SSD Endurance Experiment Puts Drives To The Test

How long do SSDs last? Such is a question many pose, and as a result the folks at Tech Report have sought to answer that question with their SSD Endurance Experiment. These experiments are designed to see how long an SSD actually lasts, rather than the (often conservative) estimates given by the manufacturers.

In this latest endurance experiment, the Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB, Intel 335 Series 240GB, Samsung 840 Series 250GB, Samsung 840 Pro 256GB, and two Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB drives were all put to the test. As you might expect, all of them blew through their endurance specs.

The Intel 335 Series SSD and one of the two Kingston drives were showing a risk of failure after 700TBs of writes, both ultimately kicking the bucket before hitting 800TBs (the Kingston died at 728TB and the Intel at 750TB).

Next to succumb to the tests was Samsung's 840 Series, which was reported as healthy after 900TBs, but eventually died "suddenly" near the end of the test. The second Kingston drive was tested using compressible data, which resulted in a longer lifespan than its sibling.

It was ultimately the Corsair Neutron GTX, Samsung 840 Pro, and the compressible Kingston drives that survived to a full petabyte without suffering failure. The Kingston showed a pre-failure SMART warning, the Samsung Pro drive was in good health at the end of the test, and the Corsair drive was reported as "SSD life left."