Which SSD would you chose?

[John Connor]

Not sure what is best? MLC or TLC? The TLC drive has an advanced LDPC ECC technology which is appealing. I don't want to spend more than $50. This is for my laptop.

The two I'm looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211885

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211984

I have right now a 4 year old Adata 120 GB SSD in the desktop that is still going strong, so I'm liking Adata. I even have their USB sticks which offer a lifetime warranty.


Not willing to gamble with Samsung. I've seen a number of dead Samsung threads across the Internet and this laptop is only SATA II so speed isn't something I'm interested in all that much. I'm concerned more with reliability.

 

[R0H1T]

The TLC drive seems fine to me, go for it unless of course you specifically need/want more endurance in which case MLC>TLC

 

[VirtualLarry]

Some reason that you don't want a used Intel X25-M G2 drive? Those are some of the most reliable in existance, as far as I am concerned. If you are concerned about durability, go for an Intel710.

 

[Leyawiin]

Old laptop with SATA II? Doesn't matter - go with what's cheapest in the size you want. As far as endurance goes, all the hand-wringing over TLC is for the most part unwarranted. You'd have to do huge transfers daily for several years for it to be an issue. General usage and it'll outlast whatever hardware you're going to pair it with. As far as Samsung's supposed reliability problems and threads about dead SSDs all over the internet - they sell WAY more than another other manufacturer. Of course its going to be easy to find people who've had problems when you sell millions of them. I have an 850 Evo that I got for a really good price and its fine. Hell, I have two OCZ SATA II Vertex models and they haven't failed yet either (in spite of all the bad press regarding them).

Last summer I stuck one of these in my sister's old Dell laptop. Chose it mainly because its 9.5mm height doesn't need a spacer to fit properly. Its been working great for her.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226575

 

[John Connor]

Interesting about the OCZ. I've learned to stay away from them. Even the RAM drive that I wanted to buy. Maybe that's a different story though.

Thing is I do a lot of writing to disk on this laptop. I say I'd average about 1-2 GB a day. So endurance is something I would need.

 

[R0H1T]

Interesting about the OCZ. I've learned to stay away from them. Even the RAM drive that I wanted to buy. Maybe that's a different story though.

Thing is I do a lot of writing to disk on this laptop. I say I'd average about 1-2 GB a day. So endurance is something I would need.

Well that's not much. I've racked up ~13TB (combined) on my RAID0 setup (256GB each) using LITEON MLC SSD's & that's inside 10 months. Still shows 100% health in HD sentinel :biggrin:

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Yeah, I would stay away from Samsung. Just ran magician and it said this 840 Pro 128Gb was 'Good' I've just got redone installing my os and config'ing it and the same thing is happening with this drive. Luckily as i'm typing this boot worked, so i'm also in the middle of looking for a new SSD and backing everything up on this again

 

[Glaring_Mistake]

Not sure what is best? MLC or TLC? The TLC drive has an advanced LDPC ECC technology which is appealing. I don't want to spend more than $50. This is for my laptop.

The two I'm looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211885

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211984

I have right now a 4 year old Adata 120 GB SSD in the desktop that is still going strong, so I'm liking Adata. I even have their USB sticks which offer a lifetime warranty.


Not willing to gamble with Samsung. I've seen a number of dead Samsung threads across the Internet and this laptop is only SATA II so speed isn't something I'm interested in all that much. I'm concerned more with reliability.

Interesting about the OCZ. I've learned to stay away from them. Even the RAM drive that I wanted to buy. Maybe that's a different story though.

Thing is I do a lot of writing to disk on this laptop. I say I'd average about 1-2 GB a day. So endurance is something I would need.

I don't really mind TLC in SSDs as much as some do but the 16nm TLC from Intel/Micron used in SP550 happens to be slow.

Really slow.

Like 50-60MB/s sequential writes slow.

And performance doesn't seem to scale with capacity either but instead remains at a steady 50-60MB/s.

So any time that the SLC-cache is filled it drops to those kinds of speeds.

The OCZ Trion using 19nm TLC from SanDisk/Toshiba and likely the Toshiba Q300 have a similar pattern but perform slightly better.
Slightly.


It also runs hot which is not really an issue for an SSD but it may indicate high power draw.
Or it may be intentional to prevent read speed degradation or just a bug.

Anyway my own SP550 installed in a laptop has a record of 67 degrees celcius I think though it did have to work that day.


These things may not be an issue to you but if they were I wanted to let you know so you can make an informed decision about the SP550.

My own criterias when I bought one was pretty much the price of the SSD seeing as it would sit in a laptop with SATA I and USB 2 which would not see much use.

And as a bonus I would get to see if Intel/Micron 16nm TLC suffers from read speed degradation.


You mean you write around 10-20GB per day?
Pretty much any SSD is not going to have a problem with that.
The SanDisk Ultra II, an SSD rated at 500 write/erase cycles, with the smallest capacity of 120GB could take almost three times that given a WA of 1.0.

