Laptop SSD Upgrade

[Cyber Raven]

I'm looking to upgrade the SSD in my laptop (Asus Zenbook Pro 15 ux535). It has a single NVMe gen 3 slot, which currently contains a 1TB intel h10 with 32GB intel optane.

 

I'm looking to upgrade capacity, and to a drive that doesn't need specific configuration and slot bifurcation to accommodate an inbuilt extra optane cache. This laptop will be my primary machine throughout university (studying computer science), so I'd like to upgrade to at least 2TB, potentially 4TB if it can be found affordably.

 

I'm currently considering the following:

Samsung 970 evo plus 2TB (~£190)

Crucial P5 plus 2TB (~£100)

Crucial P3 plus 4TB (~£180)

Open to other options, needs to be able to be purchased at a major UK retailer.

 

The P5 plus us a gen 4 ssd, however, my laptop is 10th gen intel, so only supports PCIe gen 3. Additionally, how important is a DRAM cache for the reliability of an SSD (not present on the p3 plus)? This laptop will likely contain most of my work, so, along with capacity, I need to be able to trust that the drive won't fail. I'd appreciate advice on which drive I should choose; Ideally, I'd like to spend less than £120, but I can stretch for more for a 4TB drive is that would be worthwhile.

 

Apologies if this is the wrong section of the forum.

[leclod]

What's the question ?

All those drives fit, choose the one you prefer.

(I'd try to go cheaper, here 2TB drives start at 63£ and 4TB at 160£)

[MiszS]

Since its a laptop, you really shouldnt worry about the DRAM, since unlike a pc, it would be really hard for it to suddenly lose power and lose all the data. The Crucial P3 plus seems like the best value option, but it has QLC flash cells, because of which it only has 800 TBW, but if you dont plan to write a lot to it, it wont matter. If you want a higier TBW option id recommend lexar nm790

[porina]

26 minutes ago, Cyber Raven said:

Samsung 970 evo plus 2TB (~£190)

If you have Amazon prime, or get the free trial (cancel before a month is up), there are some well placed SSDs at moment. I haven't compared elsewhere.

 

Above 970 Evo Plus 2TB is £82

980 Pro 2TB is £128

990 Pro 2TB is £122

 

I'm running a 980 Pro in my desktop which also only support PCIe 3.0.