SSD Write Endurance 25nm Vs 34nm

[Christopher]

Christopher I might be completely wrong in my assumption. Let me try to better explain where I was coming from. With a HDD I believe numerous attempts will be made to read/ write to a sector before it is finally marked as being defective and relocated. My assumption was that before failing sectors were relocated it might be feasible that read/ write performance would suffer. Once the sectors were relocated read/ write performance would revert back to normal. This seemed logical to what I could observe on my drive, but in truth I don’t know if or how bad the impact might be on performance before the sector was taken out of the equation.

How many sectors on your drive got relocated in one hit?

You really have to admire how the Intel drives have performed in this test. They may not be the fastest but they are the best engineered by a long shot IMHO.

I would only get 1 block at a time, which is 2048 sectors. The drive has used 20 of it's reserve blocks, 40960 reallocated sectors. If you look at the SMART data from the last few updates, notice that there are no program fails, just 10 erase fails, and 10 "runtime" bad blocks, for a "total" of twenty. But the runtime bad blocks should be program + erase fail together, which makes me think the attributes could be mislabeled or somthing. In reality, only 10 blocks should be counted, but total used reserved blocks are 20.

I understand what you are saying. I know from experience with another drive, one which I will start testing on Monday, that if there are bad blocks which haven't been flagged, it will take much longer to read and write to the nand for the affected region. MLC drives' NAND do get slower over time (at least in theory) as it has to try harder to resolve errors and sort out the Vth readings, which is one more reason why I love my X25-Es.

I totally agree about the Intel drives. They might not be fast, but I think they're as close to bulletproof as you can find. I don't personally know of anyone who has owned an Intel drive that has suffered a failure, nor have I really read too many horror stories. I believe that the two Intels in this test -- 40GB drives no less -- might end up being the real story here. Who would have imagined almost 700TB from a 40GB MLC drive? Especially one with 25nm... that's effectively as fast now as it was new, and there are no signs that either drive is on it's way to the grave yet.

[bluestang]

New Firmware 0309 for Crucial M4 just posted to fix the 5184 Hour Bug...

http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx


Release Date: 01/13/2012
Change Log:
•Changes made in version 0002 (m4 can be updated to revision 0309 directly from either revision 0001, 0002, or 0009)
•Correct a condition where an incorrect response to a SMART counter will cause the m4 drive to become unresponsive after 5184 hours of Power-on time. The drive will recover after a power cycle, however, this failure will repeat once per hour after reaching this point. The condition will allow the end user to successfully update firmware, and poses no risk to user or system data stored on the drive.

This firmware update is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED for drives in the field. Although the failure mode due to the SMART Power On Hours counter poses no risk to saved user data, the failure mode can become repetitive, and pose a nuisance to the end user. If the end user has not yet observed this failure mode, this update is required to prevent it from happening.

If you are using a SAS Expander please do not download this Firmware. As soon as we have a Firmware Update that will work in these applications we will release it.

[Christopher]

Samsung 830 64GB Update, Day 39
FW:CXM02B1Q

TiB Written:
246.17

GiB written:
252079.37

Avg MB/s
122.45, up from 120.54

PE Cycles
14153 up from 14109 a couple days ago -- it just started updating today in real time, but I'm sure the actual number is actually about 600PEs higher -- I'll still need to do a power cycle when I get home to get the "true" number.

Reallocated Sectors
40960
20 Blocks, holding steady

941 Hours




Speed is up slightly, and a few hours ago PE cycles started updating as they should. Total bonus!.

UPDATE
1.8 hours later, PE cycles have increased by 14 to 14167. That is fantastic. I don't know why it just started, but I'm pretty damn glad it did.

[Anvil]

Kingston SSDNow 40GB (X25-V)

630.17TB Host writes
Reallocated sectors : 05 21
Available Reserved Space : E8 99
POH 5691
MD5 OK

32.99MiB/s on avg (~99 hours)

--

Corsair Force 3 120GB

01 90/50 (Raw read error rate)
05 2 (Retired Block count)
B1 62 (Wear range delta)
E6 100 (Life curve status)
E7 10 (SSD Life left)
E9 699440 (Raw writes) ->683TiB
F1 930867 (Host writes) ->909TiB

MD5 OK

106.92MiB/s on avg (~99 hours)

power on hours : 2664

[Ao1]

Host writes: 10,277 GiB
MWI: 61
P/E Cycles: 1,403
POH: 187
MB/s: 6.22
Relocated sectors: 4096

[Christopher]

Samsung 830 64GB Update, Day 40
FW:CXM02B1Q

TiB Written:
256.6940

GiB written:
262854.63

Avg MB/s
124.15, up from 122.45

PE Cycles
14339 up from 14153
Reallocated Sectors

40960
20 Blocks, holding steady

965 Hours




I'm most pleased that PE cycles work right and also that speed continues to increase slightly.

[Christopher]

POR Recovery count has to be unsafe shutdown count.

[Anvil]

Kingston SSDNow 40GB (X25-V)

632.76TB Host writes
Reallocated sectors : 05 21
Available Reserved Space : E8 99
POH 5714
MD5 OK

32.94MiB/s on avg (~122 hours)

--

Corsair Force 3 120GB

01 80/50 (Raw read error rate)
05 2 (Retired Block count)
B1 61 (Wear range delta)
E6 100 (Life curve status)
E7 10 (SSD Life left)
E9 705944 (Raw writes) ->689TiB
F1 939520 (Host writes) ->918TiB

MD5 OK

106.92MiB/s on avg (~122 hours)

power on hours : 2687

[Christopher]

I think something may have happened to my Endurance Testing rig... I was logged in earlier remotely from my tablet, and I'm no longer able to reach it. I hope it hasn't crashed in my absence.

