A lot has been said about overprovisioning for SSDs. When does it make sense to overprovision? Is it worth the reduced capacity? What is the benefit of overprovisioning? Why overprovision an SSD?
Overprovisioning Helps Boost Performance & Endurance
Overprovisioning is the practice of setting aside a portion of an SSDs overall capacity in order to boost performance and endurance beyond its typical specification. This can be a very beneficial feature for users in commercial and some server environments.
It has to be understood that almost all SSDs already contain a small amount of overprovisioning, generally around 7% above the stated capacity. This is needed for general data management and housekeeping of the drive itself. Most standard users will find this sufficient.
Why Overprovision an SSD – SanDisk X400 SSD
But for commercial or server applications, overprovisioning may be just the solution you’re looking for. Setting your own overprovisioning levels can help boost your performance for heavy workloads.
SanDisk has recently released a technical white paper on over provisioning and using the SanDisk X400 SSD and its potential benefits.
