Question SSD endurance... Has it turned out to be a non-issue or not?

[Golgatha]

Throwing out an in-general comment. So, in general, I'm pretty convinced the controller on any MLC or TLC based drive will give up the ghost long before the NAND ever will. Keeping the drive's controller cool is the best way to ensure longevity.

 

[Golgatha]

The two problems with that are that I did not historically see the capacity: price ratio rise as much as the endurance ratio dropped, and second is the state of HQ flash chip shortage-inducted SSD pricing today, where you're getting a 240GB TLC or even QLC SSD at higher cost than I paid for my 240GB MLC SSDs, 10 years ago.

Yes, but I kinda understand this because every drive, regardless of capacity for the user, needs basically the same bill of materials. Couple that with inflation and you get TLC 240GB that costs more now than my older MLC drives. Now the move from TLC to QLC without much, if any, movement in price is just pure greed IMO.

On a personal note, I'm kinda glad I got obsessed mid-2025 with PS2 and PS3 mods and upgrading capacity, as I now have a small stash of cheaply purchased 500GB-1TB SSDs that have said MLC NAND on them.

 

[Hulk]

The two problems with that are that I did not historically see the capacity: price ratio rise as much as the endurance ratio dropped, and second is the state of HQ flash chip shortage-inducted SSD pricing today, where you're getting a 240GB TLC or even QLC SSD at higher cost than I paid for my 240GB MLC SSDs, 10 years ago. Granted that price comparison is in non-adjusted (for inflation) dollars, after adjustment a 240TB QLC SSD is slightly (20%?) less expensive today.

NAND Type	Bits per Cell	Typical P/E Cycles
Planar MLC (2016 era)	2 bits	3,000–10,000
Modern 3D QLC	4 bits	~200–1,000

SSD/memory prices are in a bubble right now so I'm not sure the pricing comparison is valid. I purchased my 4TB Samsung EVO for $323 in 2021, it's double that now. I'd rather have that 4TB of QLC over 2TB of MLC for that price even though the theoretical endurance will be less because by the time I hit that endurance that drive will be loooong outdated.

But of course this is just my take. The opposite opinion is just as valid.

My original point is that endurance has turned out for most people to be a non issue. When QLC first came out there was no way I'd buy one. Eventually I thought, why not give it a try, I'm backed up about 4 ways at all times anyway. 5 years in as a dailyl back-up drive and it's been flawless.

These days I buy drives based on trusted name brands, capacity, speed, and price. Although I will say I don't have a QLC on my boot drives... yet, but this is mainly a performance decision for me. But I may be getting there if the performance can match TLC.

 

[Golgatha]

SSD/memory prices are in a bubble right now so I'm not sure the pricing comparison is valid. I purchased my 4TB Samsung EVO for $323 in 2021, it's double that now. I'd rather have that 4TB of QLC over 2TB of MLC for that price even though the theoretical endurance will be less because by the time I hit that endurance that drive will be loooong outdated.

But of course this is just my take. The opposite opinion is just as valid.

My original point is that endurance has turned out for most people to be a non issue. When QLC first came out there was no way I'd buy one. Eventually I thought, why not give it a try, I'm backed up about 4 ways at all times anyway. 5 years in as a dailyl back-up drive and it's been flawless.

These days I buy drives based on trusted name brands, capacity, speed, and price. Although I will say I don't have a QLC on my boot drives... yet, but this is mainly a performance decision for me. But I may be getting there if the performance can match TLC.

I'm not sure what my discounted value would have to be, but I've yet to purchase a QLC drive, even for just data backups, because TLC drives have so far been just minimally more expensive. Right now, my main criteria is performance when installed as permanent storage for a computer. For NVME drives that I use in external enclosures, a 2nd criteria is can it sustain hours of writes without thermal throttling. For the thermal throttling question, I've only found two drives that work for me consistently. P31 from Hynix and the NM790 from Lexar. It's a shame the P31 doesn't come in higher capacities, as I prefer the drive to have a DRAM cache, but the Lexar in an external enclosure can only read and write so fast (limited by the USB interface) anyway.

 

[iCyborg]

I had Crucial M4 with 256 GB that served as an OS drive for some 13.5 years. It was at 94% health upon retirement. And I worried about longevity when I bought it. It was MLC IIRC.
I still have it, but in my new build I didn't find a use for a secondary 256GB drive, especially a SATA one. These days, who knows, maybe I could sell it for purchasing price...

I also have Samsung 860 EVO 1TB from 2018, still at 99%, this one I did carry over.
My main drive is WD 8100 4TB, only a few months old, so 100% per HWiNFO.

It angered me when Samsung moved their 990 Pro from MLC to TLC, I'm pretty sure I posted in the thread here. But for these 2+ TB drives, TLC is really a non-issue for normal users. Probably QLC too, espoecially as additional drives.

