[sagher]

Hello everyone. 

About a month ago i have experience to buy a SSD which is 128GB of SAMSUNG. (Refurbished) Because the price range of new one is almost double +. and also unavailable due to COVID-19 effects. 
however i bought a one which is a combined version of Samsung and Lenovo. 
So i was so exited and wish to try its performance on different benchmark tools i got from online search.
The following are: 

Samsung Magician 
Crystal Disk Mark
Crystal Disk Info 
Hard Disk Sentinel
ATTO Disk bench
AS SSD

All works good and what the thing is almost every tool gives me some different results. 
So i wish to ask from all of you that which one is best and accurate to measure exact or closed approx. value of my disk health?

[Mashiro]

Don't use Samsung Magician if you want to know the real performance of your Samsung or other brand SSD. Samsung Magician is a snake oil software in terms of benchmark and its performance boost features. So the benchmark will most likely sound too good to be true and if you use it with a different SSD it might rate it more negative than a Samsung SSD although that SSD might be much better than the Samsung SSD. The past (little example why and how is here and here) has revealed such cases already. Bascially it will use RAM for caching to show you rates about easily 3x - 5x higher than what the real speed of the SSD is. So the benchmark results are absolutely not representative at all as the speed is achieved not by the SSD directly but by using RAM cache. Real speed will be much lower after a very short time and is limited by different other factors.

Seagate has an intereting article about SSD benchmarking and the most of the times impossible speed rates you get during those benchmarks: https://www.seagate.com/de/de/tech-insig...master-ti/


Crystal Disk Info is not a benchmarking software. It is a SMART information software for HDDs, SSDs and other storage devices that are supported by it. It will show you the condition of your device, its age, all stats of writes/reads, errors and much more.

I can recommend Crystal Disk Mark because this is the actual SSD benchmarking software by Crystal Disk Info developers. I'm using it since years and it does so far always indeed show real and representative speed values during benchmarks.


No idea about the other software. Never heard about it and never used it. Another possible one to be used is HDTune (free trial for 30 days with full functions). HDTune is also widely known to check HDD/SSD health, information and other stuff including performing different kind of benchmarks.


TL;DR: I would recommend Crystal Disk Mark for speed test benchmarks and Crystal Disk Info for device information and health. Alternatively I can recommend HDTune which does everything that thepreviously mentioned apps do but is only available for free in trial mode for 30 days.

[sagher]

Yes @ Mashiro

I used many variants and find crystal disk mark has actual result approx. 

So here is the results and my SSD. hope you guide me about it's output good or bad. 

   

   

   

I have now one day remain to return if any problem. 
in my personal review i never got the performance which i expected. Data copy and paste is not so efficient. 
according to crystal disk info. the age of SSD is about 3.8 years. which is quit high i think.
i got it in 24$ USD. the new one is around 35 to 40 USD.

[Mashiro]

I would return it. Write speed is pretty bad hence why your experience is so negative. It's small and soon 5 years old. Probably pretty worn out.

[fChk]

I would return it. Write speed is pretty bad hence why your experience is so negative. It's small and soon 5 years old. Probably pretty worn out.

I agree!.. But not only that, I would also advise against buying second-hand SSD devices. SSD devices, unlike HDDs, degrade faster especially when not used carefully : it's generally advised to always keep sufficient free space on SSDs to keep the Write Amplification Factor (WAF) as low as possible.

Don't know about the WAF?... Read this for more:
Do SSDs Degrade Over Time?

[sagher]

I agree!.. But not only that, I would also advise against buying second-hand SSD devices. SSD devices, unlike HDDs, degrade faster especially when not used carefully : it's generally advised to always keep sufficient free space on SSDs to keep the Write Amplification Factor (WAF) as low as possible.

Don't know about the WAF?... Read this for more:
Do SSDs Degrade Over Time?

So my next question is absolutely same. What is the maximum life of SSD 128GB variant? 
The newly available SSD's in this price range are not touch the 400Mb/s and 200Mb/s read write range. as i test many. even though all other tests are awesome. also china made SSD's expires soon. 
King spec
Lexar
Kodak
Goldenfir
XrayDisk
Kingfast
Hikvision
Kingdian

all have same speed and specs. and price range also same. they claimed 450Mb/s and 380Mb/s but not really while random check. 
Thats why i decide to go for refurbished. but my friend play with me double game and gives me a poor health one. 
So it's better to return and get some good replacement. 
i wish this topic keep alive because it is now a hot issue for every user who use SSD boot. or data backup.

[Mashiro]

I would simply stay away from all "China" SSDs. They're made from bad quality lowend flash chips and controllers. Bascially they use hardware from SSD manufacturers that has been deemed low quality / broken and thus is not used to make a SSD or another product out of it. So these cheap China companies use these bad flash chips to create SSDs and sell them for cheap. They're really bad though. Many dead on arrival. A lot dying quickly after little use. The speeds are horrible. The controllers on such SSDs are usually also total trash (which contributes to the overall negative expereince). It's about as trashy as it gets. There is a reason why the flash chips were deemed unfit/unsafe for productional use.

A few brands that I can really recommend:
- Samsung (EVO series)
- Crucial (BX500 series)
- Western Digital
- Corsair
- SanDisk (least recommended but still works ok)

As far as I can follow you these brands, if bought brand new, might be out of your price range though?

Sadly here 128 GB SSDs aren't even sold anymore. They're so small... you can get 240/250/256 GB SSDs for around 30 € here though from OK brands. The better brands cost 10 - 15 € more ontop of that 30 €.

---

My Crucial MX500 1 TB that I use as storage daily:





As you can see it's heavily used with over 50 TB write on it already in less than one year. I use it like you would use a normal HDD. I store downloads on it, install games on it and etc. It's still going strong.

[sagher]

Our country is not so fast in technology and here mostly used refurbished SSD's came from abroad built in laptops and here vendor remove the old ones and sale then separately in low cost. but after Covid-19 the low prices almost 30 to 40 % high. the box packed SSD's are more then 6000PKR almost $40USD and above. upto $60USD.
Secondly available are Hikvison and lexar.
Samsung is most expensive. and WD and sandisk curucial are not available.

[Mashiro]

I have posted the health info and benchmark of my 1 TB Crucial MX500 SSD just for the fun of it.

Do you have access to Kingston SSDs? These work OK, too. They're generally also one of the cheaper SSDs while still providing OK performance. Goes for around 30 € here for a 240 GB version of the A400 series.

[sagher]

I have posted the health info and benchmark of my 1 TB Crucial MX500 SSD just for the fun of it.

Do you have access to Kingston SSDs? These work OK, too. They're generally also one of the cheaper SSDs while still providing OK performance. Goes for around 30 € here for a 240 GB version of the A400 series.

Yes i try to find a less used Kingston now. because it was second expensive brand after samsung. 
Your SSD benchmarks are just awesome. 200 days power on time and read write difference is much lesser just like new. 
But the sad thing is that my budget right now just allow me to get 128GB. 240 is about 10000PKR. $60+USD.