Question 1TB nvme - Samsung 970 Evo Plus or WD SN750 Black

[whizamit]

I'm building a new corei7 10700 PC (for coding and wfh - no gaming) and need help deciding between
Samsung 970 evo plus 1TB at $190
and
WD SN750 Black 1TB at $135

Is Samsung worth the $55 premium?

 

[razel]

It's not worth the premium.

 

[UsandThem]

There's plenty of independent reviews on those two drives, so you would have to determine if the Samsung was worth the premium (many would say no).

 

[Steltek]

In real life use, you'll never notice the difference between them.

 

[whizamit]

How about cheaper drives such as

• Adata XPG SX8200
• Crucial P1
• Sabrent Rocket Q
• Intel 660

The reviews on these are very confusing. Toms hardware doesnt even list the 750 in its top list https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ssds,3891.html

Of all these choices, which one to buy?

 

[UsandThem]

How about cheaper drives such as

• Adata XPG SX8200
• Crucial P1
• Sabrent Rocket Q
• Intel 660

The reviews on these are very confusing. Toms hardware doesnt even list the 750 in its top list https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ssds,3891.html

Of all these choices, which one to buy?

The "best of" articles are more or less paid ads (all hardware sites do those now).

Stick to the actual review of the drives, and that's going to lead you to either the WD SN750 or Adata SX8200 PRO, and out of those two companies, I personally would go with the WD when it's at $135.

 

[Steltek]

How about cheaper drives such as

• Adata XPG SX8200
• Crucial P1
• Sabrent Rocket Q
• Intel 660

The reviews on these are very confusing. Toms hardware doesnt even list the 750 in its top list https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ssds,3891.html

Of all these choices, which one to buy?

@NewMaxx, a user here, is incredibly knowledgeable about this stuff. He has a subReddit here, and a website here regarding SSD/NVMes, the technology, and his ratings regarding SSD/NVMe drives. I trust him far more than I would any penny grubbing commercial website on this issue as he has more than demonstrated the breadth of his knowledge on this subject. He has a buying guide flowchart here and a spreadsheet here which break them down into his categories. On the flowchart, standard SSDs are on the left and NVMEs begin in the middle and go to the right. He ranks NVMes as Budget, Moderate, Consumer, Prosumer, and Prosumer/Consumer. In general, the hardware quality (controllers, flash, DRAM cache, etc) increases as you move to the higher categories.

In general, there is nothing wrong with the cheaper category drives but YMMV and you generally get what you pay for. The controllers are generally less capable, the flash will be slower, the drive may not contain dedicated DRAM cache, write speeds will be lower, etc. As long as I have the money, I'm generally a snob about it -- obviously, having any SSD/NVMe beats having no SSD/NVMe at all, but beyond that I'm not going to use a drive he rates any lower than consumer on any of my own builds (again, as long as I can afford it). He rates the SN750 as prosumer, and the Samsung 970 Evo Plus as prosumer/consumer.

 

[Campy]

For regular high performance consumer use I'm partial to the Adata SX8200 Pro. It performs really well and is good value, but I'm sure there are other good choices that I'm less familiar with. Perhaps something from Sabrent.

 

[Shmee]

The Sabrent Rocket (non Q) drives are great, especially the gen 4 ones, though these would be limited in your current build.

 

[whizamit]

Thank you so much for all the answers and suggestions.

 

[NewMaxx]

How about cheaper drives such as

• Adata XPG SX8200
• Crucial P1
• Sabrent Rocket Q
• Intel 660

The reviews on these are very confusing. Toms hardware doesnt even list the 750 in its top list https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ssds,3891.html

Of all these choices, which one to buy?

Of those four, the SX8200 Pro. Only TLC drive listed.

 

[papapapapapapapababy]

i have the EX950 1TB... is fast and i got it "cheap"