Solid State Hard Drives

[DEANO2]

My hard drive on my laptop went belly up last week. So I replaced it and went through the Windows rebuild process. So I decided given my Toshiba has a space for two sata hard drives to get a solid state drive to boot and run Jriver Media center.

My question is , will I benefit from dedicating my music renderer to a solid state drive or am pissing into the wind ?

[ElviaCaprice]

2 minutes ago, DEANO2 said:

My hard drive on my laptop went belly up last week. So I replaced it and went through the Windows rebuild process. So I decided given my Toshiba has a space for two sata hard drives to get a solid state drive to boot and run Jriver Media center.

My question is , will I benefit from dedicating my music renderer to a solid state drive or am pissing into the wind ?

This^

[beerandmusic]

SSD would be the correct choice in almost all instances, and for many reasons....but most notably speed, noise, and retention.

 

The only reason I would own non-ssd is mass storage where cost is prohibitive.

 

 

[ElviaCaprice]

Actually an SSD electrically is noisier.  Mechanically quieter.  Definitely faster.  But how much speed do you need for audio?  Video yes.

I've quite using SSD's for the past few years.  HDD"s are plenty fast for playback, even video.  I only use SSD's for audio/video mastering/rendering or non media audiophile servers.

I've never had a HDD die.  Only if misused, like kicked while active.  I've had a few SSD's die.  A SSD in a portable labtop is probably a good idea.

[GUTB]

SSDs are very noisy from an electrical standpoint but unless you have room to fit in a SATA filter then there's nothing you can do about that.

[beerandmusic]

11 minutes ago, ElviaCaprice said:

Actually an SSD electrically is noisier.  Mechanically quieter.  Definitely faster.  But how much speed do you need for audio?  Video yes.

I've quite using SSD's for the past few years.  HDD"s are plenty fast for playback, even video.  I only use SSD's for audio/video mastering/rendering.

 

I personally only buy ssd's anymore, if for no other reason, no potential head crashes, longevity.

[mansr]

35 minutes ago, beerandmusic said:

I personally only buy ssd's anymore, if for no other reason, no potential head crashes, longevity.

HDD's still have better life expectancy, unless I've missed something.

[rando]

I've noted how strained the production of hard drives and memory is at the moment in previous posts.  Though I defer to the general truth in what mansr said it is by no means an absolute.  Commercial production of SSD in the time frame that would validate his claim has seen a considerable amount of improvement.  

 

It really is a use case scenario where you need to make a personal assessment based on what the low points in your equipment can be which reasonably will be cancelled out or overran by the chain of equipment that follows.  Choosing equipment with specific flaws you can hope to counteract or use to greater benefit a piece in the puzzle the designer didn't anticipate takes research and experimentation.  So experiment and draw reasonable conclusions instead of just lumping in something XX on the internet suggested from X company who is currently campaigning for dollars from your demographic. 

[mansr]

The choice of storage medium depends on which factors are most important to your application.

• Cost per TB: HDD
• Density: HDD
• Reliability: probably HDD
• Speed: SSD
• Power consumption: SSD
• Shock/vibration tolerance: SSD
• Weight: SSD

[beerandmusic]

^^^^

https://www.networkworld.com/article/2873551/data-center/debunking-ssd-myths.html

[mansr]

3 minutes ago, beerandmusic said:

^^^^

https://www.networkworld.com/article/2873551/data-center/debunking-ssd-myths.html

That article is written by an "SSD business development manager" at Intel. Here's a bucket of salt.

[beerandmusic]

12 minutes ago, mansr said:

That article is written by an "SSD business development manager" at Intel. Here's a bucket of salt.

well google then and pick your own......any reliable source will tell you ssd are more reliable...especially in the case of stored media that is not constantly being overwritten (e.g. music files)....

 

The percentage of failure is much less with SSD, and is true in my own experience as well....but any authoritarian on the subject will confirm.

 

In the datacenter, it may be a different story where they are continuously being overwritten.

 

[beerandmusic]

Here's a link that provides real numbers and is relatively recent.

