As if we had the tools to monitoring and diagnostics CPU-Z and GPU-Z for processor and graphics card respectively, there is also a tool called SSD-Z which does the same with our SSD drives. If you didn’t know about its existence, in this article we’ll show you how to download it and how to use it, including all of its ins and outs and options.
For any hardware enthusiast, it is essential to always have all the information related to their hardware at hand, and even more so when it comes to monitoring in order to be able to control all of its parameters. This is all the more interesting in an SSD as, as you know, it has a limited number of write and erase cycles, so it is quite important to be able to know, even roughly, how much life it has. remains and whether it is functioning properly. .
How to download and install SSD-Z
SSD-Z is, like CPU-Z and GPU-Z (although they are all from different developers), a tool that is free to use as long as it is not used commercially. This means that any user can download it and use it in a completely free, and for that you just have to access the author’s site and click on the corresponding button which will simply give you the possibility to download it in RAR or ZIP format.
SSD-Z does not require any installation, and in fact you can run it directly from the compressed file without having to unzip it to the hard drive (in fact, in doing so, it will also be stored in a temporary space), but as Still, it is advised to extract it and save it to a location on your storage drive to avoid problems.
How to use SSD-Z to monitor and diagnose your SSD
As you can see in the image above, the appearance of SSD-Z is extremely similar to that of CPU-Z or GPU-Z, and so is how it works. Thus, in the tab that is displayed when opening the application (Device), all the information of the device is displayed:
- Name of the device: is the name of the device.
- Firmware: the version of your firmware.
- Serial number: is the serial number of the unit you have installed. You have to press F9 to display it (this is done so that we can take screenshots without having to display the exact serial number of our device).
- Release date– This is the SSD release date, which does not have to coincide with the purchase date.
- Technology and Cells: the first value shows us the lithography of the chips, while the second shows us the type (SLC, MLC, TLC …).
- Controller: is the name of the controller used by the SSD.
- NAND: is the manufacturer and type of NAND Flash memory.
- Capabilities: is the list of technologies supported by the SSD, such as SMART, NCQ or DevSleep.
- Interface and speed: is the interface the SSD is connected to and the current and maximum speed at which it is operating.
- TRIM and ATA Standard: the TRIM value simply tells us if it is enabled, while the ATA standard refers precisely to the SATA standard being used.
- SMART and Temperature: It tells us if the SMART state is correct, and the second value the current temperature of the device.
- POH y Number of power cycles:
- Capacity and Over-supply: capacity tells us the capacity, while Over-Provison tells us if over-provisioning is activated and, if so, in what quantity.
- Bytes written y Sector size: Bytes written is the number of bytes written to the device, and SSD-Z also tells us this in GB or TB so that we can get a very precise idea of the durability knowing the TBW of the SSD. The sector size is the size of the sectors configured when formatting the device.
- Volumes and Partitions: They indicate respectively the volumes and partitions created, indicating in the first case the drive letters and in the second the type.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that in the lower area we have a drop-down list that shows us all the storage units installed on the PC, being able to select from which we want to see the information. On the left, there is a small button which is used to refresh the information and on the right the Exit button, which will close the SSD-Z.
The second tab is called CLEVER, and as you well know is the unit health auto-detection system. Here we can find relevant information about its status, and it is the same as any other monitoring software such as CrystalDiskInfo, so there is not much to add here.
The third tab is called Partitions, and as the name suggests, it will show us information about the partitions created on the device.
In the Benchmark tab we can run a small and brief performance test, but it is still under development and at the moment it only shows sequential read speed, access time and QD32 IOPS.
Here we also have a dropdown that initially shows Benchmark Overview and is the one you can see above, but it also shows us if we want a detail of IOPS, a graph of transfer performance and access times, but they are already warning us that this tab is under development and the results may not be entirely accurate.
In the Identify tab, the software will show us more complex and specific information about the unit, including the number of cylinders if we even had a mechanical disc. However, this tab can be more useful for developers than for ordinary users.
The Submit tab is used in case we want to send the data from our unit to the developer’s database, so that they can complete their database and show users’ SSD information more accurately. You can add the email address and add comments if you want.
Finally, we have the About tab which shows us some information about the developer, as well as the app’s launch date (don’t worry as it’s written September 2016 as it’s the date of the initial release and not of the current version one) and gives us the possibility to make a donation via PayPal if you wish to encourage its development.
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