Question Good gaming storage SATA SSD that is *NOT* Samsung

[fishyjack]

Hello. Within the span of 12 months I've had two 2TB 870 EVO's fail on me within 6 months of each other. Both performed extremely well as storage drives until completely out of the blue both developed bad sectors. At first I thought my first drive was a lemon, as it happens and I RMA'd it, got a refund and ordered a new one. All is well ... until 6 months later again and this one begins to fail exactly the same way as the first. Both were barely 10% full at the time of their descent into failure.

I'm currently running "repairs" on the current drive via Samsung Magician and will do Windows 10's chkdisk afterwards but I do not have faith because these both failed to "repair" the first drive. It's currently sitting at 6 bad sectors.

So I'm going ahead to look at potential brands that are not samsung, in the 2TB storage range and reliable in terms of gaming storage but I'm unsure of what brands to consider. I'm currently looking at the Crucial MX500, but I've heard reports/instances of these drives sometimes obsessively writing/reading and reducing their lifespan. Also looking at Western Digital because I've used their HDDs in the past and always got 4+ years out them but I'm unsure if their SSDs have the same quality.

Specs:
Windows 10
Ryzen 5 3600 (1 year)
GTX 970 (3+ years)
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16gig 8x8 (1 year)
EVGA P2 750 (8 or so months)
MSI B450 Tomahawk Max II (1 year)
870 EVO 250 gig (1 year, boot drive)

 

[USAFRet]

Crucial MX500.

And your 2x dead Samsungs is 2x more than I've read here in the last year or two.
Seriously.

What, if anything, did Samsung say when they replaced them under warranty?

 

[fishyjack]

Crucial MX500.

And your 2x dead Samsungs is 2x more than I've read here in the last year or two.
Seriously.

What, if anything, did Samsung say when they replaced them under warranty?

They didn't say anything actually, nor did they replace under warranty; they just gave me a refund. The RMA process was also extremely long and confusing where I had to call/receive calls from multiple Samsung departments then had to wait a month for them to "confirm my information and start the refund request".

Samsung was my very first foray into SSDs, never used/bought one before 2021. A lot of friends recommended Samsung to me, saying that they had very good QA, their SSDs were durable and extremely reliable. All the research I'd done online also said just as much. But just my luck to get 2 faulty Samsung SSDs in a row lol.

 

[USAFRet]

They didn't say anything actually, nor did they replace under warranty; they just gave me a refund. The RMA process was also extremely long and confusing where I had to call/receive calls from multiple Samsung departments then had to wait a month for them to "confirm my information and start the refund request".

Samsung was my very first foray into SSDs, never used/bought one before 2021. A lot of friends recommended Samsung to me, saying that they had very good QA, their SSDs were durable and extremely reliable. All the research I'd done online also said just as much. But just my luck to get 2 faulty Samsung SSDs in a row lol.

I have Samsung SSDs going back to 2014. Nary a fault. All still running at original speed, most of them in 24/7 ops.

 

[Zerk2012]

They didn't say anything actually, nor did they replace under warranty; they just gave me a refund.

Never have had that happen always a warranty replacement. I have seen one melt down and when warranty was confirmed it was like a 1 week turnaround before the new drive was provided and received. In fact they acted like they were very eager to see the drive.

 

[mdd1963]

I'd begin to wonder about confirming system integrity after that sort of bad luck...

Perhaps very intermittent RAM issue, possible overclocking induced corruption, mainboard or CPU induced SATA controller/storage path corruption, etc...; of course, if the SATA drive shows/throws errors after a quick format in two separate systems, maybe you just had very bad coincidental luck....

(I do not rule out the possibility of the issue simply being two actual bad drives, it just seems.....very ....odd.)

Concur with Crucial MX500 recommendations.... (I'd go with them just to save $3 per drive, frankly, and, consider them every bit as good as Samsung 860 EVO/870 EVO)

 

[USAFRet]

I'd begin to wonder about confirming system integrity after that sort of bad luck...

My thought as well.

Something else in the system is doing this, not "bad drives".

 

[fishyjack]

They didn't say anything actually, nor did they replace under warranty; they just gave me a refund.

Never have had that happen always a warranty replacement. I have seen one melt down and when warranty was confirmed it was like a 1 week turnaround before the new drive was provided and received. In fact they acted like they were very eager to see the drive.

Yeah, I didn't get that impression with my RMA. I sent them screen shots from Samsung Magician of the first drive. IIRC it reported over 1,000 ECC errors, Uncorrectable Errors and the bad sectors jumped from 1 to 16 within the span of an hour. When I told the fellow on the phone (this was the Memory department) he remarked that it was 'interesting' but that was about it. Through the whole process, I spoke to several different people whom all kept asking similar questions, I went days without updates and most times I called them I was on hold for 3+ hours. It was an unpleasant experience.

I'd begin to wonder about confirming system integrity after that sort of bad luck...

Perhaps very intermittent RAM issue, possible overclocking induced corruption, mainboard or CPU induced SATA controller/storage path corruption, etc...; of course, if the SATA drive shows/throws errors after a quick format in two separate systems, maybe you just had very bad coincidental luck....

