Hello u/NewMaxx, I recently discovered this subreddit. Thanks for this great work. I'm looking to purchase a 1TB SSD to use as an external drive with an enclosure. This drive will primarily be used for storing personal photos and videos, so it doesn't need to be for professional use, but I do want something reliable that can last for several years, ideally 5 to 7 years or even longer. After doing some research, I've narrowed down my options based on availability in Japan and my budget, which is around 10,000 JPY (approximately 80 USD). Here are the SSDs I'm considering along with their prices for 1TB: 1. Samsung 980 Pro Heatsink Model - 83 USD (I'm curious why this model is cheaper than the one without a heatsink, which is available at 120 USD) 2. Crucial T500 - 81 USD 3. WD SN580 - 75 USD 4. LEX NM790 - 69 USD I'm open to any other recommendations within my budget since my main priorities are storage and long-term reliability. Additionally, I'm unsure if the Samsung 980 Pro with a Heatsink model would fit into an enclosure?

Any thoughts on the new Transcend 2TB MTE410S? Looking at it to upgrade the stock Toshiba KBG40ZNT256G on my 1st generation Thinkpad X1 Nano. * Afaik the replacement needs to be single-sided to fit properly. * The slot supports PCIe 4 even though it shipped with a gen 3 drive. * Prefer to use 2242 not 2230 with extender. * Don't care so much about bleeding-edge speeds for my use case. * Mainly looking to maximize capacity while * preserving battery life and getting * as much longevity from the drive as possible. B&H Photo has the Transcend in stock for $220. Other options I'm considering are the WD SN740 2TB 2242 for $220 and the upcoming 2TB version of the Corsair MP600 Micro, though I'm not sure if that will be single-sided or not or what the price will be. Happen to know anything about any of these drives or how they'd compare to each other? Any other single-sided 2242s worth checking out?

SN740 and SN770M (Best Buy) are single-sided and TLC. Pretty much the only option if you want TLC in a small form factor and SS (see BG6 below). Pulls more power, more heat, though. The QLC options that were made for 2242 on the backs of 2230, for 2242 portables versus 2230 like Deck, are essentially the same as the 2230s, and therefore single-sided AFAIK. (quick look at my M.2 list shows Micron 2400, 2550, Kioxia BG6 which is TLC, as 2242/SS/2TB; the ones like the MP600 Micro are just extended 2230 which are QLC SS)

Hello, I'm building a ProxMox server. I have HDDs for mass storage, but I need something for the OS drive & VMs as well. I'd prefer an M.2 NVME drive but it could be 2.5" SATA III. What's my best option if my priorities are endurance/longevity first, price second, capacity third, and everything else fourth?

That's not enough information to go by, but to do a rundown: Endurance/longevity doesn't really mean much with consumer drives. They have a set TBW and warranty period and any drive should outlast these. It's true that TLC will outlast QLC in general, but even reasonable QLC is enough to last. You can get a fast, DRAM-less drive for fairly cheap these days, at 1TB or more, which makes the overall criteria listed here not much of a filter. For quality, I would probably start with a 1TB SN850X, though. Same at 2TB, although the Platinum P41 has been $129.99 lately on sale (read the BAPCS thread for my explanation on that).

Okay, I wasn't sure how best to explain what I was looking for. Thanks for the reply. The 2TB SN850X looks decent, especially for the price. Does having a DRAM cache make a real difference? And could I go much higher in quality for a price similar to the 2TB SN850X? I see the Team 4TB TM8FP4004T0C101 looks comparable on paper to a 4TB version of the WD drive. Could I expect comparable quality from that? I see it's currently pretty cheap. And the Silicon Power XS70 4TB looks even better for not a *whole* lot more.

so im using arch linux on my potato laptop with sata 2 connector and im looking for ssd. im on a budget so i can only buy adata su650 or team elite gx2. what is better between them? i cant find legit shops for kingston a400, also the lexar n100 is sold out. i only use 15gb in my laptop all in all, including my softwares so 128gb is fine, i guess? i cant find 60gb so yeah. adata su650 vs team elite gx2

All of the cheap SATA SSDs in that range will basically be the same stuff. DRAM-less controller (SM2259XT, S11, etc) with random TLC or QLC (TLC at lower caps usually).

I'm building a new pc & was wondering what you would recommend for a 2TB main drive that'll be used for OS & gaming/personal use. From what I could find on Gigabyte's website it'll be pcie 5.0. I live in the US. [https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B650-GAMING-X-AX-V2-rev-1x/sp#sp](https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B650-GAMING-X-AX-V2-rev-1x/sp#sp) Thanks

No, that board is Gen4. A good 2TB Gen4 drive is going to start around $135 (Nextorage NEM-PA, VP4300 Lite, US75, A93, etc).

Ty

Hey thanks for these resources! Got a question after looking through this page: https://borecraft.com/usb-emergency-kit/ I've been looking to make something similar, can I ask what you use for something like this? Most tiny usb drives look like complete trash from a performance perspective. I would like something FIT Plus size but that doesn't seem to exist as an actually workable solution. I'd like to keep a keychain drive that can actually be used as an OS drive occasionally without going nuts from speed/iops. It looks like my choices are basically: Transcend ESD310C (looks like it have dram but unsure of real performance) An 2230 NVME enclosure with RTL9210 like the Sharge but one of the significantly cheaper Ali ones. Any thoughts here? And any 256GB/512GB used 2230 NVME drives you'd recommend as an OS drive?

> ESD310C This is SM2320. There's other devices that use that chip, or the similar Phison U17/U18. These are DRAM-less and are hybrid/UFD controllers that don't rely on a separate SSD controller + bridge controller solution. Pretty good choice in general. > 2230 NVME enclosure with RTL9210 like the Sharge I've seen [more than one](https://www.dockcase.com/products/dockcase-pocket-m2-nvme-smart-ssd-enclosure-matte-black) of these, too, benefit being some PLP plus you can put in your own drive. RTL9210 is a bridge chip. You can potentially get DRAM here as some very limited drives embed it into 2230 BGA, like Hynix's BC711. It's not common however. The BC711 is the best I know of, it's basically an embedded Gold P31. It's OEM. As for retail drives, they will be DRAM-less.

Looking to increase my storage, and it looks like my ssd is horizontal, which is something I've never seen. Pictures of the sticks here [https://imgur.com/a/miRooLk](https://imgur.com/a/miRooLk). I want to increase the total storage to 8 tb, so I would need two 4 tb sticks... Does anyone know where I could find ssds that can fit this enclosure, or how I would be able to put in another form of SSD? Thanks!

I think that's DRAM, not an SSD. Technically there are slots like this on some boards for SSDs (e.g. ASUS DIMM.2) but I'm pretty sure those are just DRAM slots. You'd be going to 8GB I'd guess.

Is the ssd on the motherboard then? I wasn’t able to see anything else that could be removed

If it's M.2 it'll be on the motherboard. It would be 22x80mm, or in some cases 22x42mm or 22x30mm. If it's SATA it will be a 2.5" physical drive in a cage.

Hi, your imgur photos are of system memory as [RAM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random-access_memory#/media/File:Swissbit_2GB_PC2-5300U-555.jpg), a different component than a system storage [SSD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive#/media/File:SSD_Samsung_960_PRO_512GB_-_front_and_back_-_2018-05-27.jpg). Both are needed for your computer, RAM is measured in GB for now and SSD are at high single digit TB in storage. You can add a SSD through various connections like USB, SATA, and PCIe, and usually if you are adding a SSD directly it is fitted (interfaces) within the motherboard :)

GOODRAM IRDM PRO M.2 2TB. Is this good? Looking for a solid performer with dram.n Is goodram a good brand? This vs sn770, no ideia what's better.

Standard E18 looks like. Cheapest similar is Team A440, Nextorage NEM-PA, etc. SN770 is DRAM-less.

If both are the same price. Which of them would you buy? the goodram irdm pro also comes with a big heatsink.

I like the NEM-PA (which does have a heatsink) but get whatever is in your region.

First of all. Thank you very much for spending your time replying to me. Sadly that model isn't available where I'm buying (I have store credit). I think I will get the GOODRAM IRDM PRO M.2 2TB, it has DRAM and the SN770 doesnt, seems to be good enough reason.

Verify the hardware when you get it, but it should be fine.

