SSD reccomendations

[Var Nasadra]

I'm looking for some recommendations for a good bang for your buck budget friendly m.2 ssd for my surface laptop 3. it has to be the 2230 size and I'm not opposed to ordering online, I've got a budget of about $90 Canadian to spend but if i can be below that it would be preferred. i am needing at least 256gb or up to 1tb of storage as i play some light games and have to save a lot of pdfs and things to my computer. I'm also not interested in external drives as my ADHD and more than likely autistic brain will forget and its just not worth it. 

 

thank you for taking the time to read and thank you for any recommendations 

[Dedayog]

48 minutes ago, Var Nasadra said:

I'm looking for some recommendations for a good bang for your buck budget friendly m.2 ssd for my surface laptop 3. it has to be the 2230 size and I'm not opposed to ordering online, I've got a budget of about $90 Canadian to spend but if i can be below that it would be preferred. i am needing at least 256gb or up to 1tb of storage as i play some light games and have to save a lot of pdfs and things to my computer. I'm also not interested in external drives as my ADHD and more than likely autistic brain will forget and its just not worth it. 

 

thank you for taking the time to read and thank you for any recommendations 

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#f=122030&X=0,19553&sort=price&page=1

 

I would probably pony up the $97 for the 1TB Silicon Power.  I've used their drives as well as Inland drives for laptops in the past and they perform well.

 

If you need cheaper, grab the Kingspec 512GB for $57.

 

At this stage, you don't need anything special. Literally any drive will perform the same for you.

[Var Nasadra]

4 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#f=122030&X=0,19553&sort=price&page=1

 

I would probably pony up the $97 for the 1TB Silicon Power.  I've used their drives as well as Inland drives for laptops in the past and they perform well.

 

If you need cheaper, grab the Kingspec 512GB for $57.

 

At this stage, you don't need anything special. Literally any drive will perform the same for you.

i was actually looking at a couple of those as well as one from best buy, if you think best buy would be alright i will have to figure out which one to get come payday at the end of the month haha

 

this is the best buy one if it doesn't sell out before i get paid 

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/refurbished-good-kioxia-512-gb-30mm-pcie-gen-3-x4-nvme-ssd-m-2-2230-internal-solid-state-drive-compatible-with-most-steam-deck-devices/17390436?cmp=seo-17390436&gQT=1

 

and I'm not opposed to going up to $97, just means i wait an extra month and save up but that's fine for me if its going to be reliable, but you are right, i don't need anything fancy or special, i just need something that's not going to die super fast that will last me a couple years ideally 

[Dedayog]

28 minutes ago, Var Nasadra said:

i was actually looking at a couple of those as well as one from best buy, if you think best buy would be alright i will have to figure out which one to get come payday at the end of the month haha

 

this is the best buy one if it doesn't sell out before i get paid 

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/refurbished-good-kioxia-512-gb-30mm-pcie-gen-3-x4-nvme-ssd-m-2-2230-internal-solid-state-drive-compatible-with-most-steam-deck-devices/17390436?cmp=seo-17390436&gQT=1

 

and I'm not opposed to going up to $97, just means i wait an extra month and save up but that's fine for me if its going to be reliable, but you are right, i don't need anything fancy or special, i just need something that's not going to die super fast that will last me a couple years ideally 

For a couple years worth, get a 1tb.  With a 512, you'll be uninstalling games more often.

 

But that kioxia is a Toshiba, and I'll but anything they make.  Love them.

[Var Nasadra]

18 hours ago, Dedayog said:

For a couple years worth, get a 1tb.  With a 512, you'll be uninstalling games more often.

