DRAMless SSD as a game library

[Yatys 93]

Hey all

 

just researching a possible upgrade for my laptop for when/if I get to get back to travelling when this is all over.

 

I have a 2tb hd in my laptop for a game library and media storage, the OS is on a smaller NVME ssd, thinking about swapping it out partly as it has a really seems to have an issue when I transfer large files to it, and also its for travelling/backpacking so not a huge fan of the idea of a fragile drive in there, I just couldn't afford a 2tb ssd at the time I bought the laptop. For this use case I can't find anything online to say I will have any major performance issues over getting a more expensive ssd, however at the moment they aren't that much more expensive, I'm not looking for the fastest possible performance, just something that will put up with bumpy roads and let me download from steam without needing to stop every few seconds.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Yatys 93
I screwed up

[icase81]

There's no reason it shouldn't work fine. If its for travel, chances are even a SATA2 SSD would be faster at writes than your internet connection anyway. I would just be cautious as the DRAM-less units are usually lower quality units that I may not trust as much. I'd just check on model reliability and make sure to check reviews, obviously. You don't want a generic drive that craps out after 4 months because it was made to a price rather than priced to its costs.

[Yatys 93]

Just now, icase81 said:

There's no reason it shouldn't work fine. If its for travel, chances are even a SATA2 SSD would be faster at writes than your internet connection anyway. I would just be cautious as the DRAM-less units are usually lower quality units that I may not trust as much. I'd just check on model reliability and make sure to check reviews, obviously. You don't want a generic drive that craps out after 4 months because it was made to a price rather than priced to its costs.

Ya I was looking at the crucial bx500 vs the mx500 so its a decent drive. Currently there is only £25 between the 2tb versions but I imagine like a lot of things atm prices are weird due to covid.

[porina]

2 minutes ago, Yatys 93 said:

I have a 2tb ssd in my laptop for a game library and media storage, the OS is on a smaller NVME ssd, 

Presuming you have 2TB HD and small OS SSD. You wrote SSD for both.

 

Personally I have no problem with getting DRAM-less SSDs for bulk storage. Outside of a side by side comparison or benchmarks, you're not likely to notice the difference between it and a similar SSD with DRAM. Either are still way faster than a hard disk.

 

I think the question is, where the price difference isn't so big, is it worth going for the higher performance anyway? I recently got a 1TB Crucial BX SSD as game storage device as I got fed up of waiting for the HD to catch up. The equivalent MX was a bit more as you'd expect. I forget the price difference, in absolute terms it wasn't that much, but in proportion it was somewhere over 10%. To me, because of the number of systems I run, I decided to go take the cheaper drive over the potentially higher performance. 

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, Yatys 93 said:

Ya I was looking at the crucial bx500 vs the mx500 so its a decent drive. Currently there is only £25 between the 2tb versions but I imagine like a lot of things atm prices are weird due to covid.

For 25 pound get the mx500 as it's just a better drive. The only time I'd say go for a dramless ssd is if there is an actual big difference in price.

[Yatys 93]

2 minutes ago, porina said:

Presuming you have 2TB HD and small OS SSD. You wrote SSD for both.

 

Personally I have no problem with getting DRAM-less SSDs for bulk storage. Outside of a side by side comparison or benchmarks, you're not likely to notice the difference between it and a similar SSD with DRAM. Either are still way faster than a hard disk.

 

I think the question is, where the price difference isn't so big, is it worth going for the higher performance anyway? I recently got a 1TB Crucial BX SSD as game storage device as I got fed up of waiting for the HD to catch up. The equivalent MX was a bit more as you'd expect. I forget the price difference, in absolute terms it wasn't that much, but in proportion it was somewhere over 10%. To me, because of the number of systems I run, I decided to go take the cheaper drive over the potentially higher performance. 

you are correct, 2tb hd in there now.

 

I can't afford to do either right now, was more looking at options for when I can, if the prices are still as close as they are now then I might just spend the extra to get a better drive, but if the gap opens up or one goes on sale then I may settle with the cheaper one.

[Yatys 93]

5 minutes ago, jaslion said:

For 25 pound get the mx500 as it's just a better drive. The only time I'd say go for a dramless ssd is if there is an actual big difference in price.

 

4 minutes ago, Yatys 93 said:

you are correct, 2tb hd in there now.

 

I can't afford to do either right now, was more looking at options for when I can, if the prices are still as close as they are now then I might just spend the extra to get a better drive, but if the gap opens up or one goes on sale then I may settle with the cheaper one.

More so what I was trying to find out was that my understanding was right that there isn't going to be a significant difference in performance in how I intend to use the drive