2TB SSD recommendation

[Stahlmann]

I recently fried my mass storage SSD, so I need a new one to complement my 500GB Corsiar MP600 boot drive. I don't really know what to look for since I've been out of the PC component market for well over 2 years now. The main use for this SSD will be game storage. My go-to technique for these kinds of drives is basically buying the cheapest one at whatever capacity I need, but maybe the experts out there know if it's worth spending an few extra bucks to get some significant upgrade. So I don't really have a set-in-stone budget either.

 

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[ki8aras]

17 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

I recently fried my mass storage SSD, so I need a new one to complement my 500GB Corsiar MP600 boot drive. I don't really know what to look for since I've been out of the PC component market for well over 2 years now. The main use for this SSD will be game storage. My go-to technique for these kinds of drives is basically buying the cheapest one at whatever capacity I need, but maybe the experts out there know if it's worth spending an few extra bucks to get some significant upgrade. So I don't really have a set-in-stone budget either.

 

Choose Storage - PCPartPicker

you're using this as a game drive( so mainly reads) so i'd say there isnt a need to get something with a dram cache

[Mark Kaine]

I always get evo 870 or if im cheap mx500. i don't really trust other models/brands...  (bad experience with Kingston especially) 

 

case in point

 

 

yeah, the 980 is my OS drive and it doesn't have a dram cache (but something similar, allegedly...) but it wont last as long as the others... its already down to 93% or so after 1 year lol...)

 

i have decade old evos that are only at 95%...

 

24 minutes ago, ki8aras said:

so i'd say there isnt a need to get something with a dram cache

nah, dramless ssd have terrible longtime performance, its always better to spend the ~5 bucks more to get a dram cache imho.

 

[podkall]

50 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

I recently fried my mass storage SSD, so I need a new one to complement my 500GB Corsiar MP600 boot drive. I don't really know what to look for since I've been out of the PC component market for well over 2 years now. The main use for this SSD will be game storage. My go-to technique for these kinds of drives is basically buying the cheapest one at whatever capacity I need, but maybe the experts out there know if it's worth spending an few extra bucks to get some significant upgrade. So I don't really have a set-in-stone budget either.

 

Choose Storage - PCPartPicker

that depends what's your budget and aim friend, I know it all mostly, I can pick you a good ssd for whatever use case and budget for 90% of use cases

[Wh0_Am_1]

I would personally get the Teamgroup MP33 or MP33 PRO as I know for a fact that it's a Triple Layer Cell drive rather than a Quadruple Layer Cell that you see on most drives in that price range, giving it as much as twice the durabilty of most QLC drives found at the same price point (The drive is rated for 1000TBW). It also supports HMB.

There may be other better options that's just the one that I have found to work for me. Also as this is game storage, save for the newer features  that almost no games support yet where GPUs can make direct calls to the SSD, most of them will see little difference in loading times with or without DRAM cache. As this is exclusively a game drive and assuming that the OP has decent amount of RAM (as M.2 NVME drives have the feature where they can use the systems RAM for caching). I wager a cheap TLC drive will fit the bill, as it appears that durability is king.

[Stahlmann]

6 minutes ago, podkall said:

that depends what's your budget and aim friend, I know it all mostly, I can pick you a good ssd for whatever use case and budget for 90% of use cases

Like I mentioned in my OP, it's pretty much only used as game storage. Budget isn't set in stone. I just want something that gets the job done reliably, so I guess it's gonna come down to one of the cheaper options, but I don't want to cheap out and regret it in the near future.

 

18 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

I always get evo 870 or if im cheap mx500. i don't really trust other models/brands...  (bad experience with Kingston especially)

I'm looking for M.2 form factor only, no 2,5" SATA SSDs. Mostly because of the quick installation. I don't have any SATA power or data cables pre-installed in my current PC, so that'd be a hassle.

[Mark Kaine]

2 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

Like I mentioned in my OP, it's pretty much only used as game storage. Budget isn't set in stone. I just want something that gets the job done reliably, so I guess it's gonna come down to one of the cheaper options, but I don't want to cheap out and regret it in the near future.

 

I'm looking for M.2 form factor only, no 2,5" SATA SSDs. Mostly because of the quick installation. I don't have any SATA power or data cables pre-installed in my current PC, so that'd be a hassle.

i see... well then a 980 maybe? mine was cheap (under 100 euros) and tbf, life expectancy doesn't look great as mentioned,  but it also has by far the most writes of any of my hard drives and speeds are as expected  (and i mean it has like 10x the writes than my other ssds)

 

 

as for ssds in general,  it does matter even for game drives... if you have no dram and a cheap memory controller (which is most likely the case with most cheap ssds) you're totally screwed after a year or so.

