SSD Recommendations

[Ashy2874]

Hello guys, need a recommendation on ssd brands that I'm actually thinking of buying.  The plan right now is I have a mobo H370n-WIFI from Gigabyte and there's 2 nvme slot for it which is 1 in front and another at the back. I'm planning to have 2 nvme and 1 2.5 ssd to maximise the capacity so to never upgrade have storage issues again. So it would be configured with C (system files with shows currently watching), D (for Steam games) and E (for old shows/movies that will be watching soon). The choices brand of nvme which are PNY CS3030 and ADATA XPG SX8200. In my place they are a few dollars difference so want to know if the extra dollars is worth the life duration. Not going for Samsung nvme since they costed double the price of the mentioned above. The sata ssd brands are WD Blue and SanDisk Ultra. The 2 nvme and 1 ssd are both 1 TB each. So I need your opinions/suggestions why the 2 brands for nvme and ssd are better than the other. 

[LemonSpice]

I know you mentioned the no samsung because they are twice as expensive but they are really the gold standard in this space. Also from researching your drives the 970 evo is ~15$ more and offers better warrenty support better performance and a longer lifespan. What price were you quoted on those drives I just found the 970 evo 1tb ~165$. Also I would recommend buying it very soon as samsung had a power fault at their factory that destroyed millions of dollars of nand chips so prices may spike and prior to that there were rumors flying around of a nand and dram shortage.

[Ashy2874]

4 hours ago, LemonSpice said:

I know you mentioned the no samsung because they are twice as expensive but they are really the gold standard in this space. Also from researching your drives the 970 evo is ~15$ more and offers better warrenty support better performance and a longer lifespan. What price were you quoted on those drives I just found the 970 evo 1tb ~165$. Also I would recommend buying it very soon as samsung had a power fault at their factory that destroyed millions of dollars of nand chips so prices may spike and prior to that there were rumors flying around of a nand and dram shortage.

Well from your price of Samsung evo 1TB, that is very cheap. Direct conversion from my country price to USD is 292$. Prices of pny is 134$ and ADATA and 154$. When the brand is famous, it tends to get expensive here that's why I avoid Samsung pc parts. So any suggestions or just Samsung all the way? I just want nvme storage so I don't have to upgrade ever again

[RejZoR]

Samsungs really aren't that more expensive. Even at insane 4TB, Samsung's 860 QVE being only 20-30€ more than WD's offerings. WD ain't bad even with SSD's, but I'd honestly rather have Samsung at that point. And despite QLC, it's good performer with over 1PB of writes that casual user won't ever reach.

 

Also NVMe's are overrated. They are convenient coz you don't need cables, but you won't really spot a difference between sata unless you really need high sequential speeds. SATA drives are just way cheaper.

[Ashy2874]

2 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Samsungs really aren't that more expensive. Even at insane 4TB, Samsung's 860 QVE being only 20-30€ more than WD's offerings. WD ain't bad even with SSD's, but I'd honestly rather have Samsung at that point. And despite QLC, it's good performer with over 1PB of writes that casual user won't ever reach.

 

Also NVMe's are overrated. They are convenient coz you don't need cables, but you won't really spot a difference between sata unless you really need high sequential speeds. SATA drives are just way cheaper.

Well in Euro, direct conversion from my currency to yours, samsung will cost 100€ more than pny cs3030 or adata sx8200 pro. Thats why its madness to even mention samsung ssd whether nvme or sata unless you are just going for bragging rights here in my country. Most users just go with whatever cheaper that have at least somewhat decent reviews and I dont plan to get the best of ssd since i'm doing components upgrades bit by bit and now i'm clearing storage part. If i was living is USA or EU, i would definitely get samsung since its just 20-30€ more than others which is somewhat still fair on the price.

And yes the reason for nvme is to remove my 2.5 wd green and firecuda sshd. Its really a hassle to clean to pc (node 202) since the cables of sata get in the way of the cleaning the mobo.

 

So... any suggestions for choosing nvme ( PNY vs ADATA) and ssd 2.5 (WD Blue VS SanDisk Ultra) ?

