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.

[YLow2]

So basically Intel is asking us to finger-cross and hope our SSD die within warranty period for this issue?

I am not sure 13.9x Write amplification is normal for long period streaming technically, but reading posts from 2015 claiming their Intel 320/330 Series SSD write amplification at 1.XX makes me feel sad.

By the way...isn't that the problems are "consistent NAND write while PC is idle", or "abnormally high Amplification"?

[CPop]

Based on one of the first messages, that suggested that reading from SSD each 200 ms or so you could get rid of this big write amplification, I've created a small windows service. I'm reading from SSD, each 200 ms a small file, this is suppose to prevent SSD from entering into DevSleep mode.

Kinda works, my write amplification dropped from 25 x to ~4x (still nowhere near my older Intel 320 that has a write amplification of just 1.7x). Now I have another issue, might be related to fact that SSD does not enter DevSleep mode anymore, temperature for SSD is in range 52-58 degrees (Celsius) (with DevSleep kicking, was around 45).

I think best solution from Intel would be to give people option for chosing

1. less power consumption (55 mW in idle mode, down to 5 mW in DevSleep mode) / HUGE write amplification (reduced lifespan)

vs.

2. normal power consumption / normal write amplification.

[YLow2]

Well, maybe the constant read heat up your SSD?

Some people mentioned that Intel used to given out some tools to turn off DevSleep mode, but I believe that is against the design concept for 530 and 535 series. (for Laptop I guess)

Business wise it make no sense to admit the limitation of the design. I do not know much about technical and can't code, most of the modification is scary to even think about it.

But yes, if 320/330 series is well accepted and 530 series can do it, an option is great to have.

Maybe there's performance issue or other lifespan problem if DevSleep mode is turned off, but just let us know the risks and allow us to choose it.

[JBour4]

Not sure is it wise to admit failure or not but to me, reputation is valuable asset, since one can't just buy it.

AFAIK, there are reports of other manufacturers' drives having this bug, so it's seems more like controller problem to me. And since AFAIK no one released fix, there is a good chance that it's hardware problem and just can't be fixed with firmware update. So the lesson I've learned - stay away from everything sandforce based.

Anyway, I've made Windows service too (it's https://github.com/deadbabe/diskpoll here, if anyone want to try).

Seems to work, only 1Gb increase per 24h, was 2-3Gb per hour. 200ms might be too often, guys earlier was talking about 500ms. And 45-58C is a waaay to high, mine is 40C even with constant reading, was 36C a bit earlier.

[MMuir2]

My drive group are still slowly killing themselves.

These drives are not even a year old and they're now below 75%.

This is highly unacceptable.