 

My Kingston "ssd" is currently slower than a floppy disk (not kidding)  xD

[podkall]

55 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

 

Choose Storage - PCPartPicker

2 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

Like I mentioned in my OP, it's pretty much only used as game storage. Budget isn't set in stone. I just want something that gets the job done reliably, so I guess it's gonna come down to one of the cheaper options, but I don't want to cheap out and regret it in the near future.

alright, Germany huh?

 

let us see,

 

first biggest bargain you can stop at with gaming:
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN580 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€114.90 @ Cyberport)

 

SN580 is quite good SSD for what it's offered currently,

 

step up is P5 Plus /w Heatsink:

Storage: Crucial P5 Plus W/Heatsink 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€119.90 @ Alza)

 

if u look at this comparison P5 Plus is leagues better than SN580 but SN580 is already good:

 

 

Then you have a bit faster dram-less WD Black SN770:

Storage: Western Digital Black SN770 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€124.98 @ notebooksbilliger.de)

 

 

And bigger step up is Black SN850x, numbers go brrrrt, but once again for gaming you can scale back all the way to WD blue SN580,

 

Storage: Western Digital Black SN850X 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€149.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)

 

 

 

I'd recommend MP44L, but it's currently more expensive than the better Blue SN580, which are somewhat on par with performance: (Blue 580 better in random reads while MP44L is better with sequentials and slightly more endurance but that's already big on Blue)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Wh0_Am_1]

7 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

as for ssds in general,  it does matter even for game drives... if you have no dram and a cheap memory controller (which is most likely the case with most cheap ssds) you're totally screwed after a year or so.

 

 

On NVME SSDs DRAM cache is not as essential as the system's RAM can be used for caching in it's place. EDIT: Assuming the drive in question has HMB enabled

[podkall]

Just now, podkall said:

-

so in conclusion the best value currently would probably be P5 Plus, it's only 5€ more than 580 Blue and it's got DRAM cache, big speeds and integrated heatsink.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Storage: Western Digital Black SN770 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€124.98 @ notebooksbilliger.de)
Storage: Western Digital Black SN850X 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€149.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: TEAMGROUP MP44L 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€121.75 @ Galaxus)
Storage: Crucial P5 Plus W/Heatsink 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€119.90 @ Alza)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN580 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€114.90 @ Cyberport)
Total: €631.43
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-06-07 11:54 CEST+0200

[podkall]

Just now, Wh0_Am_1 said:

On NVME SSDs DRAM cache is not as essential as the system's RAM can be used for caching in it's place.

not all M.2s can do that

[Wh0_Am_1]

2 minutes ago, podkall said:

not all M.2s can do that

Apologies forgot you need to check for HMB

[Mark Kaine]

23 minutes ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

On NVME SSDs DRAM cache is not as essential as the system's RAM can be used for caching in it's place. EDIT: Assuming the drive in question has HMB enabled

yeah... i think that's what the samsung 980 is doing too? idk much about nvmes tbh, but i would agree installing them seems to be a lot easier than sata - which is always a huge pain, those cables! 

 

edit:  The Samsung SSD 980 requests 64 MB of host ram for its HMB, but is willing to make use of as little as 16MB

 

hmm, so not all dramless nvmes do that huh... certainly something to look out for i guess!

 

 

edit2: i specifically bought a 980, not the pro, because i was expecting it to run a lot cooler, its sitting at like 40c... doesn't seem to get much hotter even under load , so i think that was a wise decision!  (also threw the MSI "heatshield" in the trash, where it belongs! xD)

 

 

 

 

[podkall]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

yeah... i think that's what the samsung 980 is doing too? idk much about nvmes tbh, but i would agree installing them seems to be a lot easier than sata - which is always a huge pain, those cables! 

 

edit:  The Samsung SSD 980 requests 64 MB of host ram for its HMB, but is willing to make use of as little as 16MB

 

hmm, so not all dramless nvmes do that huh... certainly something to look out for i guess!

Samsung 980 is good, the only problem with Samsung 980 is that you're paying premium price for something other SSDs seem to be doing for a lot cheaper and potentially even faster:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/fFXfpB

Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€161.89 @ Cyberport)
Storage: Crucial P5 Plus W/Heatsink 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€119.90 @ Alza)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN580 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€114.90 @ Cyberport)
Total: €396.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-06-07 13:25 CEST+0200

 

seems like 980 is pricier because of MLC storage type, but basically on par with performance compared to 40€ cheaper SSD: (if we count discounts ofc, but base price of P5 Plus is 140€ still below Samsung)

[Stahlmann]

1 hour ago, podkall said:

alright, Germany huh?