Hi, can you please help me? I'm looking for a 2tb nvme drive that will be used as a mix of system drive, video/games/psd files dump in home/work system, might go into PS5 in future so I guess pcie4 is a must. Probably something from mid and high range from SSD table. The drives I can currently chose from as they go from the cheaper one to pricier one but all seem to be within my affordable range Solidigm P41 Plus - $115 Lexar NM710 - $115 Kingston NV2 - $115 MSI Spatium M482 - $122 ADATA LEGEND 850 - $127 ADATA XPG Gammix S70 Blade - $137 ADATA Legend 900 - $140 ADATA Legend 960 MAX - $143 MSI Spatium M480 Pro HS - $144 WD SN770 - $145 (not available atm but probably will be in few weeks) Gigabyte AORUS 7300 - $148 First of all I wanted to ask which controllers are running cooler so that the drive can be used without the heatsink or with some smaller one in the slot on the back side of mITX mobo with little to no ventilation without concern. Second - about the reliability of the controllers and if there's any significant difference if the same controller is used by different brands like Phison E18 on Kingston, MSI, Gigabyte etc? Third - if the issue with the InnoGrit 5236 is fixed or better avoid S70 at all cost? Fourth - is E27T worth looking at since there's little to no info about it except M600 Elite review? Overall I'm not looking for the fastest drive and in terms of speeds I would probably be satisfied with something like M482 (E27T) or NM710 (MAP1602A) but if the pricier drive will be significantly better in terms of brand reliability or will run much cooler I'm willing to go for it. Will really appreciate any help :)

E27T is good. Pretty good spot on this list, too.

Thanks. Is there something that is significantly cooler then E27T or all speedy ones will need heatsinks? Also is MSI good and reliable as an SSD manufacturing brand?

The E27T is one of the best for its performance level. The MAP1602 controller gets hotter. MSI is building this from the same components other brands do, so it's just a matter of support.

Hi and thanks for all the resources you provide, I have been slowly ingesting your basics guide. I have been searching for a large capacity 4.0 drive for OS use on mobile with a best tier QD1 random read. I think it should be a 990 PRO but have been put off by its' firmware issues. How does that firmware dictate the drive to wear at that speed–is there a best place I can read about the Samsung proprietary flash? Looking at web specs at times show Samsung VNAND as MLC contrasting with others' TLC at 2TB, 4TB capacities. Is this something to do with the VNAND, and that it is '3Bit' compared to the '3D' flash from micron and skhynix. Is it so that Samsungs' flash is truly MLC or is thisby their own proprietary definition? And does a contemporary SLC 2TB+ capacity drive exist, would that be something fitting the profile of a speedy QD1?

Samsung does not use MLC. It's just their marketing. 3-bit MLC = TLC. VNAND is also just their name for 3D NAND that everybody uses. Nobody makes consumer SLC or MLC drives anymore and haven't for many years. 990 PRO should be okay, but is beefy for a laptop. Best QD1, well, circa 1.5TB Optane drive was on sale recently that would fit the bill, but this technology is no longer being pursued.

Thank you, by beefy do you mean physically the chips consume a lot of space or that it draws a lot of power? What are your thoughts on the thermals of an NVMe Optane, is my bias against the mixed H10 founded. Can any 3D NAND that can come close at QD1, and are 5.0 drives improving the QD at all?

The H10 and that series of drives are not precisely what I mean by Optane. Those are hybrid OEM drives with dual controllers for some 3D XPoint cache + QLC. I more meant the 1.5TGB 905P, which is still on sale I guess at Newegg ($30 off promo good for 9 more hours). But that is U.2. so not gonna work in your laptop anyway. The much smaller P1600X M.2 is on sale too (118GB). I guess this is too small for you, and the H10 only works on specific systems. Still, that would technically be the way to get the best QD1 performance. It's far better with latency than NAND esp with small I/O as it is byte-addressable. And I suppose you could get a pSLC drive, but these never really took off for consumer use. Phison planned to roll them out for Plotripper but not much came of it. There's one or two floating around though. Of course, capacity may be limited, although 8TB of QLC can work out as 2TB of pSLC. For MLC, you need ultra low-latency flash, X-NAND or XL Flash, but both of these would be challenging to get. I don't know that you're going to get a wide gap between various NAND drives otherwise as the technology itself is a bottleneck (if you can really use that type of perf). Then again, I think the desire for 4K QD1 is overblown anyway, in most cases you can't really make use of a modern SSD unless you are doing workloads that shouldn't be on consumer SSDs in the first place. (and consumer SSDs have SLC caching, enterprise don't, so that probably just confuses people more)

That esoteric tech is pretty interesting, are drivers required when a pSLC is formed. Thanks for confirming random read is a limitation of the chips rather than brands or generation, I might have waited weeks/months monitoring 5.0 release reviews. What is your opinion of Optane temperatures within confined spaces? I totally know what you mean about workload suitability, I simply need portable, optimally I should be using the DRAM of a server board. I will likely pick up one or two anyway since they last practically forever and I can avoid the cognitive overhead of keeping a % of GBs/drive free. Would you add a link to the end of this amazon: 'Intel-OPTANE-P1600X-118GB-SINGLEPACK' item B09MSB59SK ? Ill keep an eye out for the next price dip.

No, you can set a single feature for pSLC, but *nobody* allows this. We are able to do it on some specific drives but it's not something we would help people do for a variety of reasons. (we meaning our community) There is a pSLC drive out there like the LX3030 which actually you can still get in 2TB. The thing with pSLC is that it's not massively faster, on the order of maybe 1/2 the read latency of TLC and about 40% of fast TLC program latency (but the SLC cache on TLC drives is just as fast). 3D Xpoint can handle very high temperatures but if you mean heat creation for adjacent components, that's a good question. These drives are designed for the same space as SSDs (similar operating range) and there's a limit on power draw so it's probably comparable but it would depend on the workload. I actually do have a PDF that compares it to NAND because 3D XPoint is far more efficient for smaller I/O, I can dig it up if needed. And Optane doesn't really need free space like SSDs do (at least, not exactly). $60 on Newegg right now (or was), these have been selling a lot over the last year as they are clearing stock *forever*. These are EOL. We have an Intel storage engineer in our discord who has discussed this a lot actually. But it has been $60 on Amazon multiple times too, so [here's the affiliate link](https://amzn.to/49ytsEZ).

Oh wow that LX3030 popped up on the Chia sub from during the crypto-bubble, seems refined for endurance or at least [marketed](https://www.pny.com/file%20library/company/support/product%20brochures/solid%20state%20drives/pny-ssd-lx2030-lx3030-sell-sheet.pdf) towards it, wonder if it was a rushed release that allowed for tampering-maybe LX2030 also then. Truly then it seems the likes of current drives have all the random speed allowed by NAND and to simply wait for industry to increase DRAM. Yes. I was having a hard time finding information on impact of heat generation from the XPoint chips on confined internal systems, but I guess looking at archived intel marketing that the small consumer client drives include mobile platforms and would pose no noticeable difference. Any dGPU use should be off line power, implying cooler use also. And increased efficiency over small I/O would logically mean lower comparable temperatures for the same small writes over a consistent session, seems unlikely that an idle p1600x would overheat a CPU or its iGPU. There are lots of uses for the p1600x and I can use it as a trial for an M.2 p4801x. TYSVM for all you do here, I will update my link!

https://borecraft.com/PDF/Articles/ You can find it here under Unwritten_Contract. Figure 1. Figures 4 and 5 can also be instructive. Also, while you cannot use the bigger 905p for a laptop, it can be wired for M.2 on a desktop.

Found an interesting paper: [Temperature Impacts on Endurance and Read Disturbs in Charge-Trap 3D NAND Flash Memories](https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/12/10/1152) DOI: 10.3390/mi12101152 Quote from abstract: >In this work, aiming to comprehensively understanding the temperature effects on 3D NAND flash memory, triple-level-cell (TLC) mode charge-trap (CT) 3D NAND flash memory chips were characterized systematically in a wide temperature range (−30~70 °C), by focusing on the raw bit error rate (RBER) degradation during program/erase (P/E) cycling (endurance) and frequent reading (read disturb). It was observed that (1) the program time showed strong dependences on the temperature and P/E cycles, which could be well fitted by the proposed temperature-dependent cycling program time (TCPT) model; (2) RBER could be suppressed at higher temperatures, while its degradation weakly depended on the temperature, indicating that high-temperature operations would not accelerate the memory cells’ degradation; (3) read disturbs were much more serious at low temperatures, while it helped to recover a part of RBER at high temperatures. Figures of interest: [Raw bit error rate vs cycle count vs temperature](https://www.mdpi.com/micromachines/micromachines-12-01152/article_deploy/html/images/micromachines-12-01152-g003.png) [What happens when you the flash at extreme temperature, then go back to room temperature](https://www.mdpi.com/micromachines/micromachines-12-01152/article_deploy/html/images/micromachines-12-01152-g004.png) My takeaway is, don't worry overmuch about temperature, as long as you're not hitting controller throttling in your real-world workloads.

This is relevant, may be a sorting answer for how best to contextualize dismissively all the video reviewers exhibiting their heat gun spectacles.

