A reasonable deal for the 980 Pro 2TB
I went for this over the WD SN850 as it is supposed to run cooler.
CamelCamelCamel.
Long time to wait….
Best heatsink to add to this for ps5?
I'm not calling it the best, but I bought this one and it does the job.
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07TX6SQZX
cool, but I have noted that this was $459 recently and I did not bite then. I want a Ferrari but want to spend it like buying a Mazda. Hold on, I can do it.
Good quality 2tb+ drives are still too pricey to consider buying, they need to drop like 1tb drives. Then 4tb-8tb drives that would been awesome too.
This 2Tb Firecuda for $380 is a nice option too. More endurance and runs a lot cooler… with only a slight drop in outright speed. https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B07ZPRPFQY/ref=ppx_yo_d…
good find thanks!
Just be aware there's a new 530 version (the one I've linked to is 520). I actually prefer the 520 due to it being more efficient and having higher endurance/expected lifecycle. But for a 2Tb PCIE4 at sub $400, you'd be hard pressed to beat this one. 5yr warranty too.
Good review here: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/seagate-firecuda-520-ss…
I recently bought this very drive, that's why I'm recommending it :).
Firecuda 520 is a typical Phison E16 SSD. Just like all Phison E16 SSDs, they all have unusually high TBW. As with majority of PCIe gen 4 SSDs, it has a large SLC cache, which means it is hard to determine the true NAND speed for most people. Anyway, that Tom's hardware review shows the true TLC NAND speed is around 800MB/s (after the TLC runs out). Unfortunately, Tom's hardware didn't do the extensive sustained write test.
That SSD is essentially in the same class as PNY XLR8 CS3040 2TB. As with all Phison E16 SSDs, they generally pass PS5 test due to PS5 uses zero fill based read test. $70 to get Seagate warranty is probably worthwhile. Also, if it is indeed 800MB/s NAND sustained write (after TLC cache runs out), then it is better than most of the other Phison E16 based SSDs.
I think this one of the cheapest 1tb Gen4 nvme, if you don't need 2tb and on a budget like me then this might be for you:
Patriot Viper VP4100 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 x 4 - High Performance Solid State Drive - VP4100-1TBM28H https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07W588KMQ/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt…
Has 5% coupon which bring it down to $160.55
Has a heatsink and Patriot rates sequential performance at up to 5.0/4.4 GBps read/write, and random performance stretches up to 800,000 read/write IOPS.
Reviews seem positive:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/patriot-viper-vp4100-m2…
https://www.legitreviews.com/patriot-viper-vp4100-gen4-1tb-s…
Yet another Phison E16 based SSDs. These do look tempting. Sustained write on this one (after SLC cache runs out) drops to 600MB/s.
Should I spend an extra $44 and get this?
Crucial P5 Plus 1TB PCIe 4.0 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD, up to 6600MB/s - CT1000P5PSSD8 Black https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B098WL46RS/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt…
I have $190 in gift credit as I got refunded a faulty Silicon Power 1tb gen 3 drive. For me I was just playing games mostly and used as boot drive.
I don't have experience with P5 Plus. However, one of the OZBers posted a series of videos comparing some SSDs, including P5 Plus. Those videos attempted to test SSDs by simulating cell aging (using temperature) and extended sustain writes. It showed that the P5 Plus tested had issues with cold / old data. However, I am not sure how objective that test is given the tester has data on the NAND chips used in P5 Plus (so raising temperature to simulate old data). Also, 1 test review isn't objective enough (unfortunately, these data aging tests are quite rare, since they are designed to find out how long the drives will last).
Anyway, the fact that the Micron NANDs used appear to suffer from cold data read issue during the test is a concern. Do you have a PC that supports PCIe gen 4? If not, you don't benefit from PCIe gen 4 at all. If you really want to get a PCIe gen 4, I would suggest Samsung or WD (unless it is mostly for gaming, then I think one of those E16 based SSDs are okay). Do bear in mind that all of these PCIe gen 4 SSDs are all over priced. Those E16 ones basically rely on that controller.
@netsurfer: Ok thank you for that information.
I do have an x570 board that has gen 4, hence why I'm looking for a drive that supports it.
As I do really only game few times a week so I'll just stick with the vp4100 drive as price is right and meets all my requirements.
