[mythtv-users] MythTV Hardware Upgrade Questions

[Eric Sharkey]

On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 6:08 PM, Raymond Wagner <raymond at wagnerrp.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:21:58 -0400, Eric Sharkey <eric at lisaneric.org>
> wrote:
>> I recommend that you get a small but fast solid state disk.
>>
>> 30GB is big enough for the database and OS and it really speeds up
>> anything that uses the db a lot.
>
> Note that there is more worth to a larger SSD than simply providing more
> space.  SSDs employ wear leveling, which migrates heavily used sectors
> around the drive, to prevent areas from burning out too soon.  The larger
> the drive, the more area the drive has to wear down, significantly
> extending the lifetime of the part.

Somehow I'm not concerned that the admitted "upgrade junky" who's
currently considering upgrading his quad-core processor to a six core
model will have much of a problem with the lifetime of the part.
While what you say is true, SSDs do last quite some time.  As an OS/db
drive not hosting the recordings it will take many years to reach the
the point where the drive wears out.  The OS files are mostly read
only, and the database just really isn't that big.

Also remember that unlike magnetic disks, SSDs tend to fail on write
and can still be read at that point.  This means that if the drive
does wear out, you can still clone the data onto a new drive.

Rather than buying a drive that's twice as big as necessary, he'll be
better off banking the savings and using that cash to buy a newer,
bigger, faster drive three years from now.

Eric