SSD TIER LIST

[Wooden Law - Black]

12 hours ago, yaboi1012 said:

Is it worth paying a bit more for more performance or can I cheap out a bit? Im thinking of getting this western digital drive from amazon, but i also saw this samsung drive, which ive been told is better, but I dont really know if a bit more of reliability is worth 20 bucks more. Thoughts on this?

Among these I prefer the WD; it has better random performance, a higher endurance due to the SLC design and around the same performance post-SLC. 

[DarkReaper969]

Hello! Just wanted to add some SSDs i haven't yet seen on the list. If one should be on the list and i just overlooked it, than just ignore it

 

Acer FA100: https://www.acerstorage.com/products/acer-ssd-fa100-m2-pcie-nvme.html

ADATA LEGEND 740: https://www.adata.com/uk/consumer/866

ADATA LEGEND 750: https://www.adata.com/uk/consumer/solid-state-drives-LEGEND-750

ADATA Prospector 950: https://www.adata.com/uk/consumer/847

Emtec X300 M2: http://www.emtec-international.com/de/ssd/internal/x300-m2-ssd-power-pro

Emtec X400 M2: http://www.emtec-international.com/de/ssd/internal/x400-m2-ssd-power-pro

GIGABYTE M30: https://www.gigabyte.com/Solid-State-Drive/GIGABYTE-M30-SSD-1TB#kf

goodram IRDM M.2: https://www.goodram.com/de/produkte/ssd-irdm-m-2/

InnovationIT Performance and Performance+: https://shop.kosatec.de/search?sSearch=1024111

Intenso Premium SSD: https://www.intenso.de/produkte/solid-state-drives/m.2-SSD-PCIe-premium

KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G2: https://personal.kioxia.com/de-de/ssd/exceria-plus-g2-nvme-ssd.html

KIOXIA EXCERIA PRO: https://personal.kioxia.com/de-de/ssd/exceria-pro.html

LC-Power Phenom: https://www.lc-power.com/produkte/storage-festplatten-nvme-m2-25-ssd/nvme-m2-ssd/phenom-serie/

LC-Power Phenom Pro: https://www.lc-power.com/produkte/storage-festplatten-nvme-m2-25-ssd/nvme-m2-ssd/phenom-pro-serie/

Micron 3400: https://www.micron.com/products/ssd/product-lines/3400

Patriot P400: https://info.patriotmemory.com/patriot-p400-solid-state-drive-ssd-patriot-memory

Patriot VPN110: https://viper.patriotmemory.com/products/viper-vpn110-pcie-m-2-solid-state-drive-viper-gaming-by-patriot-memory-gamercertified

Samsung OEM PM9A1: https://semiconductor.samsung.com/ssd/pc-ssd/pm9a1/mzvl21t0hclr-00-00-07/

Silicon Power XD80: https://www.silicon-power.com/web/product-XD80

Transcend 110Q: https://de.transcend-info.com/Products/No-1177

WD SN720 (could not find this on their website): https://geizhals.at/western-digital-pc-sn720-nvme-ssd-1tb-sdapntw-1t00-a1797327.html

[Wooden Law - Black]

3 hours ago, DarkReaper969 said:

Hello! Just wanted to add some SSDs i haven't yet seen on the list. If one should be on the list and i just overlooked it, than just ignore it

 

Most of them are Tier B/Tier C except PCIe 4.0 ones and other that are terribles (Intenso, for example).

[DarkReaper969]

12 hours ago, Wooden Law - Black said:

Most of them are Tier B/Tier C except PCIe 4.0 ones and other that are terribles (Intenso, for example).

Yeah, i thought some of them would be rather bad, but its good to know some are Tier B, bunch of them are relatively cheap over here.

[LogicWeasel]

Acer Predator GM3500 1TB could use a placing in the list.

https://www.newegg.com/predator-1tb-gm3500/p/N82E16820247123

 

Here's what I could dig up on it for testing since it's pretty new:

https://inf.news/en/digital/4a4a575e9d307362b7626a25b3469203.html
and

https://occlub.ru/testodrom/80261-acer-predator-gm3500-1-tb-obzor-dostojno-i-ne-bolee-togo/4
(I know it's in Russian, google chrome translated it to English with the built-in translate feature decently for me, so I could look it over)

 

My take:  looks to be roughly on-par with a Mushkin Pilot-E and seems to make a case for being in Tier B.

[Wooden Law - Black]

2 hours ago, LogicWeasel said:

My take:  looks to be roughly on-par with a Mushkin Pilot-E and seems to make a case for being in Tier B.

Yes, another SMI SM2262EN + 96L TLC flash, such as some SX8200 Pro, S11 Pro (SX8200 Pro’s clone), Pilot-E, KC2500, etc. Tier B.