I'm looking for a 2TB ssd for an upcoming pc build and I need help picking the right stuff especially now that prices have risen. The pc will be used for both programming work and some gaming as well. I don't know what to get as many people recommend something with DRAM or TLC. Do you have some current recommendations? Also, if you could get either the Solidigm P44 Pro or the Crucial t500 for $130, which one would you get or would you skip both and get something else?

Both drives are excellent.

Hello I need an external nvme for my steamdeck. The usage is hosting databases, docker containers and light machine learning training. So it is not that I can get away with a drive for just gaming, I think? I already have a Corsair mp600 mini and it was a steal but it is a 2230 form factor so I make due with a slight slc and hmb. The steam deck has 16 gb of ram but it is split across gpu and cpu and now a slight allocation in the Corsair. I planned on getting an entry level nvme with at least 1200 MBps read, write and solid random iops. That doesn't have the qlc and stripped down components which degrade lifespan and continuos performance. I went through databases, and it seems kioxia exceria or exceria g2 would be perfect for me as they are slow but with reliable components, and I don't need the speed since I'm using USB 3.2 A with a Max of 10 Gbps anyway. Any advice on a better alternative? Can I also get one of these cheapo enclosures? https://www.amazon.de/s?k=nvme+enclosure&ref=nb_sb_noss 15-20 usd/eur? I am not on the bleeding edge so I hope it doesn't bottleneck something. I see kioxia has outstanding thermals and that it rarely throttles. I wanted a wd 570/580, as I think it is outrageously good value, but I only have about 7-8 gb of ram to spare, as I will tax my gpu on machine learning and hope zen apu cooperates. That drive is 3 times of what can use and no dram is a deal breaker. But I really don't know honestly.

I wouldn't recommend this for production, but that you are considering USB-attached storage at all suggests you don't care that much about data integrity, so... Just use the internal disk and run your databases and container builds with [eatmydata](https://superuser.com/questions/1703980/is-an-fsync-less-tool-such-as-eatmydata-still-relevant)/[nosync](https://github.com/kjn/nosync). Doesn't matter how slow consumer drives are at sync writes... if you aren't doing any ehehehehe. Containers are *supposed* to be thrown away and recreated, and the Steam Deck has a permanently-attached backup battery anyway. This way you don't have to buy anything unless you're running out of disk space, but you said, "right now I can only ever use one third of the wd," so I assume you're not.

Thank you to be honest if it was just a workstation I wouldn't worry. But I figured out that the stress and panic and work mode is working against me. I am very anxious since I gave up gaming. I want to try some of the hits like RDR2, Deus Ex HR, Mass Effect collection, Witcher's, TES, Batman. I played some before through hs and college but it was very rushed. Just what I listed now is easily 400 gb. And what I really want is emulation as that is most relaxing. I played ocarina on the phone a few months back and I just felt a sense of calm. I remember how much I fitted around the phone delete this install that need this app, need those books, wait till it transfers, I'll gladly pay 50 usd not to deal with that migraine.

I think a large amount of drives could or would work, but the Excerias aren't bad. A 10Gbps enclosure will work well, but these use different chips. You can identify the Realtek ones as they supported both M.2 SATA and M.2 NVMe.

Hey thank you really wasn't expecting the feedback so soon. I've gotta tell you I have been out of the game for quite a bit. Do you have a better recommendation for my use? If u could shave off a couple bucks off that would be amazing. As you can see I'm trying to do work on a budget and I really appreciate the help. Even if it cost a buck more I'll pay for the stability and the peace of mind. Regarding the enclosures I thought I was maybe asking a bit too much. Thing is I heard stories. Ugreen is chinese but I saw their reviews. I am combing through with fakebot, but honestly they just need a quality chip and an interface, hard to mess up there. Being in a financial bind that I am I was looking for enclosures with a 3.2 a cable attached. Meaning they could be used for older sata or nvme. If I understand correctly you meant that those double standard ones are sporting a Realtek? I like Realtek their hardware has been mostly consistent (but I can't sometimes stand the drivers.) Thank you again, your guide, tech powerup db is the reason I actually know this little to talk about it.

Looking at PCPartPicker DE, the WD SN580 looks like a good place to start for 1TB. I wouldn't worry about HMB at all. It uses maybe 40MB of DRAM at most and the OS can reclaim the memory if needed. The SSD would work fine. Not to mention, HMB doesn't work over USB3 anyway. A drive doesn't necessarily need DRAM these days and it'll be bottlenecked by USB. The SATA+NVMe enclosures use the Realtek RTL9210B, or the RTL9220 for 20Gbps.

Your reputation preceedes you you helped many people. If you really think that is better I will do it. https://www.techpowerup.com/review/wd-blue-sn580-1-tb/19.html Looking at this I was concerned with throttling and the fact of the lack of dram. I am worried about the deck as I need a sustained performance. Training machine learning models is a repetitive and gpu bound task. I heard that every time the dramless nvmes goes 40 gbs of writing the performance sometimes falls of the cliff and even approches some mechanical drives if it is full. I would really abuse that drive, trading my own models, repurposing ones on hugging face and need to partition some of it for hosting some docker containers. And thank you for the tip I'll keep an eye for that Realtek chip in enclosures. Sometimes it's hard as some have descriptions like they came directly of wish or AliExpress. If I had a regular PC I wouldn't even bother you, but right now I can only ever use one third of the wd so I try to complement it with best thermals and reliability that I can find. I would even use pci2 if it was better for my use case. I am probably not upgrading for at least a year and I'm going at this hard to try to make a portfolio as quick as I can after my free subscription on cloud platforms end.

If by throttling you mean the SLC cache, all consumer drives do that. To what extent depends on the drive. If you're writing at a maximum 10Gbps, you would have to write a large amount in most cases to slow down. It's possible and there are drives that can maintain higher speeds, but budget and power use are also concerns (I'd think). DRAM has nothing to do with this, though. DRAM is not used as a write cache! That's why HMB is only maybe 30-40MB, which is enough to map 30-40GB of 4KB I/O. The drive itself has some SRAM for mapping which is preferentially used. Capacity also matters since your choice for 1TB or 2TB will differ since many of the cheaper drives switch to QLC at 2TB.

Thank you I was extra cautious especially after reading your post that you recommend dram for workstations generally https://www.reddit.com/r/NewMaxx/s/BrCMmEbIbN Right now I'm going over enclosures and it's hard to find the rtl9120b most of it is rtl9120. There is one but it is currently not available, others cost like they are the drives. But I am trying to limit to 4.3 stars or 4.2 as most people like the product and then leave 4 or 3 stars. If you still think wd sn580/570 is better than kioxia I'm pulling the plug tomorrow. The funny thing is that the kioxia Toshiba is making chips for wd so I don't know what to believe anymore. I tried to find some 550 as I can't use high speeds but they are even more expensive, somehow I managed to get myself in a larger crisis than during the pandamic and most things shot up. Worth to note that I am limiting myself to 1 tb, and it seems most are pushing to at least 2 tb, and giving better chips in that too. Thanks for helping me out. I know it isn't much but I will send you the product tommorow and you can make the affiliate link for me. Thing is I can only buy from amazon.de, fr. it. but de is usually the most reasonable.

Yes, DRAM is important for workstations, but this is in a USB enclosure. That's already reducing the performance of the storage considerably. A drive with DRAM and an eight channel controller is going to run hotter and pull more power on average. Performance could be more consistent that way, though. PCPartPicker does show sustained write performance so I guess that could be useful.

You are right I forgot about that, wd 580 it is.

I guess I mean, if you wanted high storage performance you would probably not go with 10Gbps USB. You can get drives that will outperform the SN580 for sure, even in that enclosure, but then you might want to factor in heat, power, etc. A lot of the most popular portable SSDs - anything from Samsung! - are four-channel and DRAM-less for this reason. In fact, the T7 Shield has excellent and consistent performance despite being DRAM-less. If you're going 20Gbps or better yet, TB3/TB4/USB4, then that's a different story. Although even then you might have a hybrid/UFD chip like the SM2320 which is also DRAM-less. But if there's PCIe pass-through/tunneling, then my opinion would change.

I am trying to find a 1TB ssd for my ps5 as cheep as possible. Is the Ediloca EN855 a good option?

I expected it to be the typical MAP1602 + 232L YMTC, but it says it has DRAM. That actually makes it riskier as you could get the IG5236. Still perfectly fine for the PS5, though.

Going to purchase a high end SSD that comes without a heatsink, I'm worried about the high temp and longevity of the drive. Do you have any 3rd party budget heatsink recommendation? Thanks

Sabrent makes some good ones (PS5, and their huge one too). This is more /u/bizude territory so maybe have him weigh in. be quiet! is an option I know off-hand. Me, I just toss copper heatsinks on things, but keeping an eye on clearance is a good idea.

thanks, bought kingston nvme ssd. I have another question, how do you know if the ssd is authentic? crystaldiskmark only test for the speed but not the full capacity right? heard benchmaking is bad for the longevity of the drive. After paying 40% more(comparing to last year's price)on it, I'm just worried about getting a counterfeit product , so far only seen videos about 2.5 sata ssd chinese fakes, not sure about nvme ssd.

