are there any fast 250gb sata ssd's? should I be concerned about the huge speed drop after cache is full?

Kdawg

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I want to upgrade my dad's laptop hdd to ssd, but don't want to spend much since he doesn't need more than 250gb.

but looking at reviews, 250gb sata ssds all look like they suck ass compared to 500gb and 1tb.


in real world usage, is the 250gb ssd handicap noticeable? Are boot times and app loadup times as fast as 500gb drives?

my dad's usual workload is browse the internet, maybe occasionally edit a video,... and watch porn.
 
Whatever speed differences between SSD's is negligible compared to the speed increase from replacing that hard drive.
Stick to a well known brand with a good warranty and move on with life.
I like Corsair and Patriot personally but anything is better than a slow mechanical hard drive.
 
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The primary benefit of a SSD (SATA or NVMe) for everyday usage isn't necessarily the raw throughput, but the drastically reduced access times and latency compared to a HDD. If all the system is going to be used for is basic web/desktop app usage, and a 250 GB SSD is the right size, don't fret the throughput numbers.

However, 250 GB SSDs usually have the worst GB per $ ratio, and getting a 500 GB unit is often only ~$20-30 more.

Also, if the system is capable of accepting a m.2 NVMe SSD, keep low-end units such as the WD Blue SN550 in mind. They're often priced comparably to like-capacity SATA units and perform much better.
 
Less-dense flash. Primarily 2D/planar, which can be difficult to find these days, and 2D/planar TLC is not great - so, 2D/planar MLC, which only a few drives have like the HP M700. However even with 3D TLC you can get 8 dies for 256GiB of flash which is sufficient to interleave most SATA controllers and budget NVMe controllers, just avoid higher-end, Samsung, and QLC.
 
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As per the rest have said, it's not worth worrying about. I've upgraded PC and laptops with SATA SSDs that only have SATA II capability and the result is still light years better in responsiveness over a crappy 5400rpm Toshiba HDD.

Kingstons and WD Greens are fine for the scenario you mention.
 
Just don't buy a garbage brand ssd and you'll be fine. I have old 64gb ssds that are way better than hdds even though they are way slower than ssds now days. I have had issues with low tier ssds having random lock ups where they just don't respond with data for 5+ seconds, I would avoid any of those.

I've had a couple kingston drives running for over 6 years of no issues, an intel for 5 years, some crucials for over 4 years. Patriot, Gskill, OCZ all gave me issues. OCZ was sold off so they may be better now, gskill doesn't have much of a line up anymore, and I can't really comment patriot now days.
 
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What he said. I bought a used 256gb Samsung 830 a few years ago. The thing had terabytes written to it, but it is fine and still kicking in my old T420s.

It helps the 830 is a really reliable MLC drive...
 
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