SSD cost-benefit doubt

[Tiamat]

Hello guys. I'll buy a 240/250Gb SSD and i'm trying to find the cost-benefit considering my options characteristics.

1) SSD KINGSTON A400 - an entry level SSD with good read/write speeds considering its price. However it's a simple TLC SSD a suffer from low reliability. It's MTBF it's of 1M hours.

2) SSD SAMSUMG EVO 850 - an excelent SSD. Great good and write speeds and more reliable than kingston. It uses the 3D TLC model and it's estimated MTBF is around 1.5M hours. (50% more than the Kingston model)


3) Crucial MX300 275GB M.2 - an m.2 model, but i'm not sure if would work with my GA-AB350M-DS2

The price ratio between both of them is at 70%. In other words, if the Kingston model costs $140, the Samsung is at $200.

I dont believe that the read/write speeds could affect the performance in real world that much, but i'm indeed concerned about reliability. I know that simple TLC SSD are not recommended for workstations because of the low MTBF, and that is not my case. However, i do like to use my storage devices as long as i can -- i have hdd in use that have around 10 years . Therefore, i dont know if THAT MTBF difference could represent any real difference for an average home user. So, what would u do?

obs: i know that we have other models, but i can only buy a few options now. Other options that i found here was the: GALAX GAMER SSD L 240GB S11, the WD GREEN 240gb, SANDISK 240GB PLUS, CRUCIAL BX200 240GB

 

[fullinfusion]

spend the extra and do yourself a favor and get the Samsung drive. You won't regret it!

Kingston is meh where Samsung is a HELL YA drive!

 

[Tiamat]

@fullinfusion Do u know if the Crucial MX300 275GB M.2 - an m.2 model - can work with the GA-AB350M-DS2?

I found this (attach file) but i'm not sure, because the gigabyte spec site does not mention m.2 neither pci-e 3.0

 

[m&m's]

No your board doesn't support M.2 SSDs.

Get a Crucial MX500. 5 years warranty and cheaper than Samsung equivalents.

 

[Tiamat]

I found this (attach file) but i'm not sure, because the gigabyte spec site does not mention m.2 neither pci-e 3.0

Attachments

Can u check this info @m&m's ?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

the whole MTBF between MLC and TLC is grossly exaggerated. for commercial use they should last years and years before failure. Unless you need to write a few terabytes of data every day, there is no need to worry

 

[newtekie1]

Therefore, i dont know if THAT MTBF difference could represent any real difference for an average home user. So, what would u do?

MTBF is an absolutely horrible way of rating SSD reliability. The TBW(Total Bytes Written) is the best way to determine the reliability of the drive. With a HDD, MTBF means something, because even if the drive isn't being used, it is still spinning so there is still wear on the drive. But an SSD only has wear when there is data written to it.

Get a Crucial MX500. 5 years warranty and cheaper than Samsung equivalents.

I agree with this. The MX500 is a very good option.

 

[Tiamat]

MTBF is an absolutely horrible way of rating SSD reliability. The TBW(Total Bytes Written) is the best way to determine the reliability of the drive. With a HDD, MTBF means something, because even if the drive isn't being used, it is still spinning so there is still wear on the drive. But an SSD only has wear when there is data written to it.

Do u know that would be the difference for those SSDs in this case?

I agree with this. The MX500 is a very good option

The price here is very similar with the Samsung EVO model -- i'm not from US

 

[newtekie1]

Do u know that would be the difference for those SSDs in this case?

Kingston A400 240GB - 80TB Total Bytes Written
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB - 75TB Total Bytes Written

 

[Hood]

I have used the best and the cheapest, and there is a very noticeable difference in the feel of the user experience. The cheap ones often feel almost as slow as mechanical hard drives, and the best ones feel so much faster and "snappy". The Samsung drives are worth it.

 

[Toothless]

Get the 850 EVO, worth every penny.