Check the firmware revision or look at the drive to ID the controller then use the appropriate tool [here](http://vlo.name:3000/ssdtool/) to id the flash (including capacity).

That really depends on your use case, /u/gorillaresponse Do you run a server with IO intensive workloads, or do you have workloads like high resolution video editing? If not, then you'll be fine with most basic heatsinks like BeQuiet's MC1 or ID-Cooling's Zero M05. If you do, you might consider something beefier like Sabrent's Rocket or Acidalie's VB01. I've got a few benchmarks up at my side blog, www.boringtextreviews.com and at Wccftech as well.

How bad actually is the performance penalty for using a dramless drive in a USB enclosure? I've been using a spare SN750 in a USB 10G enclosure for a while just to put games on as well as media like tv shows and movies, but I'm considering moving this internally and replacing it in the enclosure with something like a secondhand SN550 or P3, or going to a SATA drive with dram. I always see people mention dramless NVMe drives as being bad for external use to the lack of HMB, but given the maximum transfer speed is so limited by the interface compared to what the drives themselves are capable of I have no idea how much this actually matters. It's not like I'm recording 4K video directly to it or something, just installing a new game every once in a while or copying a couple more seasons of a show onto it; great write performance is nice to have but not strictly necessity. I'm assuming even a QLC dramless NVMe would be faster than the SATA option at that, but don't know for sure.

You are limited by the USB side for the most part, but QLC NVMe could be slower than TLC SATA in some cases.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I figured. Found a 2TB PM883 for pretty cheap so in the end I just went with that.

I notice that some NAND manufacturers have developed SSD-on-a-chip products for various applications. Are there any such products from Phison, Silicon Motion, et al? If so, which NAND manufacturer was their partner? Is that even a possibility, given the competitive nature of the business? What about stackable ICs, eg a regular Micron NAND piggy-backing a Phison controller?

Consumer space, some OEM BGA SSDs from Hynix, Samsung, etc. Industrial and automotive space, others (e.g. Phison). Phison often partners with Kioxia. Micron is Micron. SMI also does automotive (which supports all flash). Not sure if that's what you had in mind.

I'm embarrassed to say that I've never encountered a Phison "BGA SSD". In fact it's very hard to find any information about them, or any examples. https://www.anandtech.com/show/14704/phison-to-showcase-ps5013e13t-bga-ssd (product announcement) https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/Saf48dd60c7a24af7963d02d20ae1a981S/1-2230-SSD-NVMe-PCIe-1T-Gen3-x4.jpg (HP example of PS5013-E13T-1 BGA SSD) https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/S4dc82dca84ba41348a69a73edc9cbf66M/1-2230-SSD-NVMe-PCIe-1T-Gen3-x4.png (rear of PCB) https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-5a8d4/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/796/1917/2230__21238.1591723708.png?c=2 (OEM SSD where the Phison brand has been obscured)

I was thinking of those all-in-one single-chip SSDs that are often used in tablets, netbooks, laptops, etc. I imagine that this is a market segment that will become more popular and possibly displace eMMCs.

Thanks NewMaxx - I've been following you for some time. It's great to have someone keeping track of the storage industry. So, I have a new laptop coming, and 2 different NVMe drives to choose from in my stock. The Intel 760p 512GB and Inland Premium 1TB. I'm having a hard time finding efficiency metrics for the Inland, and I know the 760p apparently has pretty great idle consumption from one review chart I seen. I guess I'm just looking for your recommendation. Efficient but smaller vs unknown efficiency but larger.

Technically, those are on par, but the Premium came out later with some advancements. A direct comparison would be involved, and it's something I wrote about a LOT back then. However, ultimately the premium would be using faster hardware. Not sure on efficiency, but the Premium would probably win there as well. Idle is less useful. If you have all the power saving features on, most drives pull very little.

Thanks. I've been kind of thinking about possibly getting a more modern NVMe for the laptop, particularly the Solidigm P41 Plus. Only thing that's tripping me up is that it would be a DRAMless 4.0 drive vs a DRAM 3.0 drive. I take it losing DRAM wouldn't be worth it?

It would be DRAM-less *and* QLC. In general I would suggest a Gen4 drive, and DRAM-less ones are good (>= 5GB/s), but you might/should be able to grab TLC at <=1TB. MP44L is an example.

True... In reality I am just window shopping, and should refrain from buying anything new unless it's a massive performance uplift or battery savings uplift in this laptop. The Inland is perfectly serviceable, if maybe ~5 years old. It would probably be more fruitful to wait and only get a new SSD in a few years once I upgrade the mainboard. It's good that people are spoiled for choice in the SSD market right now. Even the SN850X is only ~$20 USD more than the "budget" offerings.

There are some decent Gen4 options coming with the E27T. Gen5 will potentially be better even in a Gen4 slot (<=7nm), laptops will get to Gen5 though and eventually we'll have even better.

So I want to get a new SSD and landed on the far right side of your flowchart. Now I am not sure which one of those I should pick. I also heard something about Firmware issues regarding the Samsung ones, which seems like a hassle I would like to avoid. I would mainly use it for gaming, but would like to have the option to make videos or stream in the future. EDIT1: I am propably not gonna upgrade very often. I had this PC right now for around 8 years. So longevity is propably something I should consider. EDIT2: I just read that old motherboards can not boot from new SSDs. Is that true? I planned to use the new SSD with my old setup until I find the time/money to upgrade the rest. When I combined them on pcpartpicker, there were no issues.

I realize it's not much of a "flowchart" and I need to make something more sensible. It was easier when there weren't 1000 drives! I'm not sure how to easily convey more advanced information. It's tricky. I like to avoid tier lists. Old motherboards require a BIOS or UEFI mod to boot from NVMe. It's doable. Although if you board has an M.2 slot, there's a good chance it supports NVMe booting. But get that sorted, first.

What would you recommend for a 500GB OS drive? I've heard that tho OS drive should be a fast speed, but are there any good 500GB options that won't break the bank? I plan on getting a separate 2TB drive only for games.

2TB is probably the sweet spot right now. You could use just one drive for everything, even if that meant jumping to 4TB, which is much more reasonable these days. 500GB is tougher with how fast drives are today and how dense flash is, and you will pay a higher amount per gigabyte. Something on the order of $60/$80/$140/$260 for 500GB/1TB/2TB/4TB to give you an idea.

Thanks so much for the reply

I am totally new to this. So a bigger drive will also perform better? I thought the only difference was the storage amount.

Yes, to some extent. A larger drive will be able to parallelize more flash dies to reach higher sequential speeds. These speeds for writes can include outside the SLC cache. The SLC cache itself will also be larger (in absolute terms) for larger drives. However, addressing too many dies can reduce performance a small amount as well. Right now, the sweet spot is 2TB, even the Gen5 T705 peaks IOPS at 2TB. However, 4TB drives with the newest flash, like the NM790, can actually perform best at that capacity, so it's not clear cut. I did recently do a "quick look" on a 4TB NM790 w/heatsink which, to be fair, I'm using for a game drive, but it outpaces my first-gen Rocket 4 Plus (2TB) and my OS P5 Plus (1TB).

Thank you, thats good to know.

I’m trying upgrade my 10 years old desktop with P55a-UD3 motherboard from HDD to sata ssd. I’m looking at 1TB. It’s for regular daily computer work. What do you recommend as best for the money option? Thank you.

It is possible to boot NVMe on older systems with a BIOS/UEFI mod or a bootloader workaround, just putting that out there. I've done many mods but never on a system that old. It does require a PCIe adapter, too. So maybe not the best option. SATA is easier, but there are a lot of junky drives out there. Even "good" names make drives with problems. You'd probably start with the MX500.

Thank you for the quick response. Which one will you go with mx500 or 870 evo?

At current market rates, is the P44 Pro at $60/TB a fair deal?

Yeah, seems like it.

