Intel SSD 530 NAND Write Problem

[fZhan14]

Hello, everyone:

I bought an Intel SSD 530 120G for my laptop several days ago. It worked well with the OS Win8.1 Pro x64.

When I paid attention to the NAND writes, something make me confused.

The situation is as follow:

The SSD with the OS is the first(primary) Disk, and the HDD is the second one. I have moved the cache of IE, chrome and Firefox to the Hard Drive using IE setting or mklink command, and verified it correctly. With the explorer working, the written data stream from cache is produced in the HDD partition theoretically, also I have got this conclusion through the System's Resource Monitor and the Diskmon from Microsoft website. When I cached several Movies embedded in any explorer without other operation separately, there are lots of written data traffic produced in the HDD partition, and just little data wrote in system disk(SSD), it's no doubt. Finally, each test(using one kind of explorer) improved less than 200Mb in Total Host Writes which is normal for system operating, but this process also consumed about 3Gb SSD's Total NAND writes in total in the CrystalDiskInfo 6.0.1. Also I have got the same result with the newly Intel SSD Toolbox, AIDA64 3.20 and CrystalDiskInfo 6.0.1. In fact, this written data traffic produced by explorer's cache in HDD is calculated into the SSD's total NAND writes.

Actually I'm not care of the SSD's wear, and I'm sure it couldn't reach the limited lifespan with normal usage until next generation product arrives. This accidental discovery confused me now, and the result above make me suspect the theory, Putting IE/Chrome or System cache into other medium/drive saving your SSD's wear.

Q:Here, I want to know what makes this strange condition happen, the drivers, system's bug, bad support for old mainboard, the system's setting&config or the special system log?

Testing condition:

Thinkpad R400(GM45 motherboard)/P8700/8Gb RAM/Intel 530 SSD+Hitachi 7k500/Intel 5300 AGN/Win 8.1 Pro X64 with the Win 8.1's Default config and drivers, except trunning the service Superfetch off mannually.

I could make sure the location of explorer cache(IE, Chrome, Firefox) in HDD, also the written data traffic in HDD, and the vast imprived NAND writes in SSD simultaneously.

Thanks for your help.

[fZhan14]

Hi, Joe,

I have copied the folder including several folders and files from HDD to SSD, the total size is about 1.70Gb. The Total Host writes improved approximately 1.80Gb, and Total NAND writes increased about 2Gb. All seems to be going well, The following is the captured graph.

The original capture:

The final image:

Thanks a lot.

[Jose_H_Intel1]

The results indicate the SSD is working properly. It appears to be an operating system or other software issue.

[fZhan14]

Hi, Joe,

I am not satisfied with your illogical and arbitrary reply.

Yes, the SSD could work well. But the Total NAND writes is calculated correctly ONLY for file copy process, NOT for the cache stream in the HDD. We all could notice this result from the custom or system monitor software data. The file copy and the cache data stream in HDD are two different things, the cache data stream is generated only in the HDD in the latter procedure, we mustn't mix them up. The correct file-copying result ONLY gives an indication of the normal Write Amplification (WA) of SF2281 controller, nothing else. Also this finding confirmed that if the Total Host writes improved 32Mb data, there must be at most 64Mb Total NAND writes happened. In fact, 2Gb Total NAND Writes data is increased in this process, which should have been generated in the HDD. In another aspect, there are 2Gb data improved in the Total NAND writes, only 32Mb Total Host writes. Do you think it's normal?

I want a specific solution or reply, not a general one. And please note the detail condition I showed in the main post and # 1 comment, actually, I have tested this problem with detail in OS win7, win8.1 and the IE9,11, chrome, firefox, especially, the newly installed system without other software, The same result is got in all environment. For your reply, do you mean that I should test it also in Win VISTA, XP and MS-DOS again? OR Mac OS, Linux, Safari? On the other hand, as for the Total NAND writes, I think it must be controlled by the DDS's framework or the SF controller, but not relative to the operation environment. So why not think about the product, the controller, the compatibility of the SSD's framework with the mainstream OS? or maybe there is a bug in the 530's framework?

I just show the problem for Intel's product to improve it, and hope we could lay emphasis on this actually happened problem. If we couldn't treat this problem well, I appreciate you if you could transfer this thread to the Intel's technical support or engineer.

Thank you very much and have a nice weekend.

[KenF_Intel]

Hi Wszf5560,

I work with Joe_Intel and thought I would jump in here.

I want to start by making sure I understand your question.

Your initial question seemed to be "do writes to the HDD get calculated into the NAND writes on the SSD". The answer to that is definitely "no". The NAND writes is calculated directly by the controller based on total writes. This includes writes caused by Write Amplification (as you pointed out). Data written to other drives in the system can not affect that indicator since the SSD in question did not do any writing.

I think a comment in your first post may be correct. Your comment was "This accidental discovery confused me now, and the result above make me suspect the theory, Putting IE/Chrome or System cache into other medium/drive saving your SSD's wear.". It appears that write requests are being sent to the SSD even though you have directed the cache to your HDD. Perhaps this is some sort of temporary data that is quickly deleted? This is a question for the OS or software vendor.

I hope this helps. If we still don't fully understand your question, then it might be more effective to speak with one of our support agents. You can find contact information at: http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/contactsupport Contact Support

[fZhan14]

Hi, Ken,

Thank you for you reply.

I could agree with your comment that "the NAND writes is calculated directly by the controller". If there are some data generated in the SSD when cache is working, there must be an improvement of the Total Host writes. In fact this condition haven't appeared, only 32Mb improved in the Total Host Writes, but about 2Gb in the Total NAND Writes, here the Write Amplification is at least 50! It is abnormal. You could assume that it is an OS or monitoring software error, there will be some temporary data produced, then deleted quickly, but the Total Host writes nearly never increased during this process. How could we explain this phenomenon? Possibly the OS or the controller have omitted such extensive quantity of data

Another possibility for this case is that there is the same phenomenon occurred in other company's product. I haven't another SSD, so never test this matter. Maybe "Putting IE/Chrome or system cache into other medium/drive saving your SSD's wear" is suitable only for other company's product, not for Intel's SSD, or even it is suitable for nothing.

Even though I mention this NAND writes problem here, the SSD could be used up for a long time in the normal operation condition. There is nobody besides me caring this matter, I had expected maybe we could find a "bug" and improve this product. But now I don't want to continue this stuffy topic. It is not because we have got a solution, but there is no further proof for it, and I am just an user.

Thanks for your attention, Joe and Ken.