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Best affordable NVMe SSD?

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Flogger23m

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Going to need a NVMe SSD for a laptop. Will be looking at 2TB ideally. Reliability is important but it doesn't need to be very fast as it will essentially be for storage in a laptop. So the cheaper, the better. What is the best bang/buck drive?
 
Any of the name brand QLC NVMEs usually have decent sized SLC caches so in day to day you'd hardly notice. For a bit more, the TLC Western Digital blue drives are very good for the money. If you have a Microcenter near you check out their inland line of drives. Usually very similar Phison controllers to name brand drives but sometimes cheaper.
 
BlueLineSwinger said:
SK Hynix Gold P31. Within a few points of the 970 Evo+ performance, superior power usage, reasonably priced.
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That looks like a good value at $208 at Amazon.

Seems like it is overall superior to the WD Black SN 750 at $200.

How does the Team Group MP34 at $185 compare? One route I am thinking of going is getting the MP34 as in the laptop I won't need top end performance, just a reliable drive really.

On the other hand I am thinking of getting the SK Hynix Gold P31 for my desktop. I'll then take the Crucial P1 2TB I currently have in my desktop and install that in the laptop.

My motherboard is an AS Rock X370 Killer SLI/AC.

Currently my Crucial P1 occupies the Ultra M.2 socket. I am assuming I can just slap in the Hynix P31 in the other M.2 socket, clone the P1 to the Hynix P31, and make the Hynix my desktop drive. Just want to be sure it will work in the PCI E Gen 2 slot temporarily while I clone to it.

These are my motherboard M.2 slots available:

- 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s) (with Matisse, Picasso, Summit Ridge, Raven Ridge and Pinnacle Ridge) or Gen3 x2 (16 Gb/s) (with A-Series APU and Athlon series APU)*
- 1 x M.2 Socket (M2_2), supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen2 x2 (10 Gb/s)*
 
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The TG MP34 reviews decently. The only real knocks Anandtech gave was that it comes up relatively short on the warranty and may or may not be more costly than basically the same unit from other manufacturers. Personally, I always worry a bit about how these second-tier producers tend to play with the components, so what you're buying now may not be what was actually reviewed.

Given that the Crucial P1 is a relatively lackluster QLC SSD, swapping it to the laptop and getting a better-performing unit for the desktop doesn't seem unreasonable to me. The cloning process you describe will work fine. It's just fine to mix PCIe generations, the host and component will negotiate a compatible connection.
 
BlueLineSwinger said:
The TG MP34 reviews decently. The only real knocks Anandtech gave was that it comes up relatively short on the warranty and may or may not be more costly than basically the same unit from other manufacturers.
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Interestingly, the model on Amazon currently has a 5 year warranty according to the picture/description. I'm assuming the 2TB version has a longer warranty.

Crucial P5 Plus M.2 2280 for $208 currently. Seems to be middle of the road performance wise, but not seeing a direct comparison to the SK Hynix Gold P31 in any benchmarks yet. Any reason to consider this over the Hynix?

BlueLineSwinger said:
The cloning process you describe will work fine. It's just fine to mix PCIe generations, the host and component will negotiate a compatible connection.
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Would an NVMe stuck at Gen 2 speeds be faster than a SATA SSD?

I think I am just going to spend a bit extra and get either the Hynix or Crucial for the desktop. The P1 is slow, but should be fine for my laptop use which will be dumping files/storage and maybe a game or two.
 
Flogger23m said:
Would an NVMe stuck at Gen 2 speeds be faster than a SATA SSD?
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I think the NVMe would still be faster on paper. In real life you'll be hard pressed to tell the difference. I have SATA drives and a gen4 980 Pro in the same box, for most things they feel pretty much the same. (The 980 pro does pull ahead if I run long I/O bound jobs, or copy multi-gigabyte files around.)

Flogger23m said:
I think I am just going to spend a bit extra and get either the Hynix or Crucial for the desktop. The P1 is slow, but should be fine for my laptop use which will be dumping files/storage and maybe a game or two.
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You can basically buy on price and warranty. I do like the Hynix, it definitely runs cooler than many other NVMe SSD's.
 
pitingres said:
I think the NVMe would still be faster on paper. In real life you'll be hard pressed to tell the difference. I have SATA drives and a gen4 980 Pro in the same box, for most things they feel pretty much the same. (The 980 pro does pull ahead if I run long I/O bound jobs, or copy multi-gigabyte files around.)
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Pretty much this.

