SSD tuning in Intel mode!

Tuning, ie overloading the hardware, using it at a higher clock than the factory, is not new, but so far we have mostly used the option for processors, video cards and memory modules. Now that data storage on mechanical devices (HDDs) has shifted to fully electronic solutions (SSDs), it has become possible to overdrive mass storage as well.

In the present case, an Intel SSD was overdrived. The images do not show, but the higher clocks were set using the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, or XTU for short.

In the test one Intel SSD DC S3500 Series 480GB drive was used. Two settings can be changed in the software, the clock speed of the Intel SSD controller, which is 400 MHz by default, and the speed of the NAND chips, which is 83 MHz. During tuning, the former value was raised to 625 and the latter to 100 MHz. Here are the results of the measurements:

Base clock signal

Controller 625-, NAND 83 MHz

Controller 625-, NAND 100 MHz

As you can see, the tuning was not without results. The AS SSD score rose from 918 to 1066, an improvement of more than 16 percent. The largest increase can be seen at 4K-64 Thrd write, with a 22 percent increase.

The question, of course, is whether it is worth tuning the SSD. The answer may be clear when you look at the increase in performance, but today no one can answer the question of how tuning affects data security or the life of an SSD. Luckily, there will be warped people trying this out for us, so within a few years it may become natural that in a tuning competition, participants will also fine-tune the storage as they do now to the processor or memory.