Question Upgrading laptop SSD, need advice please

[username_greg]

Just bought a new Dell XPS 15 (9520) with the specs indicated below. I deliberately didn't spring for the upgraded hard drive as Dell wanted close to $300 to get to a 2tb drive and so I'm going to buy one and upgrade myself - very comfortable with opening laptops etc. My question is about which hard drive to buy. I want to spend less than $200 and get at least 2tb. I don't want to sacrifice performance to reach a 4tb model although 4tb would be great. I don't do any gaming but I do a bit of video editing/rendering. I do some fairly data intensive tasks like duplicate file searches, batch renaming and scripted data sorts and parsing. I'm reading online that even though PCIe 4 is faster than 3 it's perhaps not recommended for non-gaming laptops as they are very power hungry and produce lots of heat and those with heatsinks don't even fit into laptops. Dells website shows that the following drive types are compatible:

Storage type	Interface type	Capacity
M.2 2230 solid-state drive	PCIe Gen3.0x4 NVMe, up to 32 Gbps	Up to 256 GB
M.2 2230 solid-state drive	PCIe Gen4.0x4 NVMe, up to 64 Gbps	Up to 256 GB
M.2 2280 solid-state drive	PCIe Gen4.0x4 NVMe, up to 64 Gbps	Up to 4 TB

SO... which drive should I get?

1. WD_BLACK 2TB SN850X NVMe Internal Gaming SSD Solid State Drive - Gen4 PCIe, M.2 2280, Up to 7,300 MB/s - WDS200T2X0E (Amazon $160)
2. SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4 Gaming M.2 Internal Solid State Drive Memory Card, Maximum Speed, Thermal Control, MZ-V8P2T0B (Amazon $160)

or a different option? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

___
System Specs
Dell XPS 15 (9520)
15.6" OLED 3.5K (3456x2160) InfinityEdge Touch Anti-Reflective 400-Nit Display, Item number: 320-BEPC
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive, Item number: 400-BNPY
32GB, 2x16GB, DDR5, 4800MHz, Item number: 370-AGXC
Windows 11 Pro
12th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700H (24MB Cache, up to 4.7 GHz, 14 cores), Item number: 338-CEIF
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 vPro Essentials Processor Label, Item number: 389-EEEH
NVIDIA(R) GeForce RTX(TM) 3050 Ti 4GB GDDR6 [40W], Item number: 490-BGVE
Intel(R) Killer(TM) Wi-Fi 6 1675 (AX211) 2x2 + Bluetooth 5.2 Wireless Card, Item number: 555-BIBB

 

[CountMike]

Just bought a new Dell XPS 15 (9520) with the specs indicated below. I deliberately didn't spring for the upgraded hard drive as Dell wanted close to $300 to get to a 2tb drive and so I'm going to buy one and upgrade myself - very comfortable with opening laptops etc. My question is about which hard drive to buy. I want to spend less than $200 and get at least 2tb. I don't want to sacrifice performance to reach a 4tb model although 4tb would be great. I don't do any gaming but I do a bit of video editing/rendering. I do some fairly data intensive tasks like duplicate file searches, batch renaming and scripted data sorts and parsing. I'm reading online that even though PCIe 4 is faster than 3 it's perhaps not recommended for non-gaming laptops as they are very power hungry and produce lots of heat and those with heatsinks don't even fit into laptops. Dells website shows that the following drive types are compatible:

Storage type	Interface type	Capacity
M.2 2230 solid-state drive	PCIe Gen3.0x4 NVMe, up to 32 Gbps	Up to 256 GB
M.2 2230 solid-state drive	PCIe Gen4.0x4 NVMe, up to 64 Gbps	Up to 256 GB
M.2 2280 solid-state drive	PCIe Gen4.0x4 NVMe, up to 64 Gbps	Up to 4 TB

SO... which drive should I get?

