Is using large sample sets on a laptop detrimental to my SSD lifespan ?

[yul]

Hello! Just curious I own a laptop and am thinking of giving in to using sample sets / romplers but want to know if installing these super large sets on my laptop will be a problem for my SSD in the medium term?

Is anyone using theirs on a laptop? Would one suggest getting a separate drive just for the samples (I am not sure my laptop can handle a second drive).

Thanks!

[Googly Smythe]

Hello! Just curious I own a laptop and am thinking of giving in to using sample sets / romplers but want to know if installing these super large sets on my laptop will be a problem for my SSD in the medium term?

Is anyone using theirs on a laptop? Would one suggest getting a separate drive just for the samples (I am not sure my laptop can handle a second drive).

Thanks!

I may be wrong but I think it's the writing to disk that degrades SSDs, not the reading from. So go ahead.
Whatever kind of system you have, separate drives are always best when using LARGE sample libraries.

[EvilDragon]

Smythe is right. It's actually write-delete cycles that reduce the lifespan of SSDs.

[Numanoid]

I will probably die a long time before any of my SSD's:

after a year of testing the durability of six SSDs, four died after reaching between 728 terabytes and 1.2 petabytes of data writes, all of which is far beyond the specified life span for the drives.

Two other SSDs—a Samsung 840 Pro and a Kingston HyperX 3K—are still going after crossing the 2 petabyte data write benchmark.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2856052/ ... fears.html

[sprnva]

Reading large libraries won't have any effect.

Short of controller failure (which was more of a thing with some old Sandforce-based SSDs like the OCZs) you're more likely to replace your SSD with a larger/faster model long before it wears out.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Any ssd bought within the last couple of years should outlast the machine you put it in. If not, it should at least outlast the guarantee. And if it doesn't, then at least you have the guarantee

Even at heavy usage (Not server levels, though), most ssd's these days test way above the very conseravtive (still high), maximum, lifetime read/write levels quoted by the manufacturers

[Timman]

I may be wrong but I think it's the writing to disk that degrades SSDs, not the reading from. So go ahead.
Whatever kind of system you have, separate drives are always best when using LARGE sample libraries.

Ah, that's good news! I always thought it was both read-write. My sample library SSD will definitely outlast my old Mac, plus now they are quite cheap, they cost a fraction of what I paid just a few years ago.

[ghettosynth]

The one thing to keep in mind is that it will be hard(er) on your SSD to run it near full capacity. So while reading large libraries has no direct effect, it will fill your drive up faster.

[juhhie]

The one thing to keep in mind is that it will be hard(er) on your SSD to run it near full capacity. So while reading large libraries has no direct effect, it will fill your drive up faster.

I don't really understand what you mean by this? How can reading large libraries/files fill your SSD-drive?

[ghettosynth]

The one thing to keep in mind is that it will be hard(er) on your SSD to run it near full capacity. So while reading large libraries has no direct effect, it will fill your drive up faster.

I don't really understand what you mean by this? How can reading large libraries/files fill your SSD-drive?

Just that putting large libraries on an internal SSD vs an external drive will consume more space on the SSD leaving you with less space for all of the other activities and potentially triggering performance slowdowns. Even though modern drives can move static data around for wear leveling you will still experience slowdowns if you run your drive near capacity. How effective wear leveling of static drives works depends on your specific drive, however, it's still recommended to keep them below 75% capacity.

[yul]

Thanks for the great feedback guys!

[EvilDragon]

however, it's still recommended to keep them below 75% capacity.

But NOT if they are fully used for sample libraries and just sample libraries (fill an SSD with samples then just read from it - no performance degradation there). If you share it with OS, then yeah I suppose so, but 75% is a bit too conservative. 85-90% is more like it with the latest SSDs.

[juhhie]

Just that putting large libraries on an internal SSD vs an external drive will consume more space on the SSD leaving you with less space for all of the other activities and potentially triggering performance slowdowns. Even though modern drives can move static data around for wear leveling you will still experience slowdowns if you run your drive near capacity. How effective wear leveling of static drives works depends on your specific drive, however, it's still recommended to keep them below 75% capacity.

Sure, larger files will take up larger space, that's a no-brainer. Though, you said "reading large libraries" will "fill your drive up faster". I don't think that's true at all. If that was a typo, and you meant "writing large files" then that's not true either because larger files typically take less space depending what the cluster size is.