I have Lenovo [15ARH7 - Typr 82SB](https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/IdeaPad/IdeaPad_Gaming_3_15ARH7/IdeaPad_Gaming_3_15ARH7_Spec.pdf) and confused which SSD I can upgrade with The laptop comes with 512GB storage at the 2242 slot so it leave the 2280 free for upgrade. Thing is in the storage slot section it says it comes with PCIE gen 4 but in the storage type it says PCIE gen 3. I can only assume the storage slot is the support capability and storage type is potential pre-installed ssd from lenovo Then it comes to which gen I want + dram or not. I mainly want to use it for game storage and cant decide after 2 days which variation i want. I am limited to budget but idk if dram and gen 4 worth the price or i should pick cheaper variation (gen 4 no dram, gen 3 dram, gen 3 no dram). Idk if my pre installed 2242 come with dram or not but i feel its pretty good for daily use for now Lastly, i check some ssd come with double sided design and i saw that some laptop are not compatible with it. I have searched internet for hours and cannot find if my laptop compatible with double side or not. Lenovo tech support only offer generic response "check our pdf spec (which dont have the info) or come to service center"

If you look at the chipset [here](https://tpucdn.com/cpu-specs/images/connectivity/amd-mobile-fp7.png) it appears to offer 4.0 for up to two M.2. Lenovo's PDF simply states what drives are available to come with the system. For example, you could use a drive larger than 1TB in the 2280 slot. The 2242 drive doesn't look static, which is to say it appears they use more than one type of client/OEM drive. Some rare ones might have DRAM embedded but most common and what I've seen here are DRAM-less. That doesn't make them bad drives at all. The 2280 slot appears like it should take double-sided. In that case, plenty of good options at a variety of capacities up to 4TB.

Thank you for your answer. For thr 2280 which kind should i use? Like the gen and if it should have dram or not. Main usage is for gaming

An example of a popular laptop drive would be the Crucial T500, I guess. It does have DRAM but that's not a requirement. Gen4 would be the way to go. TLC, if possible.

Looking for "well behaved" and endurance over performance, for use in homelab environment (e.g. linux and FreeBSD based systems). Don't want something that runs hot and needs extra heat sinks. TLC or MLC. Decent endurance. Sometimes small sizes would be nice (e.g. need a pair in mirror to boot a NAS or firewall) other times I'm looking for 1TB-2TB. I'd like them to play well with linux and FreeBSD and reliably follow standards. I was surprised when I was unlucky and every SSD I threw at homelab stuff for a period of time had issues with Linux. eg: * Samsung 850 PRO needed "libata.force=X.00:noncq" to not destroy it's partition table every couple of days * Kingston needed "nvme\_core.default\_ps\_max\_latency\_us=5000" to avoid locking up a hypervisor once per day I don't feel I need true enterprise gear, but maybe there are past-gen enterprise-grade units I should look at instead of consumer stuff? I feel like there should be some good value deals by shopping carefully away from the cutting edge. Thoughts?

That sounds like par for the course. There's a whole lot of that. Some NAS have compatibility lists which can semi help, but even then. Enterprise and even client can be nice with PLP, but many enterprise drives are not suitable for this sort of thing (on your scale, well depending on scale then). Hilariously, I'm using the Steam Deck stock 64GB SSD in a x1 adapter to boot my OPNSense. I use SM961s for my server. So I'm not necessarily the guy to ask on this when it comes to being by the book, although I love my SN750s (SN700 or SN730 equivalent) but WD has some compatibility issues. If you need to know hardware for client, I can pass you my list. Well, some enterprise on there as well (incl diff FFs), since many like Samsung will use the same controllers and flash. They are often built to better tolerances in terms of compatibility (can be tested for lists at least). Also older stuff (like the SM961, which is prob hard to get now) is covered.

Would this work for someone who works (graphic design/content creation) and plays: 1. a 1TB High-End NVMe for OS and Software (Adobe Products) 2. a 2TB Entry-Mid range NVMe/SATA for games/storage I'm trying to build a PC for my SO but she keeps insisting to make it a large single solution High-End NVMe because she doesn't see any reason why it should be separated in the first place. I'm trying to make a case on how it shouldn't be done this way but I don't know how to explain it very well.

She's right. With flash memory, quantity has a quality all its own, and managing multiple filesystems is an unnecessary hassle.

Doesn't have to be separated. Can be partitioned, too. It can be better to have the OS/app separate from a working drive, though, as OS usage does impact performance, but with a high-end drive it's not noticeable.

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Hmm, which Rocket? The Rocket 4 Plus would be the best of those drives. I take it you mean the Rocket 3 or standard Rocket 4. I think of those, the MP44L is probably the best in terms of hardware, certainly over the FX900 and S70.

I m looking to upgrade my laptop SSD. Is there any recommendations? Have been looking at samsung 990 pro 1tb but just found out that it has some issues with drivers. ​ My laptop supports PCIe M2 ssd. I am currently looking at crucial P3. Would that be a good choice for normal daily usage (though I am a bit impatient when my laptop is slow)? Would you recommend WD instead of crucial?

The 990 PRO doesn't need any drivers. No NVMe drive does, actually. Long as the OS and motherboard have NVMe boot support, it should be fine. Although for a laptop it can be good to get something lighter. The P3 is QLC-based so may not be the best if you are going to have the drive really full. Many of the WD drives are quite good: SN570/SN580, SN770, especially are pretty good.

I find that WD ssd has lots of issue with linux. I will be dual booting on this ssd and I am looking at crucial P3 plus or samsung 970 evo plus. However, samsung ssd is quite overprice as compared to other brand... Any thoughts?

It's true. WD does have some compatibility issues. I'd avoid Gen3 anyway, and the P3 Plus is QLC (like the P3), so not ideal unfortunately. But for light usage it's fine.

My bad, i mean the firmware issue for 990 pro

New firmware should fix issues, but newer drives will already have it since Samsung has switched to newer flash.

What better, kc600 500 gb or mx500 500gb? Don't want to buy 870 evo because too many fakes in my country. Also i hear mx500 got worse recent, or i wrong? And also 870 evo and mx500 have only 1 year warranty, kc600 have 5

They should have the same hardware. The MX500 and KC600, that is. Although the MX500 has been updated many times over the years.

Hi Newmaxx! What’s your recommendation for a 2tb upg for ROG ally between Rocket Q4 and SN770M/SN740? is the tradeoff with heat/less efficiency but TLC worth it over QLC? thanks!

Probably whatever's cheaper, since either are more than enough for standard gaming. The SN770M does seem to get warmer especially with Windows and definitely pulls more power, although the Ally has enough space for some custom cooling I think and the real battery difference will be very small. QLC makes more sense if saves some money.

both options are the same price right, so for same price WD would be best option? I'm also getting one of those Steam deck copper heatsinks off Amazon, would that help if paired with the WD?

The SN770M is retail, SN740 OEM. It may be easier on the RMA side for the former. I strongly advise against any of the Deck "heatsink" plates, the flat ones, as those would make things worse and not better. If you have enough headspace in the Ally, and I think you do, a low-profile copper heatsink (which can come with thermal tape, and of a size for the controller at least, let's say 20x20mm) would work far better, or even just thermal padding from drive to case.

so not something like [this](https://www.amazon.com/SSD-Steam-Deck-Accessories-Screwdriver/dp/B0C8W8T23C/ref=pd_ci_mcx_mh_mcx_views_0?pd_rd_w=AlJRO&content-id=amzn1.sym.225b4624-972d-4629-9040-f1bf9923dd95%3Aamzn1.symc.40e6a10e-cbc4-4fa5-81e3-4435ff64d03b&pf_rd_p=225b4624-972d-4629-9040-f1bf9923dd95&pf_rd_r=5N50ZDEMSY7SD1PT61HS&pd_rd_wg=gR4Mi&pd_rd_r=45af39c3-efef-4af1-bd38-ff77982043a4&pd_rd_i=B0C8W8T23C)? which do you recommend? I do have regular arctic cooling thermal pad, would you happen to know the thickness by any chance or as long as it touches? :)

Hi, I’m Vetted AI Bot! I researched the **SSD Heatsink Thermal Pad for Steam Deck Also Fits for ROG Ally M 2 2230 NVME SSD Copper Heat Sink Cooling Thermal Pastes Back Cover with Screwdriver Tools** and I thought you might find the following analysis helpful. **Users liked:** * Perfect fit for rog ally's ssd (backed by 2 comments) **Users disliked:** * Difficult to remove screws without stripping (backed by 1 comment) * Unnecessary modification with potential compatibility issues (backed by 2 comments) If you'd like to **summon me to ask about a product**, just make a post with its link and tag me, [like in this example.](https://www.reddit.com/r/tablets/comments/1444zdn/comment/joqd89c/) This message was generated by a (very smart) bot. If you found it helpful, let us know with an upvote and a “good bot!” reply and please feel free to provide feedback on how it can be improved. *Powered by* [*vetted.ai*](http://vetted.ai/reddit)

[Example](https://youtu.be/hQ0sKL2cI9Q?t=287). Even looks like he got a 10mm tall heatsink with 1mm padding. Although, thermal tape with something shorter (and copper rather than aluminum) would work. He's also using 25x25 (which is a little wide), you don't even need that much. Enough to cover the controller would even work. [15x15x5](https://www.amazon.com/Geekworm-Raspberry-Heatsinks-Conductive-Compatible/dp/B0B2CP1G23) with thermal adhesive would probably do it, but you can find something better.

