Does the SSD brand make a big difference?

[Kickflapper]

I currently have a Samsung 850 evo and it runs my OS great. I was looking for a second ssd for games and extra space and don't really want to pay the samsung premium as this is a secondary drive. Does the brand really make a big difference? ....ie kingston, A-data, scan disk. ect

[RedWulf]

Before the war of brand fan boys starts up, yes and no

Some are cheap, some are reliable, some have long lives, some are fast. it's about finding the balance

That said, samsung is often the favorite for life and speed but not cost, but on the other end something like pny might be more risky but cheaper. 

 

Its about your priorities 

[Clyne]

Most of the it's just the NAND and Controller, generally the cheaper brands have TLC while higher end brands have SLC or MLC.

850 Evo uses the 3D nand which is like in between TLC and MLC.

[rtpb5642]

just get an ADATA, been running many different ADATA SSDs for years and they are fast and reliable. 

I have two SP900 and SP600, both are great.

[Kickflapper]

I was looking at scan disk plus, 

A-Data ASP550SS3-480GM-C,   or Kingston v200

[Moonzy]

13 minutes ago, Kickflapper said:

I currently have a Samsung 850 evo and it runs my OS great. I was looking for a second ssd for games and extra space and don't really want to pay the samsung premium as this is a secondary drive. Does the brand really make a big difference? ....ie kingston, A-data, scan disk. ect

its a triangle made up of cheap, reliable, and speed

samsung = reliable and speed

kingston v300 = cheap <--- only one points

intel = reliable and speed

most other ssd = cheap and reliable

[Clyne]

3 minutes ago, Kickflapper said:

I was looking at scan disk plus, 

A-Data ASP550SS3-480GM-C,   or Kingston v200

Well the V200 is better because it's using Intel's MLC NAND while the SP500 is using TLC which isn't as "good" as MLC.

[TriFlix Films]

Samsung 950 PRO - Fastest SSD for consumers (make sure your mobo support m.2)

Samsung 850 Pro - I can't back this product as the price per gb is far to high given the slight increase in speed over the 850 EVO

Samsung 850 EVO 1tb - was on sale for $269 last week (Highly recommend)

Samsung 840 - older but very reliable (usually on sale)

[TechFnatic]

Yes, there is definitely a difference in overall build quality and obviously read / write speeds. For instance most samsung SSD's would perform better than a sandisk

[azurezeed]

It mostly depends on the drive itself, like Kingston's v300 is cheap but not really good anymore, but their hyperx series are pretty reliable and fast, you better look up some reviews before you decide anything.

[Looniper]

On 3/26/2016 at 10:06 PM, BurnerMC said:

Samsung is really the best of the best when it comes to the price to capacity, the performance and especially the reliability, but if it is just for games and not for key apps and the OS itself then so not really.

Price to Capacity : Samsung costs about 2x as much as the identical spec Mushkin drive.
And so far mine perform identically.

The only thing that might make it worth buying the Samsung is lifespan, which I haven't had the bad luck to have to find out about yet.

[Mark77]

I'm a fan of buying a SSD, and then putting it on the shelf for a year or two (or alternatively, running it in some not-very-important application).  Let "the community" sort out the bugs, and the manufacturers implement a firmware update or two. 

 

Or simply buy older SSDs that are either lightly used with good reputations.  Or "new old stock".  I tend to avoid new controllers as well.  Much less risky to have a chip shrink on a well-known controller, than a brand new controller altogether. 

 

The differences between the latest SSDs and 1-2 year old ones are miniscule these days.  As is the cost.