Some people may not like these budget SSDs, but I find them perfectly fine as a secondary drive or into older systems with only mechanical drives.
Surcharges: 1.2% Card & PayPal, 2% AmEx.
$40-50 at most other stores.
19-Feb-2023
No longer available for delivery, now Pickup only (Bendigo)
The lack of DRAM cache and the use of cheaper controllers, less durable, slower memory speed when the drive got filled up. They used to be slightly cheaper (not by a lot, maybe a few dollars up to around $10 for the 480-500GB range) than other SSDs with DRAM cache before COVID. People used to pay a bit extra to step up for a WD Blue or other SSD back then.
These SSDs without DRAM cache are good to put it to old computers, or machines that you don't use often since they are much cheaper to get.
Yes, it lacks a DRAM cache (known as DRAMless), biggest problem with that, sparing details, is you lose that snappy feeling of everything happening instantly and it also causes the SSD to wear out faster
As some others have mentioned, mainly because it's DRAMless, so durability and performance during large writes can tank the speeds and possibly wear the drive faster.
And being lowest in the product stack raises concerns about the actual quality, it does have a 3 year warranty though.
That being said, it's pretty similar to Kingston's A400 or Crucial's BX500, also lacking DRAM cache and bottom of the product stack, they tend to be well received when priced right regardless though, for example:
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/735807 My order got lost and cancelled for these :(
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/720094
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/710425
I actually have an A400 240GB as a main drive in an older gaming system for the past 5 years, and personally it doesn't "feel" slow.
And I believe this is the cheapest I've ever seen a 480-512GB capacity SSD? at least from memory.
I have an old Kingston A400 240GB as a boot drive in my old PC which is around 4 years old, and it has started to develop reallocated sectors and some areas of the drive have developed very slow read speed issues. (The speed is around 20MB/s in the problem sectors, while in otber sectors it is 500MB/s). The drive has 40TB written so far, which is half of it's 80TBW rated endurance.
My new PC uses a 480GB BX500 as a boot drive. If this one starts struggling, I will probably just swap it out with a spare SM863a enterprise drive.
That's unfortunate, makes me feel glad mine is still in good condition, but at least I now have a few replacement drives if needed.
I've also got a400 in my 12 yo laptop, running good with no issues till now. Ssd is roughly 5 years old also
Made this a secondary drive using the CD ROM slot on an older laptop. Worked a treat considering it only had a 5400RPM (!) drive before.
perfect to put in an old PlayStation
just in time, just cancelled my amazon order for a 480gb for this 😂
thanks op
And you can tear them down to get a smaller board and fit them in retro systems even with converter board attached.
Interested as I have a bunch of these lying around.
Anyone have any drives that they regret buying? Need some. Please DM
![[VIC] WD Green 480GB 2.5" SATA SSD $29 + Surcharge (Bendigo Store Pickup) @ Centre Com](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/28/757628.jpg?h=6512693c)
If you're gifting a resurrected older PC to a friend this would be an excellent solution.
Buy 2: one for games and the other for OS and programs.
Up to them to update down the line.