SSD wearing down, what effects it?

[Kippa]

Quick question about SSD wearing down over time. Is the wearing down due to both reading and writing of the drive? Or just writing? The reason I ask is that if it is just writing then I'd consider getting a TLC ssd for hosting games in the future, which realistically will be just reading most of the time.

 

[Anteaus]

It's the writing, and it's highly unlikely you will ever hit the limit. If your SSD dies, it will likely be for any number of other reasons. That said, SSDs are worth the money and whatever risk you might take will easily be overshadowed by the performance boost.

 

[Wall Street]

To be ultra specific, it is erasing that wears down the SSD, of course, before you write anything you need to erase what was there previously.

 

[Hellhammer]

To be ultra specific, it is erasing that wears down the SSD, of course, before you write anything you need to erase what was there previously.

Both writing and erasing use the same tunneling method which degrades the silicon oxide.

Theoretically reads also shorten the life of the NAND because we are still dealing with voltages, but the impact is much smaller since there's no tunneling process going on.