1 TB SSD for Laptop - durability, power priority (ruled out NVME)

[thedummy]

I want to upgrade my laptop's SSD to a 1 TB NVME/M.2. I really like the 960 Evo's but they seem quite expensive for pretty much no real world gain.

Any suggestions? The Intel 600p suffers from some really bad edge cases, and also seems power inefficient.

The 1 TB 850 Evo also seems to have issues with stutters a heavy load.

PS. Not sure if RAID 0 of 2 850' EVOs will be a better solution? But I guess that at twice the power draw and I want to maximize battery life.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

The 960 Pro is one of the more efficient NVMe drives thanks to its use of MLC V-NAND. The Intel 600p is not an efficient drive at all (it uses nearly 10 watts more under load than the 960 Pro).

But if you're not interested in the price, the 960 EVO shaves off a decent amount of money with the move to TLC V-NAND. As a result it uses a little more power, but is certainly cheaper.

The 850 EVO is not NVMe. It's a SATA III drive. You need to decide what performance tier you're going for. If the 850 EVO price range seems like what you'd want to pay for a 1TB SSD, then only the Intel 600p is a real option for NVMe. Anything else would seem too expensive.

The RAID 0 thing is a non-starter. It uses more power. You lose all the power saving features that sound like they're supposed to be important to you (DEVSLP, Slumber). I'm not sure why that would be considered an option unless you just want high capacity.

 

[thedummy]

What about Sandisk Ultra II or Sandisk X400?

 

[lopri]

AT's review shows Crucial MX300 is among the lowest power consuming drives.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11104/the-patriot-hellfire-m2-480gb-review-phison-nvme-tested/3

 

[thedummy]

So based on benchmarks it seems that NVME drives in general consume much more power than NVME drives.

I am not sure I will feel the difference of using NVME drives in everyday usage (browsing, word, coding, simulation, gaming, youtube). So would it be safe to rule them out and go with the cheaper SATA options?

1 need a 1 TB drive and I have almost settled on the 850 Evo. Which form factor should I choose: 2.5" or M.2? From Anandtech review, it looks as if the M.2's have less latency, but since they didn't do the 1 Tb M.2 review, and the 1 TB mSata had performance issues, I am not sure which would be the better option