That Didn't Last Long: Samsung 960 EVO NVMe Already Fails

[phoronix]

Phoronix: That Didn't Last Long: Samsung 960 EVO NVMe Already Fails

I now have my first dead NVM Express SSD and it only lasted one week... It's already time to RMA the Samsung 960 EVO and unfortunately lost a number of benchmarks that I was working on this weekend...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Samsung-960-EVO-Already-Dead

[boxie]

*yay* for infant drive mortality.

May I ask what benchmarks we will not be getting?

[starshipeleven]

Did it have some kind of heat sink? These kinds of SSDs run HOT and also go in thermal throttle during benchmarks, the Sata enclosure of Sata SSDs also serves as a heat sink.

Might be worth it to look at other such SSDs with your thermal cam.

This is an example of horribly overpriced card + heatsink, plus a talk of it http://www.anandtech.com/show/9856/a...need-heatsinks
(there are far cheaper cards/heatsinks around, but the benchmark and talk explains why you should want some)

[Michael]

Did it have some kind of heat sink? These kinds of SSDs run HOT and also go in thermal throttle during benchmarks, the Sata enclosure of Sata SSDs also serves as a heat sink.

Might be worth it to look at other such SSDs with your thermal cam.

This is an example of horribly overpriced card + heatsink, plus a talk of it http://www.anandtech.com/show/9856/a...need-heatsinks
(there are far cheaper cards/heatsinks around, but the benchmark and talk explains why you should want some)

It didn't ship with a heatsink. But hadn't even been running disk benchmarks when it ran out, just GPU/driver tests the past two days on it.

[LeJimster]

The problem with nvme is adequate cooling. I've got an OEM drive and I know from reviews it can get over 90c when used for extended periods. While I believe Samsung have added thermal throttling to the retail drives, they still get toasty. I can only imagine benchmarking is probably the worst thing for these drives.

I think the newer drives labels are made from a thin metal, but not sure how much heat will be dissipated.

[wizard69]

It didn't ship with a heatsink. But hadn't even been running disk benchmarks when it ran out, just GPU/driver tests the past two days on it.

The real question is where are your backups? All those benchmarks gone to the bit bucket in the sky.

Anyways, it would be nice if you could get an honest report on what happened from Samsung. This assumes that it is going back for repair. It is likely infant mortality maybe the result of poor soldering.

[Michael]

The real question is where are your backups? All those benchmarks gone to the bit bucket in the sky.

I could upload them to OpenBenchmarking or my local Phoromatic Server, but when the benchmarks are a work-in-progress I don't tend to do that but just keep them local until done, as usually don't have drive failures so often, especially for brand new drives.

[Jumbotron]

I've been poo-pooed here before for saying this. But I will not trust my data and/or my OS to any solid state drive for at least another 5 years of development and refinement or when even the low end drives have a minimum 5 year no questions asked warranty and replacement. Yes....yes...I know hard drives can fail suddenly way before their warranty runs out or before their rated MTBF. It has happened to me. But I am more than willing to sacrifice speed for durability and value. The cost per megabyte of SSD vs Hard Drive is still ridiculous. And hard drives have had 60 years of perfecting. Not so much SSDs.

[Jumbotron]

I could upload them to OpenBenchmarking or my local Phoromatic Server, but when the benchmarks are a work-in-progress I don't tend to do that but just keep them local until done, as usually don't have drive failures so often, especially for brand new drives.

You may want to rethink that policy.

[droste]

I've been poo-pooed here before for saying this. But I will not trust my data and/or my OS to any solid state drive for at least another 5 years of development and refinement or when even the low end drives have a minimum 5 year no questions asked warranty and replacement. Yes....yes...I know hard drives can fail suddenly way before their warranty runs out or before their rated MTBF. It has happened to me. But I am more than willing to sacrifice speed for durability and value. The cost per megabyte of SSD vs Hard Drive is still ridiculous. And hard drives have had 60 years of perfecting. Not so much SSDs.

That's why you buy HDD for data and SSD for OS and Games :-)
The speed up of the whole computer just with a SSD for the OS instead of a HDD is worth the price difference!

I'm using SSD in different computers for years now and so have my friends and I have yet to see one failing. During the same time 2 HDD died.
This is of course no real evidence but it's not like they die left and right.

/edit:
Oh and don't forget the noise! There is none, so you might forget it