How do you know if an SSD is "DRAM-Less"?

[Format _C:]

I bought a cheap Team 1TB SSD and to put in perspective this appears as a tad bit faster then a 7.2K RPM 2.5" Spinner so needless to say I want to replace it.

Since it is so slow I'd assume this is DRAM-Less?

I want to know if this Samsung 870 EVO or This Samsung 870 QVO
drive has a DRAM Cache

Also why on the subject of cache-less Vs cached SSDs how can you tell this? Because they all say write "up to xxx MB/S as well as a different number for read speed

In my Amazon SSD order history I have the following drives and if someone doesn't mind can they tell me if they are cached or cache less

# 1 Western Digital 500GB WD Blue SN570
# 2 fanxiang S101
# 3 Crucial P2 1TB 3D NAND NVMe PCIe
# 4 Kingston SA400S37/240G
# 5 Samsung 860 EVO 500GB (MZ-76E500B/AM)

Thank You in advance LoL!

 

[XJJack]

Mostly by doing some research and reading reviews/ Watching video reviews. And hope that the manufacturer has not made changes to the product since those reviews.

You could make it easier for people to answer your questions quickly by putting the product name in your list instead of just numbering them 1-5.

Lastly, there is almost no way to know from the listing as they don't want to advertise when they don't have it, but if you look at there product line stay with the top tear as stuff below probaly doesn't have DRAM.

 

[Format _C:]

You could make it easier for people to answer your questions quickly by putting the product name in your list instead of just numbering them 1-5.

My bad I just fixed that 1 - 5 now has the make and model next to the numbet

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

Not clicking through a bunch of links for which you couldn't bother to type out the product names.

I know that the Samsung 870 Evo and Crucial MX500 have a DRAM cache and TLC NAND. The 870 QVO uses QLC NAND, so should be avoided for an OS/app volume.

Is your system not recent enough to utilize a m.2 NVMe SSD for OS/apps?

 

[michalrz]

I'm guessing a drive benchmarking tool might tell you.
In my case I only have the hdparm suite (Linux), which gives you 2 speed figures - one is "timing cached reads", the other is "timing buffered disk reads".
I remember Windows also having tools that distinguish between these two. "Burst" and "sustained" IIRC is one way to call them.

I'm not sure if this is a good way to do it - if anyone of you guys has a DRAM-less drive and Linux, please check your hdparm -tT numbers.
For reference, both my nvme SSD and my SATA SSD are like 12 000 MB/s "cached", ~450 MB/s "buffered". These have DRAM.

If this is a red herring, lemme know so I can edit this post.

 

[Format _C:]

Not clicking through a bunch of links for which you couldn't bother to type out the product names.

I fixed that

is your system not recent enough to utilize a m.2 NVMe SSD for OS/apps?

The system is my oldie but goodie Dell Precision M4800

so SATA only unless a MiniPCIe to M.2 exists that can be bootable as well?

I was given basically a base model M4800 I upped it to a 15.6 FHD Vs the OEM 720P one which was a ROYAL PITA as I Also had to swap the LVDS video cable
I then got 32GB of DDR3 ram for it

 

[pitingres]

You say that the Team SSD is only a little faster than a hard drive. Are you seeing this in real life usage, and if so, doing what? Or is this a benchmark number of some sort?

I'd expect the Team unit to handily beat any hard drive, except maybe doing a very large write (as in gigabytes).

 

[toast0]

Also why on the subject of cache-less Vs cached SSDs how can you tell this?

I've got an Inland SSD that's just like this. I found out it was DRAM less looking at reviews once its performance really pissed me off. In benchmarks, I can get good numbers if the concurrency is really ramped up, but sequential is garbage. Works fine as a temporary os drive for random stuff though.

 

[cjcox]

In short, if it's really cheap (price wise), it's an SLC cache

 

[dogDAbone]

In short, if it's really cheap (price wise), it's an SLC cache

^^THIS^^

When comparing seemingly similar drive models, the cheaper of the bunch will be the dram-less models, since the budget-cruncher crowd is who they are aimed at, whereas the higher spec'd & higher-priced models usually include a sizable amount of dram, which obviously costs the mfgr moar to make, and that will always be reflected in the selling price.

The other thing to consider is that the dram-less models will use cheaper, older controller chips too, which further reduces not only their build costs as well as their retail prices too, whereas the higher-tier units will have the more recent & higher performing controllers...

 

[Format _C:]

You say that the Team SSD is only a little faster than a hard drive. Are you seeing this in real life usage, and if so, doing what? Or is this a benchmark number of some sort?

I'd expect the Team unit to handily beat any hard drive, except maybe doing a very large write (as in gigabytes).

Real life usage
Windows 10 loads in under a minute so that is pretty fast but still seems slow for doing things like changing files or seeking through long and/or large video files with ZoomPlayer

I do have some Crystal Disk Mark benchmarks and the numbers don't seem to be that bad but for larger operations as the mouse pointer can freeze for a few seconds sometimes!

So I'm probably going to just get a Samsung 870 EVO and call it a day LoL.