Need help deciding between two SSDs (DRAM and DRAMless)

[laptopnoob678]

Which is better?

 

The Sandisk Plus 480GB SSD with DRAM or Crucial BX500 480GB SSD without DRAM?

 

The Sandisk is cheaper also. I don't care about sustained write speeds, but I did have an old SSD which appeared to cause occasional stutter/lag while navigating the desktop, and it was pretty annoying. I'd like to avoid that.

 

Thanks

 

P.S. These two drives are the only option right now.

[LukeSavenije]

you should really go with the one with dram, just for the random reads and writes it's much better

[Uptivuptiz]

A SSD with DRAM is generally better than one without. Since the one with DRAM is cheap the choice should be pretty obvious  And as @LukeSavenije just said. Go watch the Tech Quickie on it so you know why  

[laptopnoob678]

Thanks.

 

I should have mentioned that I actually watched that video before making the thread.

The reason I'm still not sure is because the SSD Plus scores so badly on this website

 

https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/SanDisk-SSD-Plus-480GB-vs-Crucial-BX500-480GB/m131770vsm579817

 

 

[Uptivuptiz]

2 minutes ago, laptopnoob678 said:

Thanks.

 

I should have mentioned that I actually watched that video before making the thread.

The reason I'm still not sure is because the SSD Plus scores so badly on this website

 

https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/SanDisk-SSD-Plus-480GB-vs-Crucial-BX500-480GB/m131770vsm579817

 

 

Damn... The SanDisk gets destroyed... If we look at purely specs and speeds the crucial is the best. What is the price differece between the 2? I don't imagine that it's what the site states.

[laptopnoob678]

£59 for the SanDisk and £67 for the Crucial

 

It's weird, seems like some models of the SSD Plus are DRAMless, some aren't. The one on Amazon states G26 which supposedly has DRAM. Could be that some of these being reviewed don't?

 

The speeds seem OK on here to me (apart from sustained write) but they still talk about poor performance, so not sure.

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dramless-ssd-roundup,4833-8.html

 

 

[Uptivuptiz]

1 minute ago, laptopnoob678 said:

£59 for the SanDisk and £67 for the Crucial

 

It's weird, seems like some models of the SSD Plus are DRAMless, some aren't. The one on Amazon states G26 which supposedly has DRAM. Could be that some of these being reviewed don't?

 

The speeds seem OK on here to me (apart from sustained write) but they still talk about poor performance, so not sure.

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dramless-ssd-roundup,4833-8.html

 

 

When buying a SSD you shouldn't just look at the sustained read/write speeds. These speeds are only somewhat true when you transfer one big file. What you want to look for to get an idea of how it will perform in a everyday scenario you should look at the random read/write speeds (also known as 4K read/write). This looks at the speeds when smaller files is transferred and gives a much better representation of the 'real' performance. 

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

DRAMless ssd are fine in daily OS, ignore speed difference since you wont compare speed side by side.

and the main point is purpose, amount and how often you are transferring file

 

[mariushm]

22 minutes ago, laptopnoob678 said:

The reason I'm still not sure is because the SSD Plus scores so badly on this website

 

Have you actually checked the numbers in those tests?

How often are you going to read files from that SSD at 300 MB/s or more ?  Do you really think 469 MB/s vs 354 MB/s would make a difference ?

How often are you going to write files faster than 290 MB/s ?

 

random 4k reads and writes are smaller, but unless you're going to use the SSD for a database or for randomly reading random pieces of files quickly (like small jpg images or crap like that), these values don't matter to you.

 

For loading games, playing videos, music the SSDs will behave the same.

 

The Crucial BX500 uses TLC memory and has an endurance value of 120 TB lifetime writes. This is kinda small, it's a value you would expect from a 240 GB MLC drive. Most 240-256 GB MLC drives today have around 80-100 TB lifetime writes. 

This basically says the flash memory is not that great, but that's typical for TLC.

 

Sandisk SSD Plus 480 GB is supposed to be with MLC memory, but that's not guaranteed - the 120GB and 240GB models come with MLC or TLC, depends on the actual product code. If its MLC, then the drive should have higher endurance, like maybe 200-250 TB lifetime writes. 

 

[laptopnoob678]

10 hours ago, mariushm said:

Have you actually checked the numbers in those tests?

How often are you going to read files from that SSD at 300 MB/s or more ?  Do you really think 469 MB/s vs 354 MB/s would make a difference ?

How often are you going to write files faster than 290 MB/s ?

 

random 4k reads and writes are smaller, but unless you're going to use the SSD for a database or for randomly reading random pieces of files quickly (like small jpg images or crap like that), these values don't matter to you.

 

For loading games, playing videos, music the SSDs will behave the same.

 

The Crucial BX500 uses TLC memory and has an endurance value of 120 TB lifetime writes. This is kinda small, it's a value you would expect from a 240 GB MLC drive. Most 240-256 GB MLC drives today have around 80-100 TB lifetime writes. 

This basically says the flash memory is not that great, but that's typical for TLC.

 

Sandisk SSD Plus 480 GB is supposed to be with MLC memory, but that's not guaranteed - the 120GB and 240GB models come with MLC or TLC, depends on the actual product code. If its MLC, then the drive should have higher endurance, like maybe 200-250 TB lifetime writes. 

 

 

Yes you're right. Not a big difference between the speeds, I was more concerned about the sluggishness/non-responsiveness you can sometimes get with SSDs

 

I ended up ordering the SanDisk anyway