And in one test to the death of one I have read it had a WA below 0.5.

So unlike you write a lot of very small files with TRIM deactivated and don't give the SSD time to rest I think that regardless of which SSD you pick it's not going to wear out anytime soon.


Don't know how much help I can be with suggestions for an SSD however given that we live in two different countries which does make such things more difficult.


tl;dr SP550 fast SLC really slow TLC,SSD endurance non-issue

 

[dave_the_nerd]

If you can fit comfortably on the 120GB drive (<80GB in use) I'd get that one.

Normally, I'd just go for size, but even the "official" performance specs from the manufacturer on the newegg page (which are usually completely unrealistically optimistic, bordering on outright lies) make that TLC one sound like a dog. Comparatively.

 

[John Connor]

I say I'd average about 1-2 GB a day. So endurance is something I would need.

1 to 2 GB. Not 10 not 50. I write about 1-2 GB a day. This isn't total writes.

The current SSD i have has a total of 8 TBs written to it and it's at 98% health, this is why I want to replace it before I go through hell.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Yeah, I would stay away from Samsung. Just ran magician and it said this 840 Pro 128Gb was 'Good' I've just got redone installing my os and config'ing it and the same thing is happening with this drive. Luckily as i'm typing this boot worked, so i'm also in the middle of looking for a new SSD and backing everything up on this again

That drive has a 5 year warranty so if it's going bad just rma it. I've got one in my laptop that is the replacement for the original which I had to rma when the controller panicked.

 

[Glaring_Mistake]

1 to 2 GB. Not 10 not 50. I write about 1-2 GB a day. This isn't total writes.

The current SSD i have has a total of 8 TBs written to it and it's at 98% health, this is why I want to replace it before I go through hell.

I'm unsure why you would think that such light use would warrant getting an SSD with endurance in mind.
10-20GB a day is like the lowest numbers manufacturers use when talking about endurance.
In fact the lowest TBW I have seen is 22 which you would at your rate reach after about 11 years.
A more standard TBW is 72 which would take you 36 years to reach.
Reaching TBW does not necessarily mean that you have worn out your SSD either or happen to be even close to doing so.



You could choose basically any SSD whatsoever and not have an issue in regards to endurance.
A 98% health means it is like new.

I've recently seen an 840 EVO with 39TB perform like brand new despite having two thirds of the effective write cycles that your SSD likely has.


Also pretty much no consumer wears out their SSD outside of trying to do so unless it has a skyhigh WA.

Firmware issues and the controller failing are two things much more likely to pose an issue.

And since you say your ADATA SSD is four years old it sounds likely that it may be using Sandforce as a controller which at least used to be a high riskfactor.


You should also backup any important files that you have regardless of your SSD being worn out or in mint condition, especially since they are more prone to stop working without warning than a regular HDD.
And of course because it is a lot more difficult and expensive to recover data from an SSD than an HDD.

And then just wear away at the SSD and be happy.

 

[Leyawiin]

From a PC Gamer review of the Samsung 850 Evo.

"Samsung guarantees that the 850 EVO will function after nearly twice as many data writes as the 840 EVO, which gives it that nice bump up to a 5 year warranty. To write 75 terabytes of data to the drive in five years, you&#8217;d have to do 40 gigabytes of writes every day. And these are just the guarantees; a year-long endurance test at The Tech Report saw an 840 EVO survive for 700 terabytes of writes before giving up the ghost."

You really don't have to worry about TLC endurance unless you purposely trying to destroy it. As far as Samsung goes, its probably the best SSD manufacturer there is.

http://www.pcgamer.com/samsung-850-evo-ssd-review/

 

[tweakboy]

Sammy ,, easy decision. gl

 

[Charlie98]

That drive has a 5 year warranty so if it's going bad just rma it. I've got one in my laptop that is the replacement for the original which I had to rma when the controller panicked.

Just like my 840Pro has (had) a 5-year warranty... except they don't warranty my data... and that's all I really care about. I've had my refurb 840Pro in use, but I've phased it out of service just this past week... I just don't want to take the risk.

OP, given the amount of data you write to your SSD, I would get the 240GB SSD; cheap insurance and no reason to fear premature wearout. Your laptop will probably be retired before the SSD shows signs of wear.

 

[R0H1T]

Just like my 840Pro has (had) a 5-year warranty... except they don't warranty my data... and that's all I really care about. I've had my refurb 840Pro in use, but I've phased it out of service just this past week... I just don't want to take the risk.

OP, given the amount of data you write to your SSD, I would get the 240GB SSD; cheap insurance and no reason to fear premature wearout. Your laptop will probably be retired before the SSD shows signs of wear.

And no one does that in the SSD space, you'll have to go cloud for that.

