Here’s a good reason why you might want to ‘downgrade’ your SSD and lose capacity in the process: Cheap QLC SSDs can be converted to expensive SLC to improve endurance, but it’s not for the faint of heart
We love crazy technical projects here Ny Breaking – Some of our recent favorites include an enthusiast running ChatGPT on a NAS, and the person who transformed AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor into a storage device with read-write speeds that rival some of the best SSDs.
The latest idea to hit our desks comes from Gabriel Ferraz, a computer engineer and maintainer of TechPowerUp’s SSD database, who turned a 512 GB QLC SATA III SSD into a 120 GB SLC one.
You probably know this, but as a refresher, SLC NAND stores one bit of data per cell, resulting in faster data writes, lower power consumption, and higher cell endurance than QLC NAND, which stores four bits per cell. QLC NAND is denser and cheaper, but has the disadvantage that its lifespan and speed decrease.
3000% increase in endurance
Ferraz’s idea was to trade capacity for vastly improved performance and endurance. He packed 512GB on a Crucial BX500 SSD with a Silicon Motion SM2259XT2 controller and NAND flash from Micron. Using an app called MPtools for the Silicon Motion SM2259XT2 controller, he identified the precise chip used in the SSD and entered new chip reference numbers.
Was it worth it? Although Ferraz has lost a lot of disk space, he says: βThe SSD durability jumps to 4000 TBW (write cycles), which is an increase of about 3000%. In addition, performance also increased.β
Ferraz explains his process hereand you can also see him perform his clever trick in the video below, including benchmarking results.