New Desktop Build

[Bob]

They say they slow down with time.

That was mainly a problem with older SSDs that didn't support garbage collection or TRIM, or, when SSDs were used on systems that didn't support TRIM such as Windows XP. Newer SSDs typically support TRIM and have firmware that supports garbage collection on systems that don't support TRIM. It's not all rosey, garbage collection can shorten SSD life while TRIM has some shortcomings and overhead if it's used for every file delete. But on newer systems and SSDs that support SATA 3.1, there is a new Queued TRIM command that eliminates that problem. With Windows 8 which supports SATA 3 natively and a SATA 3 SSD, I wouldn't expect this system to have any problems at all in that regard unless the SSD is filled. Just like a standard drive, you need to leave some free space and not fill them up.

The system can still slow down over time anyway, but it's less likely to be caused by the SSD.

[Dave McElderry]

Very interesting! I had read somewhere that it had something to do with the physical degradation - of their ability to erase/rewrite/erase/rewrite, etc. After many, many rewrites they couldn't do it as efficiently. I can see I've got some reading to do. Thanks Bob!

[Bob]

It wasn't because of physical degradation. True, flash cells have a limited number of times that they can be written, but that has more to do with the life of the unit. There are also wear leveling algorithms in the controllers to distribute the writes over the device and extend the life of the unit. Incidently, that's one of the big reasons for leaving free space on the drive -- it can be used to level the cell write wear. The degradation came from the way cells were arranged in pages and blocks and the hardware restriction of erasing only at the block level. Once a single cell in a block was written, it became necessary for the entire block to be erased to reclaim that one cell. That created a considerable overhead and actually shortened the life of the unit through a process called write amplification.

[Dave McElderry]

I get the gist, if not the specifics. I'll put this subject on my required reading list and make a point of learning more when I'm not being expected to help the wife prepare the house for our Thanksgiving guests tomorrow. I appreciate it.

[momoffduty]

Thanks for posting the photos Gerlinde. Very nice!