(OT) Questions About SSDs for a Laptop

[Mark Phillips]

Ed,

There are a lot of optimization articles out there. The more current ones
say to ignore the older ones and just use trim. All the older optimization
suggestions seem to have been incorporated into the drives in some way,
according to the authors. I can't find the article that made these
pronouncements, so ymmv.

Thanks,

Mark


On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 11:28 PM, Ed <plug at 0x1b.com> wrote:

> Some additional interesting links:
> https://wiki.debian.org/SSDOptimization
> https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/ssd
>
> On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 12:33 PM, Jon Kettenhofen <subs at kexsof.com> wrote:
> > IMO, get the SSD but also install the hard drive, if the laptop allows it
> > (otherwise try iCloud? :-) ), that will act as a backup.  Separately,
> > neither may be more reliable than the other but you will be safer.
> > And faster.
> > So back up frequently.
> >
> > For even faster *desktop* performance, shell out the big bucks for a
> PCI-E
> > board mounted SSD.  At 16x, PCI-E is reputed to handle more bandwidth
> than
> > SATA or SCSI.  I've seen Windows XP boot (completely) in 10 seconds with
> > instant access to just about everything except the internet (which varies
> > with ISP connection . . . )
> >
> > Smaller PCI-E drives (256GB) are now available for a reasonable price,
> that
> > being around $1/GB, but the fastest - OZC Revo - are still pricey.
> >
> > Not to be a wet blanket, but nearly all drives fail.
> > After I read the descriptions of the engineering used to give storage
> drives
> > more room (i.e. more gigabytes and terrabytes) my faith was a little
> shaken.
> > An article in Tom's Hardware hit home (2011) but still holds some
> credence
> > and that is that if you look at the reviews of SSD's at newegg dot com,
> then
> > you will realize that perhaps no storage technology is perfect.  More to
> the
> > point, YMMV.  Although sellers do their best to weed out fake reviews,
> some
> > of them do make it through and the purpose of those fake reviews can be
> > either to support or disprespect the product or manufacturer.
> >
> > Recently,
> > Some publications have revealed that many brands of SSDs will fail if the
> > power is abruptly removed, as in a plug or battery removal while the
> > unit is running, or the computer has a catastrophic failure like a fatal
> > motherboard burnout.   The story is that so far only certain Intel SSD's
> can
> > consistently survive this scenario.
> >
> > Nevermind.
> > Most of us will probably never see that happen.  Storage technology is
> > complicated with much error-correction circuitry in place and in constant
> > use.  To see an example, check the output of the SMART technology built
> into
> > any of your drives that are directly connected to your IDE/ATA and SATA
> > (whatever you have) busses.  There is/are some good apps in Linux to show
> > you this. The bottom line is that every disk access is checked and
> > error-corrected because (read and write) errors happen all the time.
> They
> > just usually get fixed in the process.
> >
> > Some interesting, if perhaps scary, links:
> >
> http://www.extremetech.com/computing/173887-ssd-stress-testing-finds-intel-might-be-the-only-reliable-drive-manufacturer
> > (Jan. 3, 2014)
> > http://www.anandtech.com/show/4202/the-intel-ssd-510-review/3 (Mar. 2,
> 2011)
> >
> http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-reliability-failure-rate,2923.html
> > (July 28, 2011)
> >
> > Insight into manufacturing technology:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 09/02/2014 01:23 PM, Mark Phillips wrote:
> >>
> >> I am looking at a new Linux laptop, and I have the option of a mSata SSD
> >> drive or a conventional drive. I am considering a 1 TB Samsung 840 EVO
> >> mSata SSD for the OS and all my partitions.
> >>
> >> 1. Are there any reasons not to use a SSD for the full disk, as opposed
> >> to just for the OS? Other than saving money, as a small SSD would cost a
> >> lot less!
> >>
> >> 2. I have seen recommendations on the net to backup the drive to a
> >> spinning drive. The laptop has a couple of bays, so I could put a back
> >> up drive in one of the bays. Does this make sense, or have SSDs matured
> >> enough that they will last like a spinning drive?
> >>
> >> 3. Anything else I should be aware of when moving to the world of SSDs?
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> Mark
> >>
> >>
> >> ---------------------------------------------------
> >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
> >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> >> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
> >>
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------
> > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
> > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> > http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.phxlinux.org/pipermail/plug-discuss/attachments/20140903/bbb3a423/attachment.html>