SSD selection help

[AyaanMAG]

Is Western Digital black really that necessary for  gaming? The WD black is 6k rs [$100] more expensive than the blue for the same capacity, so my question remaining. Do I need black over black? What's the most impact will it have? My use case is maybe some gaming and OS

[Tan3l6]

Most SSDs with DRAM cache are great. 

Not sure about durability though.

 

Some 2TB NVME SSDs are about $120€ even - https://geizhals.de/innovation-it-performance-2tb-00-2048111-a2590952.html

[An0maly_76]

1 hour ago, AyaanMAG said:

Is Western Digital black really that necessary for  gaming? The WD black is 6k rs [$100] more expensive than the blue for the same capacity, so my question remaining. Do I need black over black? What's the most impact will it have? My use case is maybe some gaming and OS

I run a Blue SN570 M.2 for boot / gaming and it does fine for me. I'm more of a casual gamer though, mostly BeamNG.drive and American Truck Simulator. So it depends on your use. Quite a few gameplay videos have shown little to no difference beyond 3,400 mbps.

 

For someone that records / streams, maybe has a 3090ti and plays mostly top-shelf titles like Elden Ring, etc., the Black might be worth it. There is an SN770 that's not as pricey as as the SN850. But be aware I've also seen reviews showing the PCIe4 drives run 90C-100C, which I didn't like, hence my reason for going with the PCIe3 SN570. So I would recommend a heat sink with the Black. If your board includes one, so much the better. My Asus Tuf B550-PLUS does.

 

However, I can tell you that my WD Black HDD (aux storage) kicks the stuffing out of the WD Blue HDD in my 1700.@Mark Kainecan attest to this as well. He's posted screenshots of 240 mbps with an external D10, I have an 8TB 256MB cache internal that's doing 220 mbps at nearly 60% capacity. They're available in 64MB, 128MB, 256MB cache sizes.

[Ripred]

1 hour ago, AyaanMAG said:

Is Western Digital black really that necessary for  gaming? The WD black is 6k rs [$100] more expensive than the blue for the same capacity, so my question remaining. Do I need black over black? What's the most impact will it have? My use case is maybe some gaming and OS

Mostly depends on your use case, if your a casual gamer and not really pressed for time where and extra 30 seconds (large games) might count then WD blue is more than fast enough, I have a WD Blue nvme SN500 and its been great, by no means are the blues top performers in there class but their still more than twice the speed of normal SSD and generally reliable for long term operation

[ewitte]

Here is what I go for

- dram buffer

- NOT QLC.  I despise current QLC offerings.  That doesn't mean something decent will not be eventually released.

- Make sure it is a name brand controller (Phison is ok).

[Ripred]

9 minutes ago, ewitte said:

Here is what I go for

- dram buffer

- NOT QLC.  I despise current QLC offerings.  That doesn't mean something decent will not be eventually released.

- Make sure it is a name brand controller (Phison is ok).

Where do we fine the QLC/TLC spec anyway? never seen it directly in descriptions 

[ewitte]

4 hours ago, lotus10101 said:

Where do we fine the QLC/TLC spec anyway? never seen it directly in descriptions 

It's normally easy to find if you search for the model number.  If it isn't explicitly specified or reviewed a tell-tale sign is write performance after the buffer drops down to really low numbers like 300MB/s or worse.  Most TLC drives will never drop under 1GB/s (higher for higher capacity drives).

 

They will also specify much lower TBW numbers a TLC drive may be 1000TBW while QLC may be even 100-200TBW.

[AyaanMAG]

On 1/14/2023 at 3:58 AM, ewitte said:

It's normally easy to find if you search for the model number.  If it isn't explicitly specified or reviewed a tell-tale sign is write performance after the buffer drops down to really low numbers like 300MB/s or worse.  Most TLC drives will never drop under 1GB/s (higher for higher capacity drives).

 

They will also specify much lower TBW numbers a TLC drive may be 1000TBW while QLC may be even 100-200TBW.

I checked it's tlc and people on reddit said it's quite alright. I'm going with it thank you for your help