In today’s digital era, solid-state drives (SSDs), known for their fast read/write speeds and strong shock resistance, have gradually become the mainstream choice for computer storage devices. However, many users often wonder: how long does an SSD last?
Trim and garbage collection are technologies used in modern SSDs to improve performance and endurance. When an SSD is brand new, all NAND blocks are empty, allowing the SSD to write new data to an empty block in a single operation. Over time, all empty blocks are used and contain user data. To write new data to an already used block, the SSD is forced to perform a read-modify-write cycle. This cycle reduces the SSD’s overall performance because the SSD must now perform three operations instead of one. The read-modify-write cycle also causes write amplification, which reduces the SSD’s overall endurance.
Trim and garbage collection work together to free up used blocks, thereby improving SSD performance and durability. Garbage collection is a function built into the SSD controller that consolidates data from used blocks to free up more empty blocks. This process is performed in the background and managed entirely by the SSD itself. However, the SSD may not know which blocks contain user data and which contain outdated, deleted data. That’s where Trim comes in. Trim allows the operating system to inform the SSD that certain data has been deleted, so the SSD can reclaim previously used blocks. For Trim to function properly, both the operating system and the SSD must support it. Today, most modern operating systems and SSDs support Trim, but most RAID configurations do not.
SSDs make full use of both garbage collection and Trim technologies to maintain the highest possible performance and endurance throughout their lifespan.
The M.2 specification defines 12 types of card keys or slot interfaces for M.2 cards and sockets; many of them are reserved for future use:
No, they are not the same. M.2 supports both SATA and PCIe storage interface options, while mSATA only supports SATA. Physically, they also differ in appearance and cannot be inserted into the same system interface.
DIMMs (DRAM) do not throttle themselves automatically.
Throttling in DRAM is not triggered by the DRAM module itself but is managed by the controller in the motherboard system.
When system temperature becomes too high, the motherboard or CPU may adjust memory controller parameters or lower the system clock frequency to reduce heat generation and protect the hardware. These adjustments affect DRAM performance, but they are implemented by the system as a whole, not by the DRAM modules themselves.
If you are concerned about DIMM instability due to heat, consider choosing models with heat spreaders.
The temperature is read from the thermal sensor inside the SPD EEPROM. There are two types of SPD EEPROM: with and without thermal sensors. Whether the SPD EEPROM includes a thermal sensor depends on the product category.
According to the SPD EEPROM specification, the temperature detected by the built-in thermal sensor represents the ambient temperature (Tambient).
There are two reasons for the different lengths:
1. Different lengths allow SSDs to have different capacities; the longer the SSD, the more NAND flash memory chips, controllers, and DRAM storage chips can be installed. 2230 and 2242 lengths support 1–3 NAND flash memory chips, while 2280 and 22110 can support up to 8 NAND chips. The largest M.2 form factor can reach up to 2TB SSD capacity.
2. The slot space on the system board limits the size of the M.2: some laptops support M.2 SSDs for caching purposes only, and offer limited space for a 2242 M.2 SSD (the 2230 M.2 SSD is even smaller, but in most cases where a 2242 is supported, the 2230 is not needed).
