3 ms·

I saw this come across on ExtremeTech a few days ago. I believe they broke the story. It was Western Digital AND Crucial that were caught doing it. That means

I saw this come across on ExtremeTech a few days ago. I believe they broke the story. It was Western Digital AND Crucial that were caught doing it. That means you should buy Intel or Samsung products, neither of whom have been caught doing this. I was going to get a WD SN850, thinking how nice it was that an American company beat out Samsung finally on performance. The first time since Intel reigned some years ago. But not now. I'm going with a Samsung 990 Pro when those drop later this year. Intel abandoned the high performance consumer space, but my Intel X25-M 160GB that I bought in January 2010 is still in-use to this day, and it was punished in my personal machine for 7 years straight. I would have no qualms buying anything they put out for laptops or any system that isn't my i9-11900K. It's a real shame. American companies just don't can't think past the next quarter. I recently read that Ford has been putting plastic oil pans on trucks, and I know a guy that has a brand new one- it cracked. I've been doing my research and was determined to buy domestic but found enough stuff like that, that I'm going with Toyota from here on out, and I've never owned one before. Crucial/Micron was one of the better quality manufacturers, it's a shame to see them lumped in with this scandal. Looking forward to an Intel Arc GPU next year paired with my Samsung 990 Pro 2TB SSD which will sit alongside my existing 960 1TB Pro. I'm also looking for some more external storage, and was determined to with Sandisk-WD. I am waiting for Thunderbolt 4 drives or USB 4.0 as my system supports both, but the Seagate FireCuda USB 3.2 Gen2x2 is what I'd reach for if I needed one right away. I'll be skipping Sandisk. If you hate America, run a company like most of them operate. No quicker way to hollow out what's left of our economy. Maybe we can just sell each other loans and insurance.

anakaine 5y ago
Theres an entire other story here in your comments: ford building vehicles with a plastic oil pan / sump. That it just insane, even by the standards of "engineering says it will work and be cheaper", particularly on a truck / 4x4 where off road duty can cause stones, sticks, etc to hit the sump hard. Even in a smaller vehicle lower clearances can cause that part of the vehicle to strike the road surface often enough- just have a look either side of your nearest speed bump. Theres likely a pro in this design for North American vehicles, where the pan won't rust. I still maintain, however, that at least a metal pan will bend or dent and be serviceable whilst a hardened plastic one will tend to crack or shatter.
- BuckRogers 5y ago
  Yup, you nailed it, impact. Metal bends. I haven't had an oil pan rust through on any of my cars, and I keep older cars than most people in the midwest. I've been here all of my life other than a 5 year stint in Texas. Never even heard a story about someone's rusting through. And I would believe it's a wise engineering choice, if the first time I've heard about it was in regards to a 2021 truck leaking. I don't know if the other US domestic manufacturers are doing this, but you can bet they'll be right behind as they've always chased each other in a race to making the worst vehicles possible for 50 years now in the name of profits. I read a story that in the 70s GM executives heard that Ford was cutting quality/costs by 30% in some way, and demanded they "get to do" the same. The Tacoma I'm likely to buy does have a plastic truck bed instead of stainless, which was also a surprise to me. I think everything is being cheapened up, even the Toyotas and Hondas. But I see legitimate trade offs with bed materials that could make a little more sense, much like how Ford uses aluminum beds. When Ford did that, I didn't outright scorn it like these plastic pans.
glandium 5y ago
Unfortunately for you Samsung has been caught doing it too. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28336293 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28336293
- BuckRogers 5y ago
  Unfortunately for you, you're wrong. And worse yet, everyone who interacts with you is worse off for it. You didn't vet your source. As the title of this thread is, "Western Digital confirms speed crippling SN550 SSD flash change". Samsung has done no NAND swap, nor have they crippled performance. You're wrong on both counts. I'm responding for the benefit of others, not yours, as you're basically presenting false information. Crucial and Western Digital were caught swapping NAND with zero other indication. Samsung has updated that SKU's serial number, product datasheet, and the actual change in question was a different Samsung controller and increased SLC cache. Not the NAND.[0] And, they swapped the controller for a newer one, out of the 980 Pro. Almost 3-times the the SLC cache of the original model, and overall netting a small performance increase. Most people would prefer these changes over the original configuration. I would. And while I'd be more than happy to only buy Intel products, Samsung is still in the clear on this front. You're not on Ars Technica anymore. Don't ever come half-stepping with spreading misinformation on HN. It's a disservice to not read your own sources, and then apply your incorrect conclusion for others. You're welcome for the correction. [0]https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-is-swapping-ssd-parts-too https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-is-swapping-ssd-pa...
  - biaachmonkie 5y ago
    From the Tom's article you linked to "Although the new version's SLC cache is 173% bigger, it offers 47% lower sustained write performance." So depending on your use case it can be a significant performance difference. Did you read your source? What Samsung should have done it change the name and call it the "971 Evo Plus SSD" or "970 Evo Gold SSD" or some such change that distinguishes this new product with different performance characteristics than the actual "970 Evo Plus SSD". But no they want to benefit from the good name and customer perception of the "970 Evo Plus SSD" while selling a substantially different product under that name. That is fraudulent behavior!

