PC Sherdog PC Build/Buy Thread, v6: My Power Supply Burned Down My House

Greetings. Got any internal M2 2280 SSD recommendations?
Preferred brands, brands to avoid?
 
Andy Capp said:
Greetings. Got any internal M2 2280 SSD recommendations?
Preferred brands, brands to avoid?
Click to expand...
Unfortunately SSDs can't be simplified to brands since they all sell a variety of drives equipped to suit different needs.

It makes more sense to ask for recommendations based on what you're buying the drive to service:
  1. Is the drive to be the main OS drive, to store games, or for more general storage?
  2. What is your motherboard and CPU? How many other NVMe SSDs do you already have installed? Because if you want a really high level of performance, this determines whether or not you will consider Gen4 drives
  3. What size do you want?
  4. Are you willing to spend more to prolong the longevity of the drive? This is really only necessary if you think your drive will be in your drive rotation for 10+ years, or you install/reinstall games (or other large amounts of data) with a ludicrous frequency.
 
Madmick said:
Unfortunately SSDs can't be simplified to brands since they all sell a variety of drives equipped to suit different needs.

It makes more sense to ask for recommendations based on what you're buying the drive to service:
  1. Is the drive to be the main OS drive, to store games, or for more general storage?
  2. What is your motherboard and CPU? How many other NVMe SSDs do you already have installed? Because if you want a really high level of performance, this determines whether or not you will consider Gen4 drives
  3. What size do you want?
  4. Are you willing to spend more to prolong the longevity of the drive? This is really only necessary if you think your drive will be in your drive rotation for 10+ years, or you install/reinstall games (or other large amounts of data) with a ludicrous frequency.
Click to expand...
There's already a 256GB SSD in it. The second one is just to increase local storage and 256GB would be adequate for the second. And since the new one would presumably be under less load, it could act as a replacement in the event of a failure in the primary drive.

CPU: Ryzen 5 4600H
I will have to get back to you about the mobo... but the system is a G5 15 5505 in case you have an easier time finding the info.

About reliability, I just want to minimize chances of a dud if possible and standard lifespan will do just fine.
 
Andy Capp said:
There's already a 256GB SSD in it. The second one is just to increase local storage and 256GB would be adequate for the second. And since the new one would presumably be under less load, it could act as a replacement in the event of a failure in the primary drive.

CPU: Ryzen 5 4600H
I will have to get back to you about the mobo... but the system is a G5 15 5505 in case you have an easier time finding the info.

About reliability, I just want to minimize chances of a dud if possible and standard lifespan will do just fine.
Click to expand...
Oh, this is a laptop. Here's your service manual:
https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/g-series-15-5505-laptop_service-manual_en-us.pdf

You want an m.2-2280 SSD up to 1TB. Your laptop only supports Gen3(x4) drives, so there's no point in wasting money on a Gen4. Since it's an ancillary drive, I wouldn't really worry about DRAM/HBM or NAND type. With your emphasis on reliability, I will restrict my recommendation to only drives with NAND manufactured by Intel, Samsung, Micron, or SanDisk, and only controllers manufactured by Samsung, SMI, Phison, Realtek, WD, or Marvell.


I wouldn't waste money spending more for higher-performance drives since even the least of the drives I've listed here is probably significantly superior to the primary OS drive shipped in your Dell. Besides, even the most lavish Gen3 drives are only marginally better than these.
 
Bornstarch said:
I wonder if we'll see MSRP prices for videocards this year
Click to expand...
Prices have dropped steady the last 6 weeks, especially on the AMD side.

I went to my local brick n motar yesterday (microcenter) and they had a combined 5 open box RX 6600 and 6600XTs that were actually under MSRP (caught me by surprise). They had 2 models of the 6700XT that had just went out of stock at MSRP and the 2 next lowest ones in stock where only 9% over MSRP.

Nvidia prices have dropped the last 6 weeks but are still a good amount over MSRP. The ones that either sell MSRP (Evga reference) or within 25% of MSRP go super quick. Most of the ones that you can realistically buy are still around 30-40% over.

Will be interesting to see if the floods of possible nvidia cards on the used marketplace this summer help lower retail prices (it did summer of 2014 and summer of 2018, those were the last 2 times crypto cards flooded the used marketplace)
 
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MC here still selling 1650s for $200.
 
