Hmm... Didn't know that. Theymos did say that overuse of swap space was what deteriorated the SSDs though and that they are older models.
A platter drive I would normally replace after 5 years, or 50,000-60,000 hours.
I've had platter drives that have lasted over 25+ years although I've had a couple from the mid 2000's fail as well. The current one in my laptop is over 10 years old.
It also uses more power, produces more heat, is more vulnerable to shock, etc. They have their place still, but longevity is not a reason to buy a platter drive.
Shock, power consumption, and heat probably aren't concerns for a server since they don't tend to be moved around much, have cooling issues, or rely on limited power sources unlike laptops.
People worried about the finite lifecycle of a SSD are, for the most part, being ridiculous or using it as an excuse to justify their terrible decision to stick with platter drives. Your netbook probably has a cheap one. Cheap drives are crap drives, doesn't matter what kind they are.
Possible. My netbook is the 4 GB model from 2007. The Eee PC was cheap compared to the subnotebooks that came before it but ASUS isn't a manufacturer that tends to skimp on quality. I'm not sure if manufacturers still disable virtual memory on SSDs or not as a precautionary measure these days though.
EDIT: After doing a quick Google search for 'virtual memory on ssds', it looks like it's still a bad idea. Most of the sites recommend turning the option off.
Example:
No one likes a bricked SSD. You can reduce wear and tear and wring out every last write cycle - just don't treat it like a traditional hard drive...
...An SSD is flash storage. It has no moving parts. So unlike on a traditional mechanical hard drive, nothing breaks. SSD wear and tear has to do with write cycles.
Flash storage handles data in a specific way. When data is written to a block, the entire block must be erased before it can be written to again. The lifespan of an SSD is measured in these program-erase (P/E) cycles. Modern, consumer-grade, Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND memory can generally endure about 3,000 to 5,000 P/E cycles before the storage's integrity starts to deteriorate. The higher-end, Single-Level Cell (SLC) flash memory chip can withstand up to 100,000 P/E cycles.
You'd have to work hard to reach the P/E cycle limit for an MLC-based drive, let alone an SLC-based one. Nevertheless, every time you write something to the drive, you bring it a little closer to its demise. Don't obsess over every single write cycle—a few of our later tips are best suited for such tendencies—but do check out the following techniques for minimizing unnecessary writes to the drive...
...For the average user who doesn't write heaps of data to storage constantly, your SSD will probably live a long and happy life. And if you adjust your storage habits to the SSD's strengths, you could squeeze a few more cycles out of the drive.
Link:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2043634/how-to-stretch-the-life-of-your-ssd-storage.htmlThe performance problem is lessened considerably if you put the swap file on an SSD rather than a hard drive. But there’s a problem: SSDs wear out with too much writing, so putting a swap file on one might shorten its life.
If all you have is an SSD, you may want to disable virtual memory entirely. You can do this in the Virtual Memory dialog box by selecting the drive it’s on, clicking No paging file, then clicking Set.
Link:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2840886/if-windows-virtual-memory-is-too-low-you-can-increase-it-but-there-are-trade-offs.htmlShould we allow Windows, or any other operating system, the right to ever install virtual memory on a SSD drive?
The short answer is no. The long answer is a little more difficult to explain. In order to understand why we shouldn't use virtual memory on our SSD drives, we should actually think about what virtual memory actually is, and what it is used for...
...SSD drives are random access drives, that access memory at high speed, and write faster, as well. This would make it more useful to use for virtual memory, than using traditional spinning drives, just from the speed stand point, but I maintain my not a good idea stance when it comes to virtual memory not belonging on SSDs, and there is a very important reason why. Each of the sectors has a limited write endurance, because of the very nature of a SSD drive, as oppose to a traditional spinning drive. So, while it it possible to damage a sector on a traditional spinning drive by normal wear and tear, the drive's sectors tend to last a lot longer, and there is a lot more sectors than the SSD drives, plus with the advent of perpendicular magnetic drive writing where we write the bit deeper than we used to, the magnetic storage of a spinning drive is much more resilient than those in standard SSD drives. In short, the spinning drive, even those limited in speed by the mere fact of needing to spin to the correct position, is less prone to issues related to limited write endurance, at least, not in any way that the current SSDs suffer.
Since virtual memory is a form of RAM, and it can be expected to change at any time. Being written and changed any time, to what may seem random to most, and because SSDs have a limited write endurance, it could be expected that such an operation can negatively impact the life span of a SSD drive. These kinds of actions can render a SSD useless in a shorter span of time.
Link:
http://tqaweekly.com/episodes/season3/tqa-se3ep17.php
