20 ms·

Is this actually enough? I've never been able to find a clear answer on this - it's become increasingly common to install SATA SSDs in retro game consoles, for

Is this actually enough? I've never been able to find a clear answer on this - it's become increasingly common to install SATA SSDs in retro game consoles, for example, but nobody seems to have ever done any testing to see if the functionality on newer SSDs is adequate to handle systems without TRIM support. You used to hear all kinds of horror stories about people who threw a SSD into their PS3 and found their whole system grinding to a halt within a year.

p_ing 2y ago
While a year of lifetime would suck, does it ultimately matter? This is old equipment not used for anything critical in the context of the discussion in this thread.
- LocutusOfBorges 2y ago
  It only matters insofar as it has the potential to cause people some annoyance down the line which they'd likely prefer to avoid. People don't tend to want to have to actively maintain their old tech any more than they absolutely have to.
  - p_ing 2y ago
    Oh absolutely, do not disagree. Though I do think that if one is using old tech, they should be aware of the pitfalls. There was a good run of the capacitor plague, for example. I avoid this equipment in general as I don't have soldering skills (but man oh man, I would love to have a working SE/30! People trying to sell repaired SE/30s on eBay for $1400USD!) to repair them. I know the VRM on my G4 Cube can potentially have issues, as can the power brick. Fortunately there are small batch available replacements should I need them.
- dylan604 2y ago
  It’s still cheaper than actually having pay for the games that’s going unpaid for with these systems, so it all comes out in the wash for the user
wat10000 2y ago
Can you work around it by massively overprovision by partitioning the drive and leaving half of it unallocated? The amount of space you need for an older system like this should be tiny compared to modern storage.
- jsheard 2y ago
  That works as long as you prepare the drive on a machine that does support TRIM, to ensure the unpartitioned area gets TRIMed one last time before the drive is moved to the old machine. Then it should remain in that state as long as it's never written to.
  - wat10000 2y ago
    Even if you didn’t do that, I wouldn’t expect the partitioning to write to the unallocated space. If you start with a fresh drive I’d think it should work.
- rasz 2y ago
  Yes if you trim it after making that partition and system correctly informs SSD about empty space. Secure Erase before making partition would be the safest bet - that way SSD firmware has full control over free unallocated space.
deaddodo 2y ago
While internally managed garbage collection is less efficient than TRIM managed, it's significantly better than unmanaged. "Enough" is a relative term and is up to you to decide. The alternative is significantly less performant coupled with unpredictable reliability (outside of expensive enterprise options), but a higher overall lifetime.

p_ing 2y ago

While a year of lifetime would suck, does it ultimately matter? This is old equipment not used for anything critical in the context of the discussion in this thread.

LocutusOfBorges 2y ago
It only matters insofar as it has the potential to cause people some annoyance down the line which they'd likely prefer to avoid. People don't tend to want to have to actively maintain their old tech any more than they absolutely have to.
- p_ing 2y ago
  Oh absolutely, do not disagree. Though I do think that if one is using old tech, they should be aware of the pitfalls. There was a good run of the capacitor plague, for example. I avoid this equipment in general as I don't have soldering skills (but man oh man, I would love to have a working SE/30! People trying to sell repaired SE/30s on eBay for $1400USD!) to repair them. I know the VRM on my G4 Cube can potentially have issues, as can the power brick. Fortunately there are small batch available replacements should I need them.
dylan604 2y ago
It’s still cheaper than actually having pay for the games that’s going unpaid for with these systems, so it all comes out in the wash for the user

wat10000 2y ago

Can you work around it by massively overprovision by partitioning the drive and leaving half of it unallocated? The amount of space you need for an older system like this should be tiny compared to modern storage.

jsheard 2y ago
That works as long as you prepare the drive on a machine that does support TRIM, to ensure the unpartitioned area gets TRIMed one last time before the drive is moved to the old machine. Then it should remain in that state as long as it's never written to.
- wat10000 2y ago
  Even if you didn’t do that, I wouldn’t expect the partitioning to write to the unallocated space. If you start with a fresh drive I’d think it should work.
rasz 2y ago
Yes if you trim it after making that partition and system correctly informs SSD about empty space. Secure Erase before making partition would be the safest bet - that way SSD firmware has full control over free unallocated space.

deaddodo 2y ago

While internally managed garbage collection is less efficient than TRIM managed, it's significantly better than unmanaged. "Enough" is a relative term and is up to you to decide. The alternative is significantly less performant coupled with unpredictable reliability (outside of expensive enterprise options), but a higher overall lifetime.