WD Blue SN550 2TB

DEL 707 · 4 Apr 2021 at 13:10

I'm planning on doing a bit of a PC upgrade.

Looking to get a Ryzen 7 5800X on a MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk.
At the moment I have a Samsung 850 Evo 1TB but I would like to upgrade to 2TB.

I was thinking of grabbing the WD Blue SN550 2TB, mainly because of the price.
The reviews seem good, but everyone mentions it's DRAMless.
Is this a major concern? I use my PC mainly for gaming.

JohnG7 · 4 Apr 2021 at 13:11

Depends on the controller some claim they do not need the DRAM.

EsaT · 4 Apr 2021 at 13:26

For home usage like gaming that lack of big DRAM cache isn't problem.
Also controller is no doubt designed to work without big on drive DRAM.
SN550 certainly performs competitively in leading time benchmarks.
https://www.legitreviews.com/wd-blue-sn550-1tb-nvme-sdd-review_216104/8
https://www.techspot.com/review/2116-storage-speed-game-loading/
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wd-blue-sn550-m2-nvme-ssd-review-best-dramless-ssd-yet/3

Some heavy server workloads with lots of random accesses and writes would no doubt be entirely different thing.
Or removing DRAM from controller designed to work with it.

DEL 707 · 4 Apr 2021 at 13:36

Silly question, is the controller on the actual SSD or on the motherboard?

JohnG7 · 4 Apr 2021 at 13:38

Both but in this case they are talking about the SSD's controller.

For myself I would not use for OS but could see it being ok for games/storage but again not for me.

I have Samsung 860 Pro's/Evo's (512GB-4TB) but they come with a high cost attached.

DEL 707 · 4 Apr 2021 at 13:56

I assume though, it would be a upgrade over my Samsung 850's, with it being M.2 NVME?

JohnG7 · 4 Apr 2021 at 13:58

Why not just give a budget and we can see what is best and you will not see any real world gains going from SATA to NVME in everyday use.

DEL 707 · 4 Apr 2021 at 14:33

Well, £200 was kinda my limit.

Doing it on a bit of a whim since I was since I'm upgrading motherboard+CPU.
I was hoping to upgrade my capacity, but I don't want to do it if I'm gonna end up with a slower drive.

JohnG7 · 4 Apr 2021 at 15:01

Samsung 960 Evo 2TB is just over your budget and the new 970 Evo 2TB is out (new controller) at just under your budget < both SATA.

DEL 707 · 4 Apr 2021 at 15:22

Do you have any links? Those 970's look like M.2 cards and way over my budget.

JohnG7 · 4 Apr 2021 at 15:37

No, the new 970 SATA 2.5" which launched first in QVO form then EVO and soon PRO.

I know it is hard to find the link as you either find 970 NVME or 960 SATA 2.5" but I cannot post it here.

Samsung SSD 870 EVO | Samsung V-NAND Consumer SSD | Samsung Semiconductor Global Website

The Samsung 870 QVO (1TB & 4TB) SSD Review: QLC Refreshed (anandtech.com)

Minstadave · 4 Apr 2021 at 15:39

JohnG7 said:
No, the new 970 SATA 2.5" which launched first in QVO form then EVO and soon PRO.

I know it is hard to find the link as you either find 970 NVME or 960 SATA 2.5" but I cannot post it here.

I'm pretty sure you've got your wires crossed. It's not on Samsung's website.

The 860 and 870 are their SATA drives.

Minstadave · 4 Apr 2021 at 15:44

JohnG7 said:
I did post link to Samsung site.

Yes to the 870. You can do this, I believe in you!

Minstadave · 4 Apr 2021 at 15:49

DEL 707 said:
Well, £200 was kinda my limit.

Doing it on a bit of a whim since I was since I'm upgrading motherboard+CPU.
I was hoping to upgrade my capacity, but I don't want to do it if I'm gonna end up with a slower drive.

I'd personally go for the Blue with your budget. Neater and faster than going SATA and not anymore expensive.

Space Monkey · 4 Apr 2021 at 15:52

This forum is for OCUK items only not to promote competitors, so please stop!

DEL 707 · 4 Apr 2021 at 15:52

I'm hugly confused...
I can't find that 970 is SATA form, I can find the 870.

I tried a comparison site and it shows that the WD 550 is better.

https://versus.com/en/samsung-870-qvo-2tb-vs-western-digital-wd-blue-sn550-2tb

As again, I do want to upgrade my capacity, but not if the SN550 is gonna be slower then the 850 SATA I already have.

Minstadave · 4 Apr 2021 at 16:02

DEL 707 said:
I'm hugly confused...
I can't find that 970 is SATA form, I can find the 870.

I tried a comparison site and it shows that the WD 550 is better.

https://versus.com/en/samsung-870-qvo-2tb-vs-western-digital-wd-blue-sn550-2tb

As again, I do want to upgrade my capacity, but not if the SN550 is gonna be slower then the 850 SATA I already have.

The 970 isn't SATA. It's NVME only and out of budget.

The SN550 is a decent drive. It won't be slower than your 850.

Minstadave · 4 Apr 2021 at 16:03

Space Monkey said:
This forum is for OCUK items only not to promote competitors, so please stop!

Sorry, didn't clock the manufacturer also sold directly.

Space Monkey · 4 Apr 2021 at 17:09

Minstadave said:
Sorry, didn't clock the manufacturer also sold directly.

Not that, another competitor was mentioned by a very naughty boy and also quoted by another naughty boy

slim01 · 4 Apr 2021 at 18:51

DEL 707 said:
I'm planning on doing a bit of a PC upgrade.

Looking to get a Ryzen 7 5800X on a MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk.
At the moment I have a Samsung 850 Evo 1TB but I would like to upgrade to 2TB.

I was thinking of grabbing the WD Blue SN550 2TB, mainly because of the price.
The reviews seem good, but everyone mentions it's DRAMless.
Is this a major concern? I use my PC mainly for gaming.

For gaming it won't matter. These are great for gaming