Team Group Vulcan G 1 TB SSD

[W1zzard]

The Team Group Vulcan G SSD is priced extremely competitively: just $80 for the reviewed 1 TB version, it is more affordable than other entry-level SSDs. The Vulcan G is also considerably faster than the Samsung 870 QVO and Crucial BX500.

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[DeathtoGnomes]

I expect without the DRAM cache that user would see a lot of system stutter if used as the only drive in a low-end/entry level system.

 

[Anymal]

Forget about msrp, 8c per gb is lying.

 

[InVasMani]

I doubt I'll get another SATA device at this stage it's such dated tech today. If I did it would likely be a high capacity HDD that's more lucrative on cost per GB, but probably doubtful outside of possibly a HAMR drive if it's really compelling on cost per GB. Even in that case I would hope that HDD would transition to a NVME interface regardless they still have DRAM cache and I'm sure the SATA bandwidth restricts it's performance benefits just based on the I-RAM it's obvious the bandwidth and I/O is restricted by SATA.

I expect without the DRAM cache that user would see a lot of system stutter if used as the only drive in a low-end/entry level system.

Once the OS/data was installed it wouldn't be bad, but I don't see a practical reason to buy a relatively higher capacity SSD that's SATA based. It's in a similar position to HDD's where it's become progressively less compelling.

 

[Chrispy_]

At these prices I feel more and more people are going to start using SSDs for long-term storage, when was the last time that anyone did integrity testing with long-term retention on SSDs?

It's compounded by high-capacity hard disks actually going up in price, it seems. My 8TB drives are now selling for 50% more than I bought them for and when I bought them I seem to remember drives being more expensive than they were even during the Thailand floods.

 

[AndreiD]

@Chrispy_ Technically an SSD will be able to retain data for a couple of years if you store it in a cold environment. The warmer the NAND is when it's written to and the colder it is when it's inactive, the longer your data will last.
So weirdly enough, you could run a few synthetic benchmarks to warm it up, write your data and then put the SSD in a sandwich bag in the fridge and it will last a few good years before you'll encounter corruption.

Also this TeamGroup SSD seems to perform about the same as the Crucial BX500 960GB I had, it was fine to read from, but writing data to it was a pain, especially once filled up past 50%. These could be good for write once/few times, read many scenarios. Wouldn't use them as game drives since even a game update will bog them down for several minutes at a time once filled up a bit.

 

[BSim500]

At these prices I feel more and more people are going to start using SSDs for long-term storage, when was the last time that anyone did integrity testing with long-term retention on SSDs?

Technically an SSD will be able to retain data for a couple of years if you store it in a cold environment. The warmer the NAND is when it's written to and the colder it is when it's inactive, the longer your data will last. So weirdly enough, you could run a few synthetic benchmarks to warm it up, write your data and then put the SSD in a sandwich bag in the fridge and it will last a few good years before you'll encounter corruption.

I'd definitely like to see this tested in practise. The oft-quoted "one year data retention" is from a JEDEC chart in a several year old Intel Powerpoint presentation based on +20nm MLC that's woefully out of date, and tech sites are laughably behind the curve on this stuff. We were already seeing significant read speed slowdowns all the way down to sub 20MB/s even on premium Samsung 850 EVO drives due after 11 months of being continuously unpowered due to relying on error correction to "guestimate" back the data, and a lot has changed since then (MLC = 33% voltage state overhead, TLC = 14% and QLC down to just 6%), likewise Samsung 850 = 40nm, newer 870 = 19nm. I'd love to be proven wrong but I do not believe for one second that 19nm QLC drives will have unpowered data retention rates anything remotely approaching 40nm MLC / TLC after +1 year of being continuously unpowered (it would defy the laws of physics for that to be true) and wouldn't touch them with a barge pole as a 1:1 replacement for cold storage until proven otherwise.

 

[W1zzard]

Forget about msrp, 8c per gb is lying.

I always look at the price on Newegg, not MSRP, unless I have no better info

Team Group T-FORCE VULCAN G 2.5" 1TB SATA III 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) T253TG001T3C301 - Newegg.com

Buy Team Group T-FORCE VULCAN G 2.5" 1TB SATA III 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) T253TG001T3C301 with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Edit: heh, looks like they bumped the price when it started flying off shelves after this review. It was $80 yesterday

especially once filled up past 50%.

Our real-life testing is at filled to 80% for all drives

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Edit: heh, looks like they bumped the price when it started flying off shelves after this review. It was $80 yesterday

typical newegg practice, price gouge whenever possible.