anakaine 5y ago

Theres an entire other story here in your comments: ford building vehicles with a plastic oil pan / sump. That it just insane, even by the standards of "engineering says it will work and be cheaper", particularly on a truck / 4x4 where off road duty can cause stones, sticks, etc to hit the sump hard. Even in a smaller vehicle lower clearances can cause that part of the vehicle to strike the road surface often enough- just have a look either side of your nearest speed bump. Theres likely a pro in this design for North American vehicles, where the pan won't rust. I still maintain, however, that at least a metal pan will bend or dent and be serviceable whilst a hardened plastic one will tend to crack or shatter.

BuckRogers 5y ago
Yup, you nailed it, impact. Metal bends. I haven't had an oil pan rust through on any of my cars, and I keep older cars than most people in the midwest. I've been here all of my life other than a 5 year stint in Texas. Never even heard a story about someone's rusting through. And I would believe it's a wise engineering choice, if the first time I've heard about it was in regards to a 2021 truck leaking. I don't know if the other US domestic manufacturers are doing this, but you can bet they'll be right behind as they've always chased each other in a race to making the worst vehicles possible for 50 years now in the name of profits. I read a story that in the 70s GM executives heard that Ford was cutting quality/costs by 30% in some way, and demanded they "get to do" the same. The Tacoma I'm likely to buy does have a plastic truck bed instead of stainless, which was also a surprise to me. I think everything is being cheapened up, even the Toyotas and Hondas. But I see legitimate trade offs with bed materials that could make a little more sense, much like how Ford uses aluminum beds. When Ford did that, I didn't outright scorn it like these plastic pans.

glandium 5y ago

Unfortunately for you Samsung has been caught doing it too. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28336293 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28336293

BuckRogers 5y ago
Unfortunately for you, you're wrong. And worse yet, everyone who interacts with you is worse off for it. You didn't vet your source. As the title of this thread is, "Western Digital confirms speed crippling SN550 SSD flash change". Samsung has done no NAND swap, nor have they crippled performance. You're wrong on both counts. I'm responding for the benefit of others, not yours, as you're basically presenting false information. Crucial and Western Digital were caught swapping NAND with zero other indication. Samsung has updated that SKU's serial number, product datasheet, and the actual change in question was a different Samsung controller and increased SLC cache. Not the NAND.[0] And, they swapped the controller for a newer one, out of the 980 Pro. Almost 3-times the the SLC cache of the original model, and overall netting a small performance increase. Most people would prefer these changes over the original configuration. I would. And while I'd be more than happy to only buy Intel products, Samsung is still in the clear on this front. You're not on Ars Technica anymore. Don't ever come half-stepping with spreading misinformation on HN. It's a disservice to not read your own sources, and then apply your incorrect conclusion for others. You're welcome for the correction. [0]https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-is-swapping-ssd-parts-too https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-is-swapping-ssd-pa...
- biaachmonkie 5y ago
  From the Tom's article you linked to "Although the new version's SLC cache is 173% bigger, it offers 47% lower sustained write performance." So depending on your use case it can be a significant performance difference. Did you read your source? What Samsung should have done it change the name and call it the "971 Evo Plus SSD" or "970 Evo Gold SSD" or some such change that distinguishes this new product with different performance characteristics than the actual "970 Evo Plus SSD". But no they want to benefit from the good name and customer perception of the "970 Evo Plus SSD" while selling a substantially different product under that name. That is fraudulent behavior!