I just bought a new computer that has a SSD instead of HDD. I was just reading somewhere that there is a limitation on read/writes to SSDs and that excessive activity (e.g. file shredding) can shorten the life of the SSD. ...Which made me wonder if BOINC might also be a problem?? :-( I've been running BOINC projects (SETI initially, now World Community Grid) for over 11 years and don't want to stop, but I don't want to wreck my SSD in the process either.

Are there certain settings that are recommended for running on an SSD that will minimize the wear and tear? I've noticed that the machine seems to be running hotter than I expected too (judging by the temperature of the air coming out the rear exhaust), and wondered if BOINC activity might be raising the temperature as well.

(It might also help to add my machine configuration: Windows 10 64-bit, i5-7500T CPU @ 2.70Ghz, 16GB RAM)

Many thanks in advance for any help I can get about both concerns.

To give you an idea about how SSD have improved, i have been running an SSD 7x24 crunching at Einstein for over two years and the SMART wear level indicator suggests i am at 96% meaning at the current rate i have ~20 years left before it wears out! I suspect it will die for other reasons long before that. It you are really concerned, just ensure you have plenty of RAM so that paging or swapping does not occur, and that is a more a general recommendation rather than a boinc specific one.

Very few projects put any stress on disk components, but you can reduce that further by reducing checkpoint frequency.

Almost all of the heat generated will be GPU or CPU (or the PSU itself) so keeping other components away from the exhaust of these is good design.

HTH.

Hi HTH,

Thanks very much for your reply. That's good to hear that the new SSDs are more resilient than what I was reading (no idea how old the article was). This computer is a very new model, a tiny form factor case about the size of a book, so the heat might just be a side effect of the model. I'll need to call the manufacturer and see what they say about it. I have 16GB of RAM which is twice what my old machine has, so hopefully there's plenty of room for everything, and I can snooze BOINC if I need to. I do find it helps to specify less than 100% maximum CPU time and memory.

SH