Help Me Choose a 4TB SSD

• 

  Hybroid on 11/03/2025 - 12:30

  +1

  Doesn't make a real world difference for that usage case. Pick the one with the longest and most reliable warranty.

• 

  Dumax on 11/03/2025 - 12:31

  +2

  TBH almost any of them would be fine.

  I'd pick the TEAMGROUP T-FORCE Z44A7 because it's the best price/performance ratio.

• 

  freefall101 on 11/03/2025 - 12:33

  +4

  Did you do any work to narrow it down, or just grab every drive off pcpartpicker under $400?

  IMO wait for the NM790 to come back in stock at PCCG or hope for an EOFY sale on the Kingston KC3000.

  The more mixed your use case the better off you are buying a good drive. I assume it's going in a laptop if you want one big drive? If it's a desktop and you have more than one port, I'd make use of that for a boot drive and game drive.

  • 

    aman215 on 11/03/2025 - 12:38

    Yes, replied on the teamgroup Z44A7 post with NM790 or KC3000 before making a separate post here.
    Guess I'll go with NM790 for 340ish on amazon.

    Thanks for your help good sir. I do appreciate it.

• 

  Master Bates on 11/03/2025 - 12:44

  -6

  Some people hate when I do this, but here is a copy paste from our AI overlord.

  For a mixed-use case including archiving, light-to-medium gaming, and as a boot drive, the best choice balances speed, endurance, and value for money.

  Top 3 Recommendations (Best Overall Choices)
  1️⃣ Lexar NM790 4TB ($379.00) 🔥 Best Performance for Price

  • PCIe 4.0, 7400 MB/s read, 6500 MB/s write
  • High endurance (3000 TBW) → Good for long-term use
  • Excellent DRAM-less performance (uses HMB efficiently)
  • Great for gaming & boot drive, strong for archiving

  2️⃣ Seagate FireCuda 530R (HS) 4TB ($368.43) 🚀 Best for Reliability & Longevity

  • PCIe 4.0, 7300 MB/s read, 6900 MB/s write
  • Very high endurance (5100 TBW) → Ideal for heavy workloads
  • Uses top-tier NAND & has DRAM cache
  • Best for long-term reliability & mixed use

  3️⃣ Crucial P3 Plus 4TB ($329.00) 💰 Best Budget PCIe 4.0 Drive

  • PCIe 4.0, 4700 MB/s read, 4100 MB/s write
  • Good for gaming, archiving, and everyday use
  • No DRAM cache, but decent performance for price
  • More future-proof than PCIe 3.0 drives

  Honorable Mentions (If You Want Other Options)

  • Patriot Viper VP4300 Lite ($339.99) → Great balance of speed & price (PCIe 4.0, 7400 MB/s)
  • Acer Predator GM7000 ($359.00) → Good alternative to Lexar NM790 (PCIe 4.0, 7400 MB/s)
  • TEAMGROUP MP44Q ($329.00) → Decent value but QLC flash makes it weaker for a boot drive
  • Sabrent Rocket Q4 ($391.98) → Good speed but expensive for QLC NAND

  Which Ones to Avoid? ❌
  ❌ Kingston NV3 → Weak performance (PCIe 3.0, no DRAM, slow writes)
  ❌ Crucial P3 (non-Plus) → Slower QLC flash, lower endurance
  ❌ Silicon Power UD85 & US75 → Inconsistent performance, cheaper QLC NAND

  Final Pick Based on Use Case

  • Want the best mix of performance & price? 🏆 Lexar NM790
  • Want reliability & endurance for long-term archiving? 🔥 Seagate FireCuda 530R
  • Want a cheaper PCIe 4.0 option that still performs well? 💰 Crucial P3 Plus

  • 

    freefall101 on 11/03/2025 - 13:21

    +9

    Some people hate when I do this, but here is a copy paste from our AI overlord.

    I hate it, because it contributes nothing of value and adds a giant text wall in the middle of the comments. It's a more obnoxious LMGTFY.

    A quick look at the FireCuda shows it's being sold by a third party on Amazon that only has an 82% rating from 28 reviews (with a lot of "it never arrived" comments), so it's a poor choice.

    The GM7000 you can find on these forums (I posted that and it was a dud deal, as others pointed out). It's not an honourable mention.

    The Kingston NV3 is not PCIe 3.0, it's 4.0. The only drive on this list that's 3.0 is the P3 non plus, which it doesn't mention. It also future proofs nothing - PCIe is always backwards compatible, what you get now will keep working. The Rocket Q4 you play luck of the draw whether you get a QLC or TLC drive. The MP44Q is a lot better than the P3 Plus, much higher endurance (more than double the TBW) and faster. The logic chatgpt uses is it's QLC so weaker for a boot drive, despite the P3 Plus being QLC too.

    As a suggestion, maybe just create the result and link to it? Then OP can do what they want with it.

    • 

      Master Bates on 11/03/2025 - 13:56

      -3

      Is a forum not for posting?

      With the greatest of respect, I would argue that your rebuttal has strengthened the value of my lazy copy paste.

      • 

        pepidav on 11/03/2025 - 14:06

        +8

        I'd argue that copy pasting useless slop is not in line with the spirit of things here.

        • 

          Master Bates on 11/03/2025 - 14:30

          -6

          @pepidav:

          useless slop

          I guess that's why people either love or hate @jv

• 

  Baysew on 11/03/2025 - 12:53

  +1

  Fikwot. (I just wanted to say it.)

  • 

    FoxJump on 11/03/2025 - 15:59

    My Gmktec K8+ came with a "MasonSemi" SSD :/

• 

  jv on 12/03/2025 - 09:32

  What would be the best drive for mixed use case?

  Look for ones with mixed reviews.

• 

  Rob-4x4 on 12/03/2025 - 09:50

  Does you motherboard support Gen 5 NVME SSD's ? The new G 5 ones coming out at the moment are a large leap in performance over the Gen 4 ones. These are different brands but both sort of the highest current performance of Gen4 vs Gen 5 (But I think some even faster Gen5s are coming ). So if you M/B supports Gen 5 then look at those.

  This is a cruical Gen 5 NVME spec
  Speed & timing
  Sequential Write 12,600 MB/s
  Sequential Read 14,100 MB/s
  Random Write 1800K IOPS
  Random Read 1500K IOPS

  This is a western Digital Black Gen 4
  Connector
  M.2
  Sequential Read Performance
  7300MB/s
  Sequential Write Performance
  6600MB/s
  Random Read
  1200K IOPS
  Random Write
  1100K IOPS
  Interface
  PCIe Gen4 x4