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.

[IIanM]

It's been a week...

[jbenavides]

Hello,

Please review to the following statement for details about this topic:

There has been concern over the amount of write amplification1 while using the Intel® SSD 530 Series and the Intel® SSD 535 Series. It has been noted that the write amplification on the Intel® SSD 520 Series was much lower. The 530 Series and 535 Series added architecture around power savings which changed the behavior of the drive. On some systems this may have write amplification impacts; however, the drive was also architected to meet the same reliability and endurance standards as the 520 Series.

Some write amplification is expected. Because of the architecture of NAND, while other drive activity is occurring, the drive will perform http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-news/latest-buzz/garbage-collection-and-trim-in-ssds-explained-an-... garbage collection moving "in use" data to new areas and reclaiming deleted blocks as free space. The amount of write amplification depends on the type of writes and amount of deleted data. Certain workloads trigger a higher write amplification. For instance, small-file-size write operations over long periods of time generate more garbage collection than large –file-¬size write operations. The power saving modes in the 530 and 535 Series products also add extra background write operations before taking the drive into a lower power state. If the drive is transitioning into lower power and then being woken up very frequently, the number of background operations increases, and in effect, increasing write amp. Standard user activity is typically a mix of write behavior (not only small IOs) with power saving transitions spread out over time.

If your typical activity is not approaching the endurance rating as specified in the Product Specification, you should have no concern of excessive wear out on the Intel SSD. Should you be concerned about wear out, please monitor the SMART attribute E9h. Intel warranties the SSD based on the consumer adhering to usage as based in the Product Specification.

1The difference between host writes and NAND writes.

[Anonymous]

That's it? After such a long time of "investigation", this is what you can give us?

[Pte_R]

I totally agree with Tom Yan, this is really disappointing. The explanation from Intel is what was already predicted from the start. I have put a lot of time in this issue, so I was hoping for at least a firmware update to tackle this problem.

[JKlin4]

Agreed, Intel appears to be admitting no fault, and trying to just brush the issue aside. After this I won't be buying any more Intel SSD's, I also will make sure to tell my friends and clients to stay far away from Intel SSD's.