Crucial M550 1TB SSD vs Samsung 840 EVO 1TB

[Kippa]

Out of the Crucial M550 1TB SSD and the Samsung 840 EVO which one would you get for longevity?

I know the crucial uses MLC where as the Samsung uses TLC, bearing that in mind and the fact that I want the drive to last as long as possible, more than overall performance which one would I be better off getting?

Is the state of Samsung TLC at such a level that it will last the same length of time as a MLC based ssd like the crucial one?

 

[G73S]

here you go:

http://techreport.com/review/25763/...ans-crucial-m500-960gb-vs-samsung-840-evo-1tb

Due to the more involved verification process, TLC NAND typically has slower write speeds than its MLC counterpart. However, the 840 EVO isn't a typical TLC implementation. Although much of its flash has three bits per cell, a portion is addressed as server-style SLC NAND with only one bit per cell. This SLC zone totals 12GB and is reserved for TurboWrite, which caches incoming data to mitigate the slower write speeds associated with TLC flash. Cached data is held in the TurboWrite buffer until the EVO slips into an idle state, after which the data is passed along to main storage.

Thanks to TurboWrite, the 840 EVO 1TB has a peak sequential write speed of 520MB/s. Writes proceed directly to the TLC flash if the TurboWrite buffer is full, but that only drops the EVO's sequential speed rating to 420MB/s—20MB/s higher than the M500's peak write rate. At least according to the manufacturers' specifications, the 840 EVO is faster than the M500 not only in every category, but also across the multiple capacities we've tested. In a moment, we'll see if that dynamic holds up in the wide variety of benchmarks that make up our storage test suite.

I bought two 1 TB Samsung 840 Evo SSDs myself after a 3 day research

To sum it up, TLC or MLC, the drive will easily last you 3 to 7 years even if you are a heavy user. by that time you will probably want to upgrade to something bigger/better

Despite the 840 Evo using TLC NAND, it beats the MLC Crucial in every benchmark

 

[Kippa]

Thanks for the link.

 

[Atreidin]

That review is nice but that's the M500, not the M550, which is newer and faster. It closes the performance gap pretty well and I'd personally prefer MLC to TLC since I don't throw away or sell drives when I'm done, they get repurposed to other computers.

http://techreport.com/review/26170/crucial-m550-solid-state-drive-reviewed/

 

[GamingDaemon]

I'm considering buying one of these bad boys so I can put all of my Steam games on it (~250 to 300GB) for faster game loads, and also store my saved games too.

The EVO seems faster and a better option, but is TLC and MLC really a big deal? It's not like I will be reading and writing thousands of times even in a year...

What say you, fellow Anandtechies??

 

[G73S]

I'm considering buying one of these bad boys so I can put all of my Steam games on it (~250 to 300GB) for faster game loads, and also store my saved games too.

The EVO seems faster and a better option, but is TLC and MLC really a big deal? It's not like I will be reading and writing thousands of times even in a year...

What say you, fellow Anandtechies??

yes maybe MLC will last you 15 years and TLC drives may last you 10 years, but really, after 3 years, you would probably want to upgrade to the best available thing. I have written 10 TB so far to both my 840 EVOs and the performance is 100% and will remain this way for a long time. Mind you, I format and reinstall my large games a lot. under normal usage scenarios, you probably wouldn't even come close to 10TB writes to the drive in many months.

I say, get the largest and fastest SSD you can and stop worrying about warranty and the future, but that's just my 2 cents, you know what's best for you

 

[Elixer]

I agree to a point, in that, you get the largest SSD you can afford, BUT, you should always have a backup plan.
SSDs aren't failure proof, so, the amount of writes you do is only a part of the puzzle in what can go wrong with SSDs.

 

[Kippa]

I have actually had an SSD die on me. Granted it was one of the 1st MLC generation SSDs that came out, and I really did hammer the drive. The warranty said it would last 2 years but I got about 2 1/2 to nearly 3 years out of it. It has made me a bit weary about claims of 10 to 15 years life span for these new drives. Possibly if it is realistically only being read from and not written to. Just saying that having one die one me has made me a bit more cautious, especially with TLC.

Personally I want to wait for a 1.5tb or a 2tb SSD. I wonder if 2tb SSDs will come out later on in the next 12 months.

 

[GamingDaemon]

Well my steam games are purchased, so as long as Steam stays in business, I'm good (they're down the street, I know where they live )

As for my saved games, I will back them up onto my 1TB mechanical drive, a WD Black.

So given that, I think I will go with the 1TB Samsung EVO FTW.

 

[G73S]

Well my steam games are purchased, so as long as Steam stays in business, I'm good (they're down the street, I know where they live )

As for my saved games, I will back them up onto my 1TB mechanical drive, a WD Black.

So given that, I think I will go with the 1TB Samsung EVO FTW.

excellent logic. with that said, be it TLC, MLC, a normal HDD, who in the worldn't doesn't back up his stuff regularly to an external HDD? no matter how reliable your SSD is, if fate has it that something will happen, it won't give a darn if you have MLC or TLC, it will make you lose your data.

that's why, you should always have a back up plan, either locally or on the cloud.

Thus, I recur, get the largest SSD available and enjoy, if any SSD bigger than 1 TB is released, I will buy it immediately, I won't give a darn what it was (MLC or TLC). I want the largest and fastest available storage available. Thank you

 

[Charlie98]

I say, get the largest and fastest SSD you can and stop worrying about warranty and the future...

I agree to a point, in that, you get the largest SSD you can afford, BUT, you should always have a backup plan.
SSDs aren't failure proof, so, the amount of writes you do is only a part of the puzzle in what can go wrong with SSDs.

I have actually had an SSD die on me.

Yes, yes, and yes.

I don't really agree with the 'fastest' part... any SSD will smoke an HDD, and trying to differentiate between two modern SSDs in real-world usage (not benchmarks, not number crunching or other high I/O load) is just splitting hairs.

 

[G73S]

Yes, yes, and yes.

I don't really agree with the 'fastest' part... any SSD will smoke an HDD, and trying to differentiate between two modern SSDs in real-world usage (not benchmarks, not number crunching or other high I/O load) is just splitting hairs.

Totally agree with you.

I had a LiteOn IT 256 GB SSD before, when I upgraded to the 1 TB Samsung EVO 840, the EVO smokes the LiteOn in benchmarks by almost double the score....

in real life usage, if you would put two systems infront of me one with the LiteOn and one with the EVO, I won't be able to tell you which system has which SSD. they all feel snappy as heck

thus, get the largest SSD you can

I love my Samsung SSD Activated sticker that comes with All Samsung SSDs:

 

[tweakboy]

How much for this 1k ?