SSDs reliable yet?

mda96bjh

mda96bjh

mda96bjh

Associate
Joined
1 Feb 2006
Posts
346
Location
Demon Overclocker
Tempted by an OCZ Vector for my new build but until now I have kept well away from SSDs due to concerns about long-term reliability....

I have a gaming PC which I am happy to massively overclock & play around with but my new build will be a workhorse PC & may need to last beyond the 5 year warranties currently offered by Samsung & OCZ on their top end SSDs.

I am not yet convinced enough to leave my HDDs behind - I know they are mechanical & prone to failure but it would appear that the solid state drives deteriorate more over time.

What is the current consensus - would forumites trust their entire photo collections for example on SSDs.....??
 
mda96bjh said:
What is the current consensus - would forumites trust their entire photo collections for example on SSDs.....??
Click to expand...

I wouldn't trust my collection of photo's to any single drive, whether mechanical or solid state.

I've had 4 SSD's, the first OCZ was replaced very early on, the next was an Intel drive that lasted 9 months. I now have an early Samsung in my laptop and an OCZ Vertex 2 in my desktop, both have been fine. I think they have cracked the reliability issue, but multiple back-ups are still the way to go.
 
I have had two OCZ Vertex failures in 18 month (The first replaced under warranty, the replacement currently away RMA again). Both times there is NO WARNING. Simply a " no boot drive" error message. I would stick with mechanical drive and plenty of RAM. Use sleep if you're concerned about boot time. When you are using a program there is NO difference in speed or performance even in games. SSD's seem to only impact load times.

Also 15 years of mechanical drives and NEVER been caught out by a drive failure. There was always at least a warning and chance to recover data. ALWAYS back up of course!

Just my opinion.
 
Last edited:
I got my first SSD over 3 years ago, it's an Intel. Since then I've got another Intel and now a Samsung. They are all still in use and I've not had a moments problem with any of them.

I've no idea how many mechanical drives have failed on me, some with warning and some without but more than I can count. That has been in more than a 20 year period and I've not had as much problem in recent years as I did in the early years.

All in all as with most things in life if you pay a bit more for a decent reliable brand it should reduce your chance of problems.
 
I've just stuck one into my laptop and have been considering my backup options just in case but then I thought the only things kept on there are windows and programs all of my unique files are stored on my 1TB mech drive anyway, so I don't plan on backing up my SSD.
 
I was playing Devils advocate a bit with trusting all my files to a single drive ;) - I would never do that whether mechanical or solid state!

However once I've built my rig I just don't want the hassle of having to swap out a system drive. It is interesting to get different perspectives on the issue.....

I was swinging twds the SSD but I think I have actually now decided to stick with hard disks for now.... SSDs do seem to be getting better but I think I will wait a few more years yet...
 
As with all technology there are dangers in being an early adopter. It's not helped by the reluctance of manufacturers to admit their mistakes thereby helping everyone.

I'm not a Luddite. I think the mechanical HD'ds days are numbered but in 10 years rather than 5. This debate reminds me of the change from CRT to flat panel. Look where we are now on that one! Not such dire consequences in case of failure.
 
Solid state drives have been available since the 70s - and readily available since the 80s so in a broad sense they're nothing new. Early consumer ones needed battery backup however so making them involatile was the biggest improvement there.

I had one for my beeb in the late 80s so I guess I was a reasonably early adopter :)
 
I have had a SSD for over a year and have not had any problems. I personally would not store important data on it since I simply feel that a mechical is more reliable. Maybe it's because it has proven reliabilty.

I have also messed around with many SSDs in the past few years and have not seen that many failures.
 
I try and back up once every 2 weeks, it's always a safer option than risking any type of HD to keep your stuff safe for ever.

But then your backup could fail....

At some point you just have to keep your fingers crossed and hope lol
 
Not had any problems with the couple I have had.

Just use them for faster load times on games.

Would not put any photos on them though.
 
flopper said:
always use back up for important stuff.
ssd is the best option.

ssd last 20-50 years using normal desktop use.
Click to expand...

Unless it dies

eagle2508 said:
I try and back up once every 2 weeks, it's always a safer option than risking any type of HD to keep your stuff safe for ever.

But then your backup could fail....

At some point you just have to keep your fingers crossed and hope lol
Click to expand...

Never. On and offsite redundancy FTW
 
I just got a Intel SSD 520 series 180gb , its great & its a must to install the toolbox software , tells you the Health & life span of drive and more

heres a pic of my 180gb in toolbox

toolboxssd_zpsfad11cc0.jpg
 
Those health monitors are estimates based on read/write figures garnered by the drive's controller. They are in no way an indication of how reliable the drive is now, five seconds from now, next week, and 20 years time, just how much has been written over the whole bank of flash chips.

Any single device can fail at any time. Multiple devices can fail at the same time but the chance of that is reduced with each redundant copy made. Entrusting important files to one drive is foolhardy in the extreme especially in this day and age of dirt cheap/free cloud storage
 
backup, backup, backup

any drive can fail regardless of the tech behind it. bearing that in mind, a ssd gives a far better user experience than a spinning disk.

operating systems and applications can be downloaded and reinstalled. photos of your family can't.

i've had one crucial m4 go bad on me, but it wasn't a big deal. the other 3 ssd's in the home are all fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom