DIY Veterans Learn About SSD Parameters To Help You Choose The Right SSD That Suits You
See through the “ID card” of solid-state drives at a glance: the secret behind the capacity
When choosing a solid-state drive, the first thing that catches your eye is undoubtedly the capacity. This is just like buying a house, you first have to decide whether to buy a two-bedroom or a large flat. If you intend to continue using your old computer and only install the operating system and common software, then an entry-level solid state of 120GB or 128GB can fully meet your needs. If you can save on the budget, save as much as possible. But if you are a gamer and plan to put "Black Myth: Wukong" or "Cyberpunk 2077" on the C drive to enjoy the extremely fast loading, then 500GB or even 1TB is what you need. However, for those designers or video creators who need to process a large number of materials, directly using a large-capacity solid state with a capacity of 2TB or more is the right choice. This is not only due to space requirements, but also because the larger the capacity, the higher the cost-effectiveness per GB.
Dismantling the Core: Particles and Lifespan, the “Gatekeeper” of Data Security
Unlike mechanical hard drives, solid-state drives have an unavoidable topic, which is service life. The key to its lifespan lies in NAND flash memory particles. The particles currently on the market are mainly divided into several types. Among them, there are SLC, which has the fastest speed and longest life, but is extremely expensive and has almost completely disappeared from the consumer market; MLC, which has a balanced performance and lifespan and is extremely favored by high-end players; TLC, which currently occupies an absolute mainstream position in the market and has achieved a perfect balance between cost and performance; and QLC, which will appear in the future, with lower cost, shorter life, but extremely large capacity.
Be extremely wary of those "third-tier brands" with ridiculously low prices. They are very likely to use "black and white chips", which are defective products during the production of flash memory wafers. The performance of these particles is particularly unstable and there is a possibility of "sudden death" at any time, resulting in the loss of all data. So how to quantify the lifespan? It depends on TBW, which is the total number of bytes written. For example, there is a solid-state device whose nominal TBW is 300TB. This means that when the cumulative amount of data written reaches 300TB, the manufacturer feels that it has reached the end of its design life. Of course, the larger the value, the better.
Interfaces and protocols: Don’t be fooled by the appearance, the speeds vary greatly
The mainstream interfaces at the moment are those marked as SATA3.0 and those marked as M.2 . Many people think that M.2 solid state, which looks like a memory stick, must be fast, but this is not the case! The key here is what is called the transport protocol .
The solid state with SATA interface uses the AHCI protocol. The theoretical maximum bandwidth of this protocol is only 6Gbps, which is close to its physical limit.
What needs to be distinguished is that there are two types of solid-state M.2 interfaces. One is the SATA channel solid state, which is essentially based on the AHCI protocol. In terms of speed, it is no different from ordinary SATA solid state. The second is a solid state that uses the PCIe channel. It uses the NVMe protocol and can be called a "performance monster." The theoretical bandwidth of the NVMe protocol is as high as 32Gbps or more, and its read and write speed can easily exceed 3000MB/s, which is five or six times faster than the former. Therefore, if you want to pursue the ultimate performance, you must look for the words "NVMe" when purchasing. Only in this way can you get the "speed and passion" you desire.
Performance indicators: sequential read and write vs. 4K random read and write
When conducting publicity, manufacturers are most keen to boast that "sequential read and write speeds" can reach up to several gigabit, which refers to the speed when copying a movie or a large compressed package. Although this expression is more intuitive, in daily use, such large file transfer scenarios are not very frequent and uncommon. In fact, it is the discontinuous 4K random read and write speed that plays a decisive role in the "smoothness" of the computer.
When you turn on the computer, load a game level, open the PS software, or browse a folder full of broken files, the hard drive is frantically reading and writing countless small 4KB files. The speed of this speed directly determines whether the system responds quickly and whether there is any lag in software loading. Therefore, when choosing, don’t just look at the peak speed, pay more attention to the 4K random read and write test data. This is the “gold standard” punctuation mark to measure the true strength of the solid-state drive!
Purchasing logic: position according to needs, make precise decisions
To sum up, there are only three steps to become a confident "experienced driver": First, determine the required "capacity" and "interface type" (whether it is SATA for upgrade or NVMe for speed increase) based on the budget and purpose. Secondly, within the budget range, give priority to well-known brands that use original chips (such as Samsung, Western Digital, Kioxia, Zhidai, etc.) to avoid the minefield of "black and white films". First, and thirdly, make a horizontal comparison among products in the same price range. Among them, the most important thing to look at is the indicator called **4K random read and write speed**, and the second is the parameter called **TBW life**. If you follow this logic, you will not only be able to successfully avoid the traps set by profiteers, but you will also be able to more easily find the high-speed "running shoes" that best suit you. In this way, old computers can be given a new lease of life.
