Which SSD brand is the best?

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semigeek

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#248797 10-Apr-2019 11:09

Recently I built myself a new PC, well all new except for my hard drives which I used from my old PC. Anyway, now I’m looking at SSD’s because A) they are obviously faster than my what feels like snail driven hard drives, and B) there’s no moving parts. But looking at SSD’s, there are quite a few brands.. like WD Blue/Green, Crucial, Samsung etc. Is one brand better than another, or are they all pretty much of a muchness? Looking to spend between $100-$150 and about 500GB in size is ideal for me. Either SATA or M.2 is fine.

lNomNoml

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#2214300 10-Apr-2019 11:10

I wouldn't go so far as to say they are the best, but Samsung are considered the leaders in the SSD market. At my previous job we only sold Samsung SSD's and out of about 400+- installed we only had 1 failure over a course of about 4/5 years which was most likely caused by water damage.

Personally I would use Crucial or Intel or even Seagate brand these days, I once installed a Seagate SSD for a client a few years back when they first came out and it's still going strong and strangely enough it seems to be must faster than Samsung, even though they are speced the same.

Thing with Crucial is MX=high end, BX=mid range.

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#2214308 10-Apr-2019 11:19

if you can, i'd go NVME at this point.

Samsung is often well renown, Intel is also often viewed as top of the class.

The cheaper brands are often pretty decent too though.

often SSD's are sold with their best throughput values rather than what's expected at 4K random etc where the IOP's really shine.

my main machine has a few SSD's in it, the intel one was bought probably 4 years ago now..

Got another Crucial drive late last Year, While it's a great drive the intel one just trashes it in performance.

Once SSD's start getting quite full, the cheaper ones struggle a bit.

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wratterus

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#2214316 10-Apr-2019 11:41

If you have a NVMe m.2 slot on your mainboard, getting a Samsung 970 Evo Plus is the best way to go - slightly dearer than you wanted but well worth it.

Otherwise just get a Crucial MX500 or a Samsung 860 Evo if you just want a SATA SSD (2.5" or m.2, performance will be basically the same). Those drives perform very well and all have a 5 year warranty.

Good NVMe drives blow SATA drives out of the water these days- peak speeds are around 6x faster.

tehgerbil

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#2214332 10-Apr-2019 12:27

I've had a Samsung Evo for 5 years now, it's still going strong. I researched it heavily and Samsung came out on top almost every time. The one I have also has a 5yr warranty, which impressed me heavily.

Dynamic

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#2214348 10-Apr-2019 13:00

When we last reviewed SSD brands two years ago (after our previous brand that we supply to clients had a 5% failure rate within 12 months - it was possibly just one series, but we lost trust), we settled on Intel and Samsung. Both have had some issues with some older SSD series, but overall we are happy with their reputation for reliability.

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PANiCnz

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#2214349 10-Apr-2019 13:00

Anandtech's SSD round-up always feels pretty balanced and gives good insight into brands and models that are worth considering.

While the 970 EVO is a great drive, the HP EX920 and WD Black can offer similar performance at a cheaper price point. With your budget you'll probably struggle to get one of the better performing drives so would suggest looking at the Crucial drives.

timmmay

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#2214352 10-Apr-2019 13:06

Samsung is the leader IMHO. Evo is the cheaper model, pro is higher. I have a few 940 / 950 pro models (they have newer ones now) and they've been rock solid for years.

Go for m2 as it's a faster interface, but standard SATA is plenty fast if it's a lot cheaper.

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wratterus

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#2214355 10-Apr-2019 13:13

Just a note to avoid any confusion- m.2 is just a type of physical port. You can get both SATA m.2 and NVMe m.2 drives, so technically m.2 is not faster than SATA - NVMe is faster than SATA as m.2 can be both NVMe & SATA in certain situations.

If you are comparing (for example) a Crucial MX500 500GB 2.5" SSD and a MX500 m.2 SSD, the performance is identical, as it's the same hardware and same SATA interface, just using a different physical connection and drive form factor. You may as well go for the m.2 in this situation as it's far tidier and easier to install.

NVMe m.2 is actually a direct connection to PCI-e lanes - 4 of them to be precise (on a 32Gbps m.2 connector anyway) and this is why the theoretical max speed is higher - 6Gbps vs 32Gbps (again assuming your mainboard has a normal setup with 4x PCI-e lanes available for use by the m.2 slot).

freitasm

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#2214366 10-Apr-2019 13:47

I like the Crucial models. Currently using a M.2 750 GB on my desktop.

semigeek

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#2214523 10-Apr-2019 16:56

Thanks all. I can spend a bit more money so will probably go for a NVMe drive from Samsung, using that option will disable two of the SATA ports on my board, but there’s still four more ports for 2.5” SSDs later on.

richms

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#2214594 10-Apr-2019 19:22

semigeek: Thanks all. I can spend a bit more money so will probably go for a NVMe drive from Samsung, using that option will disable two of the SATA ports on my board, but there’s still four more ports for 2.5” SSDs later on.

It shouldnt, the ports are only usually disabled if you put a native sata m.2 drive in. NVMe is a PCIe device, so unless they are using a seperate controller for the sata ports and are starved for PCIe lanes because the have a crapload of slots on a consumer intel chipset, it shouldnt disable any sata ports at all.

Richard rich.ms

surfisup1000

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#2214595 10-Apr-2019 19:28

richms: It shouldnt, the ports are only usually disabled if you put a native sata m.2 drive in. NVMe is a PCIe device, so unless they are using a seperate controller for the sata ports and are starved for PCIe lanes because the have a crapload of slots on a consumer intel chipset, it shouldnt disable any sata ports at all.

My experience differs from yours.

eg, asrock z370, from the specs...

M2_1, SATA3_0 and SATA3_1 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the others will be disabled.
M2_2, SATA3_4 and SATA3_5 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the others will be disabled.

richms

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#2214604 10-Apr-2019 19:42

Interesting. It should only apply to sata drives tho, but with that whacky HSIO configuration stuff who knows what the mobo vendors can make configurable.

Is what gigabyte say about mine, and it has a samsung nvme and 6 sata SSDs hanging off it working fine. I only have a single m.2 on this board.

Richard rich.ms