What M.2 SSD to buy?

[Cheki]

Building a new system but i'm unsure as to what storage I should get

▷ Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 3.0 x… | OcUK (overclockers.co.uk)
▷ Crucial P2 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 3.0 NVMe Solid … | OcUK (overclockers.co.uk)

My two main options are these, is there much of a difference? apart from the speeds?

*EDIT* This will be used as a main (and probably) only storage device, with OS for gaming and storage for large video files etc

 

[Wooden Law / Black]

What is the usage? OS? If so, the 970 EVO Plus is much better than the P2 as it has better flash, better controller and it has a DRAM cache, while if the usage is storage or gaming they are more or less equal.

 

[Cheki]

What is the usage? OS? If so, the 970 EVO Plus is much better than the P2 as it has better flash, better controller and it has a DRAM cache, while if the usage is storage or gaming they are more or less equal.

Thanks, I edited the post but it will be my only drive hopefully with OS and for daily stuff, gaming, etc

 

[EsaT]

Samsung is still brand overpriced.
You can get 5GB/s capable PCIe v4 drive with tripled TBW rating for same price.
TeamGroup T-Force Cardea Zero Z440 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive= £239.99

And for PCIe v3 there's WD Black.
WD Black SN750 2TB M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0C)= £189.95


And for budget level there's WD Blue SN550.
WD Blue SN550 2TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS200T2B0C)= £134.99

 

[pcuser]

Personally I would go for WD Black 750 if they have not changed the specs.

 

[Wooden Law / Black]

You can get 5GB/s capable PCIe v4 drive with tripled TBW rating for same price.
TeamGroup T-Force Cardea Zero Z440 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive= £239.99

The Team Group Z440 uses a Phison E16 which is a old PCIe 4.0 controller, I’d prefer the new revision of the 970 EVO Plus (Elpis + 128L TLC) even though it has worse sequentials.

And for budget level there's WD Blue SN550.
WD Blue SN550 2TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS200T2B0C)= £134.99

DRAM-less. Also, WD changed its flash and it got worse write sequential.

if they have not changed the specs.

If it changed its hardware it now uses 96L flash, so an upgrade, not a downgrade like the SN550.

 

[pcuser]

I am a bit cautios about changes in SSD after release and first reviews especially when they have higher category product where they could implement improvements.

 

[EsaT]

The Team Group Z440 uses a Phison E16 which is a old PCIe 4.0 controller, I’d prefer the new revision of the 970 EVO Plus (Elpis + 128L TLC) even though it has worse sequentials.

DRAM-less. Also, WD changed its flash and it got worse write sequential.

Still no reason to pay price of PCIe v4 drive from PCIe v3 drive with also lower endurance.
And that extra performance will start giving some advantage in games once DirectStorage appears in them.


With controller designed for it lack of DRAM cache doesn't matter really any in mostly reads and low queue depth/thread count workloads of home use.
And while move to fewer higher capacity NAND chips (like in updated 970 Evo Plus) lowered sustained sequential write speed, it's still far more than in QLC drives.

 

[Wooden Law / Black]

Still no reason to pay price of PCIe v4 drive from PCIe v3 drive with also lower endurance.

“lower endurance”? Where?

And while move to fewer higher capacity NAND chips (like in updated 970 Evo Plus) lowered sustained sequential write speed, it's still far more than in QLC drives.

The 970 EVO Plus doesn’t use denser flash in any case, it’s a thing that depends on the SKU, for example the 2TB SKU uses the same flash as the old revision. Even though the write sequential performance of the new SN550 are better than QLC drives it isn’t relevant, it’s low to be a TLC drive.

 

[EsaT]

“lower endurance”? Where?

The 970 EVO Plus doesn’t use denser flash in any case, it’s a thing that depends on the SKU, for example the 2TB SKU uses the same flash as the old revision. Even though the write sequential performance of the new SN550 are better than QLC drives it isn’t relevant, it’s low to be a TLC drive.

TBW of 970 Evo Plus is 1200 TB.
Team Group's 3600 TB.
And TBW is also alternate end point for warranty.
So despite of hype Samsung isn't intended for heavy use.

There's little guarantee that Samsung hasn't done same part swapping also for 2TB drive.
Bigger capacity model's higher number of NAND chips giving more parallel writes could simply mask that.
And unlike Samsung, SN550 has also very wallet friendly price in balance for what you get.


Samsung certainly was well ahead others in SSDs in earlier last decade, but that time has passed many years ago.
Time for you to get over that.

 

[Wooden Law / Black]

TBW of 970 Evo Plus is 1200 TB.
Team Group's 3600 TB.
And TBW is also alternate end point for warranty.
So despite of hype Samsung isn't intended for heavy use.

The TBW is useless, it is an arbitrary value and the endurance can change by other things like the controller (its ECC), SLC cache design, flash and its architecture, temperatures, etc. Don’t look at the TBW, it is the warranty as writes.

giving more parallel writes

Controller’s channels see only dies in its communication with the flash, not packages. 2TB SKUs and 1TB SKUs can have the same number of dies, for example, that’s why the sweet spot is 1TB.