Choosing between several Sub-$50 1TB SSDs as pure game storage

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Jan 3, 2009
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So I noticed that there are some 1TB SSDs on Amazon that have recently gone below $50, and according to CamelCamelCamel these drives were all above $50 before. I know these are not the best drives by any means, but I am looking for a drive that I am going to be exclusively putting just my games from Steam, GoG, Itchio, etc on to move them off of my OS drive (Which is itself a 240GB PNY CS900).

The four drives I found are these:
PNY CS900 1TB (SSD7CS900-1TB-RB)
https://www.amazon.com/PNY-CS900-500GB-Internal-Solid/dp/B07Y5VDNT9/

TEAMGROUP AX2 1TB 3D NAND TLC (T253A3001T0C101)
https://www.amazon.com/TEAMGROUP-AX2-Internal-Compatible-T253A3512G0C101/dp/B08CKFDPJ3

SP 1TB SSD 3D NAND A55 SLC (SP001TBSS3A55S25)
https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-Performance-Internal-SP001TBSS3A55S25/dp/B07B4G19X3/

TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 1TB SLC (T253TZ001T0C101)
https://www.amazon.com/TEAMGROUP-T-Force-Vulcan-Internal-T253TZ001T0C101/dp/B09WMP5B5N/

I have to admit, I am very VERY skeptical of the ones that claim they are SLC, for something this cheap I would be surprised if they aren't even QLC. They are all $44-48. Not really looking to spend much more, only reason I am really considering it is because some are as cheap as $44. Again, they will exclusively just host downloaded games, so having huge write speeds or them not being as reliable as a Samsung (Assuming any of these aren't known to die in just a few months or something) is not important as long as they aren't going to be even worse for even just loading games off of for some reason.

Is anyone familiar with any of these? Any specific one I should get over others?
 
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I had several old SP SATA drives fail in the 60-120GB range. Bang for your buck I'd go with the Crucial MX500 for $62 all day. I have deployed dozens of these in clients and as small business servers without issue. I can't tell you how many MX100 and M500 newer Crucial drives I've deployed but it's probably 100+ and yet to have one fail. My main work desktop never shuts off. 57 TB written 8500 hours power on.

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The crucial is a little more than I am willing to pay, especially for a drive that will only store games and not run my system.
 
The crucial is a little more than I am willing to pay, especially for a drive that will only store games and not run my system.
Sort by price and buy the cheapest thing available. Have good backups :)
I wouldn't trust any of them but I still have old SP drives deployed. Same model and same batch of those that failed me. They are chugging along nearly 10 years later but I wouldn't recommend them. They won't all fail.
 
I've had good experience with the SP drives and the Vulcan Z. For cheaper drives them seem to be the best of the bunch.
 
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