[SOLVED] Which M.2 SSD should I buy?

[rickgolds]

Hi, I've been thinking about buying a SSD for a few days and I admit that I've never had such a problem with anything.. I'm wondering between Kingston KC3000 or Samsung 980 Pro, both 1 TB. I have read that Kingston is not bought on principle, because it quietly replaces parts, and Samsung is rather sure, but it is slower than kingston.. Can someone help me with the choice? Can anyone tell me more about these SSD, or any other recommended SSD?

 

[USAFRet]

What motherboard?
What use case?
What do you have now?

Between those two, "slower" is totally irrelevant.

 

[Zerk2012]

Hi, I've been thinking about buying a SSD for a few days and I admit that I've never had such a problem with anything.. I'm wondering between Kingston KC3000 or Samsung 980 Pro, both 1 TB. I have read that Kingston is not bought on principle, because it quietly replaces parts, and Samsung is rather sure, but it is slower than kingston.. Can someone help me with the choice? Can anyone tell me more about these SSD, or any other recommended SSD?

Best I can answer never ever buy a Kingston drive!!!!!

All of them switch parts depending on what is available some announce it some don't.

Right now you can buy a Crucial MX500 1TB SATA SSD for 67 bucks most people would never be able to tell the difference under normal use. When you get past a HDD unless your running benchmarks or doing a lot of file transfers, could be a few more exceptions all the decent SSD's are so fast it don't matter.

 

[fzabkar]

I have read that Kingston is not bought on principle, because it quietly replaces parts,...

Samsung replaced the controller, and possibly the NAND flash (?), in the 970 Evo Plus. This model is pretty much the same as the 980 Pro.

https://www.techspot.com/news/90998-samsung-swapping-parts-their-970-evo-plus-ssds.html

 

[USAFRet]

Samsung replaced the controller, and possibly the NAND flash (?), in the 970 Evo Plus. This model is pretty much the same as the 980 Pro.

https://www.techspot.com/news/90998-samsung-swapping-parts-their-970-evo-plus-ssds.html

Yes, Samsung did it as well.
But at least they told us.

Rather than the multiple times Kingston did under the table.

 

[fzabkar]

Yes, Samsung did it as well.
But at least they told us.

Did they tell us why they did it?

I notice that TechSpot say that "Samsung has tripled the new 970's SLC cache to make up for the slower controller".

Coincidentally (?), when you convert TLC cells to pseudo-SLC, their endurance increases by orders of magnitude. That might mask any endurance related problems in the TLC chips ...

 

[USAFRet]

Did they tell us why they did it?

I notice that TechSpot say that "Samsung has tripled the new 970's SLC cache to make up for the slower controller".

Coincidentally (?), when you convert TLC cells to pseudo-SLC, their endurance increases by orders of magnitude. That might mask any endurance related problems in the TLC chips ...

Probable controller shortage.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-is-swapping-ssd-parts-too


"In any case, the manufacturer has changed the packaging, part numbers and updated the product sheet for the 970 Evo Plus, giving consumers a friendly heads-up. "
Unlike some of the other manufacturers.

It happens across the industry.
Just don't be sneaky about it.

 

[rickgolds]

What motherboard?
What use case?
What do you have now?

Between those two, "slower" is totally irrelevant.

I have Gigabyte B560 Aorus Pro AX, Phanteks P400A and 3 old drives: WD Blue 1TB bought in 2016, WD Black 2TB bought in 2016, and Goodram iridium pro 240GB (MLC)

Honestly, I'm looking for something on M.2 because I've never had such drives in my life, and I want to have newer hardware and it will be used as the main drive for Windows, some games, programs, etc.

 

[USAFRet]

I have Gigabyte B560 Aorus Pro AX, Phanteks P400A and 3 old drives: WD Blue 1TB bought in 2016, WD Black 2TB bought in 2016, and Goodram iridium pro 240GB (MLC)

Honestly, I'm looking for something on M.2 because I've never had such drives in my life, and I want to have newer hardware and it will be used as the main drive for Windows, some games, programs, etc.

Personally, I'd get the 980 Pro.

But do be aware that the advertised performance difference isn't as great as it may seem.

 

[rickgolds]

@USAFRet what do you think about the WD Black SN850X?

 

[SkyNetRising]

I have Gigabyte B560 Aorus Pro AX
Honestly, I'm looking for something on M.2 because I've never had such drives in my life

What CPU ?
Only 11th gen cpus support PCIE 4.0.
With 10th gen you're limited to PCIE 3.0.

 

[rickgolds]

What CPU ?
Only 11th gen cpus support PCIE 4.0.
With 10th gen you're limited to PCIE 3.0.

Yes, I know. I have i5-11400F

 

[Lafong]

850x is apparently a variant of the 850, maybe targeted at gamers with "Game Mode 2.0", whatever that is.

Both are PCIe 4.0.

Might be just another marketing ploy to suck out the last dollar from those who have to have the latest and greatest and are benchmark-obsessed.

https://www.westerndigital.com/comp...estern-digital-expands-wd-black-ssd-portfolio

You apparently must have it to retain your status.

I think they did the same thing on the SN750, with the SN750E...although the latter is PCIe 4.0, for what that is worth.

Also an SN770; said to be faster than the SN850 in some tests. Both are PCIe 4.0.

I can't keep up with all of these entries in the drive wars as all the manufacturers strive for differentiation without an appreciable difference.