Question 980 or KC2500

Jan 2, 2019
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This will be the main and only drive in my laptop as I'll be selling the hdd and moving the Kingston a2000 to my desktop as a game drive for those games i frequently use. The Samsung 980 is dram less. Performance figures are 3,100 and 2,600 MB/s for the 980 and 3,500 and 2,500 MB/s for the Kingston Kc2500. Both are 300tbw and I also think they both have 5 years warranty. Are there any problems with either of them? Both are good enough and better than my current a2000 so pick whichever one is cheaper?
 
Are those 2 your only choices?

I wouldn't put a lot of faith in published performance numbers.

Likewise, I wouldn't expect to notice much of a difference in most real-life circumstances. Maybe no difference at all in most tasks.

You might google for actual user reviews.

You might fish around for horror stories about Kingston versus Samsung customer support issues, but that would probably be disappointing as both could be laughable.

Are they to be purchased through the same vendor? Different vendors have different return policies if you are unhappy.
 
Jan 2, 2019
51
4
10,545
Are those 2 your only choices?

I wouldn't put a lot of faith in published performance numbers.

Likewise, I wouldn't expect to notice much of a difference in most real-life circumstances. Maybe no difference at all in most tasks.

You might google for actual user reviews.

You might fish around for horror stories about Kingston versus Samsung customer support issues, but that would probably be disappointing as both could be laughable.

Are they to be purchased through the same vendor? Different vendors have different return policies if you are unhappy.
I'm considering the Kingston kc2500, Samsung 980, and Crucial p5. All of them have 300TBW and fairly similar performance. I've already watched benchmark and reviews too. Haven't seen/read any negative remarks atm. They are from the same vendor and their warranty is good. Although, I'll be the one paying for the delivery fee
 
Crucial P5 is also a decent drive, it's fastest in larger capacities, how the 500GB Kingston KC2500 compares to the 500GB Crucial P5 I'm not sure. I don't think you will go wrong with either of them, but Crucial and Kingston would be my preferred choice.
 
I wouldn't pay much attention to TBW under typical circumstances. Most people write under 20 a year. I write under 10. TBW is likely to be a factor only to deny your warranty claim. What are the chances you hit 300 TB writes within 3 or 5 years? Unless you run a database or have some highly unusual use case.

I rejected the P5 a few months back due to modest reviews I saw at the time.

I've seen frowning about the 980 as well, at least in comparison to other Samsungs. I don't know how much of a real world concern the complaints are.

I have no knowledge of the Kingston.

For a boot drive, I've been leaning toward WD SN750, WD SN850, Samsung 980 Pro; Samsung 970 Evo Plus...............but they be unavailable to you?

I haven't bought any of them yet, but may if I rebuild in the next few months, although I suspect they won't be a significant change from my current antique Crucial MX100 SATA boot drive.
 
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The P5 didn't get amazing reviews, I think largely because there were better drives at a similar price. It is certainly not a bad drive though. The 980 is an entry level drive, there are better options at a similar price. I agree with @Lafong, all of the drive's he listed are solid gen 3 and gen 4 drives. I don't know what you use your system for but if it's for anything substantial like a gaming or productivity machine then I would not use a DRAMless drive as a boot drive, I've heard the experiences of those that have and they are not an optimal choice if you've got lots going on at the same time. Samsung 980 is one of the best DRAMless though but I would still stick with your Kingston or Crucial.
 
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If you can accept dramless and are on something of a budget, look at the WD SN550.

I have one. 500 GB. 55 bucks a year ago; maybe cheaper now.

Not a boot drive. I have it in an external enclosure and use it strictly for ad-hoc backup of about 400 GB of data. I connect it occasionally to a USB type C port.

Pretty good performer for that application and I'm certainly considering moving it into any new PC I might build as a boot drive.

There's a lot of reviews out there for it. The bitching and moaning you see about dramless and caching is overblown in my opinion. I'm not benchmark-obsessed.
 
Jan 2, 2019
51
4
10,545
I wouldn't pay much attention to TBW under typical circumstances. Most people write under 20 a year. I write under 10. TBW is likely to be a factor only to deny your warranty claim. What are the chances you hit 300 TB writes within 3 or 5 years? Unless you run a database or have some highly unusual use case.

