Mlc or tlc – what is better in ssd drives

Solid-state hard drives are getting cheaper every year, and at the same time they are becoming more popular. More models of such drives appear on the market and this is not only because new manufacturers are offering their products, but also because the “old players” are using new technologies. Currently most companies are launching SSD drives with two main memory types: MLC and TLC. In this article, we will examine what are the main differences between how this two and which one is better to buy for home use.

Types of memory for ssd drives

Solid state drives are using flash memory – organized memory cells based on semiconductors, grouped in a special way. All flash memory that can be productively used in SSD drives is divided as follows:

• By the method of reading and writing. Modern solid-state drives use the NAND memory type;
• By the way of data storage. By the method of data storage SSD drives can be divided to SLC and MLC. You can decipher this abbreviations as a “single-level cell” and “multi-level cell”. In case of SLC memory type, one cell is able to contain not more than one bit of data, while in the second situation – when we are talking about MLC memory type – more than one bit can be stored in one cell. In consumer solid state drives there is mainly used the MLC storage technology.

TLC is a subspecies of MLC memory. The standard MLC memory stores 2 bits of information in one cell while in the TLC version can be stored three bits of information in one memory cell. That is, TLC is also a multi-level cell.

Tlc or mlc: which one is better

If you do not want to go deep into the details, we can say that in general, the MLC type of memory is better than TLC, and here is why:

• Memory of this type will last 20-30% longer;
• MLC works faster than TLC;
• Solid-state drives based on MLC memory require less energy while operating.

Best quality is always more expensive, so the solid-state drive with MLC memory type will in most cases cost more than the one with TLC memory type.

But if you do not mind to go into details and consider using SSD-drives with these types of memory at the user level, it is worth saying that the differences between them are not so huge, and there is not always enough sense to overpay for MLC memory. In their operating process a lot depends on the other factors (on the connection interface, for example). Let’s examine a couple of options:

• Operating speed. If SSDs on TLC and MLC are connected via SATA-3 protocol, they are likely to show equal performance, especially when it comes to a considerably cheap solid-state memory. It should also be noted that if the TLC drive is connected to the system unit via the PCI-E NVMe interface, it can run faster than the SSD with the MLC memory type via PCI-E;
• Power consumption. When TLC and MLC memory both are connected via SATA-3 protocol, they will spend approximately the same amount of energy. But if you will connect TLC memory via SATA-3, and MLC memory via PCI-E you may notice that the option on SATA-3 is spending several times (up to ten times) less energy. But here again it is important to note that the difference in the electricity consumption can depend on many other factors, for example, on how optimized for low energy consumption the SSD-drive was by it’s manufacturer.

Summarizing, we can make a conclusion that there is no one perfect option – MLC or TLC. There are a lot of factors to affect the speed of the solid-state drive. If you buy a capacious SSD-disk based on TLC memory, it can be better from one certain manufacturer than the model on MLC from another manufacturer, while at the same time they will cost the same. At the consumer level any buyer should focus not on the type of memory, but on the performance of a particular drive (this information can be found in the tests that manufacturers always publish). Even models of one same company, that where released in different lines may show different performance despite the fact that they all have the same memory type.

What means 3d nand, 3d tlc and v-nand in ssd-memory

Another parameter that a buyer may notice when choosing a solid-state hard drive is 3D NAND, 3D TLC or V-NAND. Depending on the manufacturer, this property has different names, but the essence is the same. If you see such a designation, you should know that in this drive model all flash memory cells are located on the chips in several layers, whereas in the absence of such a designation, they are most likely superimposed in one layer.

Production of memory in several layers is cheaper than in one layer. Also manufacturers state that it is more reliable.