MLC and TLC are two types of storage solutions, based on voltages and spaces, allowing data to be packed into cells. It is a complicated IT process, but extremely important for the practical operation of the disk and its memory capacity. Which one is better on the market now?
If you are going to buy an SSD drive, you should not be overly concerned about its durability, because it will most likely "survive" the warranty period and will work at a high level for years. Of course - as is the case with equipment - among thousands of media there will be art that will end up under warranty.
More advanced solutions are guaranteed by MLC, but TLC, in turn, is equipped with all parameters that are sufficient for effective use of the disk with the classic mode of IT activity. The decision must therefore be the result of individual preferences and actual needs. It is not always worth paying extra to have a technology that exceeds real demand.
What Are QLC and TLC?
TLC, whose full name is the Triple-Level Cell, stores three bits of information per cell. In addition, TLC is the most common type of SSD.
QLC, whose full name is Quad-level cell, stores four bits of information per cell, following in by the convention set by TLC.
Prior to its invention, QLC refers to cells that can have sixteen voltage states.
However, what are the differences between QLC and TLC or which one is better for your storage application?
So, in the following section, we will show you the differences of QLC vs TLC.
QLC vs TLC: What Are the Differences and Which One Is Better?
In this part, we will show you some differences of QLC and TLC. You might think that the QLC with four bits per cell is able to replace the TLC, which is with three bits per cell. However, TLC technology has improved in terms of durability and performance to create roles for both types of NAND. Therefore, we will show more detailed differences of QLC vs TLC SSD.
Before mentioning the differences of TLC vs QLC, you need to know how NAND flash affects the performance, endurance and density.
What Is 3D QLC NAND?
In the past, the cells were arranged side by side on a silicon substrate. But later, it is possible to increase density so as to fit more of them on a planar surface. However, it is difficult to scale along the x- and y-axis, manufacturers started organizing cells vertically, three-dimensionally along the z-axis.
Compared with 2D NAND, the 3D has higher density and it can also be written to and erased more times. If a flash is built-in 64 layers- tall, 3D NAND enables 64 times the cell density of planar memory. Thus, more data will be stored and the SSD with 3D NAND will provide a larger storage size.
What Is 3D TLC NAND?
As we have mentioned in the above part, the QLC NAND stores 4 bits of information per cell and has the 16 voltage states, but the TLC NAND stores three bits of information and only tracks 8.
Compared with QLC NAND, TLC has to withstand a higher number of program/erase cycles due to its fewer bits written to per cell.
On the other hand, as for QLC VA TLC, TLC flash is faster than QLC. It turns out that differentiating between twice as many charge states makes QLC more prone to mistakes than TLC flash. Although both technologies employ error-correcting code algorithms to maintain the integrity of your data, the process consumes a greater number of processing cycles on QLC-based drives, hitting write performance especially hard.
QLC vs TLC SSD: Performance
QLC SSDs are designed to augment existing TLC SSD, rather than replacing them. As for the performance of QLC and TLC SSD, we will briefly show you.
The sequential read speed of QLC NAND SSD is just as fast as the TLC SSD, so it is great for read-heavy workloads. However, as for the write performance of 3D NAND vs TLC, the TLC SSD is better than the QLC SSD.
QLC vs TLC SSD: Endurance
Besides the performance, the endurance of QLC and TLC SSD is also an essential factor. Since QLC SSD is rated for fewer program/erase cycles than TLC, write-heavy workloads wear its memory cells faster. So, as for the endurance of QLC vs TLC, the TLC SSD would be better than QLC SSD. However, the durability of TLC is still lower than the MLC and SLC.
QLC vs TLC SSD: Storage Size
Apart from the performance and endurance of QLC vs TLC SSD, the storage size would be another essential factor. QLC technology can currently achieve a capacity of 768 Gb per flash particle, which can reach up to the maximum.
For example, if an SSD uses eight pieces of such flash particles, the storage size of QLC size can reach up to 12TB which enables you to store a lot of files and data.
QLC vs TLC SSD: Price
When choosing an SSD, the budget would be also taken into consideration. As for the QLC vs TLC NAND SSD, the price of QLC SSD would be cheaper. And TLC SSD is also cheaper than SLC or MLC.
So, if your budget is limited but you also want to purchase the larger capacity, the QLC or TLC SSD would be a good choice. In addition, even though the performance of QLC may be slower than the TLC SSD, but it is also faster than the old HDD even though with 3D NAND.
From the above QLC vs TLC, you have known what the differences between them and which one is better for you. But as a matter of fact, the QLC and TLC is complement with each other. In the future, 50% of the NAND flash bits shipped will be 3D QLC, with 3D TLC making up most of what’s left.
In addition, QLC NAND will slowly displace some TLC NAND volume now and then and both technologies move forward together.
How to Upgrade to Large SSD?
From the above part, you can find that the QLC and TLC SSD come to a larger storage size than hard drive. And it also delivers better read and write performance than the original hard drive. With large SSD, users are able to save more files and data, such as photos, movies, videos and so on.
So, some people ask whether there is a way to upgrade the original hard drive to the SSD without data loss. Of course, the answer is positive. In the following part, we will show you how to upgrade hard drive to a large QLC SSD or TLC SSD.
To upgrade hard drive to the large QLC or TLC SSD, you can use a hard drive clone tool. Thus, MiniTool ShadowMaker, which is also a piece of Windows 10 backup software, would be a good choice.
MiniTool ShadowMaker enables you to clone OS to SSD without data loss. So you can use it to clone your hard drive to the QLC or TLC SSD.
Install MiniTool ShadowMaker.
Then click Keep Trial to continue.
Then click Connectin This Computer to enter its main interface.
After that, go to the Tools page.
Then click Clone Disk to continue.
Click Source module to choose the disk clone source. Here, you need to choose the original system disk as the hard drive clone source. Then click Finish to continue.
Then click Destination module to choose a target disk. Here, you need to select the QLC or TLC SSD as the target disk.
Please note all data on the target disk will be destroyed during the cloning process. If there are important files on it, please back up them first。
Then the disk clone process will begin. Please do not interrupt the disk clone process until it is finished. The costing time depends on the number of files on the source disk.
When the disk clone process is finished, you will receive a warning message which tells you that the target disk and the original disk have the same signature. So, you need to remove or disconnect either of them. Moreover, if you want to boot computer from the target disk, please enter BIOS and change the boot sequence first.
After all steps are finished, you have successfully upgraded the original hard drive to the QLC or TLC disk.
Bottom Line
To sum up, this post has introduced the differences of QLC vs TLC NAND SSD. If you do not know the differences between them and do not know which one is better, the above content may help you.
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