cwestmont
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ultrabook-performance-degrades-time-samsung-tlc-ssd/
Not sure what others have seen but apparently some SSD performance disappears with time, for some brands.  Samsung is named in this article but could be others as well.  I have considered moving to SSD but laziness and tech concerns hold me back.

That is an interesting article. SSDs do require specific setup and maintenance precautions, since what degrades them the most is intense write operations. Being aware of this and researching how to properly set one up is important for longevity.
 
I got a Patriot Wildfire 240GB four years ago and just reformatted/rebuilt this machine and benchmarked it after it was fully loaded. It has slipped about 10% in 4 years, but is now on par with its benchmark (was faster then).
 
One thing of note is that excessive heat (same as the excessive writes) will degrade electronics more quickly, so a "laptop" application will see even more heat (mine is in a desktop). This would also be something to consider with using one, but the read/write speeds of pretty much any SSD will put a HDD to shame - no moving parts.
 
I did find it interesting that none of the Samsung 850's were mentioned in that article. Another interesting item is that the smaller (128/256) 850 EVO outruns the 850 PRO (I thought the PRO was the top of the line model, but not looked at Samsung in a while).
 
http://www.harddrivebenchmark.net/high_end_drives.html

Thanks for reviving this thread, guys. It's reminded me that I've been on the fence regarding SSDs (cost/benefit ratio is improving but still barely justifiable) and has prompted me to once again evaluate whether or not it's time to make the move.
 
 
Sadly, the answer is still "no" for me. Much as I'd love to be loading samples from a solid-state drive, I cannot yet justify the cost. A decent-performing 1TB SSD can now be had for $400. But that's 4x the price of a quality 1TB mechanical drive. Too much just to load Kontakt libraries faster.
 

I have a 1TB HHD with an SSD cache which I use for my third party Kontakt libraries. It does provide a noticable improvment in loading recently used libraries (ie still on the cache). Of course for ones that have not been used for a while there is no uplift.
 
My system drive is a SSD, booting up is fast but has it been cost effective, probably not.

I've been keeping my eyes on Samsung EVOs lately which have been on constant sale. I'm probably going to pick up a 500GB one soon but not sure if I want to wait and get a EVO Pro which has a 10 year warranty or not. They are still pushing about $250 so it's a little higher on the price chart but they are also faster than their standard EVO series as well.

One thing to be aware of (since I didn't even realize they existed), is there are now SSDs that plug into PCIe 3 slots (which I do not have). Samsung designates these as "M.2" in the title, and their speeds are through the roof (around 3x their SATA counterparts), but they are not "chop and swap" for a SATA drive.

gbar

orangesporanges
a little off topic, but what do you even do with 400GB worth of drum samples? That's like having 100 acoustic guitars to choose from. Which one do you choose?
 

 
Nope.  Just Spitfire's Hans Zimmer London (volume 1 of 3) is 200GB.

I get it. I looked up Hans Zimmer's stuff with spitfire. I came to two conclusions
1) I've been living under a rock
2) Hans is a mad scientist