What health tests should I make on a new Mac?

[Mike Boreham]

2,6 TB of written data on the other hand does sound like a lot. The Mac has 4 TB,

2.6TB is not a lot. The SSD life you are obsessed with using up is higher on larger drives. It is a non issue even on a small drive but on a 4TB drive it is even more unnecessary to worry so much. Just use it.

My 2TB M2 MBA has written 40TB in the past 20 weeks, so average about 2TB per week....to put your 2.6TB in context. Life remaining in DriveDx is still 100%.

 

[HDFan]

I'm sorry but that estimated lifetime sounds like complete

That's why DriveDX reported. Don't know how accurate the numbers were, but they are consistent with what I saw on my iMacPro. Sold the system so can't provide a screen shot. Note: this was a 8 TB SSD.

 

[thebart]

That's why DriveDX reported. Don't know how accurate the numbers were, but they are consistent with what I saw on my iMacPro. Sold the system so can't provide a screen shot. Note: this was a 8 TB SSD.

Oh I believe you that's what it's reporting. I just think it's a completely made up number

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Oh I believe you that's what it's reporting. I just think it's a completely made up number

What would be a realistic number in your opinion?

2.6TB is not a lot. The SSD life you are obsessed with using up is higher on larger drives. It is a non issue even on a small drive but on a 4TB drive it is even more unnecessary to worry so much. Just use it.

My 2TB M2 MBA has written 40TB in the past 20 weeks, so average about 2TB per week....to put your 2.6TB in context. Life remaining in DriveDx is still 100%.

View attachment 2226141

It's not really that I'm scared it will fail, but rather that I am trying to get the absolute best thing for the best possible price, lol.

 

[thebart]

What would be a realistic number in your opinion?



It's not really that I'm scared it will fail, but rather that I am trying to get the absolute best thing for the best possible price, lol.

I found a Sabrent 8tb pcie4 tlc nand SSD for $1000 that claims 6PBW. Granted they're going to be conservative because they don't want to be paying out warranty claims but that's still less than a quarter of what the Apple drive is claiming

 

[Silly John Fatty]

I found a Sabrent 8tb pcie4 tlc nand SSD for $1000 that claims 6PBW. Granted they're going to be conservative because they don't want to be paying out warranty claims but that's still less than a quarter of what the Apple drive is claiming

Well, now I actually am worried that my Mini's drive might be too used. It's had 2,6 TB written when I bought it refurbished from Apple. Let's assume Apple's drive could also do 6 PBW. That's 6000 TB, and 2,6 ÷ 6000 = already 0,043%. And I haven't even started using it yet (ok, who knows how it's been used before).

I'll make sure to use external drives and not use the internal one too much. But then I wonder why I got 4 TB in the first place. Can still return it until Monday. It's quite a price difference from 2 to 4 TB.

 

[mcnallym]

All we know about an Apple Refurb machine is that it is a machine that has been returned to Apple.

this could be

1.) Buyer decided needed more storage, or more power nothing wrong just changed mind.
2.) Buyer bought to run a test and then returned.
3.) buyer bought in run upto refresh and returned to get the newer model.
4.) machine found to be faulty, apple repaired and replaced where necessary to make good.

to test it then there will be Storage Usage invoiced.

you still have the same 30 day no questions return policy as if bought new and applecare if bought doesn’t distinguish between new and refurb.

seriously overthinking it.

however if you want 100% new then would need to buy new not refurb.

the storage in an m2 pro is part of the SoC so if any faulty part there then the whole board would be replaced

 

[chown33]

Well, now I actually am worried that my Mini's drive might be too used. It's had 2,6 TB written when I bought it refurbished from Apple. Let's assume Apple's drive could also do 6 PBW. That's 6000 TB, and 2,6 ÷ 6000 = already 0,043%. And I haven't even started using it yet (ok, who knows how it's been used before).

I'll make sure to use external drives and not use the internal one too much. But then I wonder why I got 4 TB in the first place. Can still return it until Monday. It's quite a price difference from 2 to 4 TB.

Instead of working with abstract numbers, make a concrete estimate.

If the lifetime is 6000 TBW, and you write 1 TB per day, how long until the limit is reached?
6000 / 365.25 days per year = 16.4 years

So if 2.6 TB have already been written (consumed), then you've lost about 2.6 days in a total of 16.4 years. That implies that instead of it reaching the limit on a Friday somewhere near the end of 2039, it will actually reach its limit early on Tuesday of that week.

This is only an estimate, because if there are any days where you write less than 1 TB, then that extends the "expiration date". Also, if the real lifetime is less than 6 PBW, that obviously shortens the estimate.

 

[theorist9]

In addition to DriveDX (already mentioned), I'd:

1) Run Apple's hardware test

2) Check all the ports for functionality

3) Run the benchmarks for the CPU/GPU/SSD/RAM, to make sure all are operating within the expected range. Simple ones for these would be, respectively:
CPU: Geekbench
GPU: Geekbench
SSD: Blackmagic Disk Speed Test and/or AmorphousDiskMark
RAM: AmorphousMemoryMark

 

[theorist9]

....and I wouldn't worry at all about the 2.6 TB. Note that yours is a 4 TB drive. It's thus possible the device you bought was returned within the 2-week return period, and most of that 2.6 TB was simply the original owner loading his files onto the drive when he was testing the machine.

I don't know what typical usage is. Mine is 150 GB writes/day, and I believe that's above average. But even if you're double that (300 GB/day), and the drive's lifetime is 3000 TBW, that's 3000/.3/365 = 27 years.

If you check your SMART status now, use it normally, and recheck in a few days, you can get a rough idea of your own usage rate.