EBay item: Is this SSD about to die or should I keep it?

[nexus787]

I bought this 80GB used Intel SSDSA2M080G2GN for $42 shipping included.

I would like to know if I should keep it, it says it has already written 31.69TB

Intel guarantees them to work until 35TB so the drive is very close to that point.

BUT...

Health is at 100% and have more than half of life remaining.

Should I try to swap/return it or should I keep it considering it has hold well with such history?

Attached picture available with SMART log.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

http://techreport.com/review/15433/intel-x25-m-solid-state-drive

The warranty may be for 35TB, but according to that review and those numbers (80GB, 10,000 cycles, 1.1x write amplification) you should be able to get a few hundred TB of writes out of it.

 

[nexus787]

http://techreport.com/review/15433/intel-x25-m-solid-state-drive

The warranty may be for 35GB, but according to that review and those numbers (80GB, 10,000 cycles, 1.1x write amplification) you should be able to get a few hundred TB of writes out of it.

Sounds pretty awesome, 100TB+

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Sounds pretty awesome, 100TB+

Meh, that's nothing.

http://techreport.com/review/26058/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-data-retention-after-600tb

 

[nexus787]

Meh, that's nothing.

http://techreport.com/review/26058/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-data-retention-after-600tb

Ye I heard about that samsung one just after I searched about lifespans

But for the price I paid $35 plus $8 on shipping I think I won't complain... unless it fails

 

[SSBrain]

The NAND is still only 39% worn. About 6100 P/E cycles left before you might start considering replacing it because of wear. In reality you could do much more than that, if you're willing to trade the minimum data retention time (which is supposed to be at least 1 year of time at end life for consumer drives) for actual usage time. Data retention (and the bit error rate, which the SSD's controller is supposed to take care of anyway, and report any problem through SMART data) does decrease with NAND wear.

 

[F1shF4t]

It's a x25-M G2, so 5K write cycles is the spec. So if you take a conservative 2 WA factor you would have used ~800 write cycles.

It would be better if Intel provided NAND writes info in smart, cause then you can tell if the drive was smashed with a very high random write work load (the WA would be higher).

Either ways I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[SSBrain]

It's a x25-M G2, so 5K write cycles is the spec. So if you take a conservative 2 WA factor you would have used ~800 write cycles.

True! I assumed it was the first gen one.

It would be better if Intel provided NAND writes info in smart, cause then you can tell if the drive was smashed with a very high random write work load (the WA would be higher).

We can deduce it approximately.
39% (100% - 61% life left) of 5000 P/E cycles is 1950.
With 80 GiB of true physical capacity, the NAND has been written on for about 80 GiB * 1950 P/E cycles = 156000 GiB = 152.34 TiB (NAND Writes).

With 31.69 TiB of Host Writes, the Write Amplification would be about 152.34 TiB / 31.69 TiB) = 4.81x

It sounds like it has seen mostly random workloads over its lifetime. Or intense usage with little free space and possible no TRIM support enabled/available, which can increase the write amplification regardless of the workload.

 

[nexus787]

It is confirmed that it was a server SSD as I suspected due to its high usage in such short time.

I bought a NEW Samsung EVO 840 this time and waiting for it to arrive next week, the eBayer of this Intel drive have refunded me yesterday.

Also some hours after I posted this thread I had a blue screen of death while installing OS (not sure if dell fault or the SSD), but I was shocked and immediately popped it right away from the once bsod-virgin new laptop and wrapped it ready to return it.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

It is confirmed that it was a server SSD as I suspected due to its high usage in such short time.

I bought a NEW Samsung EVO 840 this time and waiting for it to arrive next week, the eBayer of this Intel drive have refunded me yesterday.

Also some hours after I posted this thread I had a blue screen of death while installing OS (not sure if dell fault or the SSD), but I was shocked and immediately popped it right away from the once bsod-virgin new laptop and wrapped it ready to return it.

Why? The Intel was fine as-was, probably would have lasted you years.

Did you run any diagnostics on the drive that would have indicated the drive was at fault?

I think you are going to have a very difficult time with this.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Why? The Intel was fine as-was, probably would have lasted you years.

This. Those X25-M G2 drives last nearly forever under a "consumer" workload. Even with half of its health used from server workloads. Do a secure-erase to reset the mapping tables, and let it live out a relaxing life doing web browsing.

Unless the BSOD was caused directly by the SSD.

 

[nexus787]

I did run diagnostics and speed tests, the first time it ran with slower writes and reads than my hdd but after Intel program optimization it ran at about 200/300MBps, was going to keep it but when I installed any OS on it, it would throw a BSOD, except on the Ubuntu server installation.

I researched some of the BSOD codes and some of them had to do with memory problems related to ram which is weird because my ram are healthy and this laptop is just months old so it was the first time ever this laptop screen was covered in blue bg and white font.

I would not take the risk of having problems with this drive, it was never give the chance to take a rest due to it being always on and constantly writing (hosting environment), while it amazes me how strong it held, they took it out of the server near the Intel guaranteed lifespan.

Immediately contacted the seller and they refunded me and told me I was lucky to get a high hosts write drive, not sure about that because many of those drives came from the same environment.

So now it is just a matter to send it back to them by mail. By that time I already ordered another SSD, a brand new Samsung Evo 480 which has more size with just double the price and a very big plus of 550MBps writes reads which my laptop supports because of the SATA3 6Gb/s port.

It will arrive tomorrow and for the choice I have no regrets at all.

 

[nexus787]

This. Those X25-M G2 drives last nearly forever under a "consumer" workload. Even with half of its health used from server workloads. Do a secure-erase to reset the mapping tables, and let it live out a relaxing life doing web browsing.

Unless the BSOD was caused directly by the SSD.

Web browsing is not what I use my laptop for, it actually replaced my desktop due to travel plans to Japan for a year, would not like to be there with a drive failure knowing their high prices on electronics.

 

[nexus787]

Why? The Intel was fine as-was, probably would have lasted you years.

Did you run any diagnostics on the drive that would have indicated the drive was at fault?

I think you are going to have a very difficult time with this.

I think even if the Intel did not fail for several years, I actually improve my situation getting a new SSD with faster speed and more space.