Actually, I hope my apartment wasn't destroyed or robbed. If the system has crashed, I can handle it.. If all of my worldly possessions have been stolen or destroyed, I might not handle it so well.

[B.A.T]

Todays update.
Kingston V+100
334.1927 TiB
1885 hours
Avg speed 25.15 MiB/s
AD still 1.
168= 1 (SATA PHY Error Count)
P/E?
MD5 OK.
Reallocated sectors : 00


Intel X25-M G1 80GB
240,5493 TiB
20265 hours
Reallocated sectors : 00
MWI=136 to 134
MD5 =OK
48.81 MiB/s on avg


m4
240.1694 TiB
887 hours
Avg speed 78.19 MiB/s.
AD gone from 221 to 216.
P/E 4229.
MD5 OK.
Reallocated sectors : 00

[One_Hertz]

The 320 is DEAD.

I plugged it in today after giving it a 2 week break sitting there unplugged. I can see it in windows in device manager but there doesn't seem to be any data on it and I can't format it. I can tell windows to format it, but it does absolutely nothing. Also, my PC fails to boot up roughly 50% of the times with the SSD plugged in (hangs when initializing sata controllers).

[bluestang]

Sounds exactly like how my M225 acted when it hit the wall.

[Anvil]

That's a shame!

It did well though.

Did you save the latest stats?

[Christopher]

Damn, I jinxed it the other day when I said the 320 was showing no signs of being on it's last legs.

I was thinking it would be a little longer yet before the Intel's started going tits-up.

[Christopher]

Bluestang,

are you planning on running the other M225?

[minpayne]

The 320 is DEAD.

I plugged it in today after giving it a 2 week break sitting there unplugged. I can see it in windows in device manager but there doesn't seem to be any data on it and I can't format it. I can tell windows to format it, but it does absolutely nothing. Also, my PC fails to boot up roughly 50% of the times with the SSD plugged in (hangs when initializing sata controllers).

Time to get a 710!

[Ao1]

Host writes: 10,666 GiB
MWI: 57
P/E Cycles: 1,544
POH: 211
Relocated sectors: 4,096

I lost another 6 hours due to an auto restart.

[B.A.T]

The 320 is DEAD.

I plugged it in today after giving it a 2 week break sitting there unplugged. I can see it in windows in device manager but there doesn't seem to be any data on it and I can't format it. I can tell windows to format it, but it does absolutely nothing. Also, my PC fails to boot up roughly 50% of the times with the SSD plugged in (hangs when initializing sata controllers).

That is too bad. It showed such good behavior.

R.I.P Intel 320

[Christopher]

As soon as I get back home, there will be at least one new drive in the test.

[Anvil]

I lost another 6 hours due to an auto restart.

How about disabling auto-update
I've been there a few times myself, I usually keep auto-updates On.

[c.ruel]

I am thinking of getting a new SSD ... either a 128gb m4 or 128gb 830. From your testing which do you guys think would be better!?

[Christopher]

I am thinking of getting a new SSD ... either a 128gb m4 or 128gb 830. From your testing which do you guys think would be better!?

I think its hard to argue against the M4. But there is the Plextor and Corsair drives to consider as well -- the Marvell plus 32nm toggle NAND, and for the same price as well. The 830 does have a big edge on writes, similar to the toggle nand Marvell drives. I don't think you can go wrong with either, and all those drives are similar in price and read performance.. They all have 3 year warranties too.

No more updates until Tuesday evening... I've lost contact with my endurance testing rig back home, and haven't been able to raise it for 24hrs now.

[Ao1]

The 320 is DEAD.

I plugged it in today after giving it a 2 week break sitting there unplugged. I can see it in windows in device manager but there doesn't seem to be any data on it and I can't format it. I can tell windows to format it, but it does absolutely nothing. Also, my PC fails to boot up roughly 50% of the times with the SSD plugged in (hangs when initializing sata controllers).

So now you have a SLC drive except it only has one cell. (All other cell walls have burnt out).

[Anvil]

Kingston SSDNow 40GB (X25-V)

635.49TB Host writes
Reallocated sectors : 05 21
Available Reserved Space : E8 99
POH 5738
MD5 OK

32.90MiB/s on avg (~146 hours)

--

Corsair Force 3 120GB

01 92/50 (Raw read error rate)
05 2 (Retired Block count)
B1 59 (Wear range delta)
E6 100 (Life curve status)
E7 10 (SSD Life left)
E9 712831 (Raw writes) ->696TiB
F1 948675 (Host writes) ->926TiB

MD5 OK

106.92MiB/s on avg (~146 hours)

power on hours : 2711

[devsk]

The 320 is DEAD.

I plugged it in today after giving it a 2 week break sitting there unplugged. I can see it in windows in device manager but there doesn't seem to be any data on it and I can't format it. I can tell windows to format it, but it does absolutely nothing. Also, my PC fails to boot up roughly 50% of the times with the SSD plugged in (hangs when initializing sata controllers).

That's a real shame isn't it? Whatever happened to the SSD promise that the drives will become read-only and will not die the way all SSDs have died so far. So, none of the players implemented any fail-safes in any drive. What a shame! I would be better served with 200TiB writes and read-only for next 5 years instead of 400TiB and dead-for-good in a week after that.