2TB WD SN770 NVME for £99 - what am i missing?

[wheresmycar]

Considering the discussion of HMB vs DRAM, I am surprised nobody linked this yet:

WD Black SN770 1 TB Review - What Magic is This?

The competitively priced Western Digital WD Black SN770 achieves impressive performance results that match the more expensive Samsung 980 Pro, WD Black SN850, and Kingston KC3000. It seems WD has found a solution to overcome the limitations of DRAM-less designs—very impressive.

www.techpowerup.com

thats the first place i checked (amongst other reviews) hence overwhelmed at the SN770 performance and value To be frank, for most users outside of higher IOPs workload requirements even the DRAMless SN770 is overkill. For gaming/the-usual-stuff, even a tier down PCIe 3.0 SN-570 will be a killer addition to any build.

I was recently looking at whether HMB swung noticeable performance penalties to the systems memory side-of-things... couldn't find anything worthy of note there either. Well for me anyway considering all my builds are amply well fed with high memory capacities.

 

[iameatingjam]

DRAM is far less relevant for sustained speed than NAND type. Your description sounds accurate for a cheap QLC drive- the 770 avoids this because it is TLC. SATA drives used to get absolutely destroyed by not having DRAM because the bus is very high latency- not so much a problem over PCIe, so you're not giving up that much peformance by not having it.

My experience with dramless ssds was admittedly with cheap models, but it wasn't entirely with sata and it wasn't QLC as far as I know. I guess it was a small sample size but the WD sn570 and the Silicon Power A60, and then yeah some sata drives too like my old kingston but I couldn't tell you what the model was.

All of these drives would drop off a cliff a certain point in large file transfers and start going less than 10MB/sec sometimes less than 1MB/sec. This would be maybe 15-25GB in to duplicating a file ( so a combined read and write). But also in one way transfers.

Oh I just remembered another one, the Teamgroup T-force Vulcan Z, that one was actually the worst out of all of them. And that one was sata, so I guess you're right there. On the other hand I've always been impressed with my mx500 so much so that I bought another one. They did have dram obviously but were even better with sustained transfers than my dramless nvmes with hmb (in terms of like, never dropping into nothing). Though obviously the nvmes started the transfers much faster.

 

[freeagent]

I bought 3x 1TB sticks, it was cheaper than a 2TB and 1TB by about 40 bucks.. I don't need crazy performance, just needed space, and don't want SATA anymore

I am kicking myself a little for getting a B550 board.. mind you I could get the CH8DH now that it is old and discounted

Le sigh.

 

[TheLostSwede]

nice i just checked the specs for the P44 pro. Not familiar with Solidigm but it seems every bit as good as the WD 850X. All the usual fancy stuff 4.0, similar speeds, DRAM, 5yr warranty, same/similar endurance, etc etc.... and £10 cheaper.

My workloads gonna run fine on SN 770.... but you've got me tempted to go DRAM for £35 more. Will be keeping an eye on the so-solid-solidigm and the other usual suspects for some further price drops.

Solidigm is the old Intel SSD business that got sold to SK Hynix. Supposedly Newegg has a deal on them right now for those living in the US. Taking that discount into account, the 1 TB model has dropped by over 50% in price since the review in October.
TPU review here:

Solidigm P44 Pro 2 TB & 1 TB Review - The Fastest SSD you can Buy

The Solidigm P44 Pro is the company's new PCIe 4.0 flagship M.2 NVMe SSD. It is built using the blazing fast Hynix ACNS075 controller paired with 176-layer 3D TLC NAND. In our review we saw impressive performance numbers, making the P44 Pro the fastest SSD we ever tested.

www.techpowerup.com

 

[WingCommanderBob]

nice i just checked the specs for the P44 pro. Not familiar with Solidigm but it seems every bit as good as the WD 850X. All the usual fancy stuff 4.0, similar speeds, DRAM, 5yr warranty, same/similar endurance, etc etc.... and £10 cheaper.

My workloads gonna run fine on SN 770.... but you've got me tempted to go DRAM for £35 more. Will be keeping an eye on the so-solid-solidigm and the other usual suspects for some further price drops.

Solidigm is the new name for Hynix's SSD business after they bought and absorbed Intel's SSD division. The Solidigm P44 Pro is a rebranded Hynix P41 Platinum which (last I checked) was the highest overall performing Gen 4 drive and the most power efficient per transfer to boot.

Unfortunately their other drive, the P41 Plus, is the follow-on from the Intel 670p being dramless QLC with an SMI controller, rather than bearing any relation to other P41 like the name would imply so I'd avoid that one, even if their unique NVMe driver optimisations do make it the best out there in that sort of price class.

