The Samsung 980 Without the PRO is the same DRAM-less design. Yup it is better then nothing, it goes over your PCIE lanes to RAM.
It is also MUCH slower then an SSD with build-in DRAM.
A good solution purely for storage i think.
If you don't like this idea, then you are better off to buy a SN850X, with is available now for 77 dollars, 1TB!
570/770/850X.... its more to do with the use-case.
For gaming and general-use, the 570(3.0)/770(4.0) are simply plenty and more than sufficient for a system drive. For anyone transferring large chunks of data/files on the regular or immersed in higher IOPS workstation-class workloads, the dram-based 850X definitely makes sense.
I'm absolutely terrible when it comes to pulling the trigger on well-thought out reasonable buys - the buy-best-impulse usually kicks in and occasionally I see myself buying into larger than life components for a heftier cost with less price/perf reward to fall back on. Eg. 960 evo's were costing a bomb 5/6 years ago and i replaced a perfectly performance-savvy mediocre SSD only to find the performance difference was too small to warrant the spend. No regrets though, factoring in "endurance/reliability"... 6-years-on the 960 evo is still going perfy strong with '91% drive remaining life'
The thing is, whoever needed a 1-2TB SSD has already found a good deal at one point. What I'm waiting for now is good deals for 4TB drives (i.e., ~$200). SATA/AHCI is good enough for me, my main storage is now spread between a 1 TB and a 2 TB one, I could do with a single drive instead of two.
I'm a complete mess. I've got several machines and number of active SSDs 500GBs/1TBs and a few none-active used 250GBs/500GBs and a few shelved used/old larger capacity 2-3TB HDs. In all frankness, plenty of cost-effective storage possibilities for the up-n-coming system upgrade and yet i'm fancying larger capacity + "brand spanking new" solutions opposed to multiple installations. Actually when it comes to storage and system upgrades, if a fresh windows installation is affirmative i just end up craving something new and better.
Essentially considering:
- SYSTEM DRIVE: 2TB SN770 - general work/personal use + 3 currently active games + future titles. I know, overkill capacity but we'll get there eventually.
- SECONDARY: 4TB Crucial P3 PLUS - older games library, personal media, system drive backups, etc. I know QLC sucks... i think i ran a thread on TPU for recommendations and the general thoughts were for a secondary drive and the use-case it's decent unit for the price (~£200)
this will be my first system upgrade without carrying a spinner - yay!