SSD Durability: Kingston vs Crucial vs SanDisk vs Chinese Brands

Three well-known brands such as Crucial, SanDisk and Kingston have been chosen; and two Chinese brands such as Baititon and Kingspec . What has been tested is to see if these drives reach the number of terabytes written (TBW) marked by the manufacturer before showing failures or dying. Very interesting information that can help us choose between storage units in the future.

What is being tested in these tests?

The tests carried out by Goroware do not seek to analyze the read and write speeds of SSDs, but rather their durability. It seeks to know if the selected units reach 100 TB of writing. This means that, in some cases, the TBW given by the manufacturer of the storage unit is exceeded.

The best-selling entry-level SSDs from Crucial, SanDisk, and Kingston have been chosen for this test. These three units stand out for having low prices and quite acceptable performance. In addition, they are compared with two Chinese brands such as Baititon and Kingspec.

All SSD drives have been simultaneously connected to a computer and all tested at the same time . For the test, a motherboard with SATA II ports was chosen instead of a more modern motherboard with SATA III ports. As indicated in the video, I didn’t have a more modern one handy, but it doesn’t matter enough, since we don’t care about read and write speed.

The test has been hard and it has been established that if the performance of any unit drops to 10 MB/s of writing or less, it will be discarded . When this performance is reached, the unit is considered dead. It can continue to work, but the performance will be poor and it will cause the system to malfunction.

HD Tune Pro software has been used to do the intensive write test, something that has taken 3 months to do with a 24/7 system operation.

What is the durability of the different SSDs tested?

Before giving the data, we want to emphasize that terabytes written (TBW) are usually conservative figures. Many manufacturers offer extended SSD warranty and cap TBW. The usual thing is that they can continue to be used without many problems once this writing limit has been exceeded.

Crucial BX500

Let’s start with an important brand such as Crucial. For those who do not know, it is the commercial division of Micron , a memory manufacturer for SSDs, RAM and graphics cards, among others. This SSD in question has 80 TBW, or what is the same, we can write up to 80 TB before exceeding the limit set by the manufacturer.

During the first moments of the test, this unit has shown notable speed spikes . This may be due to the design of the controller, which could have multiple modes of operation. It seems that in the first instance it enters a specific mode for file transfer or operating system boot.

After 5 TB written , the drive seems to have stabilized performance . This could indicate that the controller firmware is analyzing how the drive is being used and modifying its behavior. Within 17 TB it seems to have some performance problem, but it is somewhat anecdotal.

Reviews of the 26TB, 34TB and 60TB are good and the drive seems to offer good and stable performance. At 87 TB written, the drive shows the first signs of fatigue. The Crucial unit reaches 100 TB without notable problems, beyond some occasional fatigue symptoms. It is a pretty good unit and one that we should consider when buying an SSD.

SanDisk Ultra 3D

These SSDs are among the cheapest on the market and are especially good for giving a second life to computers or laptops that are a few years old . It has always been one of the slowest units on the market, but that does not make them bad units. It is noteworthy that some time ago Western Digital acquired SanDisk.

During the first moments of the test it shows notable performance peaks , with strong ups and downs. The interesting thing is that the operation is the same throughout the trial period. We see how in all the control points, the unit shows the same “unstable” performance. You might be running a simple controller that only has one mode of operation, so to speak.

But, the drive tops out at 100TB write with no major issues, making it an excellent drive for durability. The unit is marketed with a life of 100 TBW, so it exceeds this figure without major problems. It can be a good option to give a second life to an old laptop or computer, but I would not choose it for a new system.

Kingston A400 (AWESOME)

Another one of those ideal SSD drives to give an “old” computer a second life is this one from Kinston. The unit is not characterized by offering great features, moreover, they are the simplest units currently offered. This Kingston drive has a life of 80 TBW.

It is striking that the performance of this Kingston SSD is very stable from the start. We have seen how the Crucial drive initially gave unstable performance and the SanDisk drive was always unstable. The first moment of instability of this SSD is shown after 87 TB written, although it seems to be transient.

It is without a doubt the best SSD of all those analyzed. Personally, I thought Crucial would be the best, but by far the best is Kingston. If you want an SSD that is good, cheap and durable, don’t hesitate, buy this one.

Kingspec (DO NOT BUY)

Unfortunately, I have been unable to find the same unit as in the video . This drive is on Amazon in 256GB capacity in orange, the 240GB drive I have not seen. It has caught my attention to find capacities of 180 GB (very rare) and 360 GB (I think it’s the first time I’ve seen it). From the outset, it is a unit that activates my alarms. But, in addition, the TBW is not specified , an operation of 1 million hours between failures is indicated, a parameter that says nothing about SSDs.

Something interesting is that it offers a very stable performance during the beginning of the test. Interestingly, after 5 TB written, the first performance problems appear. It seems that in the 17 TB written section, the performance stabilizes again. When 26 TB written is reached, it already shows signs of clear exhaustion and at 34 TB written, the unit can be considered dead .

Come on, this unit is not considerable at all. Also, for price, capacity, and performance, Kingston and Crucial drives are better.

 

Baititon (DO NOT BUY)

We are going with the second Chinese-made solid-state storage drive. This manufacturer also gives us a very rare durability data. It tells us that it can support a write of 100 GB/day for about 8 years. If we do the math, this drive is supposed to theoretically support 292 TBW , which is better than crazy SSD drives meant for servers. Also, it tells us that read stamina is unlimited, which is even funnier.

During the startup phase the unit works fine and shows quite good performance. The first problems appear after 5 TB written, showing the first symptoms that something is wrong. Bit harder on the drive, as at 26TB written the drive totally dies , dropping below 10MB/s write.

Based on the manufacturer’s data, this unit has not even reached 10% of the terabytes written that it supports in theory . Come on, don’t go near this unit with a stick.

 

Comparison between the different SSDs