(I do not rule out the possibility of the issue simply being two actual bad drives, it just seems.....very ....odd.)

Concur with Crucial MX500 recommendations.... (I'd go with them just to save $3 per drive, frankly, and, consider them every bit as good as Samsung 860 EVO/870 EVO)

This is what's starting to worry me as well. The two drives I had were relatively lightly used. The first one began to fail at around 3TBW and always stayed around 400 gigs out of the 1,800 usable. The current one is now starting to fail at 1TBW and 200 gigs full. It feels like the amount of writing is irrelevant, I'm not exaggerating when I said they both begun to fail within almost exactly 6 months. There's no overclocking going on, everything is factory default. My bootdrive is also completely healthy still. I'll post my specs and update the OP with them ;

Windows 10
Ryzen 5 3600 (1 year)
GTX 970 (3+ years)
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16gig 8x8 (1 year)
EVGA P2 750 (8 or so months)
MSI B450 Tomahawk Max II (1 year)
870 EVO 250 gig (1 year, boot drive)

EDIT: Samsung Magician finished it's full scan and "repairs". The "Repairs" failed and now the ECC Error Rate has jumped to nearly 2,000 and the bad sectors have gone from 6 to 10. The same exact thing that happened with the previous drive lol.

EDIT EDIT: After wracking my brain a bit, the only thing that comes to mind is that a year ago I switched off my CPU's sleep states so I could compare temperatures with it on/off. Once I turned it off though, it stayed off, even when I switch it back 'on' in the BIOS. Factory reset of the BIOS didn't change anything. I bring this up because you mentioned Mainboard/CPU-induced corruption/damage. Aside from that and the storage drives dying, I haven't encountered any other issue with this PC the past year.

 

[fzabkar]

I don't understand what the "repairs" consist of. Normally this would suggest that "pending" sectors are retested and replaced with spares if confirmed bad.

 

[fishyjack]

I don't understand what the "repairs" consist of. Normally this would suggest that "pending" sectors are retested and replaced with spares if confirmed bad.

You and I both. I did a full scan which took a good two hours, magician identified bad sectors and prompted me to "begin repairs" . The "repairs" failed after about 3-4 seconds with an "unknown error please check connection and try again", exactly like my last drive. Could a bad SATA cable cause corruption/bad sectors?

 

[fzabkar]

Could a bad SATA cable cause corruption/bad sectors?

I can't see how. Usually cable problems show up as UDMA CRC Errors, and these are then corrected by retransmitting the affected data.

Try GSmartControl. Under one of the tabs you should see an error log. Sometimes these logs report the actual LBAs that are responsible for the errors.

 

[Pextaxmx]

870 EVO is gaining bad reputation (google 870 EVO failure), and 980 PRO doesn't seem as robust as its predecessors either. I wonder if Samsung 128 layer NAND has some sort of design flaws.

EDIT: this is my theory - 128 layer NAND must have some problem, then it is reasonable to assume binned higher quality 128 layer chips go to 980 PRO and datacenter products, and remaining chips go to 870 EVO. That is how 870 EVO if failing left and right.

 

[fzabkar]

I see many reports of premature failure:

https://ipv4.google.com/search?q="870+evo"+failure

This user says the problems stopped after a firmware update was applied :-?

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1400461-870-evo-errors-disappear-after-firmware-update/

 

[fishyjack]

Oof, well, I guess that settles it. Seems to effect most of the models; I didn't see a case with the 256 gig so I'll stay hopeful that it's safe/stable. If I go with the MX500 I'll have to make sure it's one of the revised models.

In terms of wiping a SSD, is the Windows 10 cmd "format D: /fs:NTFS /p:1" adequate for a RMA? I don't have confidence in my ADHD-riddled brain to create a bootable media usb for secure erase. My previous drive I just used Windows 10's 'Full Format' but discovered after I sent it off that data would still be recoverable.

 

[Lafong]

In terms of wiping a SSD, is the Windows 10 cmd "format D: /fs:NTFS /p:1" adequate for a RMA? I don't have confidence in my ADHD-riddled brain to create a bootable media usb for secure erase. My previous drive I just used Windows 10's 'Full Format' but discovered after I sent it off that data would still be recoverable.

You could use Diskpart "Clean all" command.

Not sure if any method would be adequate to prevent CIA level access...but I'd surely use a sledgehammer if I was that concerned. What's the replacement cost on your SSD? I've already decided to forego warranty replacements of all of my drives in favor of a sledgehammer.

 

[fishyjack]

You could use Diskpart "Clean all" command.

Not sure if any method would be adequate to prevent CIA level access...but I'd surely use a sledgehammer if I was that concerned. What's the replacement cost on your SSD? I've already decided to forego warranty replacements of all of my drives in favor of a sledgehammer.

Aha that's the unfortunate bit; I'm pretty broke. I have enough to get my hands on an MX500 or equivalent since it's around 160$ right now. I spent 240$ on that replacement 870, so if I can get another full refund like last time I'd hopefully be making a net profit.

