ssd for linux

[phasseshifter]

given the fact that linux makes a swap partition...would this wear out the ssd r/w cycles on a ssd hdd would it shorten the drive life...

 

[Anteaus]

Don't worry about it. While SSD's do have write limits, under normal usage you will never hit it, even with a swap file. Early SSDs were more prone to early failure, especially when abused by constant benchmarking. Just use your SSD like you would use any HDD. All storage devices have small chance of failure, and odds are that if your SSD dies early it won't be because of hitting any endurance limits.

If you wish to be prudent, it is more important to have a properly aligned partition and TRIM enabled. Also, many people believe that leaving 10-20 percent of the drive empty (non-partitioned) can help keep overall performance up due to how TRIM works. It's call provisioning. If you use the whole drive, performance can decrease over time. I personally haven't seen that to be the case and I use the whole drive but your experience may vary.

 

[phasseshifter]

thank you good advice..i was a little wary as the ssd is a Kingston..but at the price it`s a steel..it is a v300/37 240 gig..i have read the sticky and it remarks these drives to be the worst..i am wondering to go spend a bit more for better quality ssd drive...???..i think leaving free space is just a waste others may differ..these days i often find this...u get what you pay for but sometimes brand is all your paying for..

 

[Cerb]

given the fact that linux makes a swap partition...

Linux does no such thing. Installers do that, if you tell them to automatically partition, in case you choose a file system that lacks swap file support, but don't have the RAM to run without swap.

would this wear out the ssd r/w cycles on a ssd hdd would it shorten the drive life...

No. At least, no more than with Windows, and probably a lot less.

I'm going to need decades to wear out any of mine, including one that is a bit RAM-starved, and relies on the swap sometimes (grrr, hate that).

If you wish to be prudent, it is more important to have a properly aligned partition

Note: fdisk and gdisk do not allow the first partition to be unaligned, without a command-line argument when run, and most of the time installers align all partitions to 1MB, even if not enforced by the partition tool. So, it's automatic, like Windows'.

and TRIM enabled.

Add ",discard" to the mount options (without quotes, obviously). If this causes stuttering, which it can for drives that commit TRIM immediately (840 Pro, FI), you can instead run "fstrim /" as a cron job (that will do a full pass of free space at once). Due to some FSes taking time to get really stable support for TRIM, and a handful of buggy older SSDs (also, that most people will never notice the difference, if you don't tell them, and they don't run benchmarks for it), it's not usually on by default.

Also, many people believe that leaving 10-20 percent of the drive empty (non-partitioned) can help keep overall performance up due to how TRIM works.

Not due to how TRIM works, but the SSD's internal wear leveling. How much it may help will be dependent on workload. With solid FS and drive support for TRIM, today, and given how consistent most newer SSDs are in their performance over time, I wouldn't bother, unless on an random write heavy system (OLTP server, dedicated BT box, or something like that).

 

[phasseshifter]

thank you Cerb that clears one thing up for me well actually quite a few ... it`s nice to see that quite often when i do start a thread i am getting help from well i will say experienced members ..i appreciate this very much..i know the Kingston drive is prolly not the best choice i can make but it`s half price..in aud..only 99 $$ and for 240 gig for linux that is just apples ..i may even get another pair of 2 gig sticks so i will have my 8 gig in total..that depends on the price...

 

[bbhaag]

I use the same drive on my Mint 17.1 laptop. So far I haven't noticed any issues but I've only been using it since May of this year when Mint 17 was released. It's a SATA2 laptop but I see read speeds in the 240-246 MB/s range when I use the built in benchmark.

I do run the trim command every couple of weeks though. I would automate it using cron but I'm just not skilled/sure enough to attempt it. Here's the command I run in the terminal. You may not need it but it might come in handy for other people seeing this thread.

sudo fstrim -v /

 

[John Connor]

My new years resolution is to learn Linux. TRIM is not automatic on a Linux install? How do you align the partition in a Linux install?

 

[phasseshifter]

i would like to end this thread as ..today i got a 120Gb patriot pryo ssd..i downloaded mint Rebecca kde version..and have it up and running.. so thanks to all.... also i am running firefox beta 35..it`s going to be released end of jan.. all going well..phasse ..

 

[Essence_of_War]

My new years resolution is to learn Linux. TRIM is not automatic on a Linux install? How do you align the partition in a Linux install?

I would refer you to Cerb's post above. Cerb answered all of these questions.

In short, you add ",discard" to the fstab mount options, or schedule "fstrim /" in your crontab, and the usual installers automatically align.

 

[ronbo613]

Good information. I have a Linux system(Ubuntu) and have an old Vertex 2 I'd like to try with it but I fear the OCZ drive will explode and take most of the county with it.

 

[bbhaag]

My new years resolution is to learn Linux. TRIM is not automatic on a Linux install? How do you align the partition in a Linux install?

TRIM is automated on install but only for certain drives. I think Samsung and Intel are the only ones right now. It has been awhile since I checked though so it might be different.
Like Cerb and I mentioned you can automate it for any drive using a cron job. Or use the discard option but I'm not sure what that means. Maybe Cerb could elaborate on that a bit.

 

[Cerb]

Adding discard makes it so the FS will send TRIM as blocks are freed. I'm not sure why they didn't name it unmap or trim, though.