SSD Write Endurance 25nm Vs 34nm

[Ao1]

The reads do not look throttled this time around.

EDIT: Sorry scrap that. I see what you are saying. Let me run a different benchmark.

[johnw]

It is powered on time and if you secure erased it you erased any throttling due to lifetime.

Since the throttling is based on power-on time rather than calendar time, and secure-erase does NOT eliminate throttling (as Ao1 found), it seems this Sandforce "feature" is worse than useless. No power user would want that monkey on his back...errr...SSD.

Has OCZ looked at the possibility of selling a model of Sandforce SSD with throttling disabled?

[Ao1]

Here is shot with a different SSD Benchmark. I'm under NDA so I can't post a screen shot of the bench app unless I'm given a heads ups that it's OK to do so, but the bench output is as below.

8GB test size. Non compressible data.

[sergiu]

Considering that after 460GB you were limited to a speed of about 0.5TB/day, I would assume that for your model, the limit might be to 0.5TB/day of usage. Could you let it run a few days more at this speed? If this would be the worst throttling scenario, this would still allow at least 14K cycles with uncompressible data. Or maybe around 5K cycles with data that compresses to around 35%.

[Ao1]

Did you shutdown the drive after the SE?

Yes, toolbox just issues the ATA secure erase command, which is the same as hdderase.

I will check with my cohorts, but I am fairly sure that SE should stop a lifetime throttle. Lifetime throttle is all about the number of writes over a period of time. Get them too high and it slows down to prolong the life.

For transparency it would be very helpful if the 230 SMART attribute could be made available in a fw update. Ideally it should indicate “lifetime throttling was active for last write” AND “lifetime throttling is currently active”

More info about write limits on a daily basis (or whatever time frame it uses) to avoid throttling would also be very helpful.

[Ao1]

Considering that after 460GB you were limited to a speed of about 0.5TB/day, I would assume that for your model, the limit might be to 0.5TB/day of usage. Could you let it run a few days more at this speed? If this would be the worst throttling scenario, this would still allow at least 14K cycles with uncompressible data. Or maybe around 5K cycles with data that compresses to around 35%.

I've already pulled it from my PC. In 5 days when I re-attach it I can run it for longer to see what happens.

[johnw]

I've already pulled it from my PC. In 5 days when I re-attach it I can run it for longer to see what happens.

Do you mean it will sit unpowered for 5 days? If so, it sounds like that will have no effect on the throttling, since Ryder said it is based on power-on hours, and that coincides with my guess.

But it is still worth a test, I think, so I'm not saying don't do it. I just wanted clarification on whether you were doing 5 days unpowered or powered.

[Ao1]

I'm fully expecting the drive to still be in the same throttled in 5 days time, but as least I will know for sure this way.

Currently the drive is sitting on my desk completely disconnected and it will remain that way for 5 days.

Sergiu has an interesting point. Maybe the fully throttled state gives an indication of how much you can write per day. When I reconnect it I will see just how slow it goes and what can be written per day at that speed.

[Anvil]

I had to stop the test for a few hours last night, this process apparently puts a bit of stress on this computer and so a backup ended up failing due to that the NIC stopped working, happened several times.
This isn't a real server and there is a reason to why they do build real servers, anyways, I'm ordering an Intel NIC, should be much better than the onboard stuff.

48.06TB Host writes
MWI 73

2011_06_03_11_13.PNG

[One_Hertz]

64TB. 67%. 5 reallocated sectors. The reallocated count seems to be on the rise for me

[Vapor]

How are write speeds holding up for both of you?

[One_Hertz]

How are write speeds holding up for both of you?

Mine have not gone down at all... the drive is just like new performance wise.

[EniGmA1987]

I honestly thought some of the drives would be done before this point. It seems SSD life is much better than I had thought from what I read in reviews.

[Anvil]

50.56TB Host writes
MWI 71

Reallocated hasn't changed for a long time, still at 4.

How are write speeds holding up for both of you?

About the same.

[Computurd]

Mine have not gone down at all... the drive is just like new performance wise.

impressive! man that is a helluva testament.

[Anvil]

A trend line based on current readings

Endurance_XS_trend.png

... and whos to say that it stops when we reach 0 MWI.

[zalbard]

Assuming 190TB and 10GB/day of writes that's 53 year lifespan, lol.

[bulanula]

That graph really does show a couple of things :

-Intel 320 SSD is the most endurance capable and the fastest write speeds.
-Vertex 2 premature uselessness due to stupid throttling

Thanks !

[Anvil]

53.4TB Host writes
MWI down by 1 to 70
Reallocations also up by 1 to 5

(updated chart in post #1)

@bulanula

Yes, I wish I had the 320 , the old dog (X25-V) is slow on sequential writes.

I started ahead of One_Hertz and the 320 is 15TB? ahead of my X25-V already, that is a huge difference.
By the time we reach 0 (MW) the 320 should be ~50TB ahead, if all follows the same pattern that is.

[Anvil]

55.82TB Host writes
MWI 69

No other changes.

[One_Hertz]

73TB. 62%. Still 5 reallocated sectors. The linear pattern continues...

[Ao1]

Considering the 320 is based on the same controller the performance is a lot better. Faster writes and less wear and tear with reduced PE cycles. Not bad at all. Seems even upping the random factor has made no difference.

EDIT: Improved chart. Some entries are best estimates.

[Anvil]

Thanks again for the chart

I've updated the one in the first post with the latest readings.

56.78TB Host writes
MWI 68

Last 91 hours
9.927 TB written ~111.7GB/hour (<32MB/s on avg)
35,021MB Random writes
3,390,000 files created/deleted

Will try running it on an Intel tonight.

[Ao1]

5 days later......

[Computurd]

ouch