users here always looks for stuff which are 'peng leng jieng' (in cantonese, meaning cheap, yet must be pretty, and with best quality), so yes most likely it's because of price, and also better specs in other brands with similar price.

yeah i will say it's less people doing rma with them.

The last time (and the only time) i had this was because of sudden power loss. (Ssd as external storage) All data were gone. After a power recycling, initialized and formatted, it's still 100% health (using it till now)

Intel® Solid State Drive Toolbox 3.3.7

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/2...e-Drive-Toolbox

- There is a firmware and bootloader update available for the Intel® SSD 750 Series products. The latest firmware version is 8EV101F0. The latest bootloader version is 8B1B0133.

- There is a firmware update available for the Intel® SSD 540s, Intel® SSD E 5400s Series and the Intel® SSD DC S3100 Series products. This update is only available through the Intel® SSD Firmware Update Tool.

- This release of the Intel SSD Toolbox will detect if your drive is eligible for the firmware update and will direct you to use the Intel SSD Firmware Update Tool.
* For the Intel SSD 540s Series, the latest firmware revision is 036C.
* For the Intel SSD E 5400s Series, the latest firmware revision is 036E.
* For the Intel SSD DC S3100 Series, the latest firmware revision is 036D.

This release also includes the following tool fixes and updates:
* Latest version of the Intel Update Manager, v3.4.1942, in the installation.
* Fixes to the download center and check for updates links
* Fixes issue where tool stops working on Windows* 10 with Marvel RAID drive
* Fixes command line crash when using –identify_device filename.bin on NVMe drives
* Updated product detection

- Support for the Intel® SSD 600p, Intel® SSD Pro 6000p, and Intel® SSD E 6000p Series products will be available Q4 2016.

- Before beginning the Intel SSD Toolbox installation, review the Release Notes.

Note: Installing this version of the Intel SSD Toolbox overwrites previous versions of Intel SSD Toolbox.

my case was about improper handling, not some random incidents. any ssd will have higher chances of getting this if not handled properly.

it's an old fujitsu oem ssd. it's still working very well.

i didn't remove the drive safely using the usb icon in notification area.

if it's a system disk, you current os has set to run mode other than ahci. to use the hdd as data storage, just remove the os and related system partitions on it.

if not handled properly, things like power loss will still happen. in my case, i disconnected the drive from computer while apparently something were still working in background with the ssd.

no, not all ssd has power loss prevention feature. however, it's not really a problem. (unless your area has a bad power supply in general; if that's the case, an ups will help reduce the risks)

sudden blackout? haha i am not sure too

surely ups can help. it's like a laptop with a functional battery. to me both hdd and ssd are susceptible to power loss. hdd has higher risks because of movable parts.

technically the true power loss prevention is a feature in some enterprise ssd. for consumer ssd, some do advertise that they have it, but its capability is usually limited (eg. only protect data at-rest, not on-the-fly like those found in enterprise ssd).

how important and practical is this feature to us consumers? it really depends. imo it's good to have it, but not really necessary.

if you're living in such an area, it's good to have an ups. it's not only for ssd but your whole system.

the guy in the thread described the true power loss protection. the part he said ups being irrelevant is kind of true in his context, but the main point of having ups is to protect a computer system from typical power loss scenarios, not the ones he described.

intel 320 is a very old drive. i don't think you should look for it purposely. (or to get those enterprise ssd just for this feature; they are expensive)

for ups, you have to start research. i am not familiar with ups either.

performing regular backups for data is a good practice. backups saved me many times already. the absence of the feature imo is related to manufacturing costs, and the relative low risks to suffer data loss from sudden power loss these days.

yes, ssd have smart functions. free tools like crystal diskinfo can show you ssd health. for normal use, it's not easy to wear it out.

a nice find thanks

everything comes with price.

imo current ssds are fine for casual workloads. tlc is just starting to become common, and it might be still fine when qlc nand is here to stay.

also, if the endurance is a serious concern, i think manufacturers are more worried than us consumers. they risk more than we do.

.. wow. yes i suggest you implement some sort of data backups. i have very limited experience about sudden power loss, so i cannot give you a good picture about what happen when it occurs frequently sorry.

the chance for an ups to explode is rare, relatively

one cheaper way is to get an external hdd, back data up when necessary. remember to disconnect it from system after backup is complete.

this model is really giving plextor a bad impression.

all my old plextor are still running fine too.