Madmick said:
Oh, this is a laptop. Here's your service manual:
https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/g-series-15-5505-laptop_service-manual_en-us.pdf

You want an m.2-2280 SSD up to 1TB. Your laptop only supports Gen3(x4) drives, so there's no point in wasting money on a Gen4. Since it's an ancillary drive, I wouldn't really worry about DRAM/HBM or NAND type. With your emphasis on reliability, I will restrict my recommendation to only drives with NAND manufactured by Intel, Samsung, Micron, or SanDisk, and only controllers manufactured by Samsung, SMI, Phison, Realtek, WD, or Marvell.


I wouldn't waste money spending more for higher-performance drives since even the least of the drives I've listed here is probably significantly superior to the primary OS drive shipped in your Dell. Besides, even the most lavish Gen3 drives are only marginally better than these.
Click to expand...
I'm sure I would not notice the difference in performance among drives in the same class. So I agree there's no need to spend extra for an incremental improvement in performance.
Madmick said:
Oh, this is a laptop. Here's your service manual:
https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/g-series-15-5505-laptop_service-manual_en-us.pdf

You want an m.2-2280 SSD up to 1TB. Your laptop only supports Gen3(x4) drives, so there's no point in wasting money on a Gen4. Since it's an ancillary drive, I wouldn't really worry about DRAM/HBM or NAND type. With your emphasis on reliability, I will restrict my recommendation to only drives with NAND manufactured by Intel, Samsung, Micron, or SanDisk, and only controllers manufactured by Samsung, SMI, Phison, Realtek, WD, or Marvell.


I wouldn't waste money spending more for higher-performance drives since even the least of the drives I've listed here is probably significantly superior to the primary OS drive shipped in your Dell. Besides, even the most lavish Gen3 drives are only marginally better than these.
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I think I'm going with the 512GB version of your first option. Most of the others aren't available up here in Canukistan and the others are only available at other sizes.
 
Andy Capp said:
I think I'm going with the 512GB version of your first option. Most of the others aren't available up here in Canukistan and the others are only available at other sizes.
Click to expand...
Oh, just tell me that in advance, next time. I wasn't using PCPP to reference Canada. Remember 1TB is your max.


*Originally I put the $190 CAD WD Black SN850 here, but then I quickly remembered it is a Gen4 drive. It is superior to the 970 EVO, but that's at its native speed. I haven't seen tests when it is downthrottled to Gen3x4, so it's just safer to recommend the Samsung here.

In either case, for an ancillary drive, I don't think either is worth the +$70 CAD premium, here. The Samsungs aren't as absurdly overpriced as they are on the American market, but there also aren't nearly as many cheaper DRAM or HBM options with faster controllers on the Canadian market, either.
 
Madmick said:
Oh, just tell me that in advance, next time. I wasn't using PCPP to reference Canada. Remember 1TB is your max.


*Originally I put the $190 CAD WD Black SN850 here, but then I quickly remembered it is a Gen4 drive. It is superior to the 970 EVO, but that's at its native speed. I haven't seen tests when it is downthrottled to Gen3x4, so it's just safer to recommend the Samsung here.

In either case, for an ancillary drive, I don't think either is worth the +$70 CAD premium, here. The Samsungs aren't as absurdly overpriced as they are on the American market, but there also aren't nearly as many cheaper DRAM or HBM options with faster controllers on the Canadian market, either.
Click to expand...
I'm surprised this isn't still among preferred options:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0...title_oth_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A29Y8OP2GPR7PE
 
Andy Capp said:
I'm surprised this isn't still among preferred options:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0...title_oth_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A29Y8OP2GPR7PE
Click to expand...
That's the Rocket, not the Rocket Q. Gotta be careful, Sabrent uses "Rocket" for everything. There's also the newer Gen4 Rocket Q4 and Rocket 4.0 Plus.

That's a perfectly fine drive, it's the one Sabrent used to crack into the SSD market and make a name for itself by undercutting other similar performing options in price, but it did so because the NAND is manufactured by Kioxia, so it was disqualified by the filters I afforded you. It isn't unreliable, as you can see from feedback, but I was just trying to cater to your criteria, and I otherwise would have likely recommended it. It has DRAM, and is TLC, not QLC, but it also has fewer layers. It's a step up from the WD SN570 if you prefer it.
 
Madmick said:
That's the Rocket, not the Rocket Q. Gotta be careful, Sabrent uses "Rocket" for everything. There's also the newer Gen4 Rocket Q4 and Rocket 4.0 Plus.

That's a perfectly fine drive, it's the one Sabrent used to crack into the SSD market and make a name for itself by undercutting other similar performing options in price, but it did so because the NAND is manufactured by Kioxia, so it was disqualified by the filters I afforded you. It isn't unreliable, as you can see from feedback, but I was just trying to cater to your criteria, and I otherwise would have likely recommended it. It has DRAM, and is TLC, not QLC, but it also has fewer layers. It's a step up from the WD SN570 if you prefer it.
Click to expand...
Fewer layers? Like on the PCB?

