[SOLVED] I couldn't care less about the read and write speeds, best SSD for me?

[albertdenobelle]

Basically the title, I think SATA level read and write speeds are perfectly fine, even the HDD read and write speeds are OK.

The only thing I care about is the longevity of the drive. TBW values tell a lot but not everything. Normally the nominated TBW levels would last for decades, but companies usually give 5 years warranty, whichever comes first. So I'm actually wondering if faster read and write speeds ever affect the longevity of the drive in any way. Is there an SSD I can use for 10+ years with the peace of mind?

Thanks in advance.

 

[USAFRet]

Samsung 860 or 870 EVO.

There is no device made where we can say a single instance of it WILL last 10 years.
Likely it will, but there are always outliers.

 

[Math Geek]

have a budget PNY sata ssd and like it. added a samsung 970 evo plus M.2 not long ago and love it as well. easy to please like you are, so go for what is priced right and maybe even looks good for your build

i have yet to see anything that says its worth paying super premium prices. but i do pay attention to who is swapping in inferior parts for the drives after they are released and not telling anyone. that was really the reason i went with the samsung. not performance but it is one of the only brands that is selling what they sent out to reviewers and not some watered down cheaper version, they still charge full price for

 

[USAFRet]

My eldest SSD in current use will be 7 years old next month. Samsung 840 EVO, 250GB.
I see no reason it won't last another few years.

Or it might die tomorrow.

 

[Pextaxmx]

you could hunt for underused datacenter MLC drives on ebay (SM863a SM883 etc). You can find de-commissioned server batch that has quite low writes and 1 year or so up time. Depending on the size, they have double digit PB TBW specs. Which you will need about 200+ years to wear out on a personal computer. Right now I can see one batch of SM863a 1.92TB with minimal usage for 250USD...

 

[ClapTrapper]

Unfortuantly,SSDs don't give any warning watsoever they are about to die.

With HDs,you may hear funny noises from it,get disk errors,etc-you may have a chance to make one last backup or save corrupted data.

With SSDs, they are fine one day and dead the next.

This is why a decent backup routine is vital.

 

[USAFRet]

With HDs,you may hear funny noises from it,get disk errors,etc-you may have a chance to make one last backup or save corrupted data.

Backups should never be a "one last time" thing.

Physical drive death is not the only path to data loss.
oops, I formatted the wrong partition
oops, that 'game' I downloaded was actually ransomware
oops oops oops

You should be prepared always.

 

[logainofhades]

Crucial MX500 is my preferred SATA drive. I own 2 of them.

 

[geofelt]

Puget systems thinks highly of samsung ssd devices:

Samsung SATA SSD's Amazing Reliability

At Puget Systems, we spend a a lot of effort tracking the failure rates of all our products to make sure that each is living up to our quality standards. Today, we want to publish a short article to specifically call out one line of products for being extremely reliable: Samsung SATA SSDs.

www.pugetsystems.com

 

[ClapTrapper]

Backups should never be a "one last time" thing.

Physical drive death is not the only path to data loss.
oops, I formatted the wrong partition
oops, that 'game' I downloaded was actually ransomware
oops oops oops

You should be prepared always.

That is why I wrote "This is why a decent backup routine is vital. "

 

[logainofhades]

Puget systems thinks highly of samsung ssd devices:

Samsung SATA SSD's Amazing Reliability

At Puget Systems, we spend a a lot of effort tracking the failure rates of all our products to make sure that each is living up to our quality standards. Today, we want to publish a short article to specifically call out one line of products for being extremely reliable: Samsung SATA SSDs.

www.pugetsystems.com

Yea samsung and crucial are both quite good, for reliability. It helps that both companies make their own memory chips. Crucial is owned by Micron, so all their products are Micron produced, with regards to storage and ram chips.

 

[Endre]

Basically the title, I think SATA level read and write speeds are perfectly fine, even the HDD read and write speeds are OK.

The only thing I care about is the longevity of the drive. TBW values tell a lot but not everything. Normally the nominated TBW levels would last for decades, but companies usually give 5 years warranty, whichever comes first. So I'm actually wondering if faster read and write speeds ever affect the longevity of the drive in any way. Is there an SSD I can use for 10+ years with the peace of mind?

Thanks in advance.

Hello!

The longevity and the speed of an SSD is directly influenced by the type of NAND it uses.
The differences are huge.
For instance a 2-bit MLC SSD is 10x more durable than a 3-bit TLC SSD (theoretically).

NAND types:
•SLC = 1-bit (the best / enterprise level quality).
•MLC = 2-bit (very good / pretty expensive).
•TLC = 3-bit (average).
•QLC = 4-bit (bad / cheap).
•PLC = 5-bit (extremely low quality & durability / very cheap).

My recommendations:
•Samsung 970 PRO 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD (2-bit MLC V-NAND).
•Samsung 860 PRO 1TB or 2TB SATA3 SSD (2-bit MLC V-NAND)

 

[Pimpom]

I used a Samsung 830 for 5 years for an average of 12-16 hrs a day before I gave it to my son. It's still working fine on his machine for the last 2 years - a total of 7 years. I've been using a Crucial BX500 (their economy line, I guess) for those last two years. The The Samsung has 27 TBW while the Crucial has accumulated 3.6 TBW.

Recent benchmarks with HDTune already show severe dips in the curve with the BX500 whereas the Samsung curve doesn't differ a lot from those of 7 years ago.

 

[worstalentscout]

Crucial MX500 is my preferred SATA drive. I own 2 of them.

i have 2 of those too (1-month-old 250GB + 1-year-old 500GB)................Samsung is almost 30% more expensive where i'm at !

 

[albertdenobelle]

For instance a 2-bit MLC SSD is 10x more durable than a 3-bit TLC SSD (theoretically).

Can you elaborate on this? Does that take into account the time factor? If so maybe it's worth paying the premium price

 

[Endre]

Can you elaborate on this? Does that take into account the time factor? If so maybe it's worth paying the premium price

Hello!

The quality of the NAND is directly responsable for the reliability, speed, and durability of an SSD.

Here’s Intel’s take on the subject:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...000056670/memory-and-storage/client-ssds.html

Here’s another good article on this subject:
https://pcpepper.com/slc-vs-mlc-vs-tlc-vs-qlc-which-ssd-should-i-buy-for-pc/

I hope these help...