 

[SPDIF]

Price keeps dropping from many SSD, now is the time to score some! Don't even think that it will stay at this price, they will al follow Samsung's example and lower the production to keep the price up. It always go like this for any product. Even tomorrow can be to late. I already bought some spare NVMe SSD! Next week it could be double price for some, you never know...

 

[freeagent]

My slow drives came today

 

[wheresmycar]

My slow drives came today

View attachment 300124

Lovely bubbly

now im curious... why x3?

Actually im always interested in how people manage their storage preferences. Mines out of whack, a whole mix bag of mess soon to be ironed out with some larger capacity SN770/P44 PRO or similar

 

[SPDIF]

He will throw everything out the window because the whole thing works so slowly...

 

[wheresmycar]

He will throw everything out the window because the whole thing works so slowly...

what works slow and which type of workload are you basing that on?

 

[SPDIF]

Because he say my slow drives come today...

 

[wheresmycar]

Because he say my slow drives come today...

oh lol... i didn't see that.

I should stand outside his window and (nope not clapping, just catching)

 

[freeagent]

now im curious... why x3?

Because I am cheap lol

I still have room for one more

They will be gimped a bit on a Gen 3 connection unless I move my GPU to the bottom Gen 4 slot, but I don’t want it running on a x8 connection

 

[Double-Click]

I bought 3x 1TB sticks, it was cheaper than a 2TB and 1TB by about 40 bucks.. I don't need crazy performance, just needed space, and don't want SATA anymore

I am kicking myself a little for getting a B550 board.. mind you I could get the CH8DH now that it is old and discounted

Le sigh.

Every time you feel a little mad at yourself just run a 40mm fan at high RPM, exhale, and say "paaaaassively cooooooled soooooouth briiiiiiiiiiidge"

 

[iameatingjam]

Speaking of cheap SSDs, I see that here in Canada now you can get a sn850x 2tb for $195 cdn. Last year when I was looking for m.2s they were more than double that. Like 450. Not even kidding. Now they're not much more than some of the cheaper options I ended up going for (netac nv7000 and p5 plus) which are both good and I'm happy with them but I probably would have paid the extra $15 for the sn850x.

 

[wheresmycar]

Speaking of cheap SSDs, I see that here in Canada now you can get a sn850x 2tb for $195 cdn. Last year when I was looking for m.2s they were more than double that. Like 450. Not even kidding. Now they're not much more than some of the cheaper options I ended up going for (netac nv7000 and p5 plus) which are both good and I'm happy with them but I probably would have paid the extra $15 for the sn850x.

yep good times for the SO SOLID DEES. Now its just a matter of time when decent higher endurance TLC 4TB units join the <$200 deck. I'm hoping £150 sterling before i pull the trigger on one to replace my 3TB clickity clack spinner

 

[trparky]

Not all DRAM-less SSDs are made the same, case in point... the Samsung 980 (non-Pro). @W1zzard gave it a rather glowing review.
Samsung 980 1 TB Review - Faster Than You Think - Synthetic Testing (DRAM-less, Latency & Mixed Accesses) | TechPowerUp
Samsung 980 1 TB Review - Faster Than You Think - Value & Conclusion | TechPowerUp

The bottom line is that the Samsung 980 is the fastest DRAM-less drive I ever tested. Looking at our real-life performance test suite, the drive is really acing these benchmarks. These are not simple synthetic tests you can easily optimize for. We're running the actual application, on a drive that's 80% full, so the SLC cache is properly stressed, too, like it would be in real-life situations. Averaged over all tests, the Samsung 980 Pro is faster than any other PCIe 3.0 drive with the exception of the Hynix Gold P31, which is 1% faster. Famous drives with DRAM can barely keep up with the Samsung 980, with the ADATA SX8200 Pro performing the same, Kingston KC2000 1% slower, HP EX950 2% slower, and Crucial P5 4% behind. Compared to the Samsung 970 EVO, the performance uplift is 7%—I'm impressed since this is much better than I expected. Compared to the Samsung 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 flagship, the difference is only 4%. The fastest SSD we ever tested, the WD Black SN850, is only 5% faster. Remember, these are averages. I'm sure there are scenarios where you can make the DRAM-less design choke on incoming data, and for highly sequential workloads the PCIe 4.0 drives will of course be faster. Still, given the workloads we're testing in our review, I wouldn't be able to tell that this is a DRAM-less drive.