 

[Tiamat]

OMG, when i just assume i'll get Kingston, u come and tell me this??

have used the best and the cheapest, and there is a very noticeable difference in the feel of the user experienc

Get the 850 EVO, worth every penny

hahaha i don't know what to do
@Hood did u actually saw the A400 model from kingston? (and not the v300 ou UV400... they're similar but the a400 is much better)

 

[newtekie1]

I have used the best and the cheapest, and there is a very noticeable difference in the feel of the user experience. The cheap ones often feel almost as slow as mechanical hard drives, and the best ones feel so much faster and "snappy". The Samsung drives are worth it.

The cheapest ones are likely DRAMless, and yes those are noticeable slower. They are still significantly better than an HDD, but noticeably slower than other SSDs. I wouldn't say Samsung drives are worth the money they ask for them though, there are other drives that are usually cheaper, offer better features, and the same performance.

OMG, when i just assume i'll get Kingston, u come and tell me this??

After doing a little more research on the A400, I wouldn't buy it. It is a DRAMless SSD, which means it will be noticeably slower than a SSD that has a DRAM. If the MX500 is the same price as the 850 EVO, I'd go with the MX500.

 

[Tiamat]

If the MX500 is the same price as the 850 EVO, I'd go with the MX500.

It's actually a little cheaper. Why would u choose that?

@newtekie1

 

[newtekie1]

It's actually a little cheaper. Why would u choose that?

@newtekie1

Virtually identical performance, and better features like power loss protection.

 

[jboydgolfer]

Either get the Samsung or the crucial ,but I'd recommend that you stick with sata, instead of M.2. Its what id do, and crucials are great ssd's, i have a couple 850 evo's and yea theyre great too, but id say crucials mx line are a nice price/perf ssd, again id go sata. You really couldn't have picked a better time either ,because the Samsung 850EVO is selling @ it's launch price of $140 in many retailers.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Note that the Kingston is a DRAM-less drive, i.e. it'll use system RAM to cache writes.
The performance actually seems decent for a DRAM-less drive, judging by the benchmarks here - http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/kingston-a400-120-gib-ssd-review/5/
However, this is also part of the reason why it's cheaper and in general, DRAM-less SSD's are never going to perform as well as a drive with built in DRAM cache, which is still something like 90% of SSDs on the market.
Note that this also means that a chunk of your RAM will be locked into duty as SSD cache, since the SSD controller will request a certain amount of RAM from the system. If the SSD controller doesn't get this RAM, the performance will drop.

You don't have any other options available to you?

 

[xkm1948]

MX500. Best bang for your buck. I love Crucial's SSD. Good reliability and good driver/firmware support.

 

[Tiamat]

features like power loss protection.

@newtekie1 I didnt know that, ty

and crucials are great ssd's, i have a couple 850 evo's and yea theyre great too, but id say crucials mx line are a nice price/perf ssd, again id go sata.

@jboydgolfer if u consider only the performance, wich one is better in day-to-day? I can get any of them and the difference of price is less than 1%...

ote that this also means that a chunk of your RAM will be locked into duty as SSD cache, since the SSD controller will request a certain amount of RAM from the system. If the SSD controller doesn't get this RAM, the performance will drop.

@TheLostSwede I guess i wont get the kingston model so. I've checked that review too, but u're right! Unfortenelly other options include only : GALAX GAMER SSD L 240GB S11, the WD GREEN 240gb, SANDISK 240GB PLUS, CRUCIAL BX200 240GB

MX500. Best bang for your buck. I love Crucial's SSD. Good reliability and good driver/firmware support.

@xkm1948 BTW, Beautiful puppy X0

 

[cucker tarlson]

My vote goes to mx500. I read the reviews, it's just as good as 850 evo, but cheaper. Anything SATA based that's worth paying extra over that mx500 drive is 850 pro with 10 year warranty, but that comes with a huge price premium.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Note that the Kingston is a DRAM-less drive, i.e. it'll use system RAM to cache writes.
The performance actually seems decent for a DRAM-less drive, judging by the benchmarks here - http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/kingston-a400-120-gib-ssd-review/5/
However, this is also part of the reason why it's cheaper and in general, DRAM-less SSD's are never going to perform as well as a drive with built in DRAM cache, which is still something like 90% of SSDs on the market.
Note that this also means that a chunk of your RAM will be locked into duty as SSD cache, since the SSD controller will request a certain amount of RAM from the system. If the SSD controller doesn't get this RAM, the performance will drop.