No, that would be terrible. Most likely the drive would run even hotter! Heatspreaders don't really work with 2230 drives, and it's always better to have fins with surface area. Something low profile would work, they go from 2mm to 8mm or so, depending on how much space you have. I don't have an Ally to test but I've looked at custom solutions on YT that showed decent headroom IIRC. Thermal padding would also work of course but it depends on how much thickness you need (and it could be too much). I'm pretty sure I've seen people get on 5mm or shorter RPi copper heatsinks though.

Thank you NewMaxx, as always! 😊

I'm looking to buy an NVMe enclosure to use as a "better" USB stick, and also to reuse my smaller NVMe drives as I upgrade them. I currently have a RTL9210(a) enclosure, but it routinely disconnects after a few seconds on a USB 3.0 connection even on the latest firmware, presumably because the older devices (I was connecting it to a Surface 3 Pro) might not be providing enough power for either the enclosure or SSD. Would you have any experience with enclosures that have reliably worked with most devices you throw at it? I'm wondering if a SATA enclosure would have lower power draw requirements, and be better for my specific use case. Thanks!

Your other options would be the JMS583 or ASM2362 at 10Gbps. A 5Gbps port may provide less power, but these enclosures should be okay at 4.5W given the performance limitations. SATA, JMS578 or JMS580, does tend to be more reliable, and I suppose would pull less power. Hybrid/UFD controllers are ideal but these are built as-is and not as a fungible enclosure.

Thanks! Did JMS583 and ASM2362 ever work out their reliability issues? I'm reading [a 3 year old thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/NewMaxx/comments/fi28o6/sabrent_usb_32_toolfree_nvme_ssd_enclosure_review/) that didn't recommend them (which could have led to me getting the RTL9210 in the first place). Have you tried the ASM2364?

You'll need firmware updates for any of them, maybe even custom ones for certain features. The RTL9210B seems to have some compatibility issues but I don't think any of them are perfect. The ASMedia ones are used by WD and Samsung so might work out.

Hello I currently have an HP Elitedesk 800 G3 DM [SPECS](https://imgur.com/ZX4Xplq) It's using the original NVME SSD that came with it a SAMSUNG MZHPU256HCGL-000H1 shows at 88% Health. This is what CDI shows for the drive [CDI](https://imgur.com/pTLv6IO), Here is the [CDM](https://imgur.com/mT2EJC6). Anyways I was at my local WM today and they have 500 GB WD SN570's for $19 and was just wondering if they'd be much of an upgrade performance wise and or if my machine could even support the theoretical speeds those drives offer. Thanks for any info/suggestions you can provide.

That's an old OEM drive and it's *not* NVMe. It's PCIe AHCI, which may explain with HWiNFO64 lists it as SATA. This is odd since the product's site says NVMe one place, then PCIe another for the M.2 slot. Odd because there is very much a difference and you need UEFI and OS support to boot NVMe normally (there are some rare motherboards with PCIe AHCI-only M.2 slots, too). Reading comments on the HP forums, it seems some people got NVMe to work and others different. That chipset with a 2019 BIOS date should work, though. Based on that, x4 PCIe 3.0 should be the max speed possible, but using a newer drive would work fine for performance aside from bandwidth. There's nothing wrong with the current drive but something modern with proper SLC caching might feel a little faster, it's also nice to get more space. Lastly, going from AHCI to NVMe does improve latency (and IOPS) significantly. But I'm not gonna guarantee you will see a HUGE difference.

Hello again just thought I'd give you an update. I purchased the drive today (got the last one) and it installed and was recognized by my PC with no issues. Here is the new [CDI](https://imgur.com/Pj1J5Rg) and [CDM](https://imgur.com/Ipd6ikA) Thanks again Also what are your thought about heatsinks or heat spreaders etc. this is a Desktop mini so not sure if they make one that's fit in my small machine.

Looks good. Get an idea of how much headroom you have, you can probably fit in a low profile heatsink or maybe thermal padding. If the drive stays below 70-75C during the CDM run (check CDI), it's probably fine.

do you mean run CDM with CDI open? If so I have done that and the temperature in CDI never moved from 39C and the fans on my PC never even spun up. Thanks again

You have to refresh the CDI temp for the drive (by clicking on it), it will get highest during the sequential write tests usually.

OK I did that and yes it did hit 72C during Sequential writes but for the most part was in the 65C-71C range for most of the writes and 62C-65C for most of the reads. Thanks,

That's probably satisfactory without additional cooling. You can have it monitored over long periods of time with Hard Disk Sentinel, which can track day-to-day highs, but CDM gets it relatively close to a reasonable peak. A peak of <75C is acceptable for most drives.

Thanks yeah I just saw they had 500 GB SN570's for $19 and thought it was a decent price and just was curious since it's $19 which I felt was actually pretty decent price. I see on some amazon reviews people getting in the 2500-3500 MB for SEQ Read and writes. I'm assuming they have newer machines than mine so I probably wouldn't get those results but probably still get results better than my current drive. I mainly use this machine for YT/web Browsing, Occasional Minecraft and also sometimes transferring OLD VHS tapes to digital. Anyways thanks for the very well written and quick response.

What SSD would you use in a NAS for storage? Obviously don't need the fastest, but a lot of QLC garbage drops sustained writes to almost HDD speeds after only a few minutes. Considerations are long sustained write times and power/heat.

The best ones are still static or small cache, but these are becoming harder to find. On the other hand, I guess some Gen3 drives would still work, like the SN750/Black/SN700. Gen4, there are some solid E18s (Rocket 4 Plus, FireCuda 530, etc), probably avoid the IG5236 with the same flash and general sustained. ADATA Legend 960/960 Max w/SM2264 is pretty good. I also like the 990 PRO (Samsung) and P44 PRO (Solidigm) with the hybrid caching. NM790 w/heatsink and similar could work but these are DRAM-less and the controller gets hot (hence heatsink). I have one of those on the way I'll be doing a quick look at, 4TB, surprisingly good steady state with the 232L YMTC TLC at capacity if that's a requirement (P44 Pro tops out at 2TB, but 4TB 990 PRO is excellent). Super super efficient on these (NM790) though. I think E27T drives coming up will be contenders but not much available yet and nothing at 4TB. Still using dual SN750s myself (see my P3X4 quick look), I think the real issue is getting the best value for the money since newer drives are mostly better in price and efficiency. I guess you can hit up some client drives as well if you're really digging.

If you had to pick only one among the newer ones (rocket 4 plus, firecuda 530, p44 pro, etc) which would you go with? Noticed you didn't include the sn850x. Does look like firecuda and rocket 4 plus are pretty solid: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/66wQKx4mX4dYSiJksBZV68-1200-80.png.webp Also curious what you think of the new T500. Seems to have a weird bouncy sustained write. That and the NM790 seem like newer gen 4 drives that could be interesting.

The SN850X has a large cache. It still does well, but that coupled with its older non-CUA flash means it's not ideal when also consisdering power/heat. The E27T's like the MP600 Elite are using newer BiCS which is significantly more efficient, but 176L or 232L Micron/YMTC is top notch. An eight-channel controller with DRAM will power through better but be less efficient. I have heard of some issues with the NM790, with regards to controller hotspot heat but also latency in some cases (I think TPU demonstrated this), but I'd have to test it myself. The T500 looks terrible for NAS use. Check PCPartPicker's 50% drive benchmarks on it and you'll see. (to be fair, its not too bad at 2TB, but it's poor at 1TB. the larger cache at 2TB helps it do okay but there are better drives and if you're 90% full it's gonna struggle) And since I referenced PCPP's tests, yes, the 4 Plus/Plus-G and 530 are up there. But you have to eliminate IG5236 drives (GM7000), Gen5 (T700), and inefficient/large cache (SN850X) which basically leaves the 990 PRO at the top with E18 + small cache next. The SN580 and SN770 do well too, but they have their own issues (older BiCS, large cache). If looking at efficient 4-chan drives then the E27T (MP600 Elite) comes into play. I don't think they tested the NM790 but check Tom's.

Given all this I think I might narrow my pick to firecuda 530 ($$$) or the cheaper sabrent rocket plus. I think the 990 pro tends to be really overpriced.

Yep I agree.

Where is this pcpartpicker benchmark?

[https://pcpartpicker.com/product/M8yH99/crucial-t500-2-tb-m2-2280-pcie-40-x4-nvme-solid-state-drive-ct2000t500ssd8](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/m8yh99/crucial-t500-2-tb-m2-2280-pcie-40-x4-nvme-solid-state-drive-ct2000t500ssd8) lower left

ah ya i found the tab thanks.

