sweat it.

 

[maflynn]

I personally disable hibernate and remove the sleepimage, not for excessive reads but because I don't want the sleemimage file to consume space.

 

[pragmatous]

SSD uses a really fast type of flash memory that has limited writes. Once you reach the threshold your SSD will begin to fail. Every SSD has a different threshold of failure. Some SSD's also have issues with compression and when the drive is maxed (ie 5MB free space). If the drive is maxed performance degrades significantly and sometimes even permanently. Some SSD's reserve 16GB of space as a reserve to increase the life span. Again, that depends on the brand.

Basically you want to do as little writes as possible on your SSD. You don't want to treat your SSD as a place where you store files. This is why SSD's are small to begin with. It's meant to boot your OS and launch applications. Not store a large number of files.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/270102-32-useful-articles-part

By turning sleeping, hibernation, page file, etc. off you increase your SSD's life span and maintain performance.

I'm in the process of installing my 256GB Crucial M4. Will post a thread later on my experience.

I'm wondering - is it really all that bad to NOT disable the safe sleep? I have enough room now, so not worried about losing the 8GB of space. But is it really damaging or detrimental to the life of the drive in any way a normal user will notice to always write that data when you close the lid (say happens 5 times a day)? I kind of like the security of it, plus I also really do not want to have to stress or worry about managing my SSD, worry about excessive writes, etc. I want to just use it, enjoy it, and forget about it. In the same vein, probably not going to enable or worry about TRIM unless I experience issues.


What say you, guru's?

 

[dusk007]

Forget about the writes as Weaselboy says they don't matter anymore. Not with that size of an SSD and the newer controllers. Also most nand actually last a lot longer than the specs say.

If you write like 40 GB every day even on weekends to the drive. To wear out a 256GB SSD you'd need some a 100 years easily with consumer workload that is just impossible to achieve.
That SSD will die of sudden controller death long before you run out of write cycles.

Me personally I deactivate safe sleep for the sole reason that it enters sleep much quicker. Especially if you closed and than remember hey I still need to check that it seemingly takes for ever with safe sleep. No hibernation and it is back live almost instantly. Unless you often leave a lot of unsaved stuff open and run the chance of running the battery dry, there is no point in safe sleep.
It is for those that never safe anything or don't use apps with auto save functions and use a notebook like a tablet. Usually on battery and unplugged while sleeping most of the time.
If you usually load your notebook at night and it is plugged in and only unplugged during the day and also use it almost every day, there is no point to safe sleep.
I think safe sleep is great for stuff like an Air but it is just an annoyance for a MBP.

I'd disable it but not because of the SSD. You really don't have to worry there.
If the SSD would be 32GB and a poor write amp. controller of the first generation that would be something to worry about. With a 256GB M4 there is just no way you can wear it out. No usage on a MBP will manage that and if it would the hibernation file would change a thing.

 

[pragmatous]

Name calling is an indication that you're a child.

So would you listen to a child or an adult. It is your choice. My advice is professional through research which you can read yourself in the link I provided.

Forget about the writes as Weaselboy says they don't matter anymore. Not with that size of an SSD and the newer controllers. Also most nand actually last a lot longer than the specs say.

If you write like 40 GB every day even on weekends to the drive. To wear out a 256GB SSD you'd need some a 100 years easily with consumer workload that is just impossible to achieve.
That SSD will die of sudden controller death long before you run out of write cycles.

Me personally I deactivate safe sleep for the sole reason that it enters sleep much quicker. Especially if you closed and than remember hey I still need to check that it seemingly takes for ever with safe sleep. No hibernation and it is back live almost instantly. Unless you often leave a lot of unsaved stuff open and run the chance of running the battery dry, there is no point in safe sleep.
It is for those that never safe anything or don't use apps with auto save functions and use a notebook like a tablet. Usually on battery and unplugged while sleeping most of the time.
If you usually load your notebook at night and it is plugged in and only unplugged during the day and also use it almost every day, there is no point to safe sleep.
I think safe sleep is great for stuff like an Air but it is just an annoyance for a MBP.

I'd disable it but not because of the SSD. You really don't have to worry there.
If the SSD would be 32GB and a poor write amp. controller of the first generation that would be something to worry about. With a 256GB M4 there is just no way you can wear it out. No usage on a MBP will manage that and if it would the hibernation file would change a thing.

 

[insimbi]

Forget about the writes as Weaselboy says they don't matter anymore. Not with that size of an SSD and the newer controllers. Also most nand actually last a lot longer than the specs say.

If you write like 40 GB every day even on weekends to the drive. To wear out a 256GB SSD you'd need some a 100 years easily with consumer workload that is just impossible to achieve.
That SSD will die of sudden controller death long before you run out of write cycles.

Me personally I deactivate safe sleep for the sole reason that it enters sleep much quicker. Especially if you closed and than remember hey I still need to check that it seemingly takes for ever with safe sleep. No hibernation and it is back live almost instantly. Unless you often leave a lot of unsaved stuff open and run the chance of running the battery dry, there is no point in safe sleep.
It is for those that never safe anything or don't use apps with auto save functions and use a notebook like a tablet. Usually on battery and unplugged while sleeping most of the time.
If you usually load your notebook at night and it is plugged in and only unplugged during the day and also use it almost every day, there is no point to safe sleep.
I think safe sleep is great for stuff like an Air but it is just an annoyance for a MBP.

I'd disable it but not because of the SSD. You really don't have to worry there.
If the SSD would be 32GB and a poor write amp. controller of the first generation that would be something to worry about. With a 256GB M4 there is just no way you can wear it out. No usage on a MBP will manage that and if it would the hibernation file would change a thing.

I recently installed the Crucial M4 in my MBP. Mine is set to sleep after 10 mins of inactivity. Not sure what this "safe" sleep is you guys are referring to?

 

[riptideMBP]

I recently installed the Crucial M4 in my MBP. Mine is set to sleep after 10 mins of inactivity. Not sure what this "safe" sleep is you guys are referring to?

By safe sleep they're talking about OSX storing your ram to the hard drive everytime the computer sleeps

 

[mikepro]

Basically you want to do as little writes as possible on your SSD. You don't want to treat your SSD as a place where you store files. This is why SSD's are small to begin with. It's meant to boot your OS and launch applications. Not store a large number of files.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/270102-32-useful-articles-part

By turning sleeping, hibernation, page file, etc. off you increase your SSD's life span and maintain performance.

Thanks for the links, interesting articles. But, it seems like a fairly ridiculous approach to not treat an SSD as a place to store files. That's exactly what it is.

Name calling is an indication that you're a child.

So would you listen to a child or an adult. It is your choice. My advice is professional through research which you can read yourself in the link I provided.

FYI, don't think he was calling anyone names, just quoting the username of the second poster in this thread.

Forget about the writes as Weaselboy says they don't matter anymore. Not with that size of an SSD and the newer controllers. Also most nand actually last a lot longer than the specs say.

If you write like 40 GB every day even on weekends to the drive. To wear out a 256GB SSD you'd need some a 100 years easily with consumer workload that is just impossible to achieve.
That SSD will die of sudden controller death long before you run out of write cycles.

I think I'm of the same mind as you. I'm not going to worry about treating this drive with kid gloves. It's a tool to be used, and life is too short. It was only $200, and by the time it fails there will be bigger, faster, cheaper drives available.

Even so, I think I will disable the safe sleep and try it out for a while, and then go back and see what sort of speed differences there are. I imagine even with it enabled, it should be pretty fast as the SSD write speed will be much greater than the spinning old drive.

Thanks for all the thoughts/opinions everyone.