SSD choice

[Mewster45]

Hey,

 

I am building a new PC and the SSD is the last thing I need, but I am having trouble deciding. ATM I plan on keeping my old Samsung 970 EVO Plus 250GB as a boot drive (health is at 90% after ~6 years of use according to CrystalDisk), but I want to get a reliable secondary SSD for gaming use (game storage, launch etc.). I live in Hungary so prices are not the best.

 

My main options are: WD Blue SN580 1TB (~$72), WD Blue SN5000 1TB (~$75), WD Black SN770 1TB (~$84), WD Black SN7100 1TB (~$90), Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1TB (~$92). And for DRAM cache drives I have 2 options: Crucial T500 1TB (~$102), Kingston KC3000 1TB (~$103). All of them are in my budget but I dont know if spending over $100 is justifiable. I also have a few ADATA, Lexar, and Silicon Power options, although I dont know much about these brands: ADATA Legend 850 ($84), ADATA LEGEND 860 ($66), ADATA Legend 900 Pro ($73), ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 Blade ($91), Lexar NM790 ($90), Silicon Power UD85 ($78), Silicon Power UD90 ($75), and Silicon Power P44US70 ($101). Besides these my only options would be QLC drives, but I've heard those should be avoided if you want something reliable for the long run.

 

Thanks for the help!

[emosun]

just get another samsung it seems to have already worked out for you and the 990 is good

[Dedayog]

10 minutes ago, Mewster45 said:

Hey,

 

I am building a new PC and the SSD is the last thing I need, but I am having trouble deciding. ATM I plan on keeping my old Samsung 970 EVO Plus 250GB as a boot drive (health is at 90% after ~6 years of use according to CrystalDisk), but I want to get a reliable secondary SSD for gaming use (game storage, launch etc.). I live in Hungary so prices are not the best.

 

My main options are: WD Blue SN580 1TB (~$72), WD Blue SN5000 1TB (~$75), WD Black SN770 1TB (~$84), WD Black SN7100 1TB (~$90), Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1TB (~$92). And for DRAM cache drives I have 2 options: Crucial T500 1TB (~$102), Kingston KC3000 1TB (~$103). All of them are in my budget but I dont know if spending over $100 is justifiable. I also have a few ADATA, Lexar, and Silicon Power options, although I dont know much about these brands: ADATA Legend 850 ($84), ADATA LEGEND 860 ($66), ADATA Legend 900 Pro ($73), ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 Blade ($91), Lexar NM790 ($90), Silicon Power UD85 ($78), Silicon Power UD90 ($75), and Silicon Power P44US70 ($101). Besides these my only options would be QLC drives, but I've heard those should be avoided if you want something reliable for the long run.

 

Thanks for the help!

Cheap.  Est.

 

Done.

 

DRAM doesn't do real world shit for 99% of uses.  

[Timme]

13 minutes ago, Mewster45 said:

DRAM cache drives

Make it your OS drive, and disable Windows page file. For general storage, you don't need more than a DRAMless gen4 drive, like SN770. 

[mariushm]

WD SN770 or WD Blue SN5000 should be fine.   

 

You don't need DRAM cache, the drives borrow ram from the system, 32-64 MB of your ram is reserved by the SSD for caching the file tables.

DRAM is not used to cache writes, they use a portion of the flash memory in pseudo-SLC mode for that. 

 

[kokosnh]

3 hours ago, Mewster45 said:

ATM I plan on keeping my old Samsung 970 EVO Plus 250GB as a boot drive

Good choice, separate DRAM TLC SSD for OS is always good to have ( just like that 970 evo plus )

DRAM is important for consistent performance and low latency, and that is what your feel for fast snapy OS comes from.

 

as for the second SSD SN5000 is probably best price to performance.

 

if you go any higher, i would just go for the T500 or KC3000, as the price difference becomes too small between them, and the DRAMless Ssd.

but don’t know if i would go for the KC3000, as they swapped NAND for slower one from Kioxia, and users have started reporting more problems with the swapped nand version on 51.2 firmware. it's not anything alarming big, but it's worth consideration.

ps. Can you post a crystaldiskinfo screen from that 970 evo plus? Some of them had problems with failing NAND. 

[GuiltySpark_]

Nothing you listed is bad. Pick the cheapest. 

 

I've had two SN770's in my system, one of which is the boot drive for a number of years. Had one hiccup a year or two ago that was known and solved via a quick and painless firmware update and was back to smooth sailing. 

 

As others have said, DRAM cache having a great importance is gone these days with modern operating systems, at least in the consumer space.