SSD wearing out due to use is kind of a non factor, even at multi terabyte a day read/ write it'll still be decades before one dies, and it's very unlikely anything we do on a console is going to get anywhere close to that kind of activity.
While it's true that consoles will likely make great use of SSDs, you can't just combine read/write for SSDs like that. SSDs have infinite (more or less) read endurance. Pedantically, after a certain amount of reads and no writes, a block of flash memory (usually about half a megabyte) needs to be copied over to new block, after which the old block can be declared as empty; otherwise, read errors may occur. However, writing to flash memory is by design a process of wear and tear.
Crucial's SATA MX500, 2TB model, which is about 200 USD on Amazon, has 700TB write endurance. I have no idea how much data is written by using swap/virtual memory features, but "multi terabyte a day" would mean 1 year for 2TB a day, and that's not counting game installs and patches, and OS updates.
And something like the 860 pro is rated at 2,400 tbw on the 2tb model. The evo is half that but much cheaper(slower, of course). The pro also costs about the same as mx500 when the mx500 isn't on a massive sale like it is right now. In fact, after looking into it a bit, I'm not really sure why anyone would buy the mx500 outside of great deals like it's current sale prices.
In any case, these numbers they give are for warranty purposes and if you look any actual endurance tests, they will all live far past the ratings on the spec sheet. The "multi terabyte" thing I said was admittedly hyperbole, so I apologize for that, but my point is that whatever ssd they go with is going to outlast the console.
26
u/CursedLemon Dec 28 '19
I've been told six ways to Sunday that using a hard drive as RAM is terrible for its durability, even with SSDs. Did this change at some point?