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Is it still necessary to overprovision?

21K views 12 replies 5 participants last post by  Lady Fitzgerald 
#1 ·
Is overprovisioning still a must on these new SSDs? I have 2X 2TB Samsung 960 PROs in RAID 0.........is free space the same as overprovisioning or shall I still overprovision?
 
#2 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snappy Phoenix View Post

Is overprovisioning still a must on these new SSDs? I have 2X 2TB Samsung 960 PROs in RAID 0.........is free space the same as overprovisioning or shall I still overprovision?
No and no. SSDs come already adequately overprovisioned. SSDs also need to have 20-25% of free space to operate correctly and reduce write wear.
 
#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald View Post

No and no. SSDs come already adequately overprovisioned. SSDs also need to have 20-25% of free space to operate correctly and reduce write wear.
I think Samsung SSDs have a 7% factory OP right? so I have a lot of free space, is that equivalent to OP?
 
#4 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snappy Phoenix View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald View Post

No and no. SSDs come already adequately overprovisioned. SSDs also need to have 20-25% of free space to operate correctly and reduce write wear.
I think Samsung SSDs have a 7% factory OP right? so I have a lot of free space, is that equivalent to OP?
Sigh! No, overprovisioning and free space are not the same thing. You need to have both.
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald View Post

Sigh! No, overprovisioning and free space are not the same thing. You need to have both.
Over provisioning on our own is not necessary because SSDs already do it on their own right?

Also, how much free space do you recommend on a 500gb and 1tb SSD? Thank you in advance.
 
#6 ·
SSDs do not need user added overprovisioning because the factory has already adequately overprovisioned them.

As I already told you, you need to maintain at least 20-25% free space. Does someone need to do the math for you?
 
#7 ·
@Lady Fitzgerald
To my knowledge, that is not entirely correct.

For example, Samsung lets the user decide on how much space to leave for over-provisioning via the Samsung Magician tool.
It is advised to leave it at 10% (unless my memory fails me, pun intended), but ultimately you have control on the space reserved.

EDIT: It is probably very necessary to point out that there is another ~7% which is basic factory provisioning. Over-provisioning is used on top of that.
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by fragamemnon View Post

@Lady Fitzgerald
To my knowledge, that is not entirely correct.

For example, Samsung lets the user decide on how much space to leave for over-provisioning via the Samsung Magician tool.
It is advised to leave it at 10% (unless my memory fails me, pun intended), but ultimately you have control on the space reserved.

EDIT: It is probably very necessary to point out that there is another ~7% which is basic factory provisioning. Over-provisioning is used on top of that.
True, manufacturer's software allows a user to change the amount of overprovisioning already set by the factory (the actual amount depending on manufacturer and the type of NAND used and its configuration. However, today's SSDs do not need to have that changed so it's best to leave it alone, the point I was trying to make.

Again, free space is not the same as overprovisioning and it is best to leave at least 20-25% off the total formatted capacity unused. You can get away with less but at the risk of slower performance and increased write amplification (the latter will also eventually reduce write life)..
 
#9 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald View Post

True, manufacturer's software allows a user to change the amount of overprovisioning already set by the factory (the actual amount depending on manufacturer and the type of NAND used and its configuration. However, today's SSDs do not need to have that changed so it's best to leave it alone, the point I was trying to make.

Again, free space is not the same as overprovisioning and it is best to leave at least 20-25% off the total formatted capacity unused. You can get away with less but at the risk of slower performance and increased write amplification (the latter will also eventually reduce write life)..
so if I do a 2x 2TB RAID 0 array

then partition C: to 200 GB and D: to 3TB and leave the rest unpartitioned is that the correct way to overprovision a RAID 0 array? are the SSD controllers smart enough to know that unpartitioned space is for both SSDs and use it for both?
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snappy Phoenix View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald View Post

True, manufacturer's software allows a user to change the amount of overprovisioning already set by the factory (the actual amount depending on manufacturer and the type of NAND used and its configuration. However, today's SSDs do not need to have that changed so it's best to leave it alone, the point I was trying to make.

Again, free space is not the same as overprovisioning and it is best to leave at least 20-25% off the total formatted capacity unused. You can get away with less but at the risk of slower performance and increased write amplification (the latter will also eventually reduce write life)..
so if I do a 2x 2TB RAID 0 array

then partition C: to 200 GB and D: to 3TB and leave the rest unpartitioned is that the correct way to overprovision a RAID 0 array? are the SSD controllers smart enough to know that unpartitioned space is for both SSDs and use it for both?
I have no idea although I doubt it. Again, I do not recommend using RAID 0. With the exception of some MOBOs, such as some of the Intel MOBOs, TRIM will not work with RAID 0. The amount of speed gain you get from RAID 0 isn't enough to justify the increased risk of drive failure. Also, if you are trying to get a single directory, first, you don't really need one and second, you can achieve something similar using Windows Libraries.
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by fragamemnon View Post

Samsung lets the user decide on how much space to leave for over-provisioning via the Samsung Magician tool.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald View Post

True, manufacturer's software allows a user to change the amount of overprovisioning already set by the factory
Not in the most recent version of Samsung Magician (Magician 5).
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snappy Phoenix View Post

Is overprovisioning still a must on these new SSDs? I have 2X 2TB Samsung 960 PROs in RAID 0.........is free space the same as overprovisioning or shall I still overprovision?
That's a good question. I'd like to know why Samsung has now taken the overprovisioning option out of Samsung Magician.

Overprovisioning by the user was never an absolute must (at least not in the past 5 years), but it was strongly encouraged because of the associated improvements in performance and longevity.
http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/downloads/document/Samsung_SSD_845DC_04_Over-provisioning.pdf

Have the storage controllers, drivers, and OS algorithms (or the much larger capacities that are available) changed significantly enough to have led to changes in the recommendations recommendations?

This Seagate paper doesn't answer that question, but it touches on some of the issues involved and also mentions their own data reduction technology, which they claim can help improve performance in a way different than through over-provisioning ("Note that additional over-provisioning and a data reduction technique such as DuraWrite technology can achieve similar write amplification results with different trade-offs. Benchmarking reveals that only drives with DuraWrite data reduction technology or something similar are able to take advantage of entropy-related write amplification reduction and the resulting performance improvements. Conventional SSDs without a similar technology are limited to the write amplification from a given over-provisioning level. As an example, a conventional SSD with 28% over-provisioning will exhibit the same write amplification (3.0) as an SSD with DuraWrite technology writing a 75% entropy stream with 0% over-provisioning, all other factors being equal.")
http://www.seagate.com/tech-insights/ssd-over-provisioning-benefits-master-ti/
 
#13 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by quipers View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Snappy Phoenix View Post

Is overprovisioning still a must on these new SSDs? I have 2X 2TB Samsung 960 PROs in RAID 0.........is free space the same as overprovisioning or shall I still overprovision?
That's a good question. I'd like to know why Samsung has now taken the overprovisioning option out of Samsung Magician.

Overprovisioning by the user was never an absolute must (at least not in the past 5 years), but it was strongly encouraged because of the associated improvements in performance and longevity.
http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/downloads/document/Samsung_SSD_845DC_04_Over-provisioning.pdf

Have the storage controllers, drivers, and OS algorithms (or the much larger capacities that are available) changed significantly enough to have led to changes in the recommendations recommendations?...
I just guessing that Samsung eliminated the ability to change the amount of overprovisioning to prevent people from reducing the amount. Also, just leaving enough free space (20-25%) will pretty much do the same thing as adding overprovisioning.
 
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