SLC vs MLC SSD

I'm fortunate enough to run two 128gb caseless 1.8" Samsung SSDs in my two laptops. They've been excellent so far, and I've seen dramatic improvements in my computer experience.

One question though...how do I tell if they're MLC drives or SLC drives? The PN is mmcre28gtdxp-mvbd7. I Googled around, but didn't find much.

Also, are there differences in how you would treat a MLC drive vs a SLC drive?

 

Almost all consumer drives will be MLC. SLC is extremely expensive, and will rarely be found outside of enterprise situations. And no, there's no real difference between how you'd treat MLC and SLC drives. The only real difference between MLC and SLC is price, and expected longevity (SLC drives are expected to last longer).

 

As stated, you have MLC drives. Majority of consumers with SLC drives will have max 64GB. A slightly dated but still mostly relevant article by Les from NBR:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=223173

Les has several other articles if you are interested in comparing SLC vs. MLC.

 

IIRC, SLC hugely outperforms MLC, but MLC manufacturers are trying (and mostly failing) to compensate with clever controllers.

 

Well, ok, admittedly, there are other compensations for SLC drives, including enhanced reliability and faster speeds, but the truth is that your average consumer will never notice/need it, compared to a MLC drive. And with the (very significant) price premium you'd pay for a SLC drive... it's simply not worth it unless you really need the benefits of SLC (which a consumer quite simply will not).

And while MLC might not match up to SLC... that's like saying a sports car doesn't match up to a F-1 race car in terms of speed. The F-1 will be much, much faster than the sports car, but do you _really_ need that much more speed?

 

Actually....mlc today does match up to and surpass slc in many instances, given exception to lifecycle.

With respect to your 128Gb drives, what did you pay for them and how long have u had them? To this date, you are paying easily in excess of a grand if you can get your hands on a slc drive. This is because it is so difficult to get all the NAND into that drive. It was thought to be impossible to do this at one point with laptop drives.

Provide a bit of a background....

EDIT... its MLC....ebay price of $250. You absolutely cannot get a slc drive for that price.

Here is the Ebay listings of 128Gb slc drives...see the prices?

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38&_nkw=slc+128gb

Also the solidata for $699???.....I would check very closely especially with that price..... An absolutely amazing price and all time low if it proves reliable and the specs are correct and its not fraudulent.

 

Ahhh great responses. Thanks guys!

 

My recollections were mostly based on the first 6 months when SSDs were entering the market, I've lost interest since in the technical nitty-gritty. Hard to justify the added cost of a large SSD (for my usage) when very little on the consumer end is so performance sensitive as to necessitate the added cost. My SSD usage is limited to a small OS and frequently-used programs -only drive, with everything else (media, storage) on a traditional platter. This might be just my opinion, but if you're loading large media onto an SSD, you're probably not getting the most bang for your buck. I tend to leave my laptop on my desk with externals HDDs attached though, so YMMV.