The invention of SSDs technology has brought a revolution in the laptop and desktop industry. It has replaced the old mechanical disks due to its easy installation, high speed, and resistance to strain and shocks.
SSDs are extremely popular around the globe. You can purchase an SSD of one terabytes space or even more at a competitive price.
You might have heard some weird acronyms while purchasing an SSD. If you think these acronyms mean nothing more than just names, then you are wrong. They are important because they indicate the quality of your drive, irrespective of its capacity or model.
So in this article, we will tell you what is the difference between a TLC and a QLC SSD drive in particular. In this instance, it will be the Samsung QVO and the Samsung EVO.
Let’s discuss the history of the SSD drives first. It will help you see where these Samsung drives can fit into. This will also give you an idea of where we are in terms of technology at the moment.
Table of Contents
SLC (Single Level Cell) Drive
At the outset, we have got the SLC drives which are single-level cell drives. They store a single bit in a cell. These are arguably the fastest drives you can get. They are more durable and less error-prone. They are something that you would use more in an enterprise-level scenario. So, less likely to find something like SLC drives in a consumer-grade product. In case you found one, it would probably be an expensive product.
MLC (Multi-Level Cell) Drive
Next, we’ve got the MLC drives which are multi-level cell drives. Unlike its name multi-level, it is only two bits per cell that get written. So It is not quite as great as it sounds. However, it effectively increases the density of what is being stored on the drive. That is why these are slightly slower than the SLC drives because of the increased number of bits that get written on the cells. It makes the drive slightly less durable and slightly more error-prone. By less durability and more error-prone, we don’t mean catastrophic failures. It means just a minute increase over the base level that is the SLC drives.
TLC (Triple Level Cell) Drive
The next one is TLC which is a triple-level cell. TLC is three bits per cell that can be stored there. Keep in mind that an increase in the number of bits that are stored on the cell increases the chances of errors. It reduces the durability of the drive and the speed as well.
These are the most common variants of SSD drive that you’ll find on the market now certainly for consumer-grade SSDs. These are the best option for an SSD drive at the moment.
QLC (Quad Level Cell) Drive
The next one is QLC. It is a quad-level cell and can store up to four bits of data per cell. It needs less space. Compared to TLC, it provides a 33% increase in storage capacity per cell. Again, the performance of QLC is slightly low compared to the previous types of drives. During file copies, you will see that as soon as that cache fills up then the performance just really isn’t that great. But still, all of these drives are substantially better compared to a typical platter hard drive.
PLC (Penta Level Cell) Drive
Lastly, the next one is Penta level drives (PLC). Penta means five, so it can store up to five bits of data per cell. You may not find it in consumer-grade products at the moment. That is why you don’t need to go on Amazon or eBay to find one because they are not out there.
Hopefully, that gives you a bit of history or rundown of the different types of drives that have come onto the market so far.
Samsung EVO Vs QVO
Physical Comparison
Now let’s have a quick look at the two Samsung drives; the QVO and EVO. Physically these drives look identical except for the slight color change in the casing. However, if you don’t have any labels on it then you’d be probably hard-pressed to identify them.
Comparison: Large File Copy
We tested both drives for large file copies and multiple small file copies. Firstly, we took a large test file of 133 gigabytes on a Samsung EVO which is a 500 gigabytes drive. The drive that we will copy it to is the Samsung QVO which is a one-terabyte drive. When we started copying, we noticed that it started at a really good speed of about 480 megabytes per second (MBps). As soon as the cache filled up on this drive the performance completely dropped off to less than 100 megabytes per second. It is probably less than a quarter of its overall performance. The rest of the copying speed remained the same i.e. less than 100 megabytes per second and completed in about 25 minutes
Next, we copied back the same file of 133 gigabytes size onto the EVO drive to check the performance. As we started copying, we saw that the time remaining to complete the process is only four and a half minutes. So the start-off performance is very similar to QVO. When the 50% copying was completed, we noticed that the speed was still above 300 megabytes per second which is three times as fast as the QVO drive. The performance has dropped but it is effectively keeping up with the requests to write to the drive. So it’s emptying the cache quickly enough to fill it again unlike the QVO drive which once it’s full that’s it. Thus you can see that initially, the performance dropped off gradually but still is more than double the speed of the QVO drive.
Comparison: Small File Copy
Next, we got a bunch of copied images and their total size is about six gigabytes. The size of an individual image is about five and a half megabytes. The process of copying to QVO started at a high speed but then very quickly reduced the throughput.
However, compared to that large file copy, the cache kept up with the files that were being transferred through, and for five and a half gig that was quite a fast file copy. After that, we copied those files back EVO drive. A similar file copy trend is observed here i.e. copying started at high speed and then reduced very quickly. However, the overall file copy process is still quite a bit quicker.
Conclusion:
Conclusively, the only limiting factor of the QVO drive is the cache and it is not something that you should ignore. You have to look at how you can use it in your setup. Yet, it is obvious that the QVO drive is way faster than a standard hard drive. It can also be a good drive for games. We believe the QVO is not a bad drive but certainly, the EVO drive is better. How much better? Well, it depends upon what type of games you are playing and the amount of activity that game got of loading its assets and resources from the drive on changing levels and changing maps.