SSD Longevity as OS Drive?

[doncote0]

Well, it depends. My OCZ drive lasted for 3 months.

Yeah I saw that possibility too, but chalked it up to manufacturer's defect.

Even standard HD's have a percentage that are either DOA or go down within the first few months due to unnoticed issue(s) during production.

OCZ Sandforce (Vertex 2) has been pretty good to me, however. I have 4 OCZ disks striped together in a RAID 0 configuration. No problems for the 9 months since installation.

BTW if your OCZ went bad so quickly, the manufacturer's warranty will replace it.

[Rico66]

Originally Posted by doncote0

BTW if your OCZ went bad so quickly, the manufacturer's warranty will replace it.

The warranty is not the issue, but the waisted time and PC down time is the bigger issue. I had problems with regular hard disks as well in the past, but as mentioned there are typically warning signs, so you can mitigate better. But this one just went dead pretty much overnight.

[doncote0]

Sorry to hear that Rico66. Never thougtht about the end game until you mentioned it, but it makes sense. I guess with quick response and no noise you can get a quick failure with no warning.

I make routine backups of all my important stuff just in case and all my SSD's have a 5 year warranty.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Rico66

Vertex 2. There's a number of people who report similar issues, if you look on the ocz forums. I doubt this is about longevity with regards to write cycles, the issue is likely something else.
I'm getting a 320 (should be there tomorrow...)

Interesting. I'm glad I've waited for the tech to mature before going with one in my main rig. My cheap kingston for the client has been awesome. I guess you prefer the intel controller?

[ace007]

Although hopefully a higher quality than consumer grade SSD drives we will be deploying a new enterprise SAN this year that will use SSD drives for the most demanding I/O requirements. These things will be hammered all day long. I guess we will see how robust they can be.

[doncote0]

I guess we will see how robust they can be.

Way cool. I have thought about this. Especially for RDBMS. Sorry, my geek is showing. Especially for databases back-ends like SQL or Oracle. Install a decent size SSD (or create a RAID 0 ssd volume) for swap file usage and see how it does. You could even stick the transaction logs on one (same one or separate one) if you really wanted to improve speeds.

I would recommend fixing the minimum and maximum swap file to the maximum recommended by the OS and leaving it there.

Keep us informed!

Ooops...you said SAN and I was thinking server...it still rocks though.

[ace007]

We can buy SSD drives for servers now as well although they are pretty expensive. What interesting in the SAN is they using the drives not only for fast storage but also as a 2nd level cache to back up the traditional memory based cache. As you know cache has a very high rate of change so it shall be interesting.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

SSD's seem to be pretty pointless for servers at this point though. I've got one in my client and it is nice to have all the fanart load instantly. I'd say it is the best upgrade I've ever done. Funny thing is it was the cheapest one I could find. I'd really like to see how a high end one would perform.

huh? When you run a server to drive a bunch of extenders why wouldn't an SSD help in the server? I am guessing that there are now far more people running using extenders as clients vs PC clients.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by wayner

huh? When you run a server to drive a bunch of extenders why wouldn't an SSD help in the server? I am guessing that there are now far more people running using extenders as clients vs PC clients.

As far as I know the latency of the network would undo the benefit of an ssd as an OS drive. The server would start faster, but I don't think anything on the extenders would be noticeably faster. Of course I could be completely wrong. Now if ALL drives in the server were ssd's then I can see the benefit.

I guess someone with extenders and a server with an ssd as the os drive would have to tell us if there is any noticeable difference.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

As far as I know the latency of the network would undo the benefit of an ssd as an OS drive. The server would start faster, but I don't think anything on the extenders would be noticeably faster. Of course I could be completely wrong. Now if ALL drives in the server were ssd's then I can see the benefit.

I guess someone with extenders and a server with an ssd as the os drive would have to tell us if there is any noticeable difference.

I am about to find out but there definatly should be. You have to remember that the UI is rendered at the server for extenders. I use to think the same thing but the more I think about it it definately should benefit. Others have said it does.

[doncote0]

I am using SSD's on steriods for the OS drive, my extenders are all Hauppauge MVP based so the difference is huge (transcoding done on server).

For the current type of extenders (HD300 and the like), the overall improvement might not be as noticeable (but the UI is still rendered on the server as noted above).

For me, SageTV transcoding happens faster, comskip is faster, videoredo (including QSF) is faster, all Sage web apps are faster, Placeshifter (transcoding on server) is faster and Playon streaming is faster.

