SSD (M4) lifespan and usage with Maya

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nathanallen25

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Mar 24, 2013
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I have what feels like a complicated question about using my new SSD (crucial m4, 256g).
I've installed Windows 7 on it fine, have it set to boot. All running fine.

I want to operate Maya 2012x64 on new SSD for speed, but will then necessarily be writing/deleting/overwriting files all the time. I've heard that SSDs have a lifespan for how much you can actually write (and rewrite) to it, though I'm not sure to what degree this matters.

I found the comment about the lifespan here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=29731860&postcount=4

It makes me wonder why you'd even use one if after a while it's useless from...well, from being used as a hard drive. Perhaps I just don't understand the nature of SSDs and how they should be used...
 
Solution
JohnnyLucky
Congratulations on your ssd purchase.

Are you using a hard disk drive to store data files? Those large data files should be saved to a hard disk drive instead of the ssd. Typically users will install the operating system, software applications, and utilities on the ssd. Data files like documents, images, videos, movies, and music are saved to a hard disk drive.

Are you using a scratch disk or ramdisk for working with Maya?

SSD longevity is a topic that is often misunderstood. With a little disk management a good consumer ssd will last quite a few years. If you write and delete 10GB of data every single day of the year an ssd should last 7 years or more. There are high quality ssd's that will last much longer. Some of them will last...
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JohnnyLucky

JohnnyLucky

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May 30, 2007
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Congratulations on your ssd purchase.

Are you using a hard disk drive to store data files? Those large data files should be saved to a hard disk drive instead of the ssd. Typically users will install the operating system, software applications, and utilities on the ssd. Data files like documents, images, videos, movies, and music are saved to a hard disk drive.

Are you using a scratch disk or ramdisk for working with Maya?

SSD longevity is a topic that is often misunderstood. With a little disk management a good consumer ssd will last quite a few years. If you write and delete 10GB of data every single day of the year an ssd should last 7 years or more. There are high quality ssd's that will last much longer. Some of them will last over 20 years before giving out. Over on the enterprise side of the market there are enterprise level ssd's that you can fill and delete 10 times a day and they will still last quite a few years. Unfortunately those enterprise level ssd's are very expensive.
 
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nathanallen25

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Mar 24, 2013
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10,510


Thanks for all the info!
I can use the HDD for the data files feeding into Maya, but I was concerned that this might negate the speed advantage of using the SSD for Maya. Though if I don't lose the speed, that'd be fantastic for storage of the assets and scene files....

I'm not completely sure which (scratch or ramdisk) disk I'm working with Maya...I've installed it to the new SSD. Previously I ran/installed Maya on a regular Seagate HDD.

 
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JohnnyLucky

JohnnyLucky

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May 30, 2007
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I just happen to have a photo gallery consisting of 3,000 images. One half consists of 800x600 pixel images and the second half consists of matching thumbnails. I have two identical copies of the gallery. One is stored on an ssd and the second one is stored on a hard disk drive. If I use a photo editing application to access the gallery on the ssd the photo editor's thumbnail version of the gallery comes up instantly. If I call up the exact same gallery from the hard disk drive there is a slight delay in displaying the photo editor's gallery. The same thing happens when saving a large batch of processed images. I notice the difference. Oddly the slight time lag is fairly short and doesn't bother me. Rendering processes produce mixed results.
 
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