[LogicWeasel]

Another Acer fell out of the woodwork not in the list yet:

FA100 -  a Dram-less 176-layer TLC drive

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/acer-fa100-nvme-ssd-review

[Wooden Law - Black]

13 hours ago, LogicWeasel said:

Another Acer fell out of the woodwork not in the list yet:

FA100 -  a Dram-less 176-layer TLC drive

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/acer-fa100-nvme-ssd-review

Tier C. It's not a very good as random performance, but it has a solid SLC cache keeping in mind that it is DRAM-less.

[penguino]

On 1/25/2022 at 8:22 AM, Wooden Law - Black said:

Among these I prefer the WD; it has better random performance, a higher endurance due to the SLC design and around the same performance post-SLC. 

You know they're both DRAM-less junk, right? Are you sure they use SLC instead of HMB.

[Wooden Law - Black]

1 hour ago, penguino said:

You know they're both DRAM-less junk, right? Are you sure they use SLC instead of HMB.

Yes, they are both DRAM-less, and? Static SLC cache (which is the one that the SN570 uses) is better than the dynamic in terms of endurance, it manage to improve the endurance increasing PEC (P/E cycles) of the flash, reaching 30-40K. Second, yes, I'm sure that both of them use SLC cache also because all recent SSDs use it. At the same time they use also HMB (up to 64MB), but it's not the same as SLC cache, it's more like a "virtual" DRAM.

Anyway, you can see the SLC cache test here (SN570) and here (980).

[SSD Sean]

On 2/13/2022 at 3:46 PM, penguino said:

You know they're both DRAM-less junk, right? Are you sure they use SLC instead of HMB.

SLC caching and HMB are two different things entirely. 

[HuS.TeR]

On 1/28/2022 at 8:43 PM, DarkReaper969 said:

Hello! Just wanted to add some SSDs i haven't yet seen on the list. If one should be on the list and i just overlooked it, than just ignore it

 

KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G2: https://personal.kioxia.com/de-de/ssd/exceria-plus-g2-nvme-ssd.html

Above SSD has the same price tag with the HP EX950 over here, which is in Tier B. Can anyone suggest me one over another?
I'll buy 1TB version and use it as main drive. I don't do much read/write, I'd prefer the one which has more potential to live long.

[penguino]

EX950 appears to be more competetive in the real world scenarios.

On 2/13/2022 at 11:42 PM, Wooden Law - Black said:

Yes, they are both DRAM-less, and?

And it's bad because DRAM improves SSD's perofmance on multiple levels, it's better for system drives (dealing with system and app telemetry, constantly reading and writing small bits of data), such drives also usually get better flash with higher write or endurance which shows. You mentioned Samsung 980 - it slows down to 350MB/s when cache runs out. That's slower than SATA drives! That's why I'd recommend avoiding DRAM-less drives unless you're looking for a secondary storage SSD.

 

By the way, has anyone hear anything about PNY CM3031? It seems to be quietly replacing the CS3030 it flooded stores across Europe, some even are calling it "CS3031":

https://www.elgiganten.dk/product/computer-kontor/lagring/ssd/pny-xlr8-cs3031-m2-nvme-ssd-500-gb/414828

It all happened without any premiere, there are no reviews, what on earth is it?

[Wooden Law - Black]

1 hour ago, penguino said:

such drives also usually get better flash with higher write or endurance which shows.

That's absolutely false, use the DRAM improves SSD's endurance since it decreases the WAF (write amplification factor), but that doens't matter with the graduation of the flash or its writes. The DRAM isn't used as write cache, it is used to store metadata.

2 hours ago, penguino said:

You mentioned Samsung 980 - it slows down to 350MB/s when cache runs out. That's slower than SATA drives! That's why I'd recommend avoiding DRAM-less drives unless you're looking for a secondary storage SSD.

That doens't mean that it does 430 MB/s in every situation, keep in mind that the 980 has a dynamic SLC cache, it's big (more than 100GB if I remember correctly).

[idk tho]

Is there a similar ... compilation of info for USB flash drives?  Not necessarily a tier list like this, not necessarily as extensive.  At this point, anything would help.

Most specifically I'm curious about the NAND controller and NAND modules in Adata's S102 Pro, and (since it apparently has a bad controller) what controllers other Adata flash drives use.

But I'd love to find broader info than just some Adata-specific stuff.

[VEXICUS]

8 hours ago, idk tho said:

Is there a similar ... compilation of info for USB flash drives?  Not necessarily a tier list like this, not necessarily as extensive.  At this point, anything would help.

Coming Soon

[penguino]

On 2/20/2022 at 10:49 PM, Wooden Law - Black said:

That doens't mean that it does 430 MB/s in every situation, keep in mind that the 980 has a dynamic SLC cache, it's big (more than 100GB if I remember correctly).