And sadly I don't know what QLC et al mean but in that case, the WD @ $63 seems right up my alley.

Thanks.
 
Andy Capp said:
Fewer layers? Like on the PCB?

And sadly I don't know what QLC et al mean but in that case, the WD @ $63 seems right up my alley.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
https://www.howtogeek.com/444787/multi-layer-ssds-what-are-slc-mlc-tlc-qlc-and-mlc/
Simplifying, SLC > MLC > TLC > QLC, but the former are so much more expensive that the best performance value is almost always TLC. More and more are QLC, though.

However, it's not entirely that simple. There are pros and cons. The more dense, more heavily layered NAND types have some benefits. The principal one is that they are cheaper, and can pack more total storage into the same sized form factor, but also, they have lower latency, and better energy efficiency. However, ultimately, they're not as good because they sacrifice so much speed, and also have a reduced longevity (not that longevity really matters to anyone except industry professionals with extreme rewrite workloads).

The Rocket is better than the SN570, and that's why it costs a bit more. For the +$10 premium at the 1TB size, though, I'd definitely recommend it. In fact, a friend of mine owns one. He purchased it on my recommendation. He's ran it for years with no issues.
 
Madmick said:
https://www.howtogeek.com/444787/multi-layer-ssds-what-are-slc-mlc-tlc-qlc-and-mlc/
Simplifying, SLC > MLC > TLC > QLC, but the former are so much more expensive that the best performance value is almost always TLC. More and more are QLC, though.

However, it's not entirely that simple. There are pros and cons. The more dense, more heavily layered NAND types have some benefits. The principal one is that they are cheaper, and can pack more total storage into the same sized form factor, but also, they have lower latency, and better energy efficiency. However, ultimately, they're not as good because they sacrifice so much speed, and also have a reduced longevity (not that longevity really matters to anyone except industry professionals with extreme rewrite workloads).

The Rocket is better than the SN570, and that's why it costs a bit more. For the +$10 premium at the 1TB size, though, I'd definitely recommend it. In fact, a friend of mine owns one. He purchased it on my recommendation. He's ran it for years with no issues.
Click to expand...
$10 premium? the price difference is greater than that going from the 512GB to 1TB of either unit.
 
Andy Capp said:
$10 premium? the price difference is greater than that going from the 512GB to 1TB of either unit.
Click to expand...
Ther 1TB of the Sabrent Rocket is $130 CAD:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07LGF54XR/

The 1TB of the WD SN570 is $120 CAD, or was showing as that; the cheapest PCPP.ca link shows $115 for Computers Canada, but it's $120 if you actually follow the link. However, there is a $117 option, now:
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product...tb-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-wds100t3b0c

At these prices I'd get the Rocket.
 
Madmick said:
Ther 1TB of the Sabrent Rocket is $130 CAD:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07LGF54XR/

The 1TB of the WD SN570 is $120 CAD, or was showing as that; the cheapest PCPP.ca link shows $115 for Computers Canada, but it's $120 if you actually follow the link. However, there is a $117 option, now:
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product...tb-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-wds100t3b0c

At these prices I'd get the Rocket.
Click to expand...
Gotcha. That clears it up. Good advice but I'm still considering scrimping and buying the 512GB for $45 less. Given that storage needs only increase over time, obviously, I can see why you recommend the 1TB version and I will likely go that route but the other option is still nagging at me.
 
Andy Capp said:
Gotcha. That clears it up. Good advice but I'm still considering scrimping and buying the 512GB for $45 less. Given that storage needs only increase over time, obviously, I can see why you recommend the 1TB version and I will likely go that route but the other option is still nagging at me.
Click to expand...
You're the one who can best decide your use case. The SN570 is definitely the more attractive value at the 500GB/512GB size.

But perhaps another thing to consider is that you'll probably recycle this drive to a future desktop or laptop. Since you appear to prefer laptops, bear in mind that there is always a very limited number of slots. Even the larger, more expensive laptops rarely have more than 3 x m.2 slots.
 
Andy Capp said:
Gotcha. That clears it up. Good advice but I'm still considering scrimping and buying the 512GB for $45 less. Given that storage needs only increase over time, obviously, I can see why you recommend the 1TB version and I will likely go that route but the other option is still nagging at me.
Click to expand...
If money isn't tight, go with the 1tb. No one regrets buying too big of a drive.
 
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