Samsung 840 Evo 250GB vs. Crucial M500 240GB: which one?

[robobeat]

Hi everyone,

 

I am in a dilemma. I am in the market now looking for a good SSD for my desktop.

It is going to replace my 320GB normal HDD which is running in my build already for about 4 years (without any problems btw).

I have done some homework already and now I have laid my choice on two:

 

The Samsung 840 Evo 250GB or the Crucial M500 240GB.

 

Now, both have their cons and pros:

 

Samsung 840 Evo:

+ Fast reads and writes, faster than the Crucial drive. whoratesit.com shows sequential writes up to 494MB/s. Real world performance index even up to 551MB/s!

+ it has a drive cache of 512MB SLC NAND, which results in those fast writes, as they call it Turbo Cache

+ awesome 4K performance

+ one of the best drives out there, and reading the multiple reviews no real negative points

- pricing is quite good, but still the more pricy of the two

- it contains TLC, which has a lower life count (and yes I followed the hardware.info endurance test and it does not directly matter according to them, but the risk is still higher)

- it is quite new, which means that it is not quite known yet how the real life performance or endurance is. However, it's from Samsung, and their other drives are great

 

Crucial M500:

+ successor of the M4, which was a great drive in the upper top 3. The M500 is already proving this, as well as the reviews

+ it contains power-safe capacitors, which are great for that sudden reboot or power loss

+ pricing is awesome, from these two its the lowest

+ contains MLC, which in the long run is still better than TLC

- slower speeds, the writes are a lot lower than the 840 Evo

- it has less room than the 840 Evo. Ok, its only 10GB, but still (and yes, it for overprovisioning, but still can't use it)

- no Drive cache, which explains the slower speeds

 

Basically, looking at these drives, both are a good choice. The 840 Evo due to his awesome performance and the M500 due to his lower price and his already known performance/endurance and power-safe capacitors.

 

So the real question is though: is the extra money worth paying for the 840 Evo?

 

I surely like your opinion on this, and wondering what you think of it. Let me hear your comments!

[WoodenMarker]

No. It's not worth spending extra money for either of the ssds. In real life applications, you won't notice the difference between the two or other higher tiered ssds.

Save your money and just get the regular 840: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz7td250bw

Much cheaper and noticeably the same.

 

Also, if you're worried about the lifespan of the ssds, don't: http://us.hardware.info/reviews/4178/10/hardwareinfo-tests-lifespan-of-samsung-ssd-840-250gb-tlc-ssd-updated-with-final-conclusion-final-update-20-6-2013

They'll probably last longer than every other component in your system.

[nightlitezzz]

I would take the EVO but really, in a real world scenario you won't be able to tell the difference. It's more important to have an SSD rather than worry about which SSD.

[Bloodyvalley]

It's more important to have an SSD rather than worry about which SSD.

Words of wisdom right there.

[robobeat]

No. It's not worth spending extra money for either of the ssds. In real life applications, you won't notice the difference between the two or other higher tiered ssds.

Save your money and just get the regular 840: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz7td250bw

Much cheaper and noticeably the same.

 

Also, if you're worried about the lifespan of the ssds, don't: http://us.hardware.info/reviews/4178/10/hardwareinfo-tests-lifespan-of-samsung-ssd-840-250gb-tlc-ssd-updated-with-final-conclusion-final-update-20-6-2013

They'll probably last longer than every other component in your system.

 

Like I said, I've read the article of hardware.info (hell, I am from Holland, I have followed the progress closely!) and the disks have been running continuously without any shutdowns ( in the beginning at least). After the first drive failed and basically wasn't up for the test anymore, they started shutting down the second system, which didn't make a difference. It proofs the stability of the drives, I totally agree on that, but you still are talking about test environments, not normal in use systems. And I see myself as quite a heavy system user (gaming, video editing, photoshopping, multiple virtual machines).

 

I do agree with you on that I will not directly notice the speed difference, I was just hoping to open up a discussion on these two drives and see what other people think of it. Didn't quite work I guess .

 

I would take the EVO but really, in a real world scenario you won't be able to tell the difference. It's more important to have an SSD rather than worry about which SSD.

 

Yup, agreed, just having one makes the difference, not which one. But see my previous comment I told WoodenMarker.

 

Words of wisdom right there.

 

Totally.

[WoodenMarker]

And I see myself as quite a heavy system user (gaming, video editing, photoshopping, multiple virtual machines).

Still wouldn't really make a difference.

[solomongrundy]

Whichever one is on sale.