 

[Golgatha]

I had Crucial M4 with 256 GB that served as an OS drive for some 13.5 years. It was at 94% health upon retirement. And I worried about longevity when I bought it. It was MLC IIRC.
I still have it, but in my new build I didn't find a use for a secondary 256GB drive, especially a SATA one. These days, who knows, maybe I could sell it for purchasing price...

I also have Samsung 860 EVO 1TB from 2018, still at 99%, this one I did carry over.
My main drive is WD 8100 4TB, only a few months old, so 100% per HWiNFO.

It angered me when Samsung moved their 990 Pro from MLC to TLC, I'm pretty sure I posted in the thread here. But for these 2+ TB drives, TLC is really a non-issue for normal users. Probably QLC too, espoecially as additional drives.

Yes, that's a good point about capacity increases. I bought a 1TB Samsung 860 Pro with 1200 TBW for my home server's main OS drive. These days, my favorite NVME, the SN850X, has the same 1200 TBW value for the 2TB drive, and it also (used to) costs about the same as the 1TB 860 Pro as they phased those out. For my gaming rig, I appreciate the extra capacity too.

 

[mindless1]

That's why I threw my 240GB SATAs into raid arrays. 4 of them stacked atop each other take up very little space, especially if you're using a case with any 5.25" bays but don't need an optical drive.

Didn't make sense to retire them and pay again for a 1TB or larger, and until recently their value just wasn't enough to bother selling them... tho' I have no problem running some light duty system off a single 240GB SSD, considering the network storage for anything substantial.

I mean if all a box is doing is internet kiosk, surf youtube or forums, check email, etc, it makes very little difference what the performance of the SSD is, as long as it has one instead of HDD for OS partition, plus enough main system memory. Put aging drives in aging systems.

 

[Golgatha]

That's why I threw my 240GB SATAs into raid arrays. 4 of them stacked atop each other take up very little space, especially if you're using a case with any 5.25" bays but don't need an optical drive.

Didn't make sense to retire them and pay again for a 1TB or larger, and until recently their value just wasn't enough to bother selling them... tho' I have no problem running some light duty system off a single 240GB SSD, considering the network storage for anything substantial.

I mean if all a box is doing is internet kiosk, surf youtube or forums, check email, etc, it makes very little difference what the performance of the SSD is, as long as it has one instead of HDD for OS partition, plus enough main system memory. Put aging drives in aging systems.

My personal recent reuse of older and smaller SSDs are for retro computers by using an older Maxtor (remember them?) SATA 150 PCI expansion card and running the OS from a 240GB Crucial MX100. Running Win98SE through XP from a SSD is amazing! Also, I put a 256GB Crucial M4 into an external enclosure for my WiiU, which was for quiet operation and reliability more than anything, as the Wii U maxes out at USB 2.0 speeds. As you said, in recent history selling these just didn't make much financial sense, and they were nice to have around for the occasional family member or friend that could use a SSD for their OS.

I've utilized a lot of smaller SSDs, so my current inventory is pretty sparse. I have a 1TB Crucial MX500, 960GB Samsung PM893, and 240GB Crucial MX100 remaining for any future pet projects. I'm holding those for any PS2, PS3, or Wii U SSDs I currently have if they ever fail. Failures are probably unlikely, as they're all low utilization and sporting 500-1TB sized Samsung Pro or Crucial drives at the moment, which are all high endurance, DRAM cache having models.

 

[bba-tcg]

My personal recent reuse of older and smaller SSDs are for retro computers by using an older Maxtor (remember them?) SATA 150 PCI expansion card and running the OS from a 240GB Crucial MX100. Running Win98SE through XP from a SSD is amazing! Also, I put a 256GB Crucial M4 into an external enclosure for my WiiU, which was for quiet operation and reliability more than anything, as the Wii U maxes out at USB 2.0 speeds. As you said, in recent history selling these just didn't make much financial sense, and they were nice to have around for the occasional family member or friend that could use a SSD for their OS.

I've utilized a lot of smaller SSDs, so my current inventory is pretty sparse. I have a 1TB Crucial MX500, 960GB Samsung PM893, and 240GB Crucial MX100 remaining for any future pet projects. I'm holding those for any PS2, PS3, or Wii U SSDs I currently have if they ever fail. Failures are probably unlikely, as they're all low utilization and sporting 500-1TB sized Samsung Pro or Crucial drives at the moment, which are all high endurance, DRAM cache having models.

Maxtor was my go to brand. I was sad when it left the market.

 

[mindless1]

I bought Maxtors because there were some sweet deals back in the day. Staples would put one on sale for ~$70, and it had a $20 rebate, then a $20 off $75 coupon code for a Staples order, so I'd get something like mailing labels or whatever to bump the order total up to $75, so it ended up costing around $30. Sometimes you could even stack coupons and get them to throw in a free set of luggage or miniature portable TV. Crazy.