512GB 760p NVMe over-provisioning

[PJack3]

Does the 760p have over-provisioning built in? The capacities seem to indicate that they do not. I would have thought that a 512GB SSD with provisioning would end up as for example a 500GB SSD (12GB OP). I was wondering as I am considering adding OP space by leaving extra free space when partitioning before installing windows - leaving something like 10-15% free.

If I did this does it help performance and durability?

Thanks!

[DiegoV_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hi PJack3,

Thank you for posting in the Intel® communities.

All SSDs have some amount of space intended for over-provisioning. It’s hard to say how much space is reserved for this purpose because it is not visible from the user side. In general, there is at least around 7% of space for over-provisioning, so following this line a 256GB capacity SSD would have at least 17.92GB for this purpose (approximately).

I hope this information answers your main concern.

Regarding to the second concern of leaving extra space for over-provisioning. It’s not really necessary, however it’s a best practice and some users recommend to leave some space free for this purpose: 10-15-25%. It will help to extend the drive lifetime and capacity, however there is no way to measure how much this will exactly help the drive’s performance. In case you want to investigate further, there are many online articles in the web that explains the benefits of this practice and under which circumstances it will indeed help the SSD performance.

My personal recommendation would be to use the drive’s full capacity as it was designed to work that way. There is in the background some amount of space reserved for over-provisioning, so you don’t have to worry about it. If the drive fails under normal conditions for some reason, you can contact the Warranty Team since it has a warranty period of 5 years.

On the other hand, if you prefer to leave some extra space for over-provisioning, it’s good too. You can reserve for example 5% of the capacity, and use the rest of the space for data storage.

I hope you find this information helpful.

If there is anything else I can help you with, feel free to ask.

Have a nice day.

Regards,

Diego V.

Intel Customer Support Technician

Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[PJack3]

Thanks for your reply Diego, much appreciated! I didn't realize that all SSDs (well Intel SSDs at least) have over-provisioning built in even if not obvious based on user accessible area.

[DiegoV_Intel]

Hi PJack3,

Yes, all SSDs have some amount of space for over-provisioning, this not only applies for our drives but for any SSD in general. As mentioned above, there are many online articles that discuss this topic deeply, this one is an example that you can check just to clarify a little bit more the topic (and also to learn something new which is always good 🙂): https://www.seagate.com/tech-insights/ssd-over-provisioning-benefits-master-ti/.

Anyhow, I'm glad to know you found useful the information in my response.

If you ever have another issue or concern, please don't hesitate to open a new thread. We'll try to help you in any way we can.

Have a nice day.

Regards,

Diego V.

Intel Customer Support Technician

Under Contract to Intel Corporation