The only thing I recall having problems with after disabling my swap file in Windows were some games that looked for a swap file and wouldn’t run if there wasn’t one (or it wasn’t big enough). I think one was Company of Heroes. It didn’t actually *need* to use the swap file as the PC has 16 GB of RAM, but it wouldn’t run unless it detected it.
Not having a swap file on the SSD is mostly myth/misinformation. I’ve read several articles about this and the conclusion seems to be that if deliberately create a workload of 100% writes non-stop to a consumer-level SSD it will still last at least a couple of years (see below for a link to an (admittedly older) article that notes a theoretical lifetime of 51 years!). Anandtech has a more recent article with a more realistic load which still shows your SSD will be too small and slow well before it runs out of writes. Over time as the process size shrinks NAND cells used by SSDs have become *worse* with respect to the rated lifetime in terms of number of writes, but wear levelling, over-provisioning and controller write amplification performance has improved to compensate. If I had needed a swap file and had an SSD in the system I would definitely use it. Here are some links for further reading. http://superuser.com/questions/51724/should-i-keep-my-swap-file-on-an-ssd-drive http://www.anandtech.com/show/6459/samsung-ssd-840-testing-the-endurance-of-tlc-nand http://www.storagesearch.com/ssdmyths-endurance.html Cheers, Ben From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of mike smith Sent: Friday, 9 August 2013 10:12 AM To: ozDotNet Subject: Re: Swap File [Was: 240GB SSD?] On Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 10:46 AM, James Chapman-Smith <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: What's the deal with not having a swap file? I've heard that there are some programs in Windows that require a swap file to function. Or is that just BS? The VMM probably needs one. :^) In the past I've run without one and things have seemed fine, but I'd like to know if I can get rid of it or not? Especially since I'm using an SSD drive now. What I've heard about SSD's, its not a good idea to have the swap file on the SSD. Depending on the number of write cycles they are good for. Are people still hitting end-of-life on SSD's? (and is this just regarded as cost of business for the advantages they give?) From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of Stuart Kinnear Sent: Friday, 9 August 2013 08:34 To: ozDotNet Subject: Re: 240GB SSD? MSY usually is quite price competitive. I have an OCZ vertex and am happy with it. I once fiddled with moving temp files & placing to a SATA drive, now I don't bother. With enough ram you can also do without a swap file. Here's some reviews: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vertex-450-256gb-review,3517-6.html - Stuart Kinnear On 9 August 2013 08:46, Corneliu I. Tusnea <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Hi, What's a good, fast and reliable SSD these days? My old HDD from my home workstation decided it's that time of it's lifetime when work is no longer on its books so I need to replace it. PS>> Maybe also a place I could buy it and pick it up today. Thanks, Corneliu. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stuart Kinnear Mobile: 040 704 5686<tel:040%20704%205686>. Office: 03 9589 6502<tel:03%209589%206502> SK Pro-Active! Pty Ltd acn. 81 072 778 262 PO Box 6117 Cromer, Vic 3193. Australia Business software developers. SQL Server, Visual Basic, C# , Asp.Net, Microsoft Office. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Meski http://courteous.ly/aAOZcv "Going to Starbucks for coffee is like going to prison for sex. Sure, you'll get it, but it's going to be rough" - Adam Hills This email is intended for the named recipient only. The information it contains may be confidential or commercially sensitive. If you are not the intended recipient you must not reproduce or distribute any part of this email, disclose its contents to any other party, or take any action in reliance on it. If you have received this email in error, please contact the sender immediately and delete the message from your computer.
