Which nvme m2 drive - Samsung, Corsair or WD

apostolis_kt · 20 Mar 2019 at 12:44

Hello,

I started buying components to build a pc hopefully with a Zen 3 processor and planing on getting a good 1TB nvme drive for it. I am still on a very old p775 socket Q9550 processor (yes it still runs!) and realised how i need to upgrade since it throttles my gpus. It was fine with a geforce 680 but once i put a Vega 56 the minimum fps was going up and down!

I am a bit confused at the moment of which is the best from the SSD side of things.

Corsair MP510 960GB
Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB
or
WD Black SN750 1TB

Hopefully price won't be an issue but obviously if gains are negligible and i can save a good chunk of money to put towards another component i would do that.

What are your thoughts on the current NVME field. Found a few of those on offer we are talking about 50 pounds difference between the Corsair and the Samsung not sure if its worth to skimp or not. Or should I wait till Zen 3 pops up and then see what technology comes up with or prices drop?

For my build so far i already got a brand new PC case (Coolermaster C700p), a corsair 1000w hx, my old 2tb WD black, 2xSapphire Nitro Vega 56 so getting there

. I plan to get another SSD for storage in the future but probably will have to be sata due to the pci express lanes not being so many.

Apone70 · 21 Mar 2019 at 10:32

Samsung Evo plus is the quickest, the WD black is nearly as fast but I would go with the Samsung.
There are a couple of vs videos on YouTube you can watch

apostolis_kt · 22 Mar 2019 at 08:59

Indeed I can find both Samsung and WD roughly same price so I would pick the Samsung. What of the MP510 though you can find the 960GB version of it quite cheaper and its endurance numbers are ridiculous.

Smoogels · 22 Mar 2019 at 10:38

Honestly they all perform similarly. The 970 EVO Plus has the edge in some benchmarks with the SN750 not far behind.

The MP510 however is where the smart money is, at £50 cheaper would easily be my pick. It might not benchmark quite as high as a 970 EVO, but it is still a high end NVMe and reviewers have been impressed with it.

I've had both a 1TB MP510 and 970 EVO Plus and outside of benchmarks I couldn't tell the difference between them in typical workloads like booting, game/application loading and virtual machines. Only downside of the MP510 IMO is the poor Corsair toolbox software and the stick is double sided, though it isn't really a problem.

Anandtech has done a 970 EVO Plus review which includes a MP510 in the graphs: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13761/the-samsung-970-evo-plus-ssd-review

Disco_P · 22 Mar 2019 at 14:52

Given they are all have 5 year warranties then pick the cheapest.

apostolis_kt · 26 Mar 2019 at 15:46

Good point, as it is at the moment it is 50-70 pounds less so probably the Corsair should do. Will wait till Zen 3 gets at least announced. Can't wait!

tamzzy · 26 Mar 2019 at 15:47

also, the corsair has the longest drive endurance

spoffle · 26 Mar 2019 at 16:05

I've just bought an MP510 960GB for 150 myself. I just don't think any other 1TBish NVME drive offers anything above it to justify the 30-40% increase in price.

The performance where it matters is roughly the same.

Apone70 · 26 Mar 2019 at 16:54

I must admit after looking into it the Corsair does look the best bang for the buck M.2
I have a spare slot as well

Apone70 · 26 Mar 2019 at 17:09

Just noticed you can get a 960gb for £150 which is about the same as the Samsung 860 sata 1tb but much quicker

michty_me · 27 Mar 2019 at 06:21

Interested in this too as I'm also doing the same as the OP. I gather I would be better off with an nvme drive compared to a regular SSD?

tamzzy · 27 Mar 2019 at 07:51

michty_me said:
Interested in this too as I'm also doing the same as the OP. I gather I would be better off with an nvme drive compared to a regular SSD?

Depends on what you're doing. For gaming, nvme isn't of much benefit. Real world gains are minimal.
But if you're doing something like video editing or same drive copying (ie stuff that hammers the storage subsystem), then nvme is very useful

michty_me · 27 Mar 2019 at 08:02

tamzzy said:
Depends on what you're doing. For gaming, nvme isn't of much benefit. Real world gains are minimal.
But if you're doing something like video editing or same drive copying (ie stuff that hammers the storage subsystem), then nvme is very useful

Are there any drawbacks such as reduced life etc between the two?

tamzzy · 27 Mar 2019 at 08:13

michty_me said:
Are there any drawbacks such as reduced life etc between the two?

Normally depends on the type of nand, rather than the form factor.

michty_me · 27 Mar 2019 at 08:51

tamzzy said:
Normally depends on the type of nand, rather than the form factor.

I have read that with regards to Samsung Evo and QVO drives.

apostolis_kt · 27 Mar 2019 at 09:49

Definitely NVME vs Sata, the NVME wins. I was looking at the evo 860 as well and then saw the price difference and i think its worth to go for an NVME especially in my case that I build a new PC. Saw somewhere the 1.9TB C Corsair for 290ish and was thinking about that as well. If that was 220 i would snap it in an instant. Getting there...

michty_me · 27 Mar 2019 at 09:58

That is what I would be looking at also. Not quite ready to order yet but will do shortly I think.
I think I would be looking at just 1TB for the NVME and have mechanical drive for other less important things.

Nutella33 · 27 Mar 2019 at 15:18

apostolis_kt said:
Saw somewhere the 1.9TB C Corsair for 290ish and was thinking about that as well. If that was 220 i would snap it in an instant. Getting there...

why wouldn't you just get the 660p M2 then? 2TB, speed is 4 times the SATA SSD's (550~MB/s) although not at TLC M2 speeds (1800MB/s vs 3200+) and can be had for £230.

michty_me · 27 Mar 2019 at 19:58

Nutella33 said:
why wouldn't you just get the 660p M2 then? 2TB, speed is 4 times the SATA SSD's (550~MB/s) although not at TLC M2 speeds (1800MB/s vs 3200+) and can be had for £230.

This could be ideal for myself actually and reasonably priced. Thanks!!
Gives me about 15 times the space compared to my current SSD with a performance increase.

apostolis_kt · 28 Mar 2019 at 09:35

Nutella33 said:
why wouldn't you just get the 660p M2 then? 2TB, speed is 4 times the SATA SSD's (550~MB/s) although not at TLC M2 speeds (1800MB/s vs 3200+) and can be had for £230.

I was checking on that not sure where I read that if it reaches the buffer then its as slow as an HDD otherwise i would have bought one on that price. I take it on day to day use you are not hitting the limit of the buffer, but since i am building one PC every 10 years

I dont mind spending a bit more and getting something better. My usage will be gaming, movies, web development and programming and maybe some rendering in the future.