SSD and "Storage Mode"

[tdg84]

So I've been reading about SSDs, in particular the PX-M5 Pro series. I've seen it mentioned several times now, but can't really find a topic on it. What are people referring to when they say "storage mode" ? If you read the comments in the forum below you'll see its mentioned.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?282319-Plextor-M5-Pro-an-other-step-forward

I've seen storage mode mentioned in several other places, but couldn't find it to link to. But anyone know what this means?

 

[Dereck47]

Storage Mode refers to OCZ Vertex 4 64GB & 128GB SSDs, not Plextor PX-M5 Pro series SSDs.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?103279-VTX4-performance-and-storage-modes-1-thread-discussion-only-you-want-info-you-will-only-find-it-here

 

[tdg84]

So from reading that post, it seems like the Vertex drives should be operated or used in a certain way (like not keeping it full, not benchmarking all the time) to get the best performance out of them. Is that a good rule of thumb in general to follow for SSDs, or is that useage pattern just for the Vertex series?

 

[Dereck47]

What I got from reading the thread is that when you fill a Vertex 4 more than 50% full Read/Write performance temporarily slows while Garbage Collection transfers data from the faster NAND chips to the slower NAND chips on the drive. After GC has done its stuff then Read/Write performance returns. At least that's what I got from it.

The effects seems to be more noticeable on the 64GB & 128GB versions. The 256GB & 512GB models have more NAND chips (16 I think), so it's less noticeable on those models.