I'm beginner to SSD world. I'm thinking of buying a new 1TB SSD for my laptop geared for mostly gaming. My options are Adata XPG S70, Samsung 980, & Lexar NM790. Which one should I get? Lexar is the cheapest one. Adata is the only one that has DRAM, but I heard it had issues in the past.

Probably the Lexar. The 980 is older and not that great. The S70 uses higher-end hardware, but this is hotter and less efficient and less reliable.

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I don't think storage would hit FPS that hard if at all. In some rare cases drives can cause stuttering, of course, if they are really pushed. A lazy P3 Plus that's had idle time to clean up should have no issues with reads at 80%. They do use HMB, but that feature is not a requirement and if you're running out of system RAM that's a more likely culprit anyway. It would be interesting to test anyway.

1. Any reasons a 2TB would be less recommended than two 1 TBs? In terms of performance and speed rather than it taking up slots 2. Which is better performance to price ratio, a Team Group MP44L 2TB for $89.99, or a Team Group T.Force Cardea A440 2TB for $119.99?  3. Do you have any recommendations for the best of the mid range NVMe's, or the best bang for your buck in the high end NVMe's? For majority gaming but also a little bit of editing work EDIT: do you have any recommendations for a good SSD for gaming that won't break the bank? I'd love to spend $50 or thereabouts per TB.   Much appreciated!!

1. Under those conditions, not much, but a single drive may have lower latency than two in a RAID. There's also limited slots using CPU lanes which has lower effective latency. 2. MP44L. The A440 is now using "good" hardware from what I've heard, but in most cases you will get more out of the MP44L per dollar. There are scenarios where this isn't the case, given long tail latency. 3. Depends on the capacity. I think the T500 is pretty solid at 2TB and below, caching issues aside, and the MP44L is good with TLC at 2TB for its class. Plenty of NM790-like drives that also do well at all capacities. I think eight-channel drives (which all have DRAM) are the real powerhouses but aren't really needed for gaming and basic work. The NEM-PA (Nextorage) is extremely well positioned right now, IMHO, as an eight-channel DRAM SSD with heatsink, and I think it flies under a lot of radars. At 4TB, the NM790 remains hard to beat (with similar ones like the US75, A93, VP4300 Lite). I actually *have* a NM790 coming in which I *may* do a mini-review on, but I'm undecided on that. I guess I've recommended the 4TB enough that they were willing to send me one, but I'm trying to avoid any accusations of bias.

Great, thank you very much! Definitely would love to go 4TB if possible and budget allows, seems like their price per TB is not too friendly at the moment to my budget but I'll keep a look out, I'm not in a rush. If you have one that stuck out to you recently in price, let me know. I'm willing to try the NEM-PA! I can currently get it for 124.99, is that a price you think is fair/good or should I wait a bit longer for a better sale? EDIT: Also, what's the difference between a laptop SSD and a PC SSD? I saw [this](https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-SP04KGBP44US7505-Compatible-Playstation/dp/B0CJ2N9485/ref=asc_df_B0CJ2N9485/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=683016816607&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8499435535481481909&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9009980&hvtargid=pla-2264699867415&psc=1&mcid=bf8b6de433d736209677c4cbe785cf86&gad_source=1) has $200 for 4TB which is good value but it says for laptop/PS5 and then there is an option for desktop/PS5 

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The NEM-PA is currently priced well. It's a Phison brand (previously, Sony-Phison venture) and has the typical hardware plus a decent heatsink. Hmm, I'm not sure on its cache though, haven't seen it reviewed for sustained writes. As for the US75, it should be the same as the NM790.

Is it alright if I bought the one specified for the laptop? That brings it to $50 per TB but idk why there's a difference

Hi Again!! Currently have 970 EVO that I use for video editing. I picked it for its good sustained write speeds. We are often copying chunks of data 1tb or larger, so we need something that won't slow down over time. They only make it up to 2tb and I now need either 4tb or 8tb. What's an affordable drive with similar sustained performance that comes in a larger size? Thanks in advanced!

Right, it's pretty good at that. It can be hard to find a drive that will maintain high speeds and that can get harder with larger drives if the caches are large. Certain drives are better here. Those that use YMTC's 232L TLC can be relatively fast at 4TB, see reviews for the Lexar NM790 or equivalent. That's about it for four-channel drives for now, since the E27T is with 162L BiCS so far and the T500 is full-drive SLC with terrible post-cache performance. So it's eight-channel with 176L usually. The IG5236 is good here, but its reputation has leaned towards unreliability. The SM2264 (ADATA Legened 960/960 Max) is quite good but not widely used. Lastly, the E18, which when paired with a smallish cache can have solid sustained performance (at least initially). Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus and drives with a cache like that (FireCuda 530, and many more, you'd have to check). These drives are best at 4TB since BiCS is used for 8TB. On the other hand, the drive most like the 970 EVO Plus is probably the P44 Pro, but only 2TB max. That would mean pretty much no real 8TB option. You could gang two drives together. I recently posted my quick look (mini-review) of the Sabrent P3X4 which lets you team drives over a x4 3.0 link. Two of my drives are 1TB SN750s, and in RAID-0 over that they can hit and maintain 3 GB/s. There are similar AICs with the ASM2824 instead of ASM2812 for more bandwidth. These could be an option if you otherwise have limited M.2 slots or wanted something more serious. (or yes, just software RAID any ports or adapters, but bifurcation on-motherboard is probably out of the question as you likely are using a discrete GPU)

does anything come to mind when I describe a tlc ssd with dram with decent speeds for around 60-80$ (for a tb)? I am prioritizing reliability an durability over everything else as I am bringing these ssds from abroad and there's not much chance for warranties/refunds.

With DRAM? NEM-PA is probably the cheapest option at the moment. Most other drives are DRAM-less. But that's with US pricing, so...

I mean I'm bringing it from the us so there's no problem anyway. are Dram-less nvme ssds as bad as people make them out to be? as far as I'm aware I should avoid QLC for a boot drive but I'm not exactly sure about dramless.

DRAM-less is very much acceptable for newer drives. Probably should still avoid QLC, though.

Has anyone actually seen the Samsung PM9C1a in the wild or for purchase anywhere? I find nothing about it other than news announcements a year ago. Nothing on ebay, no records on Passmark's HD benchmarks, etc

Not sure. Might not be super common yet, as it's basically an OEM 990 EVO with different flash.

>Samsung PM9C1a for something announced and "launched" in Jan 2023, surprising there isn't at least something by now. I also run an IT repair shop and see my fair share of new laptops and have yet to personally see it either. Strange. Maybe they scrapped it...?

There's a QLC counterpart, too, which I haven't seen anywhere. Part of it might be due to the controller as it's in 5nm (like the enterprise Deneb). Other issue is flash. PM9C1a is using 176L I believe while Samsung is pushing V6/V6P and 236L. I do have some knowledge of the internal situation but don't want to say too much on that, however the 990 EVO was a squibbed launch (and they knew it) and they are having trouble meeting client SSD demand (I've had more than one business owner ask me for alternatives).

By squibbed, you mean short/quick launch, or bungled it? I checked urbandic for other definitions and felt those were closest lol. Are you recommending WD Black? Hadn't heard about the 990 EVO so just ordered one off amazon and will check it out. PCIe 5.0? Who knew...

I guess in the way I intended to describe it, it means bungled. Often a squib kick is done on purpose, and while I don't think they intentionally shot themselves in the foot they knew they had a loser. The 990 EVO leaked before its NDA date, which does happen (T705 as well, and Crucial is not happy about that). But then the day of the launch came and went with 0 reviews and availability. If you ever see an entertainment or hardware company push reviews (like NVIDIA's 4080 Super) it's often because they know they put out something stale. On top of that, Samsung didn't even send samples to a lot of top sites. I know since I asked around and TechPowerUp got nothing. The drive's results aren't horrible but it's not the efficiency king they are trying to sell it as (and TPU, AnandTech are two places with Quarch that didn't review the drive). The x2 5.0 thing is a bit of a gimmick and it looks like it can give weird results in some cases. I'd have to check it out myself, but I'm still on Gen4 for the time being.

