Which 2.5" SSD?

iamgigglz · 2025-09-29T09:45:50+0100

I've been asked to replace the very full 240GB HDD in my father in-law's old (4th gen i7) laptop with 1TB - He doesn't need anything crazy but does do dev work so lots of reading & writing tiny files. Switching from HDD to SSD is going to blow his mind.
Do I just grab whatever I find or should I be focusing on something like Samsung or WD?

There are so many reviews of M.2 drives out there but seemingly nothing on 2.5" drives.

Armageus · 2025-09-29T09:55:56+0100

SATA SSD production has tailed off for a while now, so there aren't any new models and a lot of existing models have had mid life specification changes (moving from TLC NAND chips to the worse QLC NAND), so even reviews of previously "good" drives can't be trusted.

The only drive that's still available and is still TLC NAND afaik is the Samsung 870 EVO.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Samsung 1TB 870 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 64 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-77E1T0B/EU) (SKU: HD-24J-SA) = £96.95

Total: £100.94 (includes delivery: £3.99)

Tetras · 2025-09-29T13:56:06+0100

iamgigglz said:
Do I just grab whatever I find or should I be focusing on something like Samsung or WD?

There are so many reviews of M.2 drives out there but seemingly nothing on 2.5" drives.

A lot of these SATA drives have anecdotally terrible fail rates now, seems like manufacturers are using them as a dumping ground for whatever turd NAND/controllers they got. If the 4th gen laptop has a M.2 slot (some 4th gen builds do, though not common), I'd use that instead.

iamgigglz said:
Do I just grab whatever I find or should I be focusing on something like Samsung or WD?

If you go Samsung, make sure the 870 Evo is recent stock, you don't want anything from 2020-2022.

WD, the old WD Blue was a good drive, but I'd avoid the SA510, it has been heavily downgraded with the DRAM removed. The red SA500 should hopefully still be reliable.

iamgigglz · 2025-09-30T08:47:52+0100

Tetras said:
A lot of these SATA drives have anecdotally terrible fail rates now, seems like manufacturers are using them as a dumping ground for whatever turd NAND/controllers they got. If the 4th gen laptop has a M.2 slot (some 4th gen builds do, though not common), I'd use that instead.

If you go Samsung, make sure the 870 Evo is recent stock, you don't want anything from 2020-2022.

WD, the old WD Blue was a good drive, but I'd avoid the SA510, it has been heavily downgraded with the DRAM removed. The red SA500 should hopefully still be reliable.

Nice, albeit terrifying, reply. Thank you for the warnings.
The laptop has two 2.5" bays and a mini mSATA slot. All three are occupied by various scrap-grade storage at the moment. I'm going to pull it all out to drop in a single 1TB (or maybe 2TB) drive.

Maybe currently available mSATA drives are more reliable? Off the top of my head I think very few of them have any DRAM cache though.

Armageus · 2025-09-30T08:56:02+0100

iamgigglz said:
Maybe currently available mSATA drives are more reliable? Off the top of my head I think very few of them have any DRAM cache though.

The Integral 1TB mSATA is still available elsewhere and according to the datasheet is TLC Nand

https://res.cloudinary.com/integral/image/upload/SPEC/WEB/INSSD1TMSA.pdf

MSATA MO-300 SSD - Integral Memory

For machines that support the mSATA interface. Designed for ultra-thin laptops, desktops and tablets, addresses the need for low powered, compact storage with the performance and reliability of SSD's.

www.integralmemory.com