 

let us see,

 

first biggest bargain you can stop at with gaming:
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN580 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€114.90 @ Cyberport)

 

SN580 is quite good SSD for what it's offered currently,

 

step up is P5 Plus /w Heatsink:

Storage: Crucial P5 Plus W/Heatsink 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€119.90 @ Alza)

 

if u look at this comparison P5 Plus is leagues better than SN580 but SN580 is already good:

 

 

Then you have a bit faster dram-less WD Black SN770:

Storage: Western Digital Black SN770 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€124.98 @ notebooksbilliger.de)

 

 

And bigger step up is Black SN850x, numbers go brrrrt, but once again for gaming you can scale back all the way to WD blue SN580,

 

Storage: Western Digital Black SN850X 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€149.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)

 

 

 

I'd recommend MP44L, but it's currently more expensive than the better Blue SN580, which are somewhat on par with performance: (Blue 580 better in random reads while MP44L is better with sequentials and slightly more endurance but that's already big on Blue)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crucial P5 it is then. Thanks for all the info.

[podkall]

2 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

Crucial P5 it is then. Thanks for all the info.

np

 

that's why these forums are such a nice place to be in

[Stahlmann]

On 6/7/2024 at 4:43 PM, podkall said:

np

 

that's why these forums are such a nice place to be in

I received the P5 Plus and installed it last week. Everything went smoothly. The performance is great, although I have to admit that so far I don't feel it's any different from the Rocket Q I had before when it comes to my particular use case.

 

Since I only have 1 PCIe 4.0 capable slot, I decided to put my Corsair MP600 OS drive in the Gen 3 slot since the OS probably doesn't need higher bandwidth. And in case direct storage ever takes off, I'm good to go with the faster game drive at 4.0 bandwidth.

I'm still surprised at how cheap fast NVMe storage has become. As I recall, I paid a similar price for the 500GB MP600 a few years ago.

[Tan3l6]

10 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

I'm still surprised at how cheap fast NVMe storage has become. As I recall, I paid a similar price for the 500GB MP600 a few years ago.

Prices have actually went up ~30% in 2024.

I remember I got 2TB Kingston KC3000 2TB for ~110€, now it's ~158€ at lowest. Same thing with other SSDs.

Though seems that the prices are slowly declining again.

[podkall]

35 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

I received the P5 Plus and installed it last week. Everything went smoothly. The performance is great, although I have to admit that so far I don't feel it's any different from the Rocket Q I had before when it comes to my particular use case.

 

Since I only have 1 PCIe 4.0 capable slot, I decided to put my Corsair MP600 OS drive in the Gen 3 slot since the OS probably doesn't need higher bandwidth. And in case direct storage ever takes off, I'm good to go with the faster game drive at 4.0 bandwidth.

I'm still surprised at how cheap fast NVMe storage has become. As I recall, I paid a similar price for the 500GB MP600 a few years ago.

ye things get so cheap you sometimes wonder if you've been ripped off, but all depends, DDR4 RAM for example at same size and speed used to cost double few years ago than what it does now

[Paul17]

On 6/7/2024 at 5:54 AM, Wh0_Am_1 said:

On NVME SSDs DRAM cache is not as essential as the system's RAM can be used for caching in it's place. EDIT: Assuming the drive in question has HMB enabled

Prices are still high in my country - if you want an NVME M.2 2280 SSD for OS - should you try to get one with DRAM?   IF so, are those 'no-name' ssds sufficient?  I am talking about Kingspec, Timec etc. - e.g.s:

* Netac NV7000 (not NV7000-t - which is dram-less and not much cheaper here) - 1TB

* Fanxiang S770 (I think it's the same hardware components as the Netac - also, w/ dram afaik - S770 though - NOT the S880) - 1TB

* Ediloca EN870 - 2TB - dram-less (afaik)

Most 2tb nvme ssds for me - are dram-less if $200 or under - and several even over $200.

The cheapest nvme 2tb w/ dram is $200 (Teamgroup Cardea A440, Crucial T500).

[kokosnh]

On 6/7/2024 at 1:28 PM, podkall said:

seems like 980 is pricier because of MLC storage type,

Just to clarify, the 980 uses TLC ( 3-bit MLC, hate on Samsung marketing team for that ).

And the older ones are on problematic 128l TLC NAND ( in the new one thay use the fixed 133l TLC NAND )