 

https://therevisionist.org/reviews/ssd-vs-hdd-one-reliable/

 

Also take into consideration actual purpose for home usage, the write cycles are minimal.

[mansr]

1 minute ago, beerandmusic said:

well google then and pick your own......any reliable source will tell you ssd are more reliable...especially in the case of stored media that is not constantly being overwritten (e.g. music files)....

 

The percentage of failure is much less with SSD, and is true in my own experience as well....but any authoritarian on the subject will confirm.

I have HDDs that are over 20 years old and still work without a fault (I've had a fair few fail too). SSDs simply haven't existed long enough for their real-world life span to be assessed.

[beerandmusic]

3 minutes ago, mansr said:

I have HDDs that are over 20 years old and still work without a fault (I've had a fair few fail too). SSDs simply haven't existed long enough for their real-world life span to be assessed.

I am confident that i have played with more hdd than most (not all) here.

Have those 20 year old drives being spinning and performing writes 24x7?

The average hd life just spinning without doing anything is under 6 years.

[mansr]

1 minute ago, beerandmusic said:

I am confident that i have played with more hdd than most here.

Have those 20 year old drives being spinning and performing writes 24x7?

The average hd life just spinning without doing anything is under 6 years.

And what did SSDs look like 6 years ago?

 

Anyhow, the way storage technology is progressing, nobody really needs lifetimes of more than a few years since devices are replaced more often regardless.

[DEANO2]

5 hours ago, beerandmusic said:

 

I personally only buy ssd's anymore, if for no other reason, no potential head crashes, longevity.

Thanks Yes I agree 3 years old on the dot and bang , do you think they are quieter? 

[Ralf11]

are there any comparative listening tests?

[DEANO2]

4 hours ago, beerandmusic said:

Here's a link that provides real numbers and is relatively recent.

 

https://therevisionist.org/reviews/ssd-vs-hdd-one-reliable/

 

Also take into consideration actual purpose for home usage, the write cycles are minimal.

Thanks that article opened my eye's,  I was thinking Intel SSD but that appeared to be the least reliable out of those tested. So Samsung was the over achiever. 

[DEANO2]

4 hours ago, mansr said:

That article is written by an "SSD business development manager" at Intel. Here's a bucket of salt.

Having read that article I'm now not convinced that ssd would be a good choice for rendering a music file at all. Still the speed and less heat appears to make it a winner.

[sandyk]

40 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

are there any comparative listening tests?

 

 The only one that I am aware of, was a simple listening comparison several years ago at a C.A. Symposium organised by Chris Connaker,  where the overall preference was for the sound from SSD.

 

 My own preference is for SSD where the +5V supply to it has been improved, and also increases the isolation between the SSD and other areas via the PSU. (+12V internal supply regulated down to +5V for the SSD)

 

[beerandmusic]

21 minutes ago, DEANO2 said:

Thanks that article opened my eye's,  I was thinking Intel SSD but that appeared to be the least reliable out of those tested. So Samsung was the over achiever.

I personally buy samsung drives.

[DEANO2]

32 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 

 The only one that I am aware of, was a simple listening comparison several years ago at a C.A. Symposium organised by Chris Connaker,  where the overall preference was for the sound from SSD.

 

 My own preference is for SSD where the +5V supply to it has been improved, and also increases the isolation between the SSD and other areas via the PSU. (+12V internal supply regulated down to +5V for the SSD)

 

Achievable in a desktop,  Not so much in a laptop.

[sandyk]

28 minutes ago, beerandmusic said:

I personally buy samsung drives.

I have a Samsung 850 and a Samsung 840 to complement my larger sized HDDs.

 The start up delay is greatly reduced when using SSD for the OS !

[sandyk]

3 minutes ago, DEANO2 said:

Achievable in a desktop,  Not so much in a laptop.

 

 I have the attached DIY supply with 2 separate +5V outputs bolted to the bottom of my desktop's case.

It uses 2 LM317T voltage regulators plus separate low noise Shunt Regulators.