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Leave extra empty space on SSD?

D

dj_2004

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Oct 9, 2004
Messages
7,279
I think I read that it is best to leave some extra space on a SSD otherwise it won't be as fast. Is this true? If so, how much should one leave?
 
Yes it does effect performance. I leave atleast 10% empty as a rule.
 
I think in the SSD context what is really meant is totally unused. e.g. not even in a partition?
 
Depends. If it is Synchronous NAND, space is less important.

Like the Force GT models.
 
Granted, but the OP might not have been aware of that. A lot of mis/old information floating around.
 
If I called a support department at an SSD vendor and they told me I had to leave 10% free to maintain performance, I'd say "will do... now please send me a rebate for 10% of my purchase price."
 
So the spare is included in the 10% estimate? How much space is in the spare for a 128GB drive or does it not vary on drive size? This is for a Samsung 830 128GB, by the way.
 
GotNoRice said:
Most SSDs already have spare flash set aside that isn't even user-accessible.
Click to expand...

I don't know that much about SSDs, but I think I know that most memory chips are some "round" multiple of 1 GB these days. So let's say, for discussion's sake, that your average 128 GB SSD has 16 chips of 8 GB each. (I have no idea really, I'm just saying.) So how to you get a drive of only 120 GB, by leaving out 1 chip? I serious doubt that. But I could see the manufacturer reserving that last 8 GB for spares, same as with HDDs.
 
I heard that if you shove a popsicle up your ass you'll vomit gummy bears..

Under-provisioning (at least on the end user side) is largely unnecessary with current SSDs.

One exception would be if you're RAIDing SSDs on a chipset or system which doesn't support TRIM in RAID - then it would help delay the inevitable (but overhyped) performance degradation that comes from read-erase-modify-write cycles and write amplification.

Or if you're using a single SSD on a system which doesn't pass TRIM commands... but that's highly unlikely these days.


Just use your SSD like you normally would and don't worry about it.
 
x509 said:
I don't know that much about SSDs, but I think I know that most memory chips are some "round" multiple of 1 GB these days. So let's say, for discussion's sake, that your average 128 GB SSD has 16 chips of 8 GB each. (I have no idea really, I'm just saying.) So how to you get a drive of only 120 GB, by leaving out 1 chip? I serious doubt that. But I could see the manufacturer reserving that last 8 GB for spares, same as with HDDs.
Click to expand...

Flash manufacturers quantify their chip sizes in a binary number system, while HDD manufacturers use the decimal system, that SSD vendors also adopted. Your 128 GB SSD advertises 128*10^9 bytes, while its hardware will most likely comprise chips with 128*2^30 bytes total. This results in rougly 7% more available space than reported to the host. All SSDs with the "potency of 2" decadic GB sizes will have the same characteristics.
 
Argentum said:
If I called a support department at an SSD vendor and they told me I had to leave 10% free to maintain performance, I'd say "will do... now please send me a rebate for 10% of my purchase price."
Click to expand...

Welcome to the world of SSDs.

Show me any SSD which doesn't lose performance as the amount of free space is reduced and I'll eat that popsicle Blue Falcon shoves up his ass!
 
Blue Falcon said:
I heard that if you shove a popsicle up your ass you'll vomit gummy bears..

Under-provisioning (at least on the end user side) is largely unnecessary with current SSDs.

One exception would be if you're RAIDing SSDs on a chipset or system which doesn't support TRIM in RAID - then it would help delay the inevitable (but overhyped) performance degradation that comes from read-erase-modify-write cycles and write amplification.

Or if you're using a single SSD on a system which doesn't pass TRIM commands... but that's highly unlikely these days.


Just use your SSD like you normally would and don't worry about it.
Click to expand...

QFT about the SSDs but I can't vouch for the popsicle and gummy bear part of it. :)
 
"I'll eat that popsicle Blue Falcon shoves up his ass!"

Man, I so did NOT need to read this just before lunch :)
 
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