The cheap consumer stuff at Fry's now comes with a lifetime warranty. Also, I use the cheap limited warranty compactflash in my firewalls and they are still in service, almost 2 years later. I think we can assume the flash is written to several million times in a year, so the quality of the flash seems to be much better than it was. Funny thing - I built a firewall using a hard drive a year ago, and it already has filesystem errors. No CF box I built has failed yet. JD Alan Dayley wrote: > keith smith wrote: > >>I wonder how the flash-based data storage will last. It is my >>understanding flash-based data storage has a finite life span and wonder >>what that really means. >> >>Is it good for a year, two years, five years? Can I add a hard drive? >> >>It is an exceptional value and at $199 it is almost worth getting just >>to mess with. > > > See my comments from more than a year ago: > > http://lists.plug.phoenix.az.us/lurker/message/20060504.231037.e6c110af.en.html > > Much of what I said then still holds true. However, flash memory and > flash controller technologies continue to improve and progress at a > rapid rate. I think even a consumer grade flash device should last more > than a year these days, unless it is the cheap, no-name stuff. > > I would hope that Asus is using higher grade stuff in this little > computer since it is the sole boot and data storage media. There are > also tweaks that can be made to the kernel and system logging and other > things to drastically minimize the number and frequency of small writes > to the media. They could also be using a file system that is tailored > to flash media. Combining all of these factors, the flash media could > last many years. > > I'd like to see a tear-down article with pictures for one of these > little computers. That would be fun. > > Alan > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss ____________________________________________________________________________________ Need a vacation? Get great deals to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel. http://travel.yahoo.com/ --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss