I'm putting together a PC for a friend using some older parts, including a Samsung SSD 850 EVO that's roughly eight or nine years old. CrystalDiskInfo reports 98% health, about 186,511 GB read, 19,729 GB written, 1,532 power-on counts, and around 6,928 power-on hours. It would only be used as a secondary drive for installing games, so nothing irreplaceable should be stored on it. Would using it daily for another three or four years be reasonable, or would I be setting my friend up for a drive failure that's difficult for them to handle?
4 Answers
I've seen these drives remain reliable through many years of daily use and multiple system upgrades. For a secondary game drive, I'd use it without much concern, provided the important data is stored elsewhere.
The main caveat is that SMART health and endurance figures can't predict every possible electronics failure. Keep the game library replaceable, monitor the drive occasionally, and have a backup for anything important. If your friend can't deal with replacing hardware, it may be worth buying a new SSD now for peace of mind, but the old one isn't inherently unsafe.
I wouldn't worry much about it. These drives commonly keep running well beyond ten years, and plenty of 850 EVOs are still being used every day. Just make sure the operating system and important personal files aren't dependent on that drive.
It should be perfectly reasonable for game storage. Depending on the capacity, the 850 EVO was rated for roughly 75, 150, or 300 TB written, and this drive has only written about 20 TB. Its hours and power-on count also aren't especially concerning. No drive is guaranteed, but a healthy SSD that has worked reliably for years is not automatically a liability, especially when it only contains games that can be reinstalled.
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