PNY has reduced the lifespan of its XLR8 CS3030 series SSD. The resource of some models has decreased by almost 80%.
The XLR8 CS3030 series includes 250GB and 500GB devices as well as 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB devices. The new batch of drives has significantly reduced TBW.
Depending on the modification of the drive, the reduction in the guaranteed amount of recorded information reaches almost 80% - for the 2 TB model, this figure has decreased from 3115 to 660 TB.
The company explained its decision by the rush demand for solid-state drives for mining the Chia cryptocurrency.
“The write operation required to produce a Chia coin can wear out typical consumer SSDs for several weeks. Because of this, PNY changed the TBW policy in its SSD warranty. For customers using PNY drives as intended, the warranty period will likely expire before they reach the TBW thresholds,” the company said in a statement.
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Another reason for the decline in the recording resource is the shortage of electronic components. For drives manufactured after May 17, 2021, PNY no longer specifies the type of NAND flash used. The publication admitted that the manufacturer switched from 3D TLC chips (three bits of information in a cell) to four-bit QLC solutions.
At the same time, the warranty period for XLR8 CS3030 drives remains the same and is 5 years.
Recall, according to experts, Chia mining reduces the lifespan of a 512 GB SSD from five years to two months. However, the creator of the coin, Bram Cohen, argues that this does not apply to corporate drives or hard drives.
The Chinese company Galax refused to service under warranty the SSDs on which Chia was mined.
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In early May, Team Group announced the release of an SSD designed for coin mining. The devices have a record 12-year warranty.
Sabrent plans to launch a dedicated SSD series with a writing capacity of up to 54 petabytes.