However, there's usually little if any price differential between SATA and (PCIe 3) NVMe SSDs anymore, so there's probably not much point in getting a SATA unit. Also, I feel there's a chance that future systems, should you decide to upgrade and move the SSD over, may not bother supporting SATA on the m.2 slots, whereas PCIe/NVMe isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
 
For a laptop, you might look for reviews that include power usage. Some NVME drives use a lot of power (for performance or because of relaxed power management). More power usage means more heat and lower battery life. When I upgraded my MacBook Air I went with the Intel QLC drives, they had the lowest power usage (at the time). And performance was plenty good for laptop usage.
 
westrock2000 said:
For a laptop, you might look for reviews that include power usage. Some NVME drives use a lot of power (for performance or because of relaxed power management). More power usage means more heat and lower battery life. When I upgraded my MacBook Air I went with the Intel QLC drives, they had the lowest power usage (at the time). And performance was plenty good for laptop usage.
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Crucial P1 seems to be fairly low, but each benchmark site seems to use a different value/rating system. But I assume that should be good for power consumption as it is a QLC drive.

I think I'll go with the Hynix for the desktop. P1 will go to the laptop as I don't need speed there. P1 currently works fine as a game drive for my desktop, but may as well upgrade if I am spending money.
 
Plus the Hyniz Gold P31 gets a wee little extra gold star for using biodegradable packaging instead of the usual annoying plastic blister!
 
Inland Performance are super cheap right now on Amazon 1TB $99 2TB 199 uses a Phison E16s controller 1800 / 3600 TBW endurance !
 
I just snagged a Crucial P5 Plus. Great customer support and a 5year warranty is one of my deciding factors. The read/write speeds are another.
 
The Crucial P5 Plus has nice performance specs but only 600TBW on the 1TB. I was looking for a drive to throw into my server boot drive.
 
pitingres said:
Plus the Hyniz Gold P31 gets a wee little extra gold star for using biodegradable packaging instead of the usual annoying plastic blister!
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Funny you mention that. The shitty biodegradable package literally biodegrades before it arrives. Opened the box and the shitty drive slid right out because the "container" it is in withered away.

And it gets worse. Shit hole design uses some weird ass nonstandard screw that will be impossible to find on planet Earth. So I wasted $200+ on a piece of shit drive that does absolutely nothing because it won't fit. Going to snap this piece of shit in half and ship it back to Amazon for a full refund. Fuck SK Hynix, last time I buy from this shithole brand.

Should've bought the Crucial. It was the same price, and I bet it actually would be capable of being installed. No wonder the Hynix was so cheap. It is a piece of shit that isn't worth a single cent.
 
The screw that holds the p31 down? Or did you go with a s31?
Good thing you went with Amazon or not, depending on how you look at their high quality packaging vs ease of return 😂
 
Flogger23m said:
Funny you mention that. The shitty biodegradable package literally biodegrades before it arrives. Opened the box and the shitty drive slid right out because the "container" it is in withered away.

And it gets worse. Shit hole design uses some weird ass nonstandard screw that will be impossible to find on planet Earth. So I wasted $200+ on a piece of shit drive that does absolutely nothing because it won't fit. Going to snap this piece of shit in half and ship it back to Amazon for a full refund. Fuck SK Hynix, last time I buy from this shithole brand.

Should've bought the Crucial. It was the same price, and I bet it actually would be capable of being installed. No wonder the Hynix was so cheap. It is a piece of shit that isn't worth a single cent.
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Possible Amazon shipped you a return?

The m.2 hold-down screw is standardized. It's just a basic M2-size metric. Any decent hardware store should have them.
 
Flogger23m said:
And it gets worse. Shit hole design uses some weird ass nonstandard screw that will be impossible to find on planet Earth.
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Nonsense. The m.2 mounting screw comes with the motherboard, because that's what it screws into. I've never received an m.2 drive that included a screw.

And, as noted elsewhere, the m.2 screw is standardized. If you have a nonstandard m.2 mount it's the mobo's fault, not the drive's.

My P31 mounted just fine in my X470 motherboard. It mounted exactly the same as any other m.2 drive. Are you sure you got a P31?
 
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Sabrent Rocket PCIE x3.0 TLC, quick drive and reliable.
Not the Q drive, thats QLC.
 
Nenu said:
Sabrent Rocket PCIE x3.0 TLC, quick drive and reliable.
Not the Q drive, thats QLC.
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I thought about that one - but, I found a Corsair MP600 for the same price - it's pcie 4.0 x 4, too.
 
This is slightly different feedback so take this with a grain of salt. I do not notice any difference between my samsung 960 Pro and my much older 2.5 Crucial MX500. One benchmarks FAR above the other, and I just don't notice. However, I do notice when I'm gaining/losing 10% FPS, so I do have a sensitivity to performance changes. But with load times I feel no difference in my home use. If you're comparing features, memory speeds, etc, I say ignore it all and go with the cheapest drive unless you need the performance for something specific.
 
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