 

[Anymal]

I always look at the price on Newegg, not MSRP, unless I have no better info

Team Group T-FORCE VULCAN G 2.5" 1TB SATA III 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) T253TG001T3C301 - Newegg.com

Buy Team Group T-FORCE VULCAN G 2.5" 1TB SATA III 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) T253TG001T3C301 with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Edit: heh, looks like they bumped the price when it started flying off shelves after this review. It was $80 yesterday


Our real-life testing is at filled to 80% for all drives

Very appreciated that you communicate with us, viewers of your tests and other corners of your site, but you and every other reviewers all around use unrealistic prices for their conclusions, p/p metric is very definitive and many take it in consideraton when buying but actual prices differs very either plus or minus, recent times more plus.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

this is probably the most affordably priced 1TB SSD I would consider just to store all my games to. Since Newegg is listing it for $85, that's still a very compelling purchase for those who are upgrading or adding an SSD without spending too much or finds M.2 PCIe SSDs of similar capacity a little bit more expensive.

 

[W1zzard]

use unrealistic prices

How is the price unrealistic when it's $85 right now and I used $80? I can send you $5

 

[Anymal]

Forget about it, please send me 200usd for 3070 price difference, I am buying a new card.

 

[Scour]

What a shame. The Vulcan T-Force 1TB is a very fast SATA-SSD, the G is on a level similar to QLC-SSDs or SSDs like Kingston A400.

I expect such "performance" more at the CX-model.

Is a review of the T-Create-series or EX planned?

It´s getting more and more confusing at Team Group, how many entry-level-SSDs the have atm? CX1/2, AX1/2, Vulcan G ....

 

[lexluthermiester]

typical newegg practice, price gouge whenever possible.

but actual prices differs very either plus or minus, recent times more plus.

It's call free market enterprise and is not new. If you don't like the prices, don't buy. That simple.

 

[Anymal]

Yes, do the math and decide yourself but reviewers just jump to conclusions on false prices hence failed recommendations.

 

[Kursah]

Yes, do the math and decide yourself but reviewers just jump to conclusions on false prices hence failed recommendations.

Sounds like you need to find a more localized reviewer or become one so that pricing is more accurate to your area. That might help in situations like this where someone's market is noticeably different. Then that would mean those theoretical reviews for your specific area are wrong and overpriced for our market. Something to keep in mind.

Yes, do the math and decide yourself but reviewers just jump to conclusions on false prices hence failed recommendations.

Current price on Nov 28, 2020 is $83.99 on Newegg: https://www.newegg.com/team-group-1tb-t-force-vulcan-g/p/N82E16820331555

84/1000 = 0.084, or 8.4 cents per GB.
84/1024 = 0.083, or 8.3 cents per GB.

That's close enough to not be knee-jerk summarized as lying IMHO, lying would be claiming that its 6cents per GB and literally no market supports that, nor does the reviewers actual numbers. Reviewers please everyone but they sure try. I can't shame any review for basing their price per GB on current prices available to them at the time of review. It isn't meant to summarize the price per GB for every Earthly market nor does it claim to. And maybe that's what you're seeking?

Price at time of review (Nov 23, 2020):

As recently as a month ago, the price was under $80:

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/comments/j3wumt

There is no way they can keep a single posted review accurate for all prices, choosing the current good price that's widely available is an pretty appropriate solution. As I said earlier, if you want more realistic prices per GB for your area, it might help if you do reviews that reflect that. Could be a good thing for you and your market.

 

[InVasMani]

I don't expect review sites pricing to be perfect to the dollar every time it's unrealistic usually it's within about $5-10's in most instances and that's perfectly fine.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I don't expect review sites pricing to be perfect to the dollar every time it's unrealistic usually it's within about $5-10's in most instances and that's perfectly fine.

Exactly. Review sites are for reviewing the hardware performance not for getting the precise cost nailed down, that's for the buyer to do. Getting the price in the general area of expectation is the best we can ask of them. After all, reviews do not set prices, sellers/retailers do. In the above situation, W1zard was within $5, a very acceptable margin of error.

 

[Anymal]

I guess TPU recommendations are only for USA and like a joke for EU customers.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I guess TPU recommendations are only for USA and like a joke for EU customers.

You've made your complaints. Seems like it's time to let it go.

 

[Caring1]

I guess TPU recommendations are only for USA and like a joke for EU customers.

The review is still valid, only the pricing changes globally.
A bitter pill to swallow for some of us.

 

[pexxie]

I like what you do with the sustained writes test. I suspect turning off write caching in device manager might show off how slow things really are right from the start. I've attached an example comparison, although it's not a very good one. My old Intel and Corsair SSDs with SandForce controllers aren't affected by this write cache setting. Although maybe the on/off toggle of their caches aren't exposed to the OS. Their specs don't mention anything about cache, that I'm aware of.

 

[W1zzard]

I suspect turning off write caching in device manager might show off how slow things really are right from the start

The SLC cache is part of the SSD, and invisible to the OS. You cannot resize or turn it off.

 

[okbuddy]

can you test sn850?