Question Confused about SSD choice, DRAM needed?

[rickon66]

It has been about 4 years since I put together a new system and I know everything I want in it except for the SSD choice. I thought that DRAM on a drive was a necessity, but now I am wondering if it is and which drives have it. Any thoughts or experience on the matter?

 

[UsandThem]

It depends on a person's PC usage.

Some DRAMless SSDs are not very good, while some are pretty decent. A person considering a SSD should read some reviews, and see how certain performance tradeoffs will affect them based on what they do with their PC). I use a Samsung 980 on my main desktop, and it is a good buy when on sale (bought mine for $100).

The price difference isn't that different much anymore between quality SSDs if a person watches for a good sale (for example the 1TB 980 PRO is on sale for $150 today vs. $115 for the 980). And that's comparing a DRAMless budget PCIe 3.0 SSD vs. one of the highest rated PCIe 4.0 drives).

 

[Tech Junky]

Depends on the system / use.

If it's a Gen 3 drive they're all about the same these days.

Gen 4 though has some issues with older releases running at Gen 3 speeds and newer releases hitting up to 7000/6000 speeds.

Then with Gen 4 there seems to be some differences in which controllers work better than others. I tested a Phison based drive as I am using a couple of them currently. It worked fine but, I swapped it out for a WD SN850 just on a gut feeling and ran some tests on it as well and it works well too.

The biggest difference you'll see though is when you do sustained high data writes/reads like backups / copies or other high data programs.

 

[kschendel]

Onboard DRAM might be relevant if you are doing a lot of writing to the drive. Most desktop use cases don't. For instance, a game store drive will see relatively little writing. On the other hand, if you're running transactional databases or content creation, you might see a benefit to a more expensive drive with onboard DRAM and a good controller.

 

[rickon66]

Thanks for the replies, I am getting up there in years and I am wanting to build a "final" high-end gaming capable machine with 12th gen I7 or 9, DDR 5 and hopefully an RTX 3080Ti (I've been on EVGA's waiting list since OCT 2020}. I'll be too old for gaming after this one is obsolete.

 

[Tech Junky]

DDR 5

If you can find it you will pay dearly for it.

DDR4 performs just as well w/o the sticker shock. I completed an ADL 12700K build for $1500 sans GPU.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bKYwGq

 

[rickon66]

DDR5 has been available at Best Buy online fairly often at about $300-310 for 32GB. I know it does not perform any or much better than DDR4 at this time but I wanted the latest technology going forward.

 

[Tech Junky]

I wanted the latest technology going forward.

Financially it didn't make sense to me to pay 4X the price for RAM and another $100 or so for the MOBO.

I still have all of the other benefits of ADL minus the DDR5 component. I have a selection of PCI4 and 5 slots to use. The only wish list item is a M2 Gen 5 slot and I found a board that has one natively w/o needing an AIC to add one.

ASRock Z690 PG Velocita

Supports 13th Gen & 12th Gen Intel Core™ Processors (LGA1700); 17 Phase SPS Dr.MOS Power Design; Supports DDR5 6400MHz (OC); 1 PCIe 5.0 x16, 1 PCIe 4.0 x16, 1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 2 PCIe 3.0 x1; Graphics Output Options: HDMI, DisplayPort; Realtek ALC1220 7.1 CH HD Audio Codec, Nahimic Audio; 6 SATA3...

www.asrock.com

 

[Lanyap]

Thanks for the replies, I am getting up there in years and I am wanting to build a "final" high-end gaming capable machine with 12th gen I7 or 9, DDR 5 and hopefully an RTX 3080Ti (I've been on EVGA's waiting list since OCT 2020}. I'll be too old for gaming after this one is obsolete.

Heh, nobody's to old for gaming. I'll be carrying a gaming laptop with me when they wheel me away to the nursing home.

 

[Ranulf]

For an OS drive, I'd get one with dram. Gaming drive, probably fine without it but check reviews.

NewMaxx's guides are some of the best on SSD's.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewMaxx/ (guide links there at top of subreddit)

His flowchart website:

http://ssd.borecraft.com/