SSD ENDURANCE - how important?

[MisterJohnnyT]

I have found only ONE mention of the word "endurance" in the storage devices forum, which seemed very strange to me.  Is SSD endurance not a concern?  I'm referring to the number of times it can be written to before becoming unusable.  I was hoping to get some guidance on the differences between QLC, TLC, 3d NAND, etc.

HOW is there no search function on this forum?  Can we trust tech tips from people who can't even figure out how to get a forum search function working???  I've been watching Linus' youtube channel for a long time, and when I saw how much traffic this techtips forum gets, I was happy to have an alternative to tomshardware.  BUT, if there is no search function, then maybe that is the only reason there are so many posts?  Does everybody just keep asking the same questions OVER AND OVER again because there is no search function to do a quick search for the already-answered question?  I know I can go to google and type site:linustechtips.com/main/forum and use that, but WHOLLY HELL what an annoyance!

[Electronics Wizardy]

its really not an issue for almost all desktop users. 

 

Your not writing that much data, and almost all consumer grade ssds can handle 50+gb a day for 5 years.

 

And most ssds will go way over spec.

[SPARTAN VI]

17 minutes ago, MisterJohnnyT said:

HOW is there no search function on this forum?  Can we trust tech tips from people who can't even figure out how to get a forum search function working???  I've been watching Linus' youtube channel for a long time, and when I saw how much traffic this techtips forum gets, I was happy to have an alternative to tomshardware.  BUT, if there is no search function, then maybe that is the only reason there are so many posts?  Does everybody just keep asking the same questions OVER AND OVER again because there is no search function to do a quick search for the already-answered question?  I know I can go to google and type site:linustechtips.com/main/forum and use that, but WHOLLY HELL what an annoyance!

Err....???

 

[r2724r16]

21 minutes ago, MisterJohnnyT said:

HOW is there no search function on this forum?  Can we trust tech tips from people who can't even figure out how to get a forum search function working???  I've been watching Linus' youtube channel for a long time, and when I saw how much traffic this techtips forum gets, I was happy to have an alternative to tomshardware.  BUT, if there is no search function, then maybe that is the only reason there are so many posts?  Does everybody just keep asking the same questions OVER AND OVER again because there is no search function to do a quick search for the already-answered question?  I know I can go to google and type site:linustechtips.com/main/forum and use that, but WHOLLY HELL what an annoyance!

You spent 10 minutes writing that paragraph but you didn't spend 10 seconds looking for the search box...

[SupaKomputa]

SSD is devided into 2 major part : the storage chip and the controller chip.

You are revering to the storage density, which i compiled the information below.

The controller chip is also the point of failure, some ssd may still have a good storage chip, but once the controller is dead, the drive is gone.

 

QLC

Quote

Memory that stores four bits per cell are commonly referred to as Quad Level Cell (QLC).

 

TLC

Quote

A Triple Level Cell (TLC) is a type of NAND flash memory that stores three bits of information per cell. Toshiba introduced memory with triple-level cells in 2009.^[16]

 

 

3d NAND

Quote

3D NAND flash is a type of flash memory in which the memory cells are stacked vertically in multiple layers.

3D NAND flash offers the potential for higher capacity in a smaller physical space than 2D NAND. In comparison to planar NAND, 3D NAND can lower the cost per gigabyte, improve electrical use to reduce power consumption, boost reliability, and provide higher data write performance.

One disadvantage of 3D NAND vs. planar NAND is the higher manufacturing cost, at least at the outset. 
3D NAND generally uses MLC NAND flash or TLC NAND flash. Manufacturers have improved the endurance and reliability of MLC and TLC flash drives through error correction code algorithms, wear leveling and other mechanisms.

 

The higher the density means lower endurance , speed and higher power consumption. High density chip is cheap to produce / gb.

[Staggeredsix_Mark]

Drive endurance is not going to be an issue with consumer use, unless you're writing the entire drive several times a day.... Endurance is measured in drive writes per day or bytes written. For example the WD Black 1TB is rated for 600 terabytes written, or one drive write per day for about a year and a half. Writing 1 TB to a drive in a day is going to be hard to do, even with extremely heavy usage. That 600 TBW is an extremely conservative number and it's the lowest average failure found during testing - meaning of the hundreds of drives tested the ones that failed the fastest. These numbers are a safety net for the manufacturer... it would be rather rare to see one of these drives actually fail at 600TBW.

 

Optane is a different beast. They are rated at about 85 drive writes per day... but I've never see one fail at that.

 

Unless your use case forces you into writing the capacity of the drive several times every day - you shouldn't worry about endurance. 

 

 

[hojnikb]

If endurance is your concern, than you shouldn't be looking at consumer drives anyway. But for most consumers, even QLC drives are plenty enough, because the drive will either be obsolete by the time you exhaust p/e or it's going to die because of controller failure.

 

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

While high endurance is definitely a desirable characteristic, if you really want to reasonably ensure the safety of your data, then it must exist in three separate places, such as on the computer, on an onsite backup drive, and on an offsite backup drive. For a drive to be a true backup drive, it must be kept powered down, disconnected from the computer, and stored out of sight of the computer. Your data will be much safer if stored on lower quality drives (each drive containing all the data that if it was stored on only one, higher quality drive.

 

TBWs is not the only measure of an SSDs endurance. As other have pointed out, the controller also can be a failure point. In fact, far more SSDs have died due to the controller failing than from the TBWs being exhausted.

 

Another factor few enthusiasts consider when considering endurance is how long an SSD can retain data while powered down. Generally speaking, the more bits per cell, the sooner data can be lost on powered down SSD. This applies only to SSDs stored powered down for extremely long periods, such as a year or more.

 

Also, data corruption is yet another factor that can affect the safety of your data. The more bits per cell, the higher the likelyhood that data can become corrupted.

 

For most people, mid-range priced SSDs will provide plenty of endurance (that does not negate the need for having data kept in three separate places).

[Guest]

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[MisterJohnnyT]

Guys, I swear that search box did not show up on my computer at work!

[MisterJohnnyT]

Thanks for the replies, I guess I can just go ahead and focus on the speed/cost/size and not worry about endurance.