1. WD_BLACK 2TB SN850X NVMe Internal Gaming SSD Solid State Drive - Gen4 PCIe, M.2 2280, Up to 7,300 MB/s - WDS200T2X0E (Amazon $160)
2. SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4 Gaming M.2 Internal Solid State Drive Memory Card, Maximum Speed, Thermal Control, MZ-V8P2T0B (Amazon $160)

or a different option? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

___
System Specs
Dell XPS 15 (9520)
15.6" OLED 3.5K (3456x2160) InfinityEdge Touch Anti-Reflective 400-Nit Display, Item number: 320-BEPC
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive, Item number: 400-BNPY
32GB, 2x16GB, DDR5, 4800MHz, Item number: 370-AGXC
Windows 11 Pro
12th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700H (24MB Cache, up to 4.7 GHz, 14 cores), Item number: 338-CEIF
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 vPro Essentials Processor Label, Item number: 389-EEEH
NVIDIA(R) GeForce RTX(TM) 3050 Ti 4GB GDDR6 [40W], Item number: 490-BGVE
Intel(R) Killer(TM) Wi-Fi 6 1675 (AX211) 2x2 + Bluetooth 5.2 Wireless Card, Item number: 555-BIBB

Either of those two would be just fine and about same performance. If you get 980 pro check firmware and update if it starts with #3, Those had some troubles lately.

 

[Rokinamerica]

I agree with the Count, either would be fine.

 

[Bob.B]

Just bought a new Dell XPS 15 (9520) with the specs indicated below. I deliberately didn't spring for the upgraded hard drive as Dell wanted close to $300 to get to a 2tb drive and so I'm going to buy one and upgrade myself - very comfortable with opening laptops etc. My question is about which hard drive to buy. I want to spend less than $200 and get at least 2tb. I don't want to sacrifice performance to reach a 4tb model although 4tb would be great. I don't do any gaming but I do a bit of video editing/rendering. I do some fairly data intensive tasks like duplicate file searches, batch renaming and scripted data sorts and parsing. I'm reading online that even though PCIe 4 is faster than 3 it's perhaps not recommended for non-gaming laptops as they are very power hungry and produce lots of heat and those with heatsinks don't even fit into laptops. Dells website shows that the following drive types are compatible:

Storage type	Interface type	Capacity
M.2 2230 solid-state drive	PCIe Gen3.0x4 NVMe, up to 32 Gbps	Up to 256 GB
M.2 2230 solid-state drive	PCIe Gen4.0x4 NVMe, up to 64 Gbps	Up to 256 GB
M.2 2280 solid-state drive	PCIe Gen4.0x4 NVMe, up to 64 Gbps	Up to 4 TB

SO... which drive should I get?

1. WD_BLACK 2TB SN850X NVMe Internal Gaming SSD Solid State Drive - Gen4 PCIe, M.2 2280, Up to 7,300 MB/s - WDS200T2X0E (Amazon $160)
2. SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4 Gaming M.2 Internal Solid State Drive Memory Card, Maximum Speed, Thermal Control, MZ-V8P2T0B (Amazon $160)

or a different option? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

___
System Specs
Dell XPS 15 (9520)
15.6" OLED 3.5K (3456x2160) InfinityEdge Touch Anti-Reflective 400-Nit Display, Item number: 320-BEPC
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive, Item number: 400-BNPY
32GB, 2x16GB, DDR5, 4800MHz, Item number: 370-AGXC
Windows 11 Pro
12th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700H (24MB Cache, up to 4.7 GHz, 14 cores), Item number: 338-CEIF
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 vPro Essentials Processor Label, Item number: 389-EEEH
NVIDIA(R) GeForce RTX(TM) 3050 Ti 4GB GDDR6 [40W], Item number: 490-BGVE
Intel(R) Killer(TM) Wi-Fi 6 1675 (AX211) 2x2 + Bluetooth 5.2 Wireless Card, Item number: 555-BIBB

Folks have their favorites as far as brands go.

Consider adding a second m.2 and using the orig m.2 for the OS and apps.