True SSD capacity - GiB and GB vs overprovisioning?

[Hellhammer]

For what it's worth, SI prefixes (i.e. kilo, mega, giga, tera...) predate any computer. The mistake was made when someone decided that 1000 and 1024 are close enough, so it's okay to use the same prefixes for both. If you ask me, the problem is that Microsoft etc. are treating GB as GiB, while computers should only use binary prefixes (i.e. kibi, mebi, gibi, tebi...).

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Fair points. There is a psychological element here.

Well, there's a psychological element to the confusion and the complaining. The math is what it is.

 

[Cerb]

Yes, depending on what has been marketed.

The user accessible capacity is clearly 119.2 GiB, which equals 128 GB.
If the "128GB" in product description means 1000-based 128 GB, as is usual in the marketing, then the user accessible capacity equals the marketed value.
If the "128GB" in product description means "128 GiB physical capacity of which only 119.2 GiB is user accessible", then there is visible overprovisioning.

Product descriptions are never in 2^10x units. They always mean 10^3x. The OSes and utilities at large should change their view of it, and at least mark the units in the correct modern way. Best option, of course, is to have both available, like some Linux file managers (same with natural vs. pure alphanumeric sorting).

 

[JimmiG]

Product descriptions are never in 2^10x units. They always mean 10^3x. The OSes and utilities at large should change their view of it, and at least mark the units in the correct modern way. Best option, of course, is to have both available, like some Linux file managers (same with natural vs. pure alphanumeric sorting).

Yeah, if you view a 250 GB drive in Windows, it will be shown as a 233 GB drive. This is incorrect. It's a 233 GiB drive, not a 233 GB drive. Windows is displaying the wrong unit of measurement. Imagine if the speedometer in your car showed MPH, but had KM/H written on the dial...

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah, if you view a 250 GB drive in Windows, it will be shown as a 233 GB drive. This is incorrect. It's a 233 GiB drive, not a 233 GB drive. Windows is displaying the wrong unit of measurement. Imagine if the speedometer in your car showed MPH, but had KM/H written on the dial...

Not quite that bad, but about as bad as the typical "margin of error" in a speedometer.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/a3127/4260708/

I've also checked my speed vs. GPS in newer cars, and it's usually 1-2 mph slow at highway speeds. Oddly, this seems intentional, since the odometers are typically much closer to accurate. (Did a 500 mile road trip and the odo disagreed with the GPS by half a mile.)

 

[stlc8tr]

Yeah, if you view a 250 GB drive in Windows, it will be shown as a 233 GB drive. This is incorrect. It's a 233 GiB drive, not a 233 GB drive. Windows is displaying the wrong unit of measurement. Imagine if the speedometer in your car showed MPH, but had KM/H written on the dial...

It's weird that Windows never switched or gave the user the ability to select which units they want for display.

OSX switched to SI units back in 10.6.