Western Digital SSD Dashboard Version 1.4.3.8

http://downloads.wdc.com/ssd/WDSSDDashboardSetup.zip

Description
* The WD SSD Dashboard helps users maintain peak performance of the WD SSD in Windows® operating systems with a user-friendly graphical interface for the user. The WD SSD Dashboard includes tools for analysis of the disk (including the disk model, capacity, firmware version, and SMART attributes) and firmware updates.

Supported Operating Systems
* Windows 10 32/64-bit versions
* Windows 8.1 32/64-bit versions
* Windows 7 32/64-bit versions

Applicable Products
* WD Blue SSD, WD Green SSD

http://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?lang=en

maybe. there should be warning regarding drive failure. (i don't experience that yet; but i am taking precautions all the times by storing data elsewhere)

transcend drives are fine. they are not as good as premium competitions like 850 evo, but to me good enough for common use.

lai liao. can pre-order liao

http://www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory...11+hv22y+zq29m/

no i am not pre-ordering. i think they will be available locally soon

yeah haha! i rather spend that much on gpu instead.

i will go for 512gb and 1tb of 960pro's for my rigs, and some 960evo for other purposes hehe

now i'm dreaming of future pro's that hopefully can go pcie x8 lol!

or, just grab one when you really need it.

ssd development is still at a very young age. new ssd technologies appear every year. we all get better ssd technologies along the way (in general, as long as they are implemented). so just be cool as usual, and strikes when necessary.

on a side note, you might ask, how good are these new technologies? only time will tell. when i read the google's 6-year study on ssd use at their data center previously (enterprise ssds; for non-human 24/7 heavy operations), it said a lot of things relatively, like nand's age affects endurance rather than usage; lithography affects nand's reliability; ssd is more reliable than hdd; expensive slc is not better / more reliable than mlc; etc. but, some also said the study means nothing, because it's based on 6-year-old drives (because if you looked at ssd technology advancements in the past years, things have changed a lot)

ssd will not last forever, but it will outlast generations of your computer builds. while it still lasts, just use it. don't worry about endurance, because we human cannot do anything sane like what's done by servers at data center.

for consumer ssd, pick a good brand with relatively good records. you will have least issues.

haha yeah

for price/gb sweet spots, i think it's better for you to do straight-forward comparisons for the models that you're interested in. cross check with their features and warranty/tbw/dwpd, controller, ram size, nand type, etc. if you want.

about pcie ssds, i think samsung is doing something with its 960evo. for instance, sata-based 500gb 850evo is like myr800+ here. from the pre-ordering page, 500gb 960evo is about myr1k+ (just about myr200 difference; later the price might drop a little). with a crude performance check between the two, 960evo is like 6x faster than 850evo on paper. since my boot drive only house os and software that i use daily (i.e. more reads, way less writes; my temp folders are in ram disk; i don't need sustainable read/write speeds for os drive either), i will pick 960evo for sure, especially for laptops. (imo in terms of laptops, due to limited pcie lanes in general, pcie 3.0 x4 bandwidth might be the max that we can get for ssds for years to come. i might be wrong, but for my own use i have yet to find things i do that can make full use of that crazy speed; so i think it's fine for me to get some hehe)

of course if sata speed is already good enough, there is no need to get pcie ssd because you probably will not get any benefit from it, beside some extents of speed improvements here and there but not all.

i think pny cs1311 is a tlc ssd which uses phison s10 as controller (like kingston hyperx savage; zotac premium; and several others). its write speed might suffer if the capacity is small. 480gb and up should be ok.

yeah it's terrible here :/ as a consumer, i wanna spend money here to support local sellers; and i don't think most of us mind if the price is fair. however, if distri's / sellers' intents are just to make easy money out of us with the least efforts, then eff them. consumers do have choices. that's why sometimes i just grabbed stuffs from else where if risks are manageable; saved a lot if you bought in bulk you know. i used the money i saved to get more as buffer units just in case. this increased the quantity of my purchase and i was offered better discounts. note that discounts were offered proactively; no tricks or whatever; i don't need to entertain perangai biadap and insulting gestures; no need wasting time bargaining this and that like aunties buying sayur in pasar.

(hehe off-topic but some local reps are really having bad attitudes; they always forget that we are the ones who help them fulfill their quotas every month, and we always have other options)

not sure. however i think it will be soon.

well, they are in different categories. besides that speed, i still think 950pro is better.

maybe this is due to the low demands for high capacity ssds locally. maybe the distri's do have this, but no sellers are ordering them.

brands like intel, samsung, and crucial have ssd products that are easier to sell, and statistically ssds under these names have the least return rates.