Value capacity M.2 SSDs

[porina]

I did a Linus and broke the warranty seal on my laptop not long ago, and swapped the 1TB HD with a 480GB SSD I stole from another of my systems which helps a lot, but it is feeling rather tight on space now. The main drive on the laptop is a Toshiba M.2 SATA 128GB SSD, so not high end by any means and also rather tiny. I need more space, not so much performance. I'm thinking the 240-256GB size class probably isn't worth the effort, so I should aim for the 480-512GB size class if I'm going to do this. Laptop usage is primarily internet stuff, and the only significant heavy activity would be gaming.

 

The laptop webpage claims supports of M.2 PCIe 4x SSDs, even if the existing fitted one is M.2 SATA. I didn't see the two keys on the socket so it should be ok. Still leaves a bit of a choice...

 

So I had a poke around some suppliers and shortlisted the following. Pricing is in GBP (£). Spec values listed are sequential read, sequential write, random read IOPS, random write IOPS.

 

http://www.adata.com/en/ssd/specification/382

ADATA Premium SP550 480GB at £109 is cheapest, but arguably Adata isn't a major brand even if they're not nobody either. Spec 560, 510, 75k, ??k.

 

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/storage-ssd-mx300

Crucial MX300 525GB for £113, actually works out slightly cheaper per capacity, and at least Crucial I'd consider a major brand. Spec 530, 510, 92k, 83k.

 

http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/products/flash-storage/client-ssd/MZVLV512HCJH?ia=831

To get to NVMe interface cheapest is the Samsung PM951 512GB £155+£5 post. I already have a 256GB version in my VR system (not that many VR games yet!). Spec 1050, 560, 250k, 144k.

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/solid-state-drives/solid-state-drives-600p-series.html

Up slightly higher is the Intel 600p 512GB at £170. Spec 1775, 560, 128.5k, 128k, but will this make a meaningful difference for the extra cost?

 

Having laid out the data... I'm no closer to deciding. The Samsung has an outstanding random performance, trading against the more expensive Intel which has faster sustained read. Or just go cheap with the Crucial which to be honest I'd probably not notice the speed difference outside of benchmarks. I can afford the higher parts, question is, should I?

 

One more thought, I really don't want to do a fresh-reinstall since I have everything exactly how I like it already. I do have a cloning solution available so can use that to transfer (1st to external drive, then back again), but my concern is, if a change from SATA to NVMe might cause Windows 10 booting to get upset. If there will be much additional pain due to that, it would swing me more towards the Crucial.

[Mr.Meerkat]

Since you're not transferring massive files or video editing, I'll say go with the MX300  (and Adata isn't small you know...)

[zMeul]

go with Crucial one, it's not the brightest of the bunch, but the pricing is OK

 

the SP550 should be avoided as they have cell voltage drift issues - RMAed 3 of them because of this

[porina]

19 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

Since you're not transferring massive files or video editing, I'll say go with the MX300  (and Adata isn't small you know...)

 

16 minutes ago, zMeul said:

go with Crucial one, it's not the brightest of the bunch, but the pricing is OK

 

the SP550 should be avoided as they have cell voltage drift issues - RMAed 3 of them because of this

Thanks both. I was kinda thinking the MX300 would almost certainly be fine, but of course... the geek in me is saying faster is better even if it doesn't make much if any real world difference... still MX300 means I don't have to worry about any potential problems from switching boot device types.