 

But that kioxia is a Toshiba, and I'll but anything they make.  Love them.

i will for sure have to weigh my options, i know i don't game on my computer as often as i used to so I'm not sure if i will run into that issue but i will have to store a lot of files coming up here in the next month or so here so a 1tb is tempting for the right price 

 

i to love a good Toshiba especially years ago when im pretty sure they had SD cards but I'm know their TV's are good for my use case so its extremely tempting to grab that 512 for sure haha

 

though I'm not sure if you will know, I'm looking into some better removable replacement feet for my laptop as the stock ones were all but gone by the time i got my surface laptop used and the one foot broke after light use as i believe someone's been into it before i got it. if you have any recommendations it would be greatly appreciated 

[Var Nasadra]

18 hours ago, Dedayog said:

For a couple years worth, get a 1tb.  With a 512, you'll be uninstalling games more often.

 

But that kioxia is a Toshiba, and I'll but anything they make.  Love them.

also, while I'm thinking about it as I've never had to upgrade the storage on a pc before, with my laptop being a surface laptop 3, does it matter if the ssd is pcie 3.0 or 4.0 or is there really much of a difference in my use case?

[Dedayog]

26 minutes ago, Var Nasadra said:

also, while I'm thinking about it as I've never had to upgrade the storage on a pc before, with my laptop being a surface laptop 3, does it matter if the ssd is pcie 3.0 or 4.0 or is there really much of a difference in my use case?

Won't matter, even if was a SATA M.2.  The speeds will be great for your use cases.  The files are relatively small so the drive will all perform the same.

 

37 minutes ago, Var Nasadra said:

i will for sure have to weigh my options, i know i don't game on my computer as often as i used to so I'm not sure if i will run into that issue but i will have to store a lot of files coming up here in the next month or so here so a 1tb is tempting for the right price 

 

i to love a good Toshiba especially years ago when im pretty sure they had SD cards but I'm know their TV's are good for my use case so its extremely tempting to grab that 512 for sure haha

 

though I'm not sure if you will know, I'm looking into some better removable replacement feet for my laptop as the stock ones were all but gone by the time i got my surface laptop used and the one foot broke after light use as i believe someone's been into it before i got it. if you have any recommendations it would be greatly appreciated 

No, I don't know anything about laptop feet.  Sorry.

 

 

[Var Nasadra]

3 hours ago, Dedayog said:

Won't matter, even if was a SATA M.2.  The speeds will be great for your use cases.  The files are relatively small so the drive will all perform the same.

 

No, I don't know anything about laptop feet.  Sorry.

 

 

Awesome, so now its just a matter of personal preference it sounds like. thank you so much for all of the help and answering my questions 

 

no worries about the laptop feet, i can google it and see what i can find for something that's not a pain to take on and off in case i have to get into the laptop for whatever reason 

[Timme]

Since it will be your main drive, I strongly suggest you splash another 10$ for the Corsair MP600 because it comes with a DRAM cache, which will considerably prolong its life.

[Dedayog]

12 minutes ago, Timme said:

Since it will be your main drive, I strongly suggest you splash another 10$ for the Corsair MP600 because it comes with a DRAM cache, which will considerably prolong its life.

I think the fact it's tlc prolongs life, not dram.

 

Dram is useless in modern windows machines for almost all users.  Not to mention the trickery folks like Samsung uses to perform as well without 

[Timme]

2 hours ago, Dedayog said:

I think the fact it's tlc prolongs life, not dram.

 

Dram is useless in modern windows machines for almost all users.  Not to mention the trickery folks like Samsung uses to perform as well without 

DRAM on the SSD is extremely useful in modern Windows machines. Any Windows machine. It improves general I/O speeds and the frequency of accessing/operating the NAND itself.
OS is constantly writing and reading data from the SSD. When you don't have DRAM for storing/retrieving relevant data for current tasks, everything is performed on the NAND itself-> faster degradation.   
  

[kokosnh]

Yes, dram is a key component in keeping the write amplification (WAF) at bay.

any trim, any garbage collection, and wear leveling algorytm, need to move the data around. It’s all done fast in dram if Ssd have one. IF not, well I have seen here DRAMless nvme Ssd with WAF over 80, that were just a normal OS drive. The NAND was failing, as it was over 1500 P/E while still under the TBW for host writes. 