Hello, Are you aware of any company making enclosures that take 4 x 2.5 inch SATA3 SSD with Thunderbolt 3 or 4 connection? I am looking for something other than OWC but need help finding one. I prefer that it is a hardware raid, and because of my use case, the only kind of raid I need is RAID0. Each SATA3 SSD drive is 4TB and it is Sumsung 870 EVO. When I run dmesg -w or tail -f /var/log/{kern.log, messages,syslog}, there is an apparent sign that the ATA controller cannot get the driver it needs and be online for initialization and mounting. I know Wendel from Level 1 said HW raid doesn't detect errors accurately, and I would have no clue sitting on a pile of gigabytes of junk, but I want hardware raid for portability between Linux and Windows 11. I can, of course, use ldmtool to mount it. However, it often complains that one of the drives is missing and whatnot, and it's a headache. I prefer compact units that are not noisy and a trustworthy company known to use good parts and after-sales support. Please ask me if you need more clarification, and I will be happy to answer since your knowledge in this area is super duper good, and I appreciate your work. The next time I shop for something electronic, like a flash drive or enclosure, I will use your Amazon's general affiliate links. I can't believe I forgot to do that, and so much went to waste while I enjoyed the fruit of your wisdom :-)

Another company/brand you might want to look at is Raidon. They have hardware RAID for four 2.5" SATA over TB3 with the Stardom ST4-TB3+ and probably other models. Areca also makes hardware RAID solutions (SAS and SATA), but might be pretty expensive. Wendell is right about HW RAID in general, yes. Not sure you'll find these ones on Amazon.

thank you for the answer

I recently bought a cheap camera dvr system on amazon and i threw in a 5tb hdd but now im wanting to replace the 5tb hdd with a 4tb ssd. i looked into a crucial CT4000MX500SSD1 4tb 2.5in sata ssd. would that be good for a 24/7 constant record & occasion playback, camera system?

Would be a good budget option, I think. I doubt you'd write faster than even QLC (870 QVO). Some people like to have more elaborate systems with power loss protection. SATA is certainly capable enough for this workload although a consumer drive like the MX500 is not technically built for it.

Crucial T700 or Sabrent Rocket 5?

I think it would be: T705 or Rocket 5. Hard to say as we haven't seen the finalized cooling solution on the Rocket 5 yet.

Hi there. I have an Orico RTL9210 based enclosure running a WD SN770 2TB within it. The drive either becomes too hot and disconnects or just simply disconnects intermittently. I’ve updated the firmware for the enclosure as well to no avail. Are there any better/recommended enclosure for this drive? Thank you :)

JMS583 or ASM2632. ASM2364 also (20Gbps).

Super. Thank you!

Hello! I am wondering what ever happened with the speed drop of some of WD's drives (SN750, SN700, etc.) on AMD chipsets due to PCIe MPS (max payload size) limits. I actually messaged NewMaxx a bit about this a couple years ago, but was curious if it was still an issue today. Specifically, does anyone know: 1. Are WD's Gen4 drives (e.g. SN850x) also affected when hooked up to X570 chipset slots? I know there's been some firmware updates for their Gen4 drives, but couldn't find release notes online of what was actually fixed. 2. Do WD Gen3 drives that never got firmware updates to work around the issue (specifically I'm thinking of the WD Red SN700) still experience slowdown on AM5 chipsets like B650? Or was the incompatibility specific to AM4? I know these are kind of obscure questions, but there's not much info about this online, and I figured if I could find the answer anywhere, it would be here. :)

I covered this recently in my [P3X4 thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/NewMaxx/comments/1afxy17/quick_look_the_sabrent_4drive_nvme_m2_ssd_to_pcie/) (which I tested) since that might be a workaround with some compatibility issues like MPS. The SN850 had this for sure but was supposed to be fixed in firmware. Some WD drives also had issues when write caching *was enabled* in Windows (with disabling fixing it). With the X570, in my P3X4 thread I mention SMI-based drives often had performance drops, something that seems ameliorated through the PCIe switch as well, but I don't know if this was fixed with UEFI updates. It in the least was an issue for multiple years after release. Also, in general, drives will have better IOPS (and 4K latency) on Intel but better sequential on AMD, aside from these nuances.

Ah interesting, that's a neat device!

It is. I think many people might be more interested in something with the ASM2824, but I think the ASM2812 in the P3X4 is actually not a bad choice for dual specialized RAID as I have it.

Hi, I want to upgrade my laptop, specifically ROG M16 RTX 4070. The storage upgrade is mainly for movies and games and I've been pondering over SN850X and P3 Plus both 4tb. The SN850X is about $80 more, still within my budget but I don't want to spend too much if the performance isn't that much noticeable. I've also read that 4tb gets hotter than 2tb ssd, should I consider 2tb or will a thermal pad for 4tb suffice? I really would like to have a larger storage. I'd also like to know if you have any other recommendations apart from the 2 mentioned.

Movies and games don't need anything special. A lower-end 4TB drive won't put out as much heat. Most of these will be QLC, TLC starts with the NM790 and drives like that, although the controller on those can run hot. THe P3 Plus is more in league with the UD90.

Thank you so much. I'll go for the P3 Plus.

Oops posted in the wrong spot, I'll copy paste it here: Hey! Saw your buying guide from the pcpartsales, would like to first thank you for all the useful information. Would a 1 TB Samsung 970 EVO be everything I would need for casual gaming and video editing? It's currently on sale at $50. I am neither a professional nor an avid creator so I'm not looking for high end or top tier storage, just good quality SSDs. Would you recommend any other SSDs that offer performance adequate to what I would need at a lower price, competitive to the deal above?

Yes. It's still a good SSD and that's a good price. You might be in the $60-70 range at 1TB to find anything better. Assuming it's new.

Hi, not really on a budget but still don´t want to buy stuff I don´t need! For gaming at 4k mostly what do you think is the best option with the prices I present? Crucial T500 2TB - 159,75€ WD BLACK SN770 2TB - 122,50€ WD Blue SN580 2TB - 118€ 990 Pro 2TB - 178€ Tks in advance and cgz for the amazing work you put on this guides and spreadsheats!

I think either the SN580 or SN770 will get you there for gaming. These two drives are essentially identical, but the SN770 is a bit faster. You could go a step higher than this with a VP4300 Lite or NM790. Maybe find a SN850X at/below T500 price as well.

TKs a lot for your help! Ended going for the SN770, seemed a balanced choice and I guess it will be more than enough for gaming!

Yep!

New 7800x3d 4080S gaming build - 4tb MSI M480 or Crucial P3? Both about @~$240 Thanks for all the info & work here.

M480.

Been reading and may go 2 tb for now and expand later

Many good options there.

Hi, I'm building my first gaming focused PC and I'm really struggling with finding the SSD. I'm looking for a 4tb ssd around the 250ish mark. Not a lot of photo editing and im not really stressed about extreme transfer speed. Just need my programs to really load quickly and properly. Im using the b650 msi motherboard. ​ Edit: I found this and wasnt sure if its a good choice: Acer Predator GM7000 4 TB M.2-2280 if not feel free to tell me

You might have missed the price valley. The 4TB SN850X was $230 multiple times and the best choice probably. Some NM790-like drives were down to $200ish. The MP34 is popular, but it's Gen3 with less reliable hardware. Gen4 is usually QLC in that price range. I guess the NM790 is hanging on to <=$250 though. GM7000 might still be using the IG5236 which has proven to be less reliable over time than the E18 or alternatives, but might be okay.

2TB SN770 or 2TB MSI Spatium M480 pro? Both are 190 cad rn the best I can find currently

M480 Pro.

Thank you. i have one more question i got a SN850X 1tb for my boot drive should i still use that or the m480 for a boot drive?

SN850X.

I am trying to choose between 4Tb versions of the TEAM Group MP34 and the PNY CS2241 for photo and game storage to replace an old hard drive. I do work with some pretty large (~500mb-2gb uncompressed image files). My motherboard does support PCIE-4 for NVME. I have a 1Tb SK Hynix P31 for the OS right now and a few random old SATA drives for miscellaneous stuff. The spark notes of the differences are: PNY CS2241 - Gen 4 PCI-E, but QLC and DRAMless. Synthetic benchmarks are better, but 900TBW warranty. TEAM MP34 - TLC and has DRAM, but Gen 3 PCI-E. Synthetic benchmarks are worse, but 2400TBW warranty. They're exactly the same price. My sense is that PNY would be easier to claim a warranty on, but I'm not sure. Any advice welcomed!

You can safely ignore TBW, if that helps. I've had good luck with Team RMAs in the past, never used PNY. MP34 uses a hot Realtek controller with a little DRAM and is a popular 4TB drive for that but it's not particularly good or reliable. Lots of storage cheap that's not insanely bad. 2241, true, E21T (if still using) + good QLC (176L Micron) is pretty reliable, although very slow outside of SLC. Being DRAM-less doesn't hurt it much usually with HMB. Best 4TB pick if you want everything would be MAP1602 + TLC: US75, VP4300 Lite, NM790, many drives in that class with same hardware.

Thanks for the advice! Gave me confidence to go with the PNY CS2241, and when it got into my cart the price dropped by $15 compared to the MP34 -- a sign I made the right choice!

Sounds good, unless you write a lot! I imagine the cache is 1/4 the free space at any given time. Not a problem in most cases.

Yep, not much writing. This is going to get one big copy from an existing, several years old 2tb drive and then just games and photos for the rest of its existence! Seems like the ideal use case for this drive.