OT: SSD or not to SSD, that is the question

[Rick Stevens]

On 09/04/2015 01:56 PM, Pete Travis wrote:
>
> On Sep 4, 2015 3:14 PM, "Richard Shaw" <hobbes1069 at gmail.com
> <mailto:hobbes1069 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>  >
>  > I have two drives in my desktop computer, a 500GB for / and /var
> which is failing, and a 1TB drive for /home and swap.
>  >
>  > Cost is definitely an issue so I have narrowed my options down to a
> 1TB drive for about $53 or a 256MB SSD for about $86.
>  >
>  > Obviously the SSD is about half the size of my current failing drive.
> I think I can squeeze things down a bit to make it fit and I REALLY want
> to get an SSD.
>  >
>  > With current reliability of MLC SSD's is it a good idea to put /var
> on an SSD? The major users there would be BackupPC and all the
> chroots/cache for mock packaging builds.
>  >
>  > Thanks,
>  > Richard
>  >
>  > --
>  >
>
> Absolutely get a *quality* SSD.  I've had a Samsung 830 since they were
> new and use mock and got and more on a frequent basis, with no ill
> effects.  I've had three spinning drives fail during that time, with
> varied uses ; a fourth is now due for replacement.
>
> Even if life expectancy were half that of a spinning drive instead of an
> order of magnitude more, I'd still get one for performance reasons.

And I will reiterate my recommendations: If you use an SSD for anything
critical, BACK UP OFTEN to some other device. SSDs are fast, but when
they die, it's typically sudden, with no warning, catastrophic and
irrecoverable. It doesn't happen as often as it did, but it's pretty
ugly. We have a bunch of Mac users and I cannot tell you how many times
I've had Macbooks crap out (even with Samsung SSDs) and the only way
back was using TimeMachine backups done to a big HP storage array.

I have SSDs in my Dell and HP laptops for battery life reasons, but
they get backed up twice a week and more often if I've done some heavy
lifting (development work) with them.

I'm just sayin'! Better safe than sorry.
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- Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer, AllDigital    ricks at alldigital.com -
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