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.

[MMill20]

One thing that I have noticed for sure is that running HWMonitor greatly increases NAND writes. I run HWMonitor when launching a game for the first time to check temperatures. HWMonitor is stored and run from my secondary traditional drive and yet the impact is undeniable.

before:

host: 320.13

NAND: 1085

after ~1 hour of Farcry 4 with HWMonitor running:

host: 320.44: 0.31GB more

NAND: 1092: 7GB more

Write amplification: 22.6

after ~1 hour more of Farcry4 without HWMonitor:

host: 320.47: 0.03GB more

NAND: 1094: 2GB more

Write amplification: 66.7

Now you can see that there were more host writes during the first run, but I can't see how that would be due to HWMonitor as I have all logging disabled. Also, resource monitor does not show any writes from HWMonitor. The system may well have been doing other writes for any number of reasons, but looking just at the NAND writes I can tell you that this massive increase when running HWMonitor occurs every single time. I have no idea how this could be so since, again, HWMonitor is not an installed application but simply an .exe stored and launched on a secondary drive with all logging features disabled.

Now I realize that the write amplification for the second test without HWMonitor is actually far greater, but since the goal is fewer NAND writes the point and mystery remains. I don't know, the real problem is the write amplification under all conditions, but maybe there is a clue here somewhere.

[MMill20]

Jonnie, in your post I assume you mean NAND writes went up by 1 GB per hour, not host writes. Host writes would have been 0?

Also, I notice that you have an Asus laptop. I am using an Asus Z87-A motherboard with BIOS version 1207. Anyone else have Asus in common?

[ONeum]

My system: MSI Z97 Gaming AC motherboard , intel core i7-4790k CPU , MSI 3GB D5 x GTX 780 TI Gaming Grafik,

My Last view:

READ: 809 855 859 869

Write: 460 494 500 502

Nand: 216 484 515 530

ON/OFF: 9 10 11

h ON: 27 29 31

After this i change my SSD to my old Intel 330 and no problems ( i have the win7 on 530 cloned to 330) so it is all the same but 530 its something wrong with many nand in short time.

[JChil2]

Sorry, "Total Nand Writes" are increasing 1 GB per hour and 0 lba. My mistake, thanks for pointing that out.

[JChil2]

HWR,

Here is my info:

Motherboard Chipset: Intel HM65 (Cougar Point) [B3]

CPU Brand Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz

CPU Code Name: Sandy Bridge-MB SV

BIOS Vendor: American Megatrends Inc.

BIOS Version: G73Sw.205

Drive 0 - Boot drive:

Name: INTEL SSDSC2BW240A4 ATA Device

Firmware: DC32

Controller: msahci

Offset: 206848 K - OK

Size: 223.57 GB

Drive 1 - Data drive

Name: INTEL SSDSC2BW240A4 ATA Device

Firmware: DC32

Controller: msahci

Offset: 1024 K - OK

Size: 223.57 GB

Date: 11/21/2014 5:57:34 AM