Test procedure and test environment

In this test we want to get to the point where we've used up as many P/E-cycles as possible to then show what can still be done with such an SSD. In an effort to do so, we're using Iometer where we've setup workers that do constant, sequential writes, which is basically the one way to get rid of as many P/E-cycles in as little time as possible. As you can see from the screenshot below, the test drive we're running these tests on has already been used and a total of 500 Gigabyte has been written on the NAND before we started with the acutal endurance test. In the lower part of the screenshot you find all relevant smart data and should you be a little bit familiar with S.M.A.R.T. data, then you'll notice this is a perfectly healthy drive.

Diary

We're going to update this article on a daily basis. Each day we will add a new page to this article where we post a screenshot of CrystalDiskInfo. If there is anything suspicious going on with the drive we will point it out and explain why this is happening.

Test Setup

Mainboard	ASUS P9X79-E WS
CPU	Intel Core i7-3930K
Memory	G.Skill Ares 2133MHz 16GB
Video	ASUS GTX 650
Software	Windows 7 x64
PSU	Seasonic X-Series 1250 Watt
SSD	OCZ Vector 256 GB Endurance: 20GB host write for 5 years ~ 36.5 TBW

Page - 1 - Introduction	Page - 5 - Day 7
Page - 2 - Test procedure and test environment	Page - 6 - Day 22
Page - 3 - Day 1	Page - 7 - Day 39
Page - 4 - Day 2	Page - 8 - Day 142