Also saw this in specs: 1,800 TBW endurance which most other cheaper 1tb drives seem to have average of 700TBW so I think it will be fine for long term I presume.
@japik: E16 controller based PCIe gen 4 SSDs seems to be well priced at the moment. However, I am cynical about the quoted TBW. Those figures are better than MLC NAND based SSDs. Perhaps those SSDs really have a lot of spare blocks.
For x570 boards, normally, you get at least 2 PCIe gen 4 NVMe SSD slots. Best to put it on the slot which is wired to CPU directly (unless that slot already has a better PCIe gen 4 SSD). If you put it in the chipset based one, make sure you upgrade the SSD to the latest firmware.
Plonked this in my PS5 with a 3rd party heatsink. Works great, 0 probs.
Slightly more ($495) to buy local if you want easy potential future RMA.
https://www.ple.com.au/Products/645168/Samsung-980-Pro-Serie…
Samsung will also provide direct RMA for locally purchased devices.
What’s the diff between Gen3 and Gen4?
1 gen, sorry couldnt help myself.
Each gen usually doubles transfer speeds. In actual tests, Gen 4 has about 60% faster read and 40% faster write speeds compared to gen 3. So overall better performance by a good amount.
PCIe gen 4 doubled the bandwidth. However, only the SLC cache portion of the SSD is fast enough to benefit from it. The true TLC NAND part doesn't benefit from it (at least with the current 8 channel setup).
The top tier PCIe gen 4 SSDs are Samsung 980 Pro, WD Black SN850, and Seagate FireCuda 530. Then, there is the mid tier Phison E16 based PCIe gen 4 SSDs. They are more cost effective, but mostly really just decent TLC NAND chips with a gen4 controller.
Make sure you have a PC that supports PCIe gen 4 BEFORE buying a PCIe gen 4 SSD, otherwise you are really wasting money. Also, don't get overhyped with the sequential read/write figures. It's generally silly to copy 40GB files non stop to a SSD (unless you are doing a lot of video work). For smaller files, those multi channel enhancements do not help and if you look at the random read/write speed, there is only a minor improvement.
PCIe gen 4 SSDs are generally overkill for most people.
Thanks for that, very insightful. Any particular Gen3 NVME M2’s which you’d recommend? Looking for a spare drive for my main rig, mainly will be used to run games and video/photo editing.
It gets a bit tricky with both Samsung and WD did some cost cutting measures:
WD Black SN750 (non-SE version), assuming the NAND has not changed, it might has the best TLC NAND for gen3 SSD now. However, are we sure WD hasn't changed the NAND? If you can stretch the budget, then 970 Evo Plus or WD Black SN750. If not, then maybe Kingston KC2500. I tend to like the Samsung SSDs better (due to Samsung's SSD warranty, but honestly, ideally, you want to avoid using warranty). I'm not sure how reliable KC2500 is though. Some of the comments I read on Amazon and OZB made me hesitant to recommend it.
Keep in-mind that your motherboard also needs to support Gen4, for you to benefit from using the drive.
Speed is important but so is the drive edurance normally listed under TBW (Terrabytes written).
Using a drive for games and other usual daily work won't expend its life (install, but then you mostly read data), but video editing would as it's far more write intensive.
Samsung Pro drives are the best but command a hefty price tag.
For gaming and occasional photo/video editing the 970 Evo Plus (up to 2TB drive capacity, Samsung V-NAND 3-bit MLC) or the 980 non-Pro (up to 1TB drive capacity, Samsung V-NAND 3-bit MLC) drives would be fine.
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/c…
https://www.amazon.com.au/Samsung-MZ-V8V1T0B-AM-980-SSD/dp/B…
https://www.samsung.com/au/memory-storage/nvme-ssd/970-evo-p…
Warrantied TBW for 970 EVO Plus:
150 TBW for 250GB model
300 TBW for 500GB model
600 TBW for 1TB model
1,200 TBW for 2TB model
5-years or TBW, whichever comes first.
WD750 Black series are also decent drives.
https://www.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-b…
https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library…
You could buy cheaper Crucial P1 or P2 QLC-NAND drives, but I've personally seen a couple fail within a year of use so steer clear of them.
https://www.tomshardware.com/features/crucial-p2-ssd-qlc-fla…
Nice find. Eager for sub $300.