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.

[AEfim1]

Intel SSD 535 series not DRAM-buffer. Recording is carried out without a DRAM-buffer.

[MKuba]

Just want to add my name to the list. After 70 days of use, 12.4TB NAND Writes on 369.94 LBA Writes for a write amplification of 33x. Machine is 4K aligned and TRIM is enabled with ~40GB space free on 120GB model. Drive shows 97% Media Wearout remaining.

[yn]

I bought this Intel 535 SSD about 1 month ago, and unfortunately didn't do any research online before buying it. If I had known this notorious write amplification problem, I should't have bought it. Now my NAND write increases about 1GB per 3 minutes in idle state (nearly zero host write). I searched some other site which diagnosed it and determined that intel's aggressive power saving feature is constantly (about every 0.6s) writing back the mapping table because it will go to sleep if there is no activity in 0.6s. This writing back mapping table process will continue to occur even if you disable the DevSleep feature. It is implemented in the firmware. Intel, I really got so disappointed by your action and attitude towards this problem/bug. Please fix the firmware quickly, my and all of our SSDs are dying abnormally quickly! Even an amateur hobby website can determine what the problem is, Why you are so slow and reluctant to fix this? Please FIX it quickly!

[CTaka3]

Should I be concerned with this? I am not sure what the # 's really mean and if it's something to be aware. But I did get value readings from the toolbox and CrystalDisk.

Host Write: 989GB

NAND Write: 17,545.94GB

My life estimaate is still at 100% though... Please let me know.

[CCleo]

Hi All,

I checked the other day my ssd without much attention because I have Intel SSD since the X-25 M, they are the best right?

But no, this time my attention was caught by over 120 TB of total NAND writes. I implemented the service described earlier in this tread with some improvement (to be seen), but i think this is a warranty problem.

Can someone from Intel describe the procedure I should follow to change the ssd. My ssd warranty expires in 2021, it will not last for sure until then and I don't want to loose my windows activation (upgraded from windows 7 when it was free) or my data.

I am waiting for a Intel response, please.

P.S. Now I have to tell all my friends that my recommendation was wrong, I really hope this can be solved somehow. How can I recommend Intel SSD in the future for servers or PCs when something like this can happen. I have servers that write 100GB per day on ssd, on this kind of write amplification (43) the ssd would last 6 months maximum (750TB). I hope the server ssd versions are better.