Can someone tell me which is best? The M461 is only a couple of quid more than the 450. I assume the 461 is better,but i can't search properly atm,because i broke my ribs 3 nights ago,and my focus is limited to a few minutes at best before i have to lie down to relax my rib cage (it's very very painful). Sorry for the medical description.
MSI Spatium 450 vs Spatium M461
- Thread starter ooStevo
- Start date
From a quick look @ newmaxx's spreadsheet and the specs, the M461 uses an updated/faster controller to the M450, but it may use QLC memory and as a result, the endurance rating (TBW) is much lower on the paper faster drive (the 2TB M461 is 450 and the 2TB M450 is 1200).
In other words, the M450 is arguably superior, maybe similar argument to taking the SN570 over the P3 Plus.
In other words, the M450 is arguably superior, maybe similar argument to taking the SN570 over the P3 Plus.
In Newmaxx's spreadsheet he says the M461 may use QLC, so the reason manufacturers give it a lower TBW rating is to allow them room to downgrade the quality of the flash depending on market conditions.
The higher model has a newer controller which is (on paper) faster, so I guess it is a newer model, but is it actually better? Hmm. I'd prefer higher quality flash than a faster controller.
Yep. It suggests they're using decent TLC because it is the same as Samsung's 980 Pro and WD's SN850X.
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Thank you sir,i really appreciate your help.
Hello again,this is what i found out about the Spatium 450 1tb.
The Phison E19T is a brand-new controller that supports TLC NAND without DRAM cache for cost optimizations. The bus interface is PCI-Express 4.0 x4 and supports NVMe 1.4. The chip is fabricated on a 28 nanometer process by TSMC Taiwan. It's a 4-channel design with just one processor core (Arm Cortex R5)
The two flash chips are 176-layer 3D TLC NAND made by Micron.
So as far as i can make out for now,these drives do not have DRAM cache,which i thought was very important for SSD/NVME/M.2 drives.
What's the difference with QLC/TLC and DRAM cache? I have a general idea,but i keep second guessing myself.Searching on the interweb brings up so much useless info is the reason i have to ask here. £54 might be nothing to you guys,but i'm struggling here,i wanna get it right.
The Phison E19T is a brand-new controller that supports TLC NAND without DRAM cache for cost optimizations. The bus interface is PCI-Express 4.0 x4 and supports NVMe 1.4. The chip is fabricated on a 28 nanometer process by TSMC Taiwan. It's a 4-channel design with just one processor core (Arm Cortex R5)
The two flash chips are 176-layer 3D TLC NAND made by Micron.
So as far as i can make out for now,these drives do not have DRAM cache,which i thought was very important for SSD/NVME/M.2 drives.
What's the difference with QLC/TLC and DRAM cache? I have a general idea,but i keep second guessing myself.Searching on the interweb brings up so much useless info is the reason i have to ask here. £54 might be nothing to you guys,but i'm struggling here,i wanna get it right.
Most NVME/M.2 drives don't have DRAM anymore and they have controllers optimised to minimise any performance loss. They do that partly through using your system RAM, which as far as I know is not something that SATA supports.
If you're buying a boot drive, or the drive will have heavy usage, then I'd make sure you get a decent drive with TLC (including endurance rating: TBW) and preferably with DRAM.
I'd accept any of these for a boot/heavy usage drive:
- P5 Plus
- SN850X
- 970 Evo/980 Pro
- Firecuda 530
For a games or storage drive, it's not important, though I still prefer to buy TLC. I'd usually look at something like:
- SN570/SN580
- SN770
- Samsung 980
- Firecuda 520
The lowest end drives often have no DRAM and QLC (or don't state if they use TLC or QLC, which allows them to switch freely), with poor endurance ratings and just a 3 year warranty. An example would be:
- Kingston NV2
Ideally, I'd avoid these drives for any usage, but especially for a boot drive.
It has decent enough specs for me to consider it as a secondary drive, but I wouldn't use it myself as a boot drive, no.
I'm doing my own head in trying to find a drive that will last a long time. I might just get an up to date HDD and be done with it tbh. I do have a 240gb Kingston 'a4xx' but the reviews on that are mild. I don't game on PC,apart from emus,I love F-Zero GX/AX and Dreamcast stuff for example. Well thank you again for your help,you've helped me a lot. Ima pish off now.