OK, time for an update, it's not an April fools joke but rather a sad joke, underlining the extreme "cheapification" of the SSD devices, combined with bait and switch tactics, now happily embraced by the brand-name manufctureres as well.
Exibit A:
CRUCIAL by Micron BX500 120GB SSD
The Memory & Storage Experts (TM) (Product of China)
So let's do a quick search: this well known hardware review site say it has Micron branded 3D flash chips and shows up even a picture of the PCB with nice Micron logo:
OK then, I've used Micron memory, it shouldn't be that bad, the reviews are very polarized, either OK or extreme crap, oh well is just 25,99EUR at Saturn (large German retailer), let's get one and see how it goes.
Step 1: staying idle connected on an external USB3.0 adapter: after 1/2hour it feels warm to the hand, ca. 30-35C outside temperature, the case it's full plastic, no metal around except for the screw inserts.
Step 2: Does it cooperate with my JMicron chip usb adapter and smartmontools ? Yes it does, and the SSD is known already in the smartmontools database, cool, let's have a quick look and long offline test, all OK, but the highest temperature logged is 42C with practically no activity.
All other logged values and test results show a veri virginal device with just two power cycles
.
Step 3: Good bye warranty, hello similar miserably partitioned case as in the SanDisk situation and a very similar looking PCB, can you spot the difference in the attached picture ? (Hint the Crucial is the one on top).
Good, let's do a quick read test and "finger measure" the controller and the flash chips:
dd if=/dev/sdc of=/dev/null bs=4kGoing..., going..., done: 485MB/s, not too shabby but the controlled feels uncomfortably hot, I estimate ca. 60C, smartmon agrees, highest logged value 58C, the flash chips are barely above their idle temp.
Step 4: OK then, what about an intensive sustained write test:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc bs=4kGoing, go... AUCH, HELL IT BURNS
, turn it off, turn it off now, shit it doesn't react to Ctrl-C, the system log starts spewing SATA errors, out of the USB socket, reboot the machine.
Aftermath: device recovered after cooling, the smart data is not so virginal anymore (there were logged some interrupted write commands, no shit Sherlock), and the highest logged temperature 73C !!!.
There is no way the poor guy would have survived in its plastic case inside a laptop
.
Strangely enough, the flash chips were barely a bit warmer during the 30sec it took for the whole device to do its thermal runaway, this is strange to have the controller getting so hot because from the data transfer pov it should have been even lower than when reading, I do hope that the encryption algorithm (if any) it's CPU power symmetric for encryption and decryption and the surrounding little LDO regulator and whatever little PMIC chips were totally cool ?!?!
Oh well, let's look a bit closer to these Micron chips, than of course the shenanigans appeared immediately, I have found the EXACT same situation like these people:
https://twitter.com/pana_junk_pc/status/1071719728672989185https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/a4uwag/spectek_flash_without_logo_grade_marking_low/ Executive summary, the
The Memory & Storage Experts (TM) put inside this model some flash so crappy that even their failed-wafers recycling company didn't dare to put their name & logo on it !!! Actually it doesn't have ANY name or logo on it, like the most miserable Asian junk made in the 3rd shift
!!!
Of course the devices send to the established hardware review sites had Micron chips, that probably worked reasonable, if not stellar, and then when the device got a bit of reputation (not a speed demon, but it works), they've switched with the bottom of the junk-barrel crap
.
Well, most likely the situation is similar in this capacity and price range, so I'll happily skip the WD Green and Kingston, and to make thing worse, one really needs to put individual little radiators on the controller and flash chips if wands to have at least a minimum of reliability. Because of course the chips surfaces are not same level and there are hich cpacitors and other passives protruding even higher than all the ICs on the PCB.
My solution for this is:
Radiators for the controller:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Aluminum-Kuhlkorper-Heatsink-fur-GPU-VRAM-IC-LED-10-Pack-11-11-5mm/113324638608Radiators for the flash:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Aluminum-Kuhlkorper-Heatsink-fur-GPU-VRAM-IC-LED-5-Pack-35-10-10mm/113324638717Thermal glue:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Silverbead-Warmeleitkleber-Thermal-Glue-fur-Heatsinks-LED-VRAM-VRM-CPU-GPU-10g/111972697722The Asian suppliers have them a bit cheaper, but I don't want to wait another 3-4weeks.
So yes, if you want to fool someone buy them a Crucial BX series SSD, they will never forget you
Cheers,
DC1MC
PS: I understand somehow that low capacity SSDs are competing in a price sensitive market, but why must EVERYONE be crap, it's not like the 120GB miserable crap it's 7 times cheaper than a good 960GB disk ?!?