[RejZoR]

1 hour ago, Ashy2874 said:

Well in Euro, direct conversion from my currency to yours, samsung will cost 100€ more than pny cs3030 or adata sx8200 pro. Thats why its madness to even mention samsung ssd whether nvme or sata unless you are just going for bragging rights here in my country. Most users just go with whatever cheaper that have at least somewhat decent reviews and I dont plan to get the best of ssd since i'm doing components upgrades bit by bit and now i'm clearing storage part. If i was living is USA or EU, i would definitely get samsung since its just 20-30€ more than others which is somewhat still fair on the price.

And yes the reason for nvme is to remove my 2.5 wd green and firecuda sshd. Its really a hassle to clean to pc (node 202) since the cables of sata get in the way of the cleaning the mobo.

 

So... any suggestions for choosing nvme ( PNY vs ADATA) and ssd 2.5 (WD Blue VS SanDisk Ultra) ?

The thing is, most SSD makers only offer 2TB. If that's your thing, then sure. But if you're looking for 3TB or 4TB, there really isn't that much choice. Also, if you'r elooking for zero compromise, I'd always go with Samsung coz they make it all from controller, firmware to NAND chips and software for it. Where others mostly outsource things. Not necessarily bad, but you have less control than if you make it all. And Samsung does make some of the best SSD's you can get. Not to mention, SSD's don't really get old in terms of becoming obsolete. Unless you buy like 128GB one coz it's just too small from get go. But if you buy something like 2TB or 4TB, it'll serve you for 10 years easily and won't really get any worse in terms of usability with years. So, SSD's are a good long term investment, even if you pay more for them in the beginning. Sure, games are getting bigger and bigger, but not with such a speed that even 2TB SSD would be any issue unless you have tons of them installed and not really playing. Where for example graphic cards get less and less usable with every passing year whether you use them or not. Usability depreciation if you will. I've had 2TB HDD many years ago. And I'm still on 2TB today, just in SSD form, which was the biggest money could buy few years ago before 4TB drives came out.

[Ashy2874]

On 1/6/2020 at 11:10 PM, RejZoR said:

The thing is, most SSD makers only offer 2TB. If that's your thing, then sure. But if you're looking for 3TB or 4TB, there really isn't that much choice. Also, if you'r elooking for zero compromise, I'd always go with Samsung coz they make it all from controller, firmware to NAND chips and software for it. Where others mostly outsource things. Not necessarily bad, but you have less control than if you make it all. And Samsung does make some of the best SSD's you can get. Not to mention, SSD's don't really get old in terms of becoming obsolete. Unless you buy like 128GB one coz it's just too small from get go. But if you buy something like 2TB or 4TB, it'll serve you for 10 years easily and won't really get any worse in terms of usability with years. So, SSD's are a good long term investment, even if you pay more for them in the beginning. Sure, games are getting bigger and bigger, but not with such a speed that even 2TB SSD would be any issue unless you have tons of them installed and not really playing. Where for example graphic cards get less and less usable with every passing year whether you use them or not. Usability depreciation if you will. I've had 2TB HDD many years ago. And I'm still on 2TB today, just in SSD form, which was the biggest money could buy few years ago before 4TB drives came out.

 

On 1/6/2020 at 1:39 PM, LemonSpice said:

I know you mentioned the no samsung because they are twice as expensive but they are really the gold standard in this space. Also from researching your drives the 970 evo is ~15$ more and offers better warrenty support better performance and a longer lifespan. What price were you quoted on those drives I just found the 970 evo 1tb ~165$. Also I would recommend buying it very soon as samsung had a power fault at their factory that destroyed millions of dollars of nand chips so prices may spike and prior to that there were rumors flying around of a nand and dram shortage.

 

From both of you guys, you really vouch for Samsung ssd/nvme. Are they really that good or just other brands really that bad? So far for nvme (pny + adata) and ssd ( wd blue + sandisk ultra), I have not seen any bad reviews on usage for them. Samsung is the best, yes correct, but are all the other brands so bad that they aren't even worth using/mentioning? If i take 2 1tb nvme samsung 970 evo and 1 tb qvo , the total cost would be 634$. However, if i take pny 2 1tb nvme and wd blue 1tb, total cost would be 400$. The difference between the 2 choices are 200$. Im going for bang for the buck nvme/ssd. I don't even do actual work on my pc like 4K editing/transfer, just want the somewhat latest storage(not changing to amd anytime soon), cableless and fast storage. I'm doing component upgrade so want to get the storage issues cleared that i wont need to upgrade for years to come.

