News PNY: Chia Coin, NAND Shortage Behind Reduced SSD Warranties

If you bought a drive based on its write endurance knowing you were going to do heavy writes then you would be using the drive as intended.

Now that you know your drive is going to fail 2.4 Petabytes sooner than expected can you return the drive for the price you paid?

Reading the PNY product page is rather humorous;

"Highly durable *"
"We've taken the world's most advanced NAND flash and refined the CS3030 to achieve a higher threshold for endurance and reliability" (I can only assume prior models became read only after only a few terabytes written)
"Reliable storage *"
 
Jun 6, 2021
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"PNY appears to have updated the document on May 17, 2021, so we assume that only units shipping after that date use different NAND"

I purchased my CS3030 in September 2020 and it has the lower endurance.

Only the first revision of the CS3030 spec sheet, dated 03-15-19 contains the words "3D TLC Flash Memory".

Spec sheet revisions from 01-31-20 and 09-23-20 just say "3D Flash Memory", with no mention of "TLC" but still have the higher TBW values.

Spec sheet revision 05-17-21 also says "3D Flash Memory" but states the lower TBW values.

When they actually changed it is anybody's guess, but it was definitely before September 2020.
 

watzupken

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Mar 16, 2020
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PNY's solution is simple, they should stop their CS3030 line and create a new model to make it clear that the specs will be different. Their existing solution of a cut over date is really lame. People wanting to buy their SSD will read some nice review posted few years back, only to find its not the same product they bought despite similar model number. Again, strongly recommend to steer clear of this brand since its clear that their intention to try to pull a fast one on consumer is very obvious.
 

Blitz Hacker

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Jul 17, 2015
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Yeah I think this is BS, they need to make a new SKU and product label. You can't market a product then change it right after.. this would be like Nvidia releasing the 3080ti then 2 days after launch decide to make it have the performance comparable to a 1060 with using the same product name and sku. That is plain bs. I'll avoid this company like the plague.
 
Jun 14, 2021
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If there is a concern with CHIA Destroying SSDs, and there is evidence in the SSD that they were running CHIA Plots, all they should have to do is update the Warranty information to include a line that using the SSD for Crypto Currency Mining will VOID the warranty. Problem solved. If Chia or any other Crypto destroys drives, void the warranty.
 
Jun 6, 2021
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If there is a concern with CHIA Destroying SSDs, and there is evidence in the SSD that they were running CHIA Plots, all they should have to do is update the Warranty information to include a line that using the SSD for Crypto Currency Mining will VOID the warranty. Problem solved. If Chia or any other Crypto destroys drives, void the warranty.

Chia writes large amounts of data to drives. So does 4K and 8K video editing. So does editing large RAW photos in Lightroom.

The only thing that should concern the SSD manufacturer is the amount of data written to the drive and whether it is above the stated warrantable TBW threshold. How that data got written is absolutely none of their business.

If they say an SSD has a warrantable TBW of 800 then they should guarantee it until 800TB has been written. If they say an SSD has a TBW of 800 and it dies after 170TB they should replace it immediately and without question.
 
Sep 24, 2021
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Below part of nvme info of my 1TB PNY CS3030 bought November 2020, there was no information about TLC or QLC implemented on it but package hast information about 1665 TB of TBW.

I have it under linux workstation so smartctl or nvme tools show this:

Code:
Available Spare:                    100%
Available Spare Threshold:          5%
Percentage Used:                    1%
Data Units Read:                    3,398,320 [1.73 TB]
Data Units Written:                 6,255,628 [3.20 TB]

Like you see 'Percentage used' is now 1% with 3.2 TB Written Data, if it is true - 320 TB will make my drive hit 100% of use.
I know , I will wait for it next 99 years, but problem is - I was already cheated by PNY because high TBW on their drive pushed me to buy one.
... and that was a lie
 
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