LeftieBiker said:
This is why SSD drives have yet to replace traditional hard disk drives in most computers: they trade speed for a relatively short "write-span."
They're not that short. Good SSDs have many dies and the writes can be spread out across them. Also, if you don't completely fill the drive and leave some room as buffer, that can help.
The Intel X25-M G2 160 gig SSD (as my boot and programs drive) I got in mid-2010 and that was on my main PC, an old Intel i7-860 based PC still works fine. It's not close to worn out. I just checked and Intel's tool said only a bit over 30 TB has been written to it. Media wearout indicator SMART stat is at 92. Sector re-allocated count is at 9. This has grown a bit over the years. Their tool has a graph "estimated life remaining". I'd guesstimate it's somewhere past 90%.
The above drive is MLC. https://www.anandtech.com/show/2808/2 has some pics inside.
I've switched over to a newer PC I built in mid-2018 w/a different SSD (Samsung 960 Evo 500 GIG). 8.9 TB has been written to it so far. Per https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/960evo/, they warrant it for 3 years or 200 TBW. Per https://www.anandtech.com/show/10833/the-samsung-960-evo-1tb-review, it's TLC. This PC will likely be retired before the drive hits 200 TB of writes.
Some folks have done insane torture tests on SSD to see when they'd die. Quality ones can last quite awhile.
https://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead/ - last 2 drives died after 2.5 PB of writes
https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/endurance-test-of-samsung-850-pro-comes-to-an-end-after-9100tb-of-writes.html - best one died at 9100 TB of writes (9.1 PB)
That said, TLC and QLC drives have less endurance than MLC and SLC. SLC is too expensive for consumer applications. See example ratings for these QLCs guys: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13078/the-intel-ssd-660p-ssd-review-qlc-nand-arrives. https://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/storage-hardware/slc-vs-mlc-vs-tlc-nand-flash.html has a table of SLC to TLC.
Some machines cannot be had with hard drives any longer. Apple no longer sells a single laptop with a hard drive. That ended at least a few years ago.