You don't have any other options available to you?

Im not going to dissagree but to add that samsung evis and pro can use samsung magicians rapid mode , using system memory and software to intelligently cache drive use , it works well and is one reason to go samsung , maybe.

 

[jboydgolfer]

wich one is better in day-to-day?

go with the 850Evo In my opinion. I have been runnign them for 3 or so years, and they are rock solid, and fast aF.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Im not going to dissagree but to add that samsung evis and pro can use samsung magicians rapid mode , using system memory and software to intelligently cache drive use , it works well and is one reason to go samsung , maybe.

I think you misunderstand, the Kingston drive doesn't have any DRAM inside the SSD, which the Samsung drives do. This DRAM is used for things like the mapping table which helps speed up writing data to the actual flash memory.

I wasn't talking about some kind of pre-cache in system memory before the data is sent to the SSD, this is something entirely different and it's something some SSD manufacturers offers a software feature for their SSD's.

@newtekie1 I didnt know that, ty

@TheLostSwede I guess i wont get the kingston model so. I've checked that review too, but u're right! Unfortenelly other options include only : GALAX GAMER SSD L 240GB S11, the WD GREEN 240gb, SANDISK 240GB PLUS, CRUCIAL BX200 240GB

None of those options are particularly good and most of them are really quite old by now. You can't get the BX300?

The MX300 doesn't have power loss protection, or at least not in the sense that enterprise drives do. It's too long to explain here, but please see - https://www.anandtech.com/show/8528/micron-m600-128gb-256gb-1tb-ssd-review-nda-placeholder
There's a good explanation there as to how the thought at Crucial/Micron went on this consumer grade power loss protection.
The simple explanation is that the power loss protection in this case has to do with how TLC NAND is written to and what Crucial/Micron has done, is to make sure that all three cells have their data written properly in the case of a power loss situation, so there isn't any data corruption.
It might save you losing data, but it might not, it really depends on the situation, since it won't save data in the SSD DRAM and write that to the flash in case of a power outage, like enterprise SSD's do.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I think you misunderstand, the Kingston drive doesn't have any DRAM inside the SSD, which the Samsung drives do. This DRAM is used for things like the mapping table which helps speed up writing data to the actual flash memory.

I wasn't talking about some kind of pre-cache in system memory before the data is sent to the SSD, this is something entirely different and it's something some SSD manufacturers offers a software feature for their SSD's.



None of those options are particularly good and most of them are really quite old by now. You can't get the BX300?

The MX300 doesn't have power loss protection, or at least not in the sense that enterprise drives do. It's too long to explain here, but please see - https://www.anandtech.com/show/8528/micron-m600-128gb-256gb-1tb-ssd-review-nda-placeholder
There's a good explanation there as to how the thought at Crucial/Micron went on this consumer grade power loss protection.
The simple explanation is that the power loss protection in this case has to do with how TLC NAND is written to and what Crucial/Micron has done, is to make sure that all three cells have their data written properly in the case of a power loss situation, so there isn't any data corruption.
It might save you losing data, but it might not, it really depends on the situation, since it won't save data in the SSD DRAM and write that to the flash in case of a power outage, like enterprise SSD's do.

No, i understand fully thats why i said wanted to add, not only do Samsung have inbuilt ram cache but they offer software that ALSO accelerates its use , and quite considerably ,I used it , but my Samy evo 850 512 died so im hard-pressed to deffo say buy one , i think a short killed mine but don't Know so I am on the edge.
The two Samsung basics(didn't blow in the same short) im using dont support rapid and i have noticed but not massively.
No one else mentioned rapid mode on Samsung ,so I was providing info while agreeing with you, sorry that wasn't clear.

 

[eidairaman1]

Any SSD will be faster than a metal record player/writer.

If your money is so tight go to what you can, otherwise save up.

Personal suggestion is the Samsung 840 Pro, 850 Pro, 860 Pro or Crucial MX300, MX500 for SATA. I'd say the same for M.2 from both companies.