[RejZoR]

@Ashy2874

I mean, these days it's really hard to buy a really crap SSD. That was in early days with first JMicron controllers. And a bit later with DAM-less drives which seem to be hard to come by as well unless you look at really tiny drives for few bucks. As soon as you look at 1TB drives and beyond, they are all decent enough. Most are driven by SiliconMotion controllers and NAND from some big player like Micron. Even cheapest Chinese drives like Goldenfir and the likes do this.

 

Lets say Samsung is more of a no compromise choice where others may have certain asterisks. Any SSD is better than any HDD so if you just need something that's faster than HDD, but you don't care much beyond that, then it's ok I guess. And PNY, ADATA, WD and Sandisk aren't some no names so there's that too.

[Ashy2874]

6 hours ago, RejZoR said:

@Ashy2874

I mean, these days it's really hard to buy a really crap SSD. That was in early days with first JMicron controllers. And a bit later with DAM-less drives which seem to be hard to come by as well unless you look at really tiny drives for few bucks. As soon as you look at 1TB drives and beyond, they are all decent enough. Most are driven by SiliconMotion controllers and NAND from some big player like Micron. Even cheapest Chinese drives like Goldenfir and the likes do this.

 

Lets say Samsung is more of a no compromise choice where others may have certain asterisks. Any SSD is better than any HDD so if you just need something that's faster than HDD, but you don't care much beyond that, then it's ok I guess. And PNY, ADATA, WD and Sandisk aren't some no names so there's that too.

Ok if that's the case which of the nvme ( PNY CS3030 or Adata SX8200 PRO) and ssd ( WD BLUE or SanDisk Ultra) would you recommend?  Or just go for whichever the cheapest of the 2?

[SavageNeo]

28 minutes ago, Ashy2874 said:

Ok if that's the case which of the nvme ( PNY CS3030 or Adata SX8200 PRO) and ssd ( WD BLUE or SanDisk Ultra) would you recommend?  Or just go for whichever the cheapest of the 2?

The sx8200 pro is really good for the price. Its very close to 970 evo plus

[RejZoR]

4 hours ago, Ashy2874 said:

Ok if that's the case which of the nvme ( PNY CS3030 or Adata SX8200 PRO) and ssd ( WD BLUE or SanDisk Ultra) would you recommend?  Or just go for whichever the cheapest of the 2?

I mean, ADATA still runs trusted Silicon Motion controller and Micron NAND. Both have proven over time they are reliable and well performing. Basically, most companies use Silicon Motion and Micron NAND anyway except Samsung coz they have everything their own.

[Ashy2874]

12 hours ago, SavageNeo said:

The sx8200 pro is really good for the price. Its very close to 970 evo plus

 

8 hours ago, RejZoR said:

I mean, ADATA still runs trusted Silicon Motion controller and Micron NAND. Both have proven over time they are reliable and well performing. Basically, most companies use Silicon Motion and Micron NAND anyway except Samsung coz they have everything their own.

Ok for the 2 nvme, I'll go with adata sx8200 pro. For the 1 2.5 ssd, WD BLUE or SanDisk Ultra? 

[DocSwag]

On 1/8/2020 at 5:43 PM, Ashy2874 said:

 

Ok for the 2 nvme, I'll go with adata sx8200 pro. For the 1 2.5 ssd, WD BLUE or SanDisk Ultra? 

Which SanDisk ultra? Is that the wd blue 3d?

[Ashy2874]

2 hours ago, DocSwag said:

Which SanDisk ultra? Is that the wd blue 3d?

SanDisk Ultra 3D and WD Blue  3D

[DocSwag]

7 hours ago, Ashy2874 said:

SanDisk Ultra 3D and WD Blue  3D

Those two are actually the exact same SSD so just buy whichever one is cheaper 

[Ashy2874]

On 1/9/2020 at 1:14 AM, RejZoR said:

I mean, ADATA still runs trusted Silicon Motion controller and Micron NAND. Both have proven over time they are reliable and well performing. Basically, most companies use Silicon Motion and Micron NAND anyway except Samsung coz they have everything their own.

 

On 1/10/2020 at 10:13 PM, DocSwag said:

Those two are actually the exact same SSD so just buy whichever one is cheaper 

Alright thx for the help guys, really appreciated.