Droidbot's SATA3 SSD Tier List

[79wjd]

Where does the PNY CS900 Sit? (Specifically the 240gb) https://www.bestbuy.com/site/pny-240gb-internal-sata-solid-state-drive-for-laptops/5900261.p?skuId=5900261

 

@Droidbot

 

Which is the best 250gb SSD of these: WD Blue, CS900, or SU800?

[Droidbot]

4 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

Where does the PNY CS900 Sit? (Specifically the 240gb) https://www.bestbuy.com/site/pny-240gb-internal-sata-solid-state-drive-for-laptops/5900261.p?skuId=5900261

 

@Droidbot

 

Which is the best 250gb SSD of these: WD Blue, CS900, or SU800?

No ratings for the CS900 that I can find, so I'm gonna have to recommend SU800. See if you can put a little more in and step up to a better SSD though. 

[TVwazhere]

MX500 tier 2, possibly Tier 1?

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/4mkj4D/crucial-mx500-250gb-25-solid-state-drive-ct250mx500ssd1

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12263/the-crucial-mx500-500gb-review/9

 

Also dont know why this isnt stickied

[DanielMDA]

On 5/4/2017 at 2:41 AM, Droidbot said:

Droidbot's Long Ass SATA 3 SSD Tier List 

Arranged in the following order: Tier 1 (Amazing), Tier 2 (Still Good), Tier 3 (Mediocre), Tier 4 (Not The Greatest), Tier 5 (Avoid)
Performance are what SSDs are rated on, value is mentioned based on price at current update. Keep TLC/MLC/SLC in mind before purchase : https://tinyurl.com/slcmlctlc (Does not apply to 3D VNAND, different)
Current Update: 6/04/16 (Changenotes at bottom)

Tier 1:
- Samsung 850 EVO/PRO (Generally the highest performing SATA SSDs, hands down) (TLC-3D VNAND)
- SK Hynix SL308 (Very good value, almost 850-tier performance for $50 less, as well as low power usage, good for laptops!) (TLC)
- OCZ VX500 (Very good performance and value, better than Trion/Vector) (MLC)
- Corsair Force LE (Very good value at high capacities with good performance) (TLC)
- Corsair Neutron XTI (Very good performance, but high price) (MLC) 

- MyDigitalSSD BP5e (Very good performance, very low price) (TLC) 

- Crucial BX100 / Mushkin Reactor (Not as bad as BX200, and surprisingly amazing performance) (MLC)

Tier 2: 
- Crucial MX300/MX200 (Very good value with strange capacities) (TLC-3D VNAND)
- ADATA SU800 512GB (Good value, good performance) (TLC-3D VNAND)
- OCZ Trion 150 / Vector 180 (Very good performance, but can choke in some situations) (TLC)
- SanDisk Extreme Pro / WD Black (Good performance, high price and not good value) (MLC)

- PNY CS2211 (Very good value with better performance) (MLC)

 

Tier 3: 
- ADATA SP900 (Decent performance, decent value) (MLC) 
- WD Blue / SanDisk X400 (Decent performance, very mediocre.. expensive for what it is) (TLC)
- Intel 540S (Not the best value, but not the worst either. Decent performance) (TLC)
- OCZ Trion 150 (Not the best value, not the worst performance either) (TLC)
- Samsung 750 EVO (Mediocre SSD, above average performance. Dies in the ass under heavy loads) (TLC)
- Intel 530 (Decent average performance, handles load quite well) (20nm MLC, be careful of endurance!)
- Crucial MX100 (Doesn't handle load very well, similar to the M550, but good overall performance besides that) (20nm MLC, be careful of endurance!)
- Intel 730 (Good performance, handles load quite well) (20nm MLC, be careful of endurance!)

- ADATA SU800 128/256GB (Decent performance, dies in the ass under heavy loads) (TLC-3D VNAND)

- SanDisk Ultra II/Ultra PLUS (Alright average performance, doesn't handle heavy loads that well) (TLC)

- Mushkin Triactor (Good performance, good value) (TLC)
- PNY CS1311 (Very good value with good performance) (TLC)

 

Tier 4:
- SanDisk SSD PLUS / Z410 (Inconsistent performance, pretty cheap. Changes components often.) (MLC)
- Kingston HyperX Fury (Good read, mediocre write speeds) (SMLC)
- Plextor M6S (Doesn't handle load very well, worse than MX100, but average performance) (MLC)
- OCZ Trion 100 (Mediocre performance, slow as fuck writes, not recommended, the 150 is better) (19nm TLC)

 

Tier 5: 
- Samsung 840 EVO (has issues with the cells wearing out quickly, don't buy used) (19nm TLC)
- Kingston SSDNOW V300 (reviews are good, but sketchy shit pulled by Kingston make this bad) (MLC)
- Crucial BX200 (bad performance for the money, horrible latency and service times) (early TLC) 
- Kingston SSDNOW UV400 (mediocre performance, slow reads, go for something better) (early TLC)
- OCZ TL100 (VERY SHIT performance, 94MB/s Seq Writes for fucks sake) (TLC)

- ADATA SP550 (Trades blows with the BX200, a little faster and without the BX200's flaws, however APPARENTLY has cell drift like the 840 EVO as reported by @zMeul) (TLC)

 

How I rate SSDs:

  Reveal hidden contents

AnandTech's Destroyer Benchmark, taking service times and throughput throughout the load cycle into account.

Some outliers are rated by other sites like TomsHardware (Namely the SK Hynix and Corsair Force drives)

 

Any requests for new SSDs to be added with proof or other SSDs to be changed with proof are welcome. 

Hey you should update the list with the 860 Evo and the Western Digital Blue 3D NAND SSDs, which I hear are great value (850 Evo Performance for less)

[TVwazhere]

2 minutes ago, DanielMDA said:

Hey you should update the list with the 860 Evo and the Western Digital Blue 3D NAND SSDs, which I hear are great value (850 Evo Performance for less)

From what I've seen 860 is just an 850 (performance wise) with more endurance, but yes it does cost less

[iNSUFFZ]

great guide!

[Droidbot]

@AlexsoloI've all but dropped out of this community -- but I may update it.

I've got time, so might as well. Not sure there's so much demand anymore.

[TVwazhere]

7 hours ago, Droidbot said:

Not sure there's so much demand anymore.

I used to reference it a lot actually

[AdroG23]

This tier could use an update. The Crucial MX500 rocks and is dirt cheap. Also new stuff came out, some rgb goodies and would be good to know how they perform against the classics. Good list though, will help more than one poor confused soul

[Oalei]

Can this thread be revive? I need some guidance on really cheap ssd, for example the UV400 or SP A58. That's what I could buy here, or some other random brand Like colorful, kingmax, pioneer, etc

[LunaP0n3]

On 4/26/2018 at 6:38 AM, TVwazhere said:

From what I've seen 860 is just an 850 (performance wise) with more endurance, but yes it does cost less

I got an 860 EVO 1TB in my rig. Fantastic drive.