SSD Drive for Server - What Advantages?

[Brent]

I'm thinking about switching out my slowish 250GB drive currently being used for the Windows 7 OS drive on my HTPC server with either a SSD drive or a WD Black Caviar HD. This isn't a headless server - it is in my office and I use it for a few other things as well.

Obvious advantage of an SSD on the OS is quick bootup although I don't reboot all that often. Any other advantages? Would you do it or would you opt for the fast WD drive?

[Skirge01]

I'm planning to do this for my WHS box when I move to WHS v2 because I do see that my C: drive gets hammered at times and causes some minor delays with RDP and some fanart queries. For you, you'll see files get served up a little bit faster because the OS will query the shared drives quicker (still limited by the speed of the storage drives, of course), but I doubt that would really warrant the expense. Where you will really see the difference is in your use of it as a desktop computer. Everything will load quicker. Windows itself will seem like it's on Red Bull because of how responsive everything will be. Be careful, though. If you get a speedy SSD there, you're going to want one in every computer you use! I put one in my work laptop and now everything at home seems like it's in slow motion.

[paulbeers]

I agree with Skirge01. For Sage purposes, it probably won't help a whole lot. Sure maybe Fanart stored on the C drive, or the "database" access might be a bit faster, but overall I don't notice my OS drive (on my headless) server being hit with much activity (other than the initial bootup)

However, since you use your server for office functions, you will notice a difference there. Starting applications, large files, game loads, etc. will all be faster on an SSD (well the RIGHT SSD that is: i.e stay away from jmicro controllers).

Someday I will upgrade my MacBook Pro to an SSD, but I am really a big fan of the 500GB capacity of my current "standard" hard drive.

[blade]

I've been considering a SSD for my primary desktop. I'm still running XP and plan to switch to Windows 7 when I make the jump to SSD.

Two things have caused me to pause on making the switch.

1 - Prices are still falling fast and I've read over and over how by the 4th quarter of 2010 there will be new products hitting the market and prices will fall even more.

2- I'm still not sold on the reliability at this point. Seems every week or two Anand over at Anandtech has an article about a drive dying or firmware update bricking the drive. I'd just feel better about spending my time and energy installing the OS and programs once things settle down a little more.

At this point I'm holding off on purchasing any sort of drive for my OS and will probably upgrade later this year.

[tmiranda]

I just bought a 64GB Kingston SSD that I plan to use for a non-Sage system running Win7. I think it would be a waste to use the drive in my Sage server, just not enough performance improvement for the $$ IMHO.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Brent

I'm thinking about switching out my slowish 250GB drive currently being used for the Windows 7 OS drive on my HTPC server with either a SSD drive or a WD Black Caviar HD. This isn't a headless server - it is in my office and I use it for a few other things as well.

Obvious advantage of an SSD on the OS is quick bootup although I don't reboot all that often. Any other advantages? Would you do it or would you opt for the fast WD drive?

SSD all the way for any machine you "use" day to day IMO. Advantages? Applications start cold basically as fast as they come back form being minimized. Here's a good example, I have a nasty habit of not closing tabs in Firefox (tabs have become bookmarks for me almost), Firefox starts, 64 tabs and all, essentially just as fast from being closed, as it opens from being just minimized.

Originally Posted by blade

1 - Prices are still falling fast and I've read over and over how by the 4th quarter of 2010 there will be new products hitting the market and prices will fall even more.

Prices are always falling, if you wait because prices will be lower in 6 months, you'll always be waiting and never have anything. Of course if you're waiting for a particular price threshold to be crossed that's a different story.

But when you can get a real-deal Intel SSD for just over $100 (40GB), I say they've crossed that threshold.

2- I'm still not sold on the reliability at this point. Seems every week or two Anand over at Anandtech has an article about a drive dying or firmware update bricking the drive.

Simple, get a drive that doesn't need constant firmware updates.

At this point I'm holding off on purchasing any sort of drive for my OS and will probably upgrade later this year.

I've now deployed 3 SSDs in real-world use, my laptop-60GB OCZ Vertex, my desktop-160GB Intel X25-M G2, and my parents new PC-40GB Intel X25-V. I'll never go back to spinny drives for the OS, not a chance.

Heck at ~$100 for an X25-M, IMO that's not even unreasonable for an server HDD (OS install).

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by blade

2- I'm still not sold on the reliability at this point. Seems every week or two Anand over at Anandtech has an article about a drive dying or firmware update bricking the drive. I'd just feel better about spending my time and energy installing the OS and programs once things settle down a little more.

Spin drives do this too, it just not very common for spinny drives to need firmware updates. (but see the first Seagate 1.5TB and first WD Green drives, and yes, firmware updates bricked some of them, too) Plus, the main reason for the firmware updates is over (trim support), so as long as the flash is already updated, or you do it before the first OS install, it really will only be a delay on re-ordering the bricked drive.

You should be much more worried about the flash itself dying. Now if you have a second drive (like your recording drive) that is a spinny, and set things like temp to it, flash drives should last a LONG time. OCZ has a huge thread showing how to lower you write count with a SSD or SSD/spinny setup.

IMHO, I would never use a SSD as the only drive, except in a laptop. (they handle the G's MUCH better) In a laptop, I'd get a LARGE one, so the wear leveling can help keep you going, when blocks start dying. Oh, and make a system back as often as you can.

BTW, a few things, before you rant at me.

1. I work with the same flash chips, everyday, that goes into these drives.

2. My "main" system has a SSD system drive, and I LOVE the speed! But, see below ...

3. If I built any system right now, my OS would be on the flash, but no apps that write to the program directory would be on the system disk (that includes SageTV), and I'd jump through hoops to get the system disk to be as low "write" as I could. (not hard, just time consuming) Just wish Windoze was more multi-disk aware, and set things up correctly by itself..