Question HELP! Need to upgrade the SSD on my Legion Y540 to a higher capacity

[jaski]

Hello,

I own a Lenovo Legion Y540 15.6" with a 256gb NVMe M.2 SSD as my primary OS storage and a 1TB SSD as my secondary storage. I mostly work with design applications like Adobe Creative Suite, Autodesk Maya and 3Ds Max, Zbrush etc. Most of these applications are resource heavy and need fast read speeds to update files in real-time while working.

My OS storage is full with nothing that I can delete since I only have my work applications in it. I often run out of space since I just have 2 GB of free space left and most of the applications use it up as cache. I am out looking to upgrade my OS drive to at least a 1 TB SSD that will increase the space, and also help me with reading files faster since I often face a lot of buffering while working in After Effects for example. I believe my current drive according to CrystalDiskInfo is SAMSUNG MZVLB256HBHQ-000L2 256.0 GB which seems to be a Samsung PM981 if I am not wrong.

Based on CrystalMark, the test scores of my current SSD are:

[Read]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 2852.044 MB/s [ 2719.9 IOPS] < 2926.99 us>
SEQ 128KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 3226.138 MB/s [ 24613.5 IOPS] < 1280.46 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 32, T=16): 602.939 MB/s [ 147201.9 IOPS] < 3439.48 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 36.355 MB/s [ 8875.7 IOPS] < 112.39 us>

[Write]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 1836.205 MB/s [ 1751.1 IOPS] < 4558.27 us>
SEQ 128KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 1043.525 MB/s [ 7961.5 IOPS] < 4003.59 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 32, T=16): 550.688 MB/s [ 134445.3 IOPS] < 3796.60 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 73.503 MB/s [ 17945.1 IOPS] < 55.43 us>

Based on my needs, what SSD would you suggest would best suit my work. I have shortlisted a few below that I like. I don't know how much should I spend for a 1TB to get the best performance per dollar spent. I will be moving my current OS to the new drive because I want to keep all my applications and settings without the risk of losing my work.

1. Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB - $240 CAD
2. WD SN850 1TB - $240 CAD
3. Sabrent Rocket PCIe 4.0 1TB - $219 CAD
4. Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB - $190 CAD
5. PNY XLR8 CS3030 1TB - $182 CAD
6. WD SN750 1TB - $180 CAD
7. Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB - $150 CAD

I am also considering upgrading my laptop to a desktop in a couple of months so I am considering using the same SSD that I buy for my laptop in my desktop if that works. So also consider this while suggesting one. I don't think my laptop supports PCIe 4.0 SSDs but I am not sure.

Looking forward to your replies.

Thank you.

 

[popatim]

I like my Samsungs.