Performance of some SSDs you buy might be very different from reviews because manufacturers switch to different parts while the name of the product remains the same. The finding was reported by our friends from TweakTown who earlier discovered how Kingston V300 SSDs first contained 25 nm synchronous NAND and later 20 nm asynchronous NAND. In theory the 20 asynchronous NAND should be slower and therefore a disadvantage to the consumer.
In its early days also OCZ release a SSD which first contained 3X nm NAND that was later switched to 25nm NAND. The company hasn't been guilty of this the last couple of years, changes in the internals of the SSDs are now followed by change in the model number.
More recent the SSD vendor PNY has changed the insides of their Optima SSDs. While TweakTown were raving about the performance of PNY's Optima drive, the were approached by a reader pointing out that PNY switched to another SSD controller. The PNY was reviewed while it had a Silicon Motion controller while the TweakTown reader reported he bought the same PNY Optima with a SandForce controller.
SSD brands do not modify the packaging of the SSDs to reflect the changes meaning that consumers remain unaware which version of the drive they purchase.
PNY doesn't deny it switched the controller and argues that as long as the drives meet the minimum advertised performance, there shouldn't be an issue for consumers. Obviously for those that want the best bang for their buck and have done extensive research on which drive to buy, this can be a slap in the face. Changes in NAND and controllers can affect both performance and endurance of the drives.
