Question Upgrading SSD: 1TB options

[mk_2]

I'm considering upgrading my aging Kingston V300 120GB SSD with a new one. This new SSD will serve as the primary OS drive and also as a drive for game installations. I'm thinking of going with 1TB capacity, which should provide ample storage for my needs.

My system consists of a B360M motherboard, an Intel i5 8400 processor, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a Radeon 6600 GPU. I don't have immediate plans for a system upgrade.

I've been eyeing a few options in the market, including the WD SN570 and WD SN770, both of which are priced under $60 in my area. Additionally, I'm considering the Crucial P3/P3 Plus, the Samsung 980 and a few other (recognizable brand) options, all around $55-60 in my area.

As I said, the drive will be used for OS (Windows 11) and gaming purposes.

I'd greatly appreciate your suggestions and insights on which SSD would be the best fit for my setup.

 

[SkyNetRising]

My system consists of a B360M motherboard

What is full model name of the motherboard?

I'd greatly appreciate your suggestions and insights on which SSD would be the best fit for my setup.

Samsung 970 evo /evo plus.

 

[mk_2]

The motherboard is "ROG STRIX B360-G GAMING". Supports up to PCIe gen 3.

About Samsung 970 evo and evo plus: I read at some point that they changed something in the components of the drive in 2021, making the newer batches inferior to the first in market (something about the controller or the NAND tier-quality, can't remember the exact situation). Is it true?

 

[Rokinamerica]

Don't know about the others but I have a 980 1TB Sammy with 47TB writes and 13k hours on with 787 power on count. It is at 94% health after about 2 and a half years and has been very dependable and fast.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I don't think you can go wrong as long as you get something from a well-known brand. Though I default to Samsung.

 

[bill001g]

If I read this correct you have the older style SSD and want to go to one of the newer stick type of NVME drives.

You will likely see a noticeable difference since there is quite a large performance gain pretty much just by going to the newer technology.

When you start to compare different NVME devices it gets a bit tricky. You will find many benchmarking sites that compare all the more common models. The problem is unless your main goal is to run benchmarking software it is hard to see real life difference. Maybe windows boot a second or two faster but it will be hard to really tell.

I have seen some sites that have attempted to test difference in load screens in some games and maybe you see a very slight difference if you were to compare a lower end device with some of the very fancy ones.

Mostly this depends on your traffic pattern. Most better nvme device have a ram cache in from of the actual storage. For most application this will hide a lot of the difference in the actual storage.

Your best bet is to dig around some of the review sites for the models you are considering. Just be careful. You can see big numbers like sequential read but that is not really the most common type of traffic. Unless you can find a review that compares the exact game you play I suspect it will still be which you feel is worth any difference in price. Prices are all over the place. Likely coming up on another batch of sales as we come up on black friday.

In the end you are going to see a pretty noticeable performance increase going to any type of NVME.

 

[Rokinamerica]

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-980-pro-1tb-ssd-now-59

 

[bill001g]

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-980-pro-1tb-ssd-now-59

Yup just saw that after I posted my response. At that price it beats his other options.

 

[mk_2]

If I read this correct you have the older style SSD and want to go to one of the newer stick type of NVME drives.

You will likely see a noticeable difference since there is quite a large performance gain pretty much just by going to the newer technology.

When you start to compare different NVME devices it gets a bit tricky. You will find many benchmarking sites that compare all the more common models. The problem is unless your main goal is to run benchmarking software it is hard to see real life difference. Maybe windows boot a second or two faster but it will be hard to really tell.

I have seen some sites that have attempted to test difference in load screens in some games and maybe you see a very slight difference if you were to compare a lower end device with some of the very fancy ones.

Mostly this depends on your traffic pattern. Most better nvme device have a ram cache in from of the actual storage. For most application this will hide a lot of the difference in the actual storage.

Your best bet is to dig around some of the review sites for the models you are considering. Just be careful. You can see big numbers like sequential read but that is not really the most common type of traffic. Unless you can find a review that compares the exact game you play I suspect it will still be which you feel is worth any difference in price. Prices are all over the place. Likely coming up on another batch of sales as we come up on black friday.

In the end you are going to see a pretty noticeable performance increase going to any type of NVME.

Yeap, I have the V300 since 2013. Weirdly it's working like a charm. But it always was just an OS drive, due to size.

The difference will be huge mostly because I will start installing games on the SSD itself. Took the decision to retire my 1TB HDD as a game installation disk after experiencing too much slow/choppy streaming on latest titles (namely Baldur's Gate 3) - and very long loading times.

In that regard, it's gonna be a nice upgrade. I don't expect differences in the Windows 11 loading times or the responsiveness of the OS.

 

[mk_2]

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-980-pro-1tb-ssd-now-59

Well, in my area (Europe) the price is much higher unfortunately.