I see that you have M6S in one of your rigs, Plextor (or LITEON for OEM's) does seem to have a good history especially since I haven't heard of a single major or minor problem related to their SSD lineup. Have a couple of L9S in my system as well & they're damn good VFM, personally I'd say all the top SSD makers are (just about) equally reliable so far as their high end models are concerned & mainstream isn't much different.

 

[Glaring_Mistake]

And no one does that in the SSD space, you'll have to go cloud for that.

I see that you have M6S in one of your rigs, Plextor (or LITEON for OEM's) does seem to have a good history especially since I haven't heard of a single major or minor problem related to their SSD lineup. Have a couple of L9S in my system as well & they're damn good VFM, personally I'd say all the top SSD makers are (just about) equally reliable so far as their high end models are concerned & mainstream isn't much different.

When you mentioned that you hadn't heard of any problem with Plextor SSDs I googled Plextor SSD issues and soon found this: http://www.hitechreview.com/daily-news/plextor-m6-pro-ssds-may-reliability-problem/48567/

Not to say that Plextor make poor SSDs but rather that any maker of SSDs may produce an SSD with issues.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Any brand is subject to fail which is why backups are so important for your critical data.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Any brand is subject to fail which is why backups are so important for your critical data.

Q: What did the first SSD say to the second SSD?

A:

Funny because it's true. Tears in the rain, man, tears in the rain.

 

[Charlie98]

I see that you have M6S in one of your rigs, Plextor (or LITEON for OEM's) does seem to have a good history especially since I haven't heard of a single major or minor problem related to their SSD lineup.

My previous SSD (after the 840Pro failed, and before I got the refurb) was a Plextor M5Pro... I started having some boot issues with it, so I swapped it out for the 840Pro refurb.... :|

 

[Elixer]

Not sure what is best? MLC or TLC? The TLC drive has an advanced LDPC ECC technology which is appealing. I don't want to spend more than $50. This is for my laptop.

Not willing to gamble with Samsung. I've seen a number of dead Samsung threads across the Internet and this laptop is only SATA II so speed isn't something I'm interested in all that much. I'm concerned more with reliability.

Well, technically, they are both MLC, one is just 3-bit toggle MLC
Unless you plan on writing multiple GBs of data a day, then don't worry about TLC or MLC.

That said, I tend to go with Crucial, then OCZ/toshiba, then intel, then sammy, then the rest.

Sammy just has a horrid RMA service, and it blows chunks.
The other three above all have a much better RMA process, dunno how much of a factor that is to you, and hopefully, you will never have to find out.

The problem with reliability is, there is no real reliability if you only rely on one device. Backups are still a must, no matter what you end up getting.

 

[John Connor]

I always clone, and my backup drives are kept in a fireproof/waterproof safe.

What is a 3 bit toggle and which drive are you referring to that I listed?

 

[MongGrel]

I buy Crucial these days myself.

But have a couple Sammy EVO's in RAID0 on a side card in the main awhile now, I do not use Magician with them. That software sucks IMHO.

Drives in a safe, that is amusing here I guess.

 

[Essence_of_War]

What is a 3 bit toggle and which drive are you referring to that I listed?

http://www.anandtech.com/print/5067/understanding-tlc-nand

SLC, MLC and TLC are all fundamentally the same NAND. An N-bit NAND array can be run as N-bits of SLC, 2*N-bits of MLC, or 3*N-bits of TLC. All other things being equal (drive capacity, die size, etc) TLC can be represent significant savings to the manufacturer, which can help drive prices lower for client devices where end users who don't need the endurance or performance of SLC.

You're in a tough spot for 50 USD. There are some actually good deals just outside of price point. If possible, I would stretch the budget to 60 to pick up the Toshiba Q Series Pro for $60 (note: the 256 GB model is only $80!).

 

[AlienTech]

http://www.anandtech.com/print/5067/understanding-tlc-nand

SLC, MLC and TLC are all fundamentally the same NAND. An N-bit NAND array can be run as N-bits of SLC, 2*N-bits of MLC, or 3*N-bits of TLC. All other things being equal (drive capacity, die size, etc) TLC can be represent significant savings to the manufacturer, which can help drive prices lower for client devices where end users who don't need the endurance or performance of SLC.

[/URL].

Even if they are the same NAND, those nand cells can not hold the charge after 500 or so writes. hence why TLC fails faster.. MLC has better chances up to 3000 erases.. But SLC mode itself can handle 100K erases.. Since any chanrge would indicate a change in the cell.. There are ways to increase write cycles but those would be expensive. They should have made a switch where you could put the drive into MLC and SLC modes after so many writes.. That way even a 120GB TLC drive would work like a 40GB SLC drive decades from now.. They already do it with many drives so this is not like it is impossible.. The crucial BX200 256Gb drive writes in SLC mode until it is filled up and then the data is moved into MLC mode. other drives have similar caches as well but much smaller of 5 or 10GB..