(Some of those would probably still be faster regardless of the extender used.)

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by doncote0

I am using SSD's on steriods for the OS drive, my extenders are all Hauppauge MVP based so the difference is huge (transcoding done on server).

For the current type of extenders (HD300 and the like), the overall improvement might not be as noticeable (but the UI is still rendered on the server as noted above).

For me, SageTV transcoding happens faster, comskip is faster, videoredo (including QSF) is faster, all Sage web apps are faster, Placeshifter (transcoding on server) is faster and Playon streaming is faster.

(Some of those would probably still be faster regardless of the extender used.)

I guess that answers that question. Why did you just do that? Now I'm thinking about an ssd in my server. More money..(mumbles in frustration).

EDIT: What drive are you using? You said ssd's so I'm thinking RAID0?

[doncote0]

Hey, if you are happy with your current setup, upgrade that last. If it isn't broken...
An SSD is great for a new build or to extend the life of a current build (that starting to look slow and old).

Get your BD drive, your 3rd HD300, a new receiver, rescue dog, trip to Vegas, etc. first.

If I were going SSD now I would:

1. Put Windows 7 OS on SSD with fixed size pagefile.
2. Have a 2nd SSD (say 120GB) for recording (probably Intel 510 series [Elm Crest]).
3. At 23hrs have SJQ start job to cut out commecials only for favorites I designate.
4. Have SJQ move any recording >24hrs old to a standard drive (along with all associated files).
5. Make occasional snapshots/full backups of the entire OS drive to an external save point.

Why Intel 510 series for second SSD? It's a faster Intel drive, but the main reason is that this drive is going to get hammered. The Intel toolbox should allow this drive (or any other Intel SSD) to maintain peak efficiency for a longer period of time between secure erases.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by doncote0

Hey, if you are happy with your current setup, upgrade that last. If it isn't broken...
An SSD is great for a new build or to extend the life of a current build (that starting to look slow and old).

Get your BD drive, your 3rd HD300, a new receiver, rescue dog, trip to Vegas, etc. first.

If I were going SSD now I would:

1. Put Windows 7 OS on SSD with fixed size pagefile.
2. Have a 2nd SSD (say 120GB) for recording (probably Intel 510 series [Elm Crest]).
3. At 23hrs have SJQ start job to cut out commecials only for favorites I designate.
4. Have SJQ move any recording >24hrs old to a standard drive (along with all associated files).
5. Make occasional snapshots/full backups of the entire OS drive to an external save point.

Why Intel 510 series for second SSD? It's a faster Intel drive, but the main reason is that this drive is going to get hammered. The Intel toolbox should allow this drive (or any other Intel SSD) to maintain peak efficiency for a longer period of time between secure erases.

NoW using a ssd for recording is a bit much I would rather use a second as a scratch drive.

[doncote0]

I just saw the 30TB+...

Hmmm...Scratch drive...

caches
Videoredo copy file, fix file, overwrite original
Create Iso's
grab torrents
if your OS is NOT on SSD, putting the pagefile on one will still improve system performance significantly

Is that close?

How are you liking the HDHR's OTA?

[panteragstk]

The 510 drives use a marvell controller, not intel. Will the toolbox work with them too?

[doncote0]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-042-_-Product

Features:

Intel 34nm NAND Flash Memory
Intel SSD Toolbox with Intel SSD Optimizer
Intel Data Migration Software
Intel Rapid Storage Technology
SATA Revision 3.0
ATA8-ACS
SSD-enhanced S.M.A.R.T. ATA feature set
Native Command Queuing (NCQ) command set
Data Set Management Command Trim attribute
Random 4 KB Reads: Up to 20,000 IOPS; Writes: Up to 8,000 IOPS

http://download.intel.com/design/fla...duct_Brief.pdf

[panteragstk]

That is the one I was talking about. I didn't know that the toolkit would work on non intel controllers.

[doncote0]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-706-_-Product

They have a toolbox, too.

(But the current version lets you secure erase the OS drive from inside the OS...it should not let you do that.)

For SATA-2, the Vertex 2 has worked very well for me.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by doncote0

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-706-_-Product

They have a toolbox, too.

(But the current version lets you secure erase the OS drive from inside the OS...it should not let you do that.)

For SATA-2, the Vertex 2 has worked very well for me.

I'm looking at the vertex 3. I'd need a sata III card, but my gaming rig is the one I'd get it for. The server won't get one for a while. Thanks for the input.