Question 1TB SSD recommendations

[molly_dog]

Hi all,
Looking to upgrade my SSD. Was originally looking at 512gb but since the price has dropped so much I'm now looking at 1TB.

There are two in my price range but I'm behind the times on hardware because I've been involved in other activities so I'm hoping someone will help my decision.

My motherboard is an ASUS H110M-E/M.2 with a Core i5-6600K. Aside from web design and run-of-the-mill routine tasks my main focus is electronic music production. I'm using Reason 10.2 DAW, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface, and an M Audio Oxygen 49 MIDI controller.

I'm looking at:
1) WD Blue 3D NAND 1TB PC SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s, M.2 2280 - WDS100T2B0B
or
2) Intel SSD 660p Series (1.0TB M.2 80mm PCIe 3.0 x 4 3D2 QLC) 2 2281" (978350)

I'm amazed that I haven't been able to find any compatibility charts for ASUS, WD, or Intel. But I'm not 100% sure that the Intel product will work with my board but, there again, that's why I'm asking y'all for help.

Thanks so much for all suggestions!

 

[mundial]

The WD Blue 3D uses BiCs NAND which is "charge trap" technology.

Intel use "floating gate" technology which is from the 1970's and not as reliable.

Go with 1. Moreover, it's S-ATA which means it will be almost certainly compatible with your motherboard.

 

[failboat]

I don't think m.2 slots are either or. check if yours is pcie 3.0x4 or sata3.

sata3 caps all ssd around that 500MBs mark. NVME is much higher. the intel has much better seq.
neither drive caps out with mixed random. below are the charts. no QLC nand does well in this test.
I'd go with intel due to higher seq speeds.

another thing to watch out for is ram cache on ssd. some of the cheaper ones don't have any. most suffer from slow writes. in most cases you don't write very often so it writes to cache.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/10741/the-western-digital-blue-1tb-ssd-review/8

The Intel SSD 660p SSD Review: QLC NAND Arrives For Consumer SSDs

www.anandtech.com

 

[failboat]

I just checked the m.2 on that board. only the intel PCIE ssd will work at reduced speeds. The board is m.2 PCIE 2.0x2 ( i think it's about 1GB/s max)
the sata3 in m.2 WD one won't, but you could buy the sata3 version.

early skylake didn't start adopting m.2 PCIE 3.0x4 as the default due to not many NVME drives out. most new boards have 1 or 2 of those now.

 

[molly_dog]

I don't think m.2 slots are either or. check if yours is pcie 3.0x4 or sata3.

sata3 caps all ssd around that 500MBs mark. NVME is much higher. the intel has much better seq.
neither drive caps out with mixed random. below are the charts. no QLC nand does well in this test.
I'd go with intel due to higher seq speeds.

another thing to watch out for is ram cache on ssd. some of the cheaper ones don't have any. most suffer from slow writes. in most cases you don't write very often so it writes to cache.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/10741/the-western-digital-blue-1tb-ssd-review/8

The Intel SSD 660p SSD Review: QLC NAND Arrives For Consumer SSDs

www.anandtech.com

Definitely "SATA 3"

Thanks!

 

[molly_dog]

The WD Blue 3D uses BiCs NAND which is "charge trap" technology.

Intel use "floating gate" technology which is from the 1970's and not as reliable.

Go with 1. Moreover, it's S-ATA which means it will be almost certainly compatible with your motherboard.

I neglected to mention that I'm only using this drive for the OS and certain program files. All data is stored on multiple SATA disk drives.

I've always leaned towards WD drives. Don't recall ever owning an Intel.

Thanks!!

 

[molly_dog]

Thanks everybody. Just looking more closely at the specs of the WD Blue since I'm on my desktop instead of mobile. According to Western Digital anyway, this drive is compatible with SATA III and the form factor of my board.

As I mentioned to mundial, this drive is only for the OS and certain program files. All file storage is on separate SATA disks. When I built this box, SSDs were still pretty pricey so I was limited by money (or the lack thereof) to a 256GB which has been redlining for about 6 months.

Reason doesn't require ultra-high specs and the graphics work I do seems to be handled well enough with my GeForce GTX 1060 6GB card. I may not get bleeding edge performance out of this SSD but having more available space has to be an improvement.

Thanks again for all your help!!!👍👍
-Jack

 

[mdd1963]

Corsair's MX500 is darn well priced these days....a little cheaper than the 860 EVO....

 

[mdd1963]

The WD Blue 3D uses BiCs NAND which is "charge trap" technology.

Intel use "floating gate" technology which is from the 1970's and not as reliable.

Go with 1. Moreover, it's S-ATA which means it will be almost certainly compatible with your motherboard.

Are you honestly inferring/imply that Intel's SSDs are... not reliable? DId you hear this somewhere?
Or do you consider 3D NAND SSDs on NVME to truly be '70's technology'? !

Wow.

Intel's 660P may not be the fastest M.2 NVME drives out there, but, they are rated highly, and, have high endurance ratings. (like 500-800 TBW for a 1 TB drive?) ALso, they are now DIRT cheap, cheaper than many standard SATA drives, twice as fast, sometimes DOUBLE the capacity as well at the same cost...

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13078/the-intel-ssd-660p-ssd-review-qlc-nand-arrives/9

 

[Bearmann]

The Intel 660P TBW is 200, the WD Blue 3D is 400. Either drive would be fine, though.