Computing on Demand PC News & Reviews
Packaged with each drive, no matter the trim level, is Samsung Magician software and Samsung Data Migration Software. Samsung Magician software is a suite of tools and recommendations that can help you get the most out of your configured system. Outside of the fancy graphical representation of usage and the easy firmware update process, the drive can help you configure your OS and drive to improve performance, maximize capacity, improve reliability, or customize your own profile.
RAPID was unable to be configured on our test system. Stay tuned for an update when those issues are resolved.
The following is take directly from the Samsung Magician Software White paper:
- The “Maximum Performance” configuration profile sacrifices a small amount of SSD lifespan (or endurance) in favor of the fastest possible performance. Features like “Hibernation Mode,” “Virtual Memory,” and “indexing,” which require extra writes to the SSD in order to function, are enabled for added speed.
- The “Maximum Capacity” profile disables features that require a large amount of extra storage space to function, including “Hibernation Mode,” “Virtual Memory,” and “Automatic Backup,” all of which reserve rather large portions of SSD storage. This configuration is particularly useful for those who purchased a low capacity SSD and want to ensure they have as much space available as possible for their own files without the OS claiming precious space for itself.
- “The Maximum Reliability” configuration profile disables all features that produce extra writes to the SSD in order to maximize potential SSD lifespan. It is a well-known fact that SSDs have a limited number of write/erase cycles. While this limit is far beyond any usage level a regular user might encounter, some still prefer to take extra cautionary measures. Features like “Indexing,” “Hibernation Mode, “Virtual Memory” and “Automatic Backup,” which make frequent writes to the SSD, will all be switched off. While there may be a slight performance decrease when using the “Maximum Capacity” or “Maximum Reliability” profiles, especially when waking from sleep, SSD technology’s incredible read/write speeds ensure users will still enjoy a noticeable performance and usability improvement over traditional hard disk drive (HDD) technology. Of course, there is always the option to choose a custom configuration via the “Advanced” tab. Even power users will find this tab useful, as it provides quick access to all relevant OS features either via simple toggle or via a shortcut to the appropriate Windows dialog box.
Magician software also has a built-in benchmarking utility so you can easily document how your drive is performing. The benchmark measures four key areas: Sequential Read, Sequential Write, Random Read (IOPS), and Random Writes (IOPS).
The software can also set Over Provisioning on your Samsung drive. Over Provisioning is an easy way to set aside a minimum amount of space that the SSD controller can use as a “swap space”. As you overwrite data on your drive, the controller has to erase an entire NAND block that may contain some still valid data. While this is going on, the controller goes through a complex process of moving data around trying to wear cells evenly and prepare free blocks for future data writes. As you fill your drive, the amount of space the controller has to work with becomes more limited and Over Provisioning solves this by setting the space aside.
