A few months ago, we reported on computer engineer and TechPowerUp SSD database maintainer Gabriel Ferraz's impressive feat of overclocking a 2.5-inch SATA III NAND flash SSD. Now, he has embarked on another equally intriguing project: transforming a Quad-Level Cell (QLC) SATA III SSD into a more durable and higher-performing Single-Level Cell (SLC) SATA III SSD.
He uses a Micron Crucial BX500 512 GB solid-state drive, featuring a Silicon Motion SM2259XT2 single-core ARC 32-bit CPU running at 550 MHz, with a dual-channel operating speed of 800 MT/s (400 MHz), and no DRAM cache. This particular SSD utilizes four Micron-manufactured NAND flash chips with part number NY240, with each channel controlling two chips. The NAND flash chips are designed to operate at a frequency of 1600 MT/s (800 MHz), but in practical use, the drive operates at a frequency of only 525 MT/s.
In NANDs FortisFlash, these drives have an average durability of 1500 P/E cycles, around 900 P/E cycles in Mediagrade. In pSLC mode, the durability of the same drive increases to 100,000 and 60,000 cycles respectively.
Achieving this goal is the most challenging part. To do this, you must download the MPtools for the Silicon Motion SM2259XT2 controller from the USBdev.ru website and identify the correct chip used in the solid-state drive. Then, carefully modify the software, adjust the configuration file to enable SLC mode, forcing the chip to operate as an SLC NAND flash chip. Finally, you will need to access the firmware folder and move the archive files up from the directory, as demonstrated in the video.
After booting up, the storage capacity decreases from 512 GB to 114-120 GB. However, the durability of the solid-state drive has surged to 4000 TBW (terabytes written), an increase of about 3000%. Additionally, performance has also improved. For more details, please refer to the video below.