So does ADATA SX8200 Pro or Silicon Power A80. Both cost the same, both have DRAM and niether of them slows down to 430MB/s (330MB/s for the 500GB variant). 980 also failed massively in the mixed IO test (read/write, small chunks) by Anandtech and it's representative to a situation that happens quite often when your system reads and writes things simultaneously. Sorry but DRAM-less drives are either way to expensive for what they are or very bad at their respective price points.

[Wooden Law - Black]

38 minutes ago, penguino said:

So does ADATA SX8200 Pro or Silicon Power A80. Both cost the same, both have DRAM and niether of them slows down to 430MB/s (330MB/s for the 500GB variant). 980 also failed massively in the mixed IO test (read/write, small chunks) by Anandtech and it's representative to a situation that happens quite often when your system reads and writes things simultaneously. Sorry but DRAM-less drives are either way to expensive for what they are or very bad at their respective price points.

Well, the P34A80 swapped the hardware, now it uses a Maxio controller with YMTC flash (I think 64L TLC) and Samsung DRAM. It downgraded very much as performance, it does max. 1650 MB/s in cache SLC according to the Cultists Network review. I don't reccomend it anymore, it's garbage now IMHO. 

[Dogzilla07]

On 2/22/2022 at 6:34 PM, Wooden Law - Black said:

Well, the P34A80 swapped the hardware, now it uses a Maxio controller with YMTC flash (I think 64L TLC) and Samsung DRAM. It downgraded very much as performance, it does max. 1650 MB/s in cache SLC according to the Cultists Network review. I don't reccomend it anymore, it's garbage now IMHO. 

It's not utter garbage, or anything like that, just mild-moderate garbage xD. Don't scare off the ultra budget buyers. They didn't downgrade to QLC, they didn't remove DRAM, there's much worse downgrades that happened. It's now smack right in the middle of Kioxia Exceria M.2 NVMe and Kingston A2000 roughly (speeds wise).

 

Again before I get misunderstood, it's not a good buy, if there's better nobody should buy it, but there's certain markets and situations, which make it the best option out of bad choices.

[SSD Sean]

On 2/22/2022 at 12:34 PM, Wooden Law - Black said:

Well, the P34A80 swapped the hardware, now it uses a Maxio controller with YMTC flash (I think 64L TLC) and Samsung DRAM. It downgraded very much as performance, it does max. 1650 MB/s in cache SLC according to the Cultists Network review. I don't reccomend it anymore, it's garbage now IMHO. 

Cultist network has bad data. The mobo /PCIe lane allocation was limiting the performance of that sample. 

[PRSXFENG]

On 2/22/2022 at 5:34 PM, Wooden Law - Black said:

Well, the P34A80 swapped the hardware, now it uses a Maxio controller with YMTC flash (I think 64L TLC) and Samsung DRAM. It downgraded very much as performance, it does max. 1650 MB/s in cache SLC according to the Cultists Network review. I don't reccomend it anymore, it's garbage now IMHO. 

There appears to be YET another revision of this, looking at Shopee (a local shopping site here). I see reviews with a Green PCB, and the text RTS5768_BGA_Demo_M.2_4_NAND_BGA_2DDR3_V1.7 on the pcb silkscreen, suggesting a Realtek controller.

[Duongqw]

I just has received my ssd Silicon Power P34A80 1TB today, mine ssd come with Phison E12S controller, Nanya DRAM

Could somebody tell me how much DRAM my ssd have (just 1 DRAM as show on image), and which brand of NAND my SSD use, i can't find any information about the NAND

Thank you all, have a good day

[Wooden Law - Black]

18 hours ago, Duongqw said:

I just has received my ssd Silicon Power P34A80 1TB today, mine ssd come with Phison E12S controller, Nanya DRAM

Could somebody tell me how much DRAM my ssd have (just 1 DRAM as show on image), and which brand of NAND my SSD use, i can't find any information about the NAND

Thank you all, have a good day

Download VLO and check with it.

[testcy]

ADATA SU750 and SU760 are without DRAM, but listed under SATA Tier B (Mid-end). Do they really belong there?

[Wooden Law - Black]

4 hours ago, testcy said:

ADATA SU750 and SU760 are without DRAM, but listed under SATA Tier B (Mid-end). Do they really belong there?

They should be the same SSD with the same hardware (Realtek controller paired with Micron 64L TLC flash), so even the performance should be the same, and according to Tom's Hardware they aren't so bad. It has better performance than other DRAM-less drives like the BX500 (keep in mind that the BX500 was tested with its first flash, so 64L, now it uses 176L), especially with 4K files.