[SOLVED] Speed or Cache?

ThatSourMelon

Commendable
Apr 21, 2019
363
12
1,715
I’m choosing between a Crucial p1 500gb and a Crucial Mx500 500gb.
They are both similarly priced, the P1 is an M.2 and has faster speeds but no cache, the Mx500 is a SATA6 and has ~512mb of cache.
I don’t really understand the importance of cache, the Mx500 is slightly more expensive, so is it worth the extra cost, even paying for higher capacity SSD’s with cache. Like I know what it does: Stores your last information and predicts what you’ll do next so it can have things ready for you to do faster, but does it have that much of an impact? Will I notice a difference in gaming? Moving large files?
 
Solution
I’m choosing between a Crucial p1 500gb and a Crucial Mx500 500gb.
They are both similarly priced, the P1 is an M.2 and has faster speeds but no cache, the Mx500 is a SATA6 and has ~512mb of cache.
I don’t really understand the importance of cache, the Mx500 is slightly more expensive, so is it worth the extra cost, even paying for higher capacity SSD’s with cache. Like I know what it does: Stores your last information and predicts what you’ll do next so it can have things ready for you to do faster, but does it have that much of an impact? Will I notice a difference in gaming? Moving large files?
The M.2 P1 is NVMe and does include DDR3 cache 512Mb for the 500GB drive. The P1 also has the same 5 year warranty, but lower TBW...

RealBeast

Titan
Moderator
I’m choosing between a Crucial p1 500gb and a Crucial Mx500 500gb.
They are both similarly priced, the P1 is an M.2 and has faster speeds but no cache, the Mx500 is a SATA6 and has ~512mb of cache.
I don’t really understand the importance of cache, the Mx500 is slightly more expensive, so is it worth the extra cost, even paying for higher capacity SSD’s with cache. Like I know what it does: Stores your last information and predicts what you’ll do next so it can have things ready for you to do faster, but does it have that much of an impact? Will I notice a difference in gaming? Moving large files?
The M.2 P1 is NVMe and does include DDR3 cache 512Mb for the 500GB drive. The P1 also has the same 5 year warranty, but lower TBW.

IMO its biggest negative is QLC and so it has a lower total write capacity than an equal size SATA MX500.

Nonetheless, I would probably opt for the P1 for my boot drive, even though it only seems a bit faster (very hard to notice any difference in SSDs M.2 or SATA). I went with one on my latest build and it does feel faster, but then the CPU and memory are also faster than the prior build.
 
Solution

RealBeast

Titan
Moderator
Oh, thx. But will I see a difference between an SSD that does and doesn’t have cache? Is it worth paying more for in a new build?
Yes, no cache is noticeable to me the MX v the BX Crucial models for example. There are few NVMe drives that have no cache, but some like the Intel 660p are smaller. Most scale with the drive size, so 256MB DDR3 in a 250GB drive up to 1GB DDR3 in a 1TB. Take a look at THIS.