wrote in message ...

However, I have been told by some of my computer guru friends
that the SSD will have a shorter life than a regular hard drive...

Unlike HDs (which can last a week or several decades), SSDs have a known
finite lifespan. It has to do with trapped charge that eventually makes it
impossible to erase and rewrite.

You don't want to use an SSD on a system where huge files are constantly being
written and rewritten. You should install the largest drive you can afford, as
it will sustain more write cycles.

When I bought a new computer two years ago, I used the SSD solely for the
operating system and files that didn't change often. (Mail, temp files,
indexing, etc, were assigned to a large hard drive.)