I rejected the P5 a few months back due to modest reviews I saw at the time.

I've seen frowning about the 980 as well, at least in comparison to other Samsungs. I don't know how much of a real world concern the complaints are.

I have no knowledge of the Kingston.

For a boot drive, I've been leaning toward WD SN750, WD SN850, Samsung 980 Pro; Samsung 970 Evo Plus...............but they be unavailable to you?

I haven't bought any of them yet, but may if I rebuild in the next few months, although I suspect they won't be a significant change from my current antique Crucial MX100 SATA boot drive.
The a2000 that is currently in my laptop has 3.5+ tb and it's already been more than a year. At first, I wanted to buy another nvme for my desktop for the games that I frequently use but decided to use the 250gb a2000 in my laptop. This is so I'll be able to sell the 1tb hdd in my laptop and buy a 500gb nvme for it. I've long disliked the hdd in a laptop as it's really prone to breaking while I use it. The nvme's you mentioned are significantly more expensive at 90usd. The sn750 is at 86 usd, while the kc2500, p5, and 980 are at 70 usd. There won't much workload and I'll only use it for light tasks
 
I certainly use DRAMless drives for game storage and stuff like that, I haven't found it impact me whatsoever. The bitching about DRAMless may well be over blown yes, that's perhaps probably true on something like a Samsung 980. However I don't use one as a boot drive, I'm only going on the experiences expressed by others about NVME DRAMless. In one particular case in a system with a Core i9 10850K and multiple game updates running the DRAMless drive significantly impacted the usability of the overall system. It was replaced with an Intel 660p I believe, a fairly cheap drive with a DRAM and it resolved the issues.
 
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I have an Intel 660p as a data only drive with zero complaints. 2 TB model, but it is available in smaller capacities. The 760p is the newer version.

I'd certainly consider it as a boot drive if price is an issue.

Yeah, I understand the WD and Samsungs are a bit more expensive.

I wouldn't try to push you toward them as I'm not at all sure you'd see differences worth talking about from any of them for an average user....like you and me.

No issue with you going with any of your less expensive candidates. Spend the coin you saved on a treat for your cat, dog, or "significant other", if any.
 
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The a2000 that is currently in my laptop has 3.5+ tb and it's already been more than a year. At first, I wanted to buy another nvme for my desktop for the games that I frequently use but decided to use the 250gb a2000 in my laptop. This is so I'll be able to sell the 1tb hdd in my laptop and buy a 500gb nvme for it. I've long disliked the hdd in a laptop as it's really prone to breaking while I use it. The nvme's you mentioned are significantly more expensive at 90usd. The sn750 is at 86 usd, while the kc2500, p5, and 980 are at 70 usd. There won't much workload and I'll only use it for light tasks
If you fitted them all in your machine and ran your stuff I doubt you would see a diff.

Don't worry about this dramless stuff the 980 will handle normal usage just fine.
 
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The a2000 that is currently in my laptop has 3.5+ tb and it's already been more than a year. At first, I wanted to buy another nvme for my desktop for the games that I frequently use but decided to use the 250gb a2000 in my laptop. This is so I'll be able to sell the 1tb hdd in my laptop and buy a 500gb nvme for it. I've long disliked the hdd in a laptop as it's really prone to breaking while I use it. The nvme's you mentioned are significantly more expensive at 90usd. The sn750 is at 86 usd, while the kc2500, p5, and 980 are at 70 usd. There won't much workload and I'll only use it for light tasks

The drives mentioned are all premium NVME drives that's why people love them. Of the ones you mention, if it were me buying I would get the Kingston KC2500 as I think it's the best all rounder, it also trades blows with some of those more expensive drives anyway. That will be more than sufficient for your use case.
 
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The specs of the two drives are very close. While dram-less the 980 uses some system ram via its hmb (host memory buffer) to compensate. It also has the same latest gen vnand flash as that of the flagship 980 pro. Both have 5 yr warranty and a declared 600 tbw spec. All in all you probably can’t go wrong with either one but all else being equal I’d default to the 980 for Samsung’s highly regarded ssd line. If you’re highly price sensitive go with whichever one is cheaper.
I went with a 980 in my son’s laptop recently and it’s been great; no complaints at all.