Current best budget 1TB NVMe SSD? [CANADA]

[Dev0id]

I want to game on Linux. I'm going to install Arch on a second NVMe drive in my Windows PC so I can dual boot.

 

I was going to pull the trigger on a WD SN550, but saw the recent video about their dirty little VNAND swap.

 

What is my best bet in this situation, in October of 2021, buying in Canada? I have a newer mobo with Gen 4 PCIe, but I think a Gen 3 drive should be ok.

 

Any suggestions?

 

 

[tkitch]

Any reasonable drive will work just fine.

 

The difference between, say, an MX500 and a top of the line Samsung 980 Pro?  You'll only see in synthetic benchmarks.  Basically nothing real-world will show the difference.

 

As long as you avoid a crap-tier drive, you'll be more than happy.

[Dev0id]

38 minutes ago, tkitch said:

Any reasonable drive will work just fine.

 

The difference between, say, an MX500 and a top of the line Samsung 980 Pro?  You'll only see in synthetic benchmarks.  Basically nothing real-world will show the difference.

 

As long as you avoid a crap-tier drive, you'll be more than happy.

What's your opinion on going with a cheaper DRAM-less drive over one with a DRAM chip?

[tkitch]

Generally there isn't a huge price swing?  So given that I tend to get one with DRAM.  

 

But if you're saving a decent chunk, or money is that tight?  DRAM-Less will still work fine, you'd only notice slowdowns on large transfers.  (Which, honestly, is not that common for most people.)

 

[Bartholomew]

37 minutes ago, tkitch said:

Basically nothing real-world will show the difference.

A respectfuly disagree. For sata drives thats correct, but for nvme it isnt.

 

Im woking with large datasets (250k seperate files) for a ai project regularly, and when moving those, or running scripts on them etc. kingston a2000 is noticably slower than my samsung pro (granted thats pcie3 vs pcie4 i believe).

 

Also, when working with for example davincy resolve on larger 4k video projects the difference is highly noticable in responsiveness when jumping the cursor around (when workin in full res for good preview, withoout lowres cach setup)..

 

That said, even though "very noticable" its like "fast/good"  vs "supersmooth/excellent" so it isnt a huge deal, but to say its only noticable by watching synthetic benchmark numers doesnt seem right.

 

As for "as os drive and/or gaming"; yeah zero, zip, nada noticable differnce there indeed for average joe; not worth the premium price.

 

2 minutes ago, Dev0id said:

What's your opinion on going with a cheaper DRAM-less drive over one with a DRAM chip?

Without: That would be the crap tier he mentioned

With: much better

 

The price differences are usually small, so get one with ram if you can.

 

 

[tkitch]

Just now, Bartholomew said:

A respectfuly disagree. For sata drives thats correct, but for nvme it isnt.

 

Im woking with large datasets (250k seperate files) for a ai project regularly, and when moving those, or running scripts on them etc. kingston a2000 is noticably slower than my samsung pro (granted thats pcie3 vs pcie4 i believe).

And you immediately mention a super niche application that nobody in the normal world uses.

 

For regular use at home, nobody is accessing 250k files at a single time. 

[Bartholomew]

1 minute ago, tkitch said:

And you immediately mention a super niche application that nobody in the normal world uses.

So you charry pick that one?

 

Why not resolve?, which, kind of used by a lot of forum members on here.

And both cases arent synthetic; thats all.

[Dev0id]

7 minutes ago, Bartholomew said:

A respectfuly disagree. For sata drives thats correct, but for nvme it isnt.

 

Im woking with large datasets (250k seperate files) for a ai project regularly, and when moving those, or running scripts on them etc. kingston a2000 is noticably slower than my samsung pro (granted thats pcie3 vs pcie4 i believe).

 

Also, when working with for example davincy resolve on larger 4k video projects the difference is highly noticable in responsiveness when jumping the cursor around (when workin in full res for good preview, withoout lowres cach setup)..

 

That said, even though "very noticable" its like "fast/good"  vs "supersmooth/excellent" so it isnt a huge deal, but to say its only noticable by watching synthetic benchmark numers doesnt seem right.

 

As for "as os drive and/or gaming"; yeah zero, zip, nada noticable differnce there indeed for average joe; not worth the premium price.

 

Without: That would be the crap tier he mentioned

With: much better

 

The price differences are usually small, so get one with ram if you can.

 

 

This isn't a work computer, and I don't work with large datasets or 4K video.

 

If it was a workstation, price wouldn't be an issue, and I'd just buy the best drive and wouldn't be here. I'm looking for something at a good price that won't hamper my day to day experience. I want to install Linux, do some gaming and experiment with the OS and whether or not I can live with it as a daily driver.

 

And for what it's worth, I've made my choice and went with a Kingston A2000, as they are going for $109 CDN right now, which is the same price as the SN550 but with a DRAM chip.

 

It should suffice for my purposes.

[tkitch]

1 hour ago, Bartholomew said:

So you charry pick that one?

 

Why not resolve?, which, kind of used by a lot of forum members on here.

And both cases arent synthetic; thats all.

Did you watch the LTT Video where they tested which felt the fastest to a user?  SATA SSD vs PCI-E Gen 3 vs PCI-E Gen 4?

And more than half of those who tested said that the SATA box felt the fastest?