Using an SSD in a device that doesn't support TRIM - ok and safe?

[ThomasH]

This might be a stupid question, but for someone who understands how some/most SSDs would operate without TRIM:
I'm trying to upgrade a device that is a self-booting, self-managing external backup drive system (where you can plug SD cards, USB sticks, etc. into the device and back them up to the internal drive without having to use a computer).
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... dma_3.html
The user is a travelling photographer, and would like the advantage of drop-safety that an SSD would provide.

I've confirmed with the company that makes the device that it does not support TRIM. They say it was more built for hard drives, but did say an SSD can be used and listed the major name brands as their recommendations.
It runs a FAT32 file system.

Will it be safe to run an SSD in the device if the user plans on frequently deleting and adding photos?
Or, will the device prematurely wear out without TRIM?

I assume at some point it will just not run as fast as it normally could, as the non-zero, deleted-file sectors will need zeroing prior to writing (as new data is written?), but I wonder if that speed reduction would even be noticed at camera-card transfer speeds.

Am I worrying about nothing, or is this a cause for concern? I've seen in the device's forums people with differing opinions, with some implying it will stop working after a while, so I thought I'd ask here hoping for a more definitive answer from someone who knows exactly how and SSD would perform on the back end, in this circumstance.

I've also wondered the same thing about some recoveries I've done for companies using old manufacturing machinery that have small 1GB - 2GB 20 year old hard drives in them... if it's safe to clone them to a small SSD, vs the smallest new hard drive that can be found. (Per their request, I've usually used small SSDs, and made a .bin file of the clone as a second clone in case of trouble down the road).

[AJ2008]

Or, with the device prematurely wear out without TRIM?

The device should implement its own internal wear leveling processes to prevent this - TRIM is simply an additional feature that is implemented by OS.