SSD I/O being re-engineered?

[Shooshie]

Here's what seems to me a very interesting article about SSD I/O. It seems that the mismatch between disk-based I/O trees and non-volatile memory I/O trees is finally coming to a head, and some of the best minds are focusing on figuring out the solution to the problem.

I'd explain more, but you'd be far better off in the hands of the author of the article, so... Here's the Link!

I don't have any SSD drives yet, though I have a lot of those little USB flash drives, including one on which I keep my Waves authorizations, and which I have a substantial interest in keeping in operation without any lost data. Of course, I'd like to start installing SSDs for speed, but I'm still afraid of exactly what they discuss in this article. So... I DO hope they get this figured out, and SOON!

Shooshie

[mikehalloran]

The article is talking about server arrays. Those often get no rest and SSDs require downtime. OK, the problem is the same but far less intense on the desktop.

There is no problem here that isn't solved by buying SSDs of recent manufacture – they are being made better – with 5 or 10 year guarantees. The Sanyo 840 EVO, for example, is no longer a good buy while the 850 EVO is. The 850 Pro is better because of the 10 year guarantee even though the 1T version costs $100 more.

Have good backups especially Time Machine. Those should be spinners.

Disk tools besides TRIM, part of the OS, are useless for SSDs except as diagnostic tools. Active disk management reduces performance of SSDs, some drastically. Don't use them, even if they're your favorites. Never ever, ever, ever optimize an SSD.

Disable Put HD to Sleep whenever possible under Energy Saver with SSDs. It is unnecessary and an keep TRIM from doing its job.

If an SSD starts slowing down, enable TRIM and make certain there's 15% or more free space (I like 20%). If that doesn't fix it, erase (do not write to Zeros), restore from Time Machine and see if that restores speed. If not, replace under warranty.

Security is actually quite good with SSDs because of the way that garbage collection works. Try recovering a trashed file 5 minutes after deletion and see how successful you are. If you Write to Zeros for security reasons, immediately reinitialize again so that TRIM knows it's free space and Garbage Collection can do its thing.

[HCMarkus]

I simply have to say to you Shooshie: Just get one SSD big enough to serve as your boot drive and throw it on the SATA port in your second optical bay. It's simple.

Try it! You'll like it!

SSDs work and work well. Spinners are simply left in the dust.

Edit: Except for backups, I've been 100% SSD now for about two years with nary a hiccup.

[mikehalloran]

I simply have to say to you Shooshie: Just get one SSD big enough to serve as your boot drive and throw it on the SATA port in your second optical bay. It's simple.

Try it! You'll like it!

SSDs work and work well. Spinners are simply left in the dust.

Edit: Except for backups, I've been 100% SSD now for about two years with nary a hiccup.

Exactly.

There are recent reports that SSDs may not handle archives well. OK… don't use them for that.

In the next couple of months, I will be buying one of those new 2T Sanyo 850. So far I am only seeing the EVO for $800. I'll see what the price on the Pro is when it ships. Since I will be putting it in a 5 year old iMac, do I really want to spend the extra money? I'll wait till then to decide.