And according to this review by @W1zzard of the Western Digital SN770, he also gave it a glowing review.
WD Black SN770 1 TB Review - What Magic is This? - Synthetic Testing (DRAM-less, Latency & Mixed Accesses) | TechPowerUp
WD Black SN770 1 TB Review - What Magic is This? - Value & Conclusion | TechPowerUp

Good that we also do extensive real-life testing with actual applications (not disk traces) and the drive at 80% full, which is much harder to optimize for. Here, the WD Black SN770 achieves unbelievable results that match or exceed the more expensive and higher-positioned WD Black SN850, Samsung 980 Pro, and Kingston KC3000. In the match-up SN850 vs. SN770, the SN770 does have a little bit of a hardware advantage because it uses faster 112-layer flash, whereas the SN850 uses the slower 96-layer NAND, which apparently is enough to make up for the lack of DRAM, and the 4-channel interface. Another important win is that the SN770 beats the DRAM-less Samsung 980 non-Pro by 4%, and the best PCIe 3.0 drives are 3-5% behind. Once again, the SN770 is a DRAM-less SSD design, which usually have terrible random write performance, especially when the writes are spread over a larger area, which is due to the DRAM-cache being emulated in flash, which is much slower. Seems WD figured out a magic bullet to overcome this problem. If you showed me the real-life performance results of the SN770, there's no way I'd come to the conclusion that this is a DRAM-less drive.

 

[bohrz]

I’m thinking of getting the SN770 2TB, but I like to install Windows separately in a different partition. Is that a bad thing with SSD’s?

 

[W1zzard]

but I like to install Windows separately in a different partition. Is that a bad thing with SSD’s?

Total non-issue

 

[Dr. Dro]

I bought 3x 1TB sticks, it was cheaper than a 2TB and 1TB by about 40 bucks.. I don't need crazy performance, just needed space, and don't want SATA anymore

I am kicking myself a little for getting a B550 board.. mind you I could get the CH8DH now that it is old and discounted

Le sigh.

And you would get absolutely nothing for it, considered you have a B550-XE. Weird fomo, man. Grab a gen 4 drive for your main slot, pop your existing SSD on the other and go on your merry way

 

[freeagent]

And you would get absolutely nothing for it, considered you have a B550-XE. Weird fomo, man. Grab a gen 4 drive for your main slot, pop your existing SSD on the other and go on your merry way

I have a Gen 4 drive in the main slot, I have a Gen 4 drive in the Gen 3 slot, and 2 Gen 4 drives on second pcie 4.0 slot

I put my old SN750 1TB in the bottom slot on my other board, everyone is happy

 

[SPDIF]

I have a Gen 4 drive in the main slot, I have a Gen 4 drive in the Gen 3 slot, and 2 Gen 4 drives on second pcie 4.0 slot

I put my old SN750 1TB in the bottom slot on my other board, everyone is happy

Exept your mobo, that is saying; men he push the guts out of me... Never loan me a bit of rest... Why me?

As soon as he power on this thingy, halve Canada without power ...

 

[wheresmycar]

a little update....

in all frankness the performance of a dram-less SN770 @ ~£100 "for me" is more than enough but good things always comes to the patient

Someone i know is getting me two Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMEs at a considerable discount of £110 each (so a total of 4tb for £220 - YUMMY). I admit these sticks are overkill for my needs but at these prices its a BUY! At-least i'll get super fast transfer speeds when i occasionally shift around large data/video files within the storage device or over to the second one.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

a little update....

in all frankness the performance of a dram-less SN770 @ ~£100 "for me" is more than enough but good things always comes to the patient

View attachment 303760

Someone i know is getting me two Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMEs at a considerable discount of £110 each (so a total of 4tb for £220 - YUMMY). I admit these sticks are overkill for my needs but at these prices its a BUY! At-least i'll get super fast transfer speeds when i occasionally shift around large data/video files within the storage device or over to the second one.

Has this been fixed?

Samsung 990 PRO Flagship SSD Has an Endurance Problem, Users Notice Rapid Drive-Health Drops

Samsung 990 PRO is the company's flagship client SSD, which is among the fastest Gen 4 NVMe SSDs you can buy. It also commands a very high price premium, with the 1 TB variant priced at $170, and the 2 TB variant at $290. When you're buying in this segment, you expect the highest endurance...

www.techpowerup.com

I haven't seen any updates since the initial flutter of interest.

 

[kapone32]

Because I am cheap lol

I still have room for one more

They will be gimped a bit on a Gen 3 connection unless I move my GPU to the bottom Gen 4 slot, but I don’t want it running on a x8 connection

You will be hardpressed to notice the difference.