250GB vs 500GB or higher SSD

Conor Royston · 12 Nov 2015 at 22:05

I've heard this argument a lot!

I've heard at around 500GB is where a SSD starts to fall off and the lifespan is lower due to the amount of space/storage it has hence why 250GB is preferred

Anyone able to give a more definite answer ?

Randomface74 · 12 Nov 2015 at 22:14

I thought price was the reason.

rickh · 12 Nov 2015 at 23:34

Conor Royston said:
I've heard this argument a lot!

I've heard at around 500GB is where a SSD starts to fall off and the lifespan is lower due to the amount of space/storage it has hence why 250GB is preferred

Anyone able to give a more definite answer ?

Nonsense.
The larger SSDs cost more than the smaller SSDs, and that's the only drawback.

If anything, larger SSDs will last longer since they'll have more unallocated space (typically 10% is/should be unallocated) and so writes can be spread out more across the NAND.

Conor Royston · 13 Nov 2015 at 01:23

Cheers for the quick responses.

If you type into google about pros/cons Rickh you'll see why so many people think what I put. I personally though it was just price but more of a reassurance

!

rickh · 13 Nov 2015 at 09:27

Conor Royston said:
Cheers for the quick responses.

If you type into google about pros/cons Rickh you'll see why so many people think what I put. I personally though it was just price but more of a reassurance !

I don't have the patience to trawl through the internet to find that rationale, could you link me to an example?

But the point is, lots of stuff is wrong on the internet.

hairyfeet · 14 Nov 2015 at 10:33

I just put it down to a cost/convenience thing

For example in the current climate of ever increasing application size (50gb+ triple A releases as a norm) I would much prefer to have my commonly used programs on a 500gb or 1tb ssd for the quick loads whenever I'm able to use the computer, knowing I've got a quarter/third or more of the drive capacity free for anything new that pops up

As opposed to a 250gb drive where I'm liable to be looking over my shoulder everytime a new title I am interested in and playing natural selection with the existing content/folders in deciding what to move into storage... the thought of going through this process after a long day just to try something new you got just stinks

Plus it must surely do the drive some good in the long to not be in a position where you are having to do the latter

David Bisset · 18 Nov 2015 at 08:34

The reverse is true - for very small drives performance is worse as they can't make use of all the controllers channels (what capacity this happens at varies but normally 250GB+ is fine) and having less free space they'll be writing over the same sectors more frequently so it'll age faster, more space would let load-balancing do a better job. Bigger is better for SSDs

(within a product range, can't assume different SSDs using different techs will neatly align with this) Having said that, just get whatever suits your budget & space needs, should be plenty fast & last plenty long anyway unless you're really hammering it!