[Var Nasadra]

15 hours ago, Timme said:

Since it will be your main drive, I strongly suggest you splash another 10$ for the Corsair MP600 because it comes with a DRAM cache, which will considerably prolong its life.

that specific one wont fit, i need the 2230 size only as its for my surface laptop 3 that only has the space for one drive. I'm not opposed to the bigger price point at all, i know i listed my budget at $90 but knowing i will have around 10ish leeway if i find something that's going to be worth it 

[worstalentscout]

8 hours ago, kokosnh said:

Yes, dram is a key component in keeping the write amplification (WAF) at bay.

any trim, any garbage collection, and wear leveling algorytm, need to move the data around. It’s all done fast in dram if Ssd have one. IF not, well I have seen here DRAMless nvme Ssd with WAF over 80, that were just a normal OS drive. The NAND was failing, as it was over 1500 P/E while still under the TBW for host writes. 

 

Write Amplification of over 80.............??!! 

 

mine is 1.85 and i'm worried...........

[Paul17]

On 8/7/2025 at 1:49 AM, Timme said:

DRAM on the SSD is extremely useful in modern Windows machines. Any Windows machine. It improves general I/O speeds and the frequency of accessing/operating the NAND itself.
OS is constantly writing and reading data from the SSD. When you don't have DRAM for storing/retrieving relevant data for current tasks, everything is performed on the NAND itself-> faster degradation.   
  

 

On 8/7/2025 at 1:04 PM, kokosnh said:

Yes, dram is a key component in keeping the write amplification (WAF) at bay.

any trim, any garbage collection, and wear leveling algorytm, need to move the data around. It’s all done fast in dram if Ssd have one. IF not, well I have seen here DRAMless nvme Ssd with WAF over 80, that were just a normal OS drive. The NAND was failing, as it was over 1500 P/E while still under the TBW for host writes. 

Are all these ssds comparable - Corsair MP600 Pro, Teamgroup A440, WD 850X - 1tb versions?

The WD and Corsair is $10 more than the others.   

[Timme]

14 hours ago, Paul17 said:

WD 850X

 

[kokosnh]

On 8/24/2025 at 8:14 PM, Paul17 said:

Corsair MP600 Pro, Teamgroup A440, WD 850X - 1tb versions

Corsair MP600 Pro And Teamgroup A440 should be on the same components Phison E18 + dram + 96l TLC micron nand. 
SN850x is close to them, but should be little better ( folding speed, and TBW is similar in all )

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/ssd-specs/teamgroup-cardea-a440-1-tb.d484

https://www.techpowerup.com/ssd-specs/corsair-mp600-pro-1-tb.d366

https://www.techpowerup.com/ssd-specs/western-digital-sn850x-1-tb.d2068

 

 

[Paul17]

On 8/25/2025 at 4:58 PM, kokosnh said:

Corsair MP600 Pro And Teamgroup A440 should be on the same components Phison E18 + dram + 96l TLC micron nand. 
SN850x is close to them, but should be little better ( folding speed, and TBW is similar in all )

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/ssd-specs/teamgroup-cardea-a440-1-tb.d484

https://www.techpowerup.com/ssd-specs/corsair-mp600-pro-1-tb.d366

https://www.techpowerup.com/ssd-specs/western-digital-sn850x-1-tb.d2068

 

 

Ah, forgot about checking TPU - I guess the WD SN850X 1tb is the best out of those?   It's $120 CAD here - which is pretty expensive, imho but that's our market.  

[kokosnh]

To rephrase my answer
All three will be good, all are good DRAM TLC SSD on good controllers, so the cheapest one will do, but if they are available in similar price, go for SN850x as it's little better then the rest. 

[apoyusiken]

i got a 1tb nmve under 50 bucks for my desktop, is it that laptop ssds are expensive?