Can SSDs Be Used For Software Development? 480
hackingbear writes "I'm considering buying a current-generation SSD to replace my external hard disk drive for use in my day-to-day software development, especially to boost the IDE's performance. Size is not a great concern: 120GB is enough for me. Price is not much of a concern either, as my boss will pay. I do have concerns on the limitations of write cycles as well as write speeds. As I understand, the current SSDs overcome it by heuristically placing the writes randomly. That would be good enough for regular users, but in software development, one may have to update 10-30% of the source files from Subversion and recompile the whole project, several times a day. I wonder how SSDs will do in this usage pattern. What's your experience developing on SSDs?"
Re:Umm... (Score:5, Funny)
IDE? (Score:5, Funny)
You should get an SATA SSD instead.
Re:Umm... (Score:3, Funny)
I'd say: "Programming is hard let's do Java"
Re:should be fine (Score:5, Funny)
Unless you type like The Flash, even MLC SSDs from the better vendors (Intel) should be fine for anything outside of server applications. Simple math should back this up (how many GB total the drive can write over its lifetime vs how much you produce each day).
I don't know who this "The Flash" is... But this reminds me of some odd invoices I've seen here lately at Star Labs. Someone special-ordered a custom keyboard rated to one hundred times the usual keystroke impact, an 80MHz keyboard controller, and a built-in 1MiB keystroke buffer. Pretty ridiculous, huh? The usual 10ms polling rate for a USB keyboard should be enough for anybody - no need for all that fancy junk.
Re:Lifetime is not an issue :p (Score:5, Funny)
Current SSDs have a lifetime of somewhere around 10.000 years. I think that's enough.
10000 years or 100000 writes, whichever comes first. :D
Re:oh no! several times per day! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Umm... (Score:2, Funny)
Java is hard, let's use Python.
Re:should be fine (Score:3, Funny)
Find who ordered that keyboard and I think you'll find out who the Flash is.
Re:Umm... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm not seating it (Score:3, Funny)
Point is, for significant use, SSD's crap out in less than a year.
And yes, I have statistics and anecdotal evidence both on my side.
Re:should be fine (Score:3, Funny)
I don't know who this "The Flash" is...
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=%22The+Flash%22 [lmgtfy.com]
"But this reminds me of some odd invoices I've seen here lately at Star Labs. [lmgtfy.com]"
Re:SSD, maybe not right now.. MacBook Air develope (Score:2, Funny)
I primarily use SSD's for backups.
Yeah, I primarily use my Learjet as a backup in case my civic breaks down too.
Re:Software Development? Really? (Score:3, Funny)
I had to fucking type my boot sequence in octal to get the system to jump to the correct sector on an 8" floppy. Kids these days. Honestly...
Re:Umm... (Score:3, Funny)
Visual Basic is hard. Let's use Powerpoint.
Re:I'm not seating it (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Swap? (Score:5, Funny)
Or using Java/Haskell/Ruby and/or Eclipse/VS.NET/Emacs (delete according to prejudice).
Re:I'm not seating it (Score:4, Funny)
"Anecdotal evidence" is an oxymoron.
Do you have any evidence?
Re:An SSD walks into a bar... (Score:3, Funny)
And what does that have to do with Solar System Dynamics?
Re:I wouldn't touch SSD's right now (Score:3, Funny)
That's what SHE said.
Re:Umm... (Score:1, Funny)
Maybe he was saying that Java IS syntax. Did you even consider that possibility? True, in that case he's missing other punctuation and maybe a word or two, but still... it is possible.
Re:Umm... (Score:2, Funny)
brainf*ck.
What's with the auto-censordoody? Or are you just a sissy - too shy to use the expletive? And why the heck should I care?
Fixed that for you.
Re:Umm... (Score:1, Funny)
Perl is hard. Let's use brainf*ck.
is there a difference?