SSDs for my laptop

Here's the situation. I may be able to get an SSD at no extra charge for my laptop, a 256 GB SSD from Dell. However, I don't know about the expected life of Dell SSDs or SSDs in general. Is it worth me trying to get it from Dell? I don't want it if it won't last me a solid 4-5 years. On the computer, I mainly:

1. Game: New games and older ones
2. Schoolwork (I am an engineering student)
3. Movies
4. Internet

I've read that SSDs die out after 10^x reads/writes, but some SSDs reduce this by spreading reads/writes across the drive so everything wears out equally. Do you think with my activities, most of which I consider to be disc-intensive, an SSD will last me 4-5 years without replacement?

Current: 500 GB 7200 RPM

 

Let me quote myself

So in theory the Samsung drives that Dell uses should last quite a long time. Obviously, since these things have only been around for a couple years, no one knows for sure. But chances are, as long as you don't get a dud, it won't crap out before you plan to replace anyway.

 

Any good SSD will last longer than a HDD, though either have chances of getting a dud.

 

Really? So this 10^x read/write limit is just a myth?

Also, any ideas how long it'll take before Dell offers a 512 GB SSD? I don't wanna lose any space off my 500 GB HDD.

 

When Samsung releases its 512GB SSD in Q2/3 2010.

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/products/flash/ssd/2008/product/pcRoadmap.html

 

It's not. Flash memory cells do have a write limit - it's about 100000 cycles for MLC flash cells. This limit combined with the number of flash cells on a given SSD just makes it such that the you aren't likely to wear out a good SSD unless you're writing to it every second of the day.

 

OK, so for my uses that I listed in the original post, and if I do all that every day for say 5-6 hours, do you think that Dell's Samsung SSD would last at year 4-5 years?

 

Yes, I'm pretty sure it will.

 

Thanks, I'll post a poll to see what people say and use their opinions in my decision.

 

CW,

I'm not sure where you read that about Intel SSD's, but the information that I know is that Intel warrants their SSD's for 100GB writes each and every day for five years (on the 80GB G1 & G2 X25-M drives). This is 5 times more than what other manufacturers strive for (20GB per day writes).

Even reading back the data on the SSD is only warranted for 10 years with no use - after that errors are almost 100% certain.

Although it may seem that we can simply keep the writes low and extend the usage time - it is not that simple as there are no actual data points for such extended usage patterns.

Myself, if an SSD (and at this point in time only Intel makes an SSD that interests me at all) lasts at least 3 years, then I should be able to buy the newer/better tech and continue computing 'unscathed' with these early SSD models. If I can push it to 5 years (as Intel suggests), then I feel I'll be ahead of the curve when I do upgrade at that time.

At no point do I feel that anything over 5 years on current technology is feasible - at least not with a computer I depend on and/or timely data I care anything about.

Not to mention that in the next few years, each 'jump' on the SSD trail will leave today's/yesterday's tech so far behind that it will be laughable to keep using anything from now in 2014.

 

Source? I don't recall this being mentioned anywhere when I bought mine. How would they check it?

 

If you search in the original 'The New SSD Thread' I'm pretty sure it was an Intel video that mentioned that.