SSD Write Endurance 25nm Vs 34nm

[Christopher]

I've been playing around some more with the 128GB Vertex Turbo I got in the mail early this week. A few days before that, I had also received a new 60GB Agility 60. Both purchased and received within one week.

Obviously, OCZ isn't making anymore of the original Vertex/Agility, so I figured both drives were leftover stock, stuck in a warehouse somewhere. I was reflecting on this today, and had this crazy idea.

Remember, earlier this year OCZ switched from their metal shell to cheaper plastic ones. So that would mean that these 2 drives should have been manufactured this year, probably in May.

What if OCZ is taking RMAs and returns, destructive flashing them, then dropping the PCB in new enclosures and selling them as new? Mind you, I did get pretty good deals on each, both were about $1 a GB. The metal enclosures' paint wore off easily, so it would be hard to recycle those. That's actually kind of disturbing, since they're you know, sold as new. You'd never have any way of telling how long ago the drive's PCBs were manufactured, and they could destructive flash and remove all the SMART attributes as well. The new plastic drive cases differ only by the sticker on the top, so if you have a functioning returned drive, why not put it in a new shell and resell it?.

Something like 10% of SSDs are returned in perfect working order, but lots of Indilinx drives locked up or got bricked -- both things that could be fixed with a D Flash.


I just thought it was a little suspicious. After all, I don't even think Samsung uses 5xnm Samsung NAND anymore. They have new versions of the 470, ones I believe use smaller process flash, and have slightly different model numbers.


I think it's a little fishy myself. Not saying that's what OCZ is doing, just that if they did, how would you know?