 

[Lafong]

Aha that's the unfortunate bit; I'm pretty broke. I have enough to get my hands on an MX500 or equivalent since it's around 160$ right now. I spent 240$ on that replacement 870, so if I can get another full refund like last time I'd hopefully be making a net profit.

OK.

On one side of the balance beam is your financial situation.

On the other side is your anxiety over others accessing your data.

You are the only person on the planet who can read which way beam is tilting.

 

[Pextaxmx]

MX500 has its own history of problems and part swaps. Personally I feel SK Hynix S31 SATA drives are the lowest risk choice these days.

 

[iTRiP]

If I were to pick a SATA SSD now again, I'd go and save some cash and go with some SanDisk, the 2TB option sits at a real nice price range now, but then again I wouldn't know if they are any good for a gaming drive, for storage sure thing in my opinion.

I was just about too upgrade my mechanical drives for these ones, then as unexpected as life goes I have to hold of on that plan due to some house moving situation happening that got in the way of my plan.

 

[fzabkar]

An ATA Enhanced Secure Erase should forensically wipe your drive. Alternatively a PSID Revert should also erase it.

https://downloadcenter.samsung.com/...an_7_0_1_Installation_Guide_v1.1_v0.4_PDF.pdf

 

[fishyjack]

MX500 has its own history of problems and part swaps. Personally I feel SK Hynix S31 SATA drives are the lowest risk choice these days.

Yeah I'm feeling a little reluctance leaning towards the MX500. Burned twice by Samsung I'm not sure I want to play the firmware lottery with Crucial.

I mentioned western digital in my op, they were my go to for HDDs but idk if their SSDs are equally reliable. I'm looking around seeing if the blue/black models have any bugs or quirks but I can't find any substantial.

 

[Pextaxmx]

Yeah I'm feeling a little reluctance leaning towards the MX500. Burned twice by Samsung I'm not sure I want to play the firmware lottery with Crucial.

I mentioned western digital in my op, they were my go to for HDDs but idk if their SSDs are equally reliable. I'm looking around seeing if the blue/black models have any bugs or quirks but I can't find any substantial.

probably not the best recommendation but if you can find a lightly used de-commissioned, or un-deployed open-box datacenter SSDs like PM883 or even PM863a, those will likely be more robust than any brand new drives you can buy right now.

 

[HaizRail007]

Hello, yeah I have a samsung 850 evo, I bought used form a friend serval years back, that I use for a OS drive on one of my systems. and well its garbage, I've had to reformat windows more times than I want to count, and had to remove it and spray it with contact cleaner, a while back because I saw corrosion on the chip. after that I did figure out that heat was responsible for most of the corruption and since then I've left the side panel off the case so it can stay cool. I haven had a issue since, but it could die at any time. Moreover, samsung tech is over priced garbage, from there m.2's to there tv's etc. I mean seriously they give 48 month's 0 % financing on there tv's etc. to good to be true. example of this is my friend bought their top of the line tv, can't remeber what the model 90 something, and screen was busted and you could bend it like paper, I got to see this on a skype call.

I would steer clear of samsung, and good alternatives would be in my opinion, western digital, or crucial, pny, mushkin isn't bad either. but remember you get what you pay for, but that's not always the case and good research is always best.

 

[USAFRet]

Hello, yeah I have a samsung 850 evo, I bought used form a friend serval years back, that I use for a OS drive on one of my systems. and well its garbage, I've had to reformat windows more times than I want to count, and had to remove it and spray it with contact cleaner, a while back because I saw corrosion on the chip. after that I did figure out that heat was responsible for most of the corruption and since then I've left the side panel off the case so it can stay cool. I haven had a issue since, but it could die at any time. Moreover, samsung tech is over priced garbage, from there m.2's to there tv's etc. I mean seriously they give 48 month's 0 % financing on there tv's etc. to good to be true. example of this is my friend bought their top of the line tv, can't remeber what the model 90 something, and screen was busted and you could bend it like paper, I got to see this on a skype call.

I would steer clear of samsung, and good alternatives would be in my opinion, western digital, or crucial, pny, mushkin isn't bad either. but remember you get what you pay for, but that's not always the case and good research is always best.

And I have a selection of Samsung 8XX, going back almost a decade.

840/850/860...nary a fault, all still running just like new.

 

[HaizRail007]

And I have a selection of Samsung 8XX, going back almost a decade.

840/850/860...nary a fault, all still running just like new.

every company makes lemons, and some people are lucky they don't run into theses defective units but it does happen. Me personally don't like samsung because every samsung product I've bought has failed in some way, tv's, phones, that m.2,washers,and dryers. and my friend has had the same issues with varies samsung products besides that tv. The problem is with quality control and consistency, which samsung has lacked for years now. and they recently shut down making there own tv panels, which was called samsung display, and are buying them from 3rd parties. Don't get me wrong, if the thing works I don't really care what brand it is, but in my honest opinion samsung has become bad qulity for the price point they sell there goods at. But hey if you like them then cool, go for them but I think I'll stay clear of them.