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.

[JChil2]

I found that the Windows operating system (Win 7), Anti-Virus and anti Malware programs are always writing small files to the disk causing the high write amplification. If you work with large files it will be lower. My solution was to set up a ram disk and also use a disk caching program to reduce my write amplification. Use junction points to have the small writes from various programs to write to the ram disk, the Disk caching program reduces the other writes to the disk by discarding the old unused temp writes. Write amplification on the data disk is less than 1 and my operating system disk is now around 2. See my previous posts for what I was dealing with as far as write amplification before these changes.

These tools work well and solved my issue with write amplification.

[jbenavides]

Thanks for sharing this information Jonnie; this confirms write amplification varies from system to system, and it can be reduced using external tools as well.

[JChil2]

I also have the same problem with the 530 Series 240GB drive, the Total Nand Writes are excessive. The drive is only about a month old, I'm afraid it wont last long at this rate.

Any updated information from INTEL.

Please help.

Windows 7 operating system.

ASUS G73SW Notebook

Current Status on drive:

(1) INTEL SSDSC2BW240A4

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Model : INTEL SSDSC2BW240A4

Firmware : DC32

Serial Number : **********************

Disk Size : 240.0 GB (8.4/137.4/240.0/240.0)

Buffer Size : Unknown

Queue Depth : 32

# of Sectors : 468862128

Rotation Rate : ---- (SSD)

Interface : Serial ATA

Major Version : ACS-2

Minor Version : ----

Transfer Mode : SATA/600

Power On Hours : 250 hours

Power On Count : 98 count

Host Reads : 2127 GB

Host Writes : 642 GB

NAND Writes : 2856 GB

Temparature : 38 C (100 F)

Health Status : Good (100 %)

Features : S.M.A.R.T., APM, 48bit LBA, NCQ, TRIM

APM Level : 00FEh [ON]

AAM Level : ----

[Jose_H_Intel1]

Please allow us more time to check on this.

[JChil2]

Thanks.