Does SSD write when streaming remote content?

@DavidSchwartz and @Shinrai - SSDs have a limited number of ~~read and~~ writes. While this number shouldn't be reached in your life time - if it is constantly ~~reading and~~ writing then it will shorten the lifespan dramatically.

Depending on the software it should store the stream in memory. If you don't have enough memory then Windows may use virtual memory which will thrash the disk due the paging in/out of memory.

If you are just going to use this system to stream - then buy a normal hard drive. It will be cheaper, and you shouldn't notice any speed differences. This is of course assuming you are streaming all of your content - which then the bottleneck would be your network infrastructure/NAS not your hard drive.

If you are copying data to be read off the local disk, then a SSD may be faster though I personally never notice any speed issues on my 7200 RPM drives.

Natalie Adams

Posted 2012-11-26T22:37:00.150

Reputation: 2 071

Your answer kinds of goes off the rails. Sure, if it's constantly reading and writing, then that will affect the lifespan. But then your answer never addresses whether or not it's constantly reading and writing. Reads have no effect on SSD life. – David Schwartz – 2012-11-27T03:12:29.737

I did address whether it's constantly reading/writing - the poster didn't specify what application they were using - so therefore I can't say for sure if a streaming app would do it or not because they are all programmed differently. And from research you are correct about write not reads degrading SSDs. – Natalie Adams – 2012-11-27T05:59:16.640

There's no way you'll exhaust the writes on a modern SSD in any rapid amount of time in a properly-functioning non-server environment, so your initial paragraph is a non-sequitur. The question of "How many writes happen in a situation like this?" is perhaps interesting, but it's of no practical concern to the longevity of the hardware. I absolutely can't agree with "buy a normal hard drive instead" either, if only because of the higher risk of failure (which would be no major loss here in terms of data, but would be annoying). – Shinrai – 2012-11-27T15:50:56.583

Also, be aware that you can't ping somebody in an answer like that (or at all if they haven't commented in the specific comments section you're in). I think we both only saw this because we looked back at the question. – Shinrai – 2012-11-27T15:53:41.457

@Shinrai it all depends on the software/environment. If something is constantly writing out to the disk - like virtual memory - then it will fail sooner. Like you said though - if it "properly-functioning" system then it shouldn't fail in your life time. Constantly paging in/out is defiantly not a properly-functioning system. – Natalie Adams – 2012-11-27T20:02:39.893

I only recommended regular drives because in this case because I have 20GB drives from 1999 still working great today. Which, 20GB is more than enough to install an OS and just stream content. Also, a regular drive is cheaper than a SSD so it makes more sense. However YMMV - you may get a SSD that fails in a week or a regular drive that fails in a day. Equipment can be bad out of the factory. – Natalie Adams – 2012-11-27T20:05:05.357

I work for a small OEM that ships a lot of systems with SSDs - I can tell you that, not counting DOAs (simply because I don't have numbers on those) our 3-year failure rate is on the order of 5% for hard drives and less than 0.25% for SSDs, although it's worth noting we almost exclusively ship Intel SSDs which have a little better record than some other brands. You can also get SSDs big enough for this sort of use now for less than $100, and hard drive prices are still a bit elevated from last year's flooding so it really makes sense. (Going forward, it's going to make even more sense) – Shinrai – 2012-11-27T20:11:22.277

Dollar for dollar if the OP is just going to use it for streaming it makes no sense to buy SSD. Take this for example: 512GB SSD - http://goo.gl/Ij2YT almost $400 then take 500GB http://goo.gl/TLUpx for roughly $70. Even if regular HDs have a higher failure rate - the OP can go through 4 of them and still come out ahead. And lets say that a drive dies every year - after 4 years 500GB will seem small compared to the drives that are out on the market.

– Natalie Adams – 2012-11-27T23:03:16.980

For streaming you'd buy a 40GB SSD for less than that 500GB HDD though. If you don't need local storage the capacity is irrelevant. – Shinrai – 2012-11-29T17:17:03.983

Intel 40GB SSD - $94 - http://goo.gl/cnClT - still cheaper to buy the 500GB.

– Natalie Adams – 2012-11-29T17:46:58.103

1Why do you care? – David Schwartz – 2012-11-26T22:55:21.857

David raises a good point, because the reason you're asking may help inform a decent answer. – Shinrai – 2012-11-26T23:42:09.950

The goal is to build a fanless HTPC with no moving parts to be noiseless. But as Nathan points out if there is too much write on disk, it will die dratically fast. – jpsimard-nyx – 2012-11-27T01:52:53.847

@lucian.jp: So why isn't your question about whether there is too much writing? It seems like you didn't ask the question you actually wanted to ask at all. – David Schwartz – 2012-11-27T03:11:30.127

@DavidSchwartz: "will it write a lot on disk" seems like " too much writing" to me... I really just want to know if the buffer is in memory or on disk when it goes to read a media stream. – jpsimard-nyx – 2012-11-27T03:38:21.913

@lucian.jp: What buffer are you talking about? If it's streaming a file that's on the disk, then the data is already on the disk, and no writing is needed even if the buffer is on disk. – David Schwartz – 2012-11-27T03:39:45.413

1@DavidSchwartz: ??? Question starts with "I host all my files on a NAS device". Files are not on disk... – jpsimard-nyx – 2012-11-27T03:43:04.367

If you are concerned about noise they do make certain drives that are designed to be quiet and if the hard drive supports it - the OS can actually turn off the hard drive. – Natalie Adams – 2012-11-27T06:03:13.030

Does SSD write when streaming remote content?

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