How good are ZTC SSDs?

[techne]

I need to ask because I can pick one of these drives on a local store and I need to think fast. This is the SSD:

https://www.amazon.com/ZTC-512GB-Armor-Drive-ZTC-SM201-512G/dp/B00Z8BYOWG

I started already to research the brand and this particular model. The M.2 world is still confusing for me but, as far as I can see, it would work in my Asus Z97 Deluxe motherboard.

Being a M.2 model, would it be faster than my regular SATA Samsung 840 EVO?

I'm about to update my GPU, so I need to know... Would this M.2 SSD steal performance from my GPU?

 

[Namo]

@techne : My answer is NO. Always go with trusted brand when it comes to storage. My suggestion would be to choose from one of these - Samsung>Crucial>Sandisk>Transcend>Mushkin

 

[VirtualLarry]

Being a M.2 model, would it be faster than my regular SATA Samsung 840 EVO?

I'm about to update my GPU, so I need to know... Would this M.2 SSD steal performance from my GPU?

It appears to be a SATA-interface M.2 SSD. That means, that it won't be any faster than any other SATA SSD. It also means that it doesn't use an PCI-E lanes, so it won't negatively affect your GPU performance.

Edit: If you're going M.2 on a desktop PC, then I suggest an NVMe drive for performance.

 

[Namo]

It appears to be a SATA-interface M.2 SSD. That means, that it won't be any faster than any other SATA SSD. It also means that it doesn't use an PCI-E lanes, so it won't negatively affect your GPU performance.

Edit: If you're going M.2 on a desktop PC, then I suggest an NVMe drive for performance.

NVMe drives like 950 pro. But would there be better performance in real world scenarios? Except benchmarking

 

[techne]

Thank you guys. I don't want to spend good money only to get a marginal improvement (if any).

Samsung>Crucial>Sandisk>Transcend>Mushkin

All my SSDs (but the oldest one) are in this list: Samsung, Transcend, Corsair. Of course, I'm always looking for newcomers; the bigger the list, the better...

 

[Namo]

Thank you guys. I don't want to spend good money only to get a marginal improvement (if any).

Samsung>Crucial>Sandisk>Transcend>Mushkin

All my SSDs (but the oldest one) are in this list: Samsung, Transcend, OCZ. Of course, I'm always looking for newcomers; the bigger the list, the better...

Buy Crucial MX300 1TB. Best in price-performance ratio.

 

[techne]

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/storage-ssd-mx300

Cool

 

[dave_the_nerd]

NVMe drives like 950 pro. But would there be better performance in real world scenarios? Except benchmarking

Unless you're doing what could only be described as "hardcore" workstation workloads, it's unlikely you'd notice the difference.

Most desktop storage workloads consist of brief spurts of random activity, followed by a few seconds of waiting for user input, and only occasionally a long sequential transfer.

Spinning drives suck at random I/O. But even a "slow" SSD handles those brief spurts with aplomb. Upgrading to a faster one usually just means shaving milliseconds off of an already brief wait. (Even going from 100ms to 20ms isn't going to be noticeable - your brain can barely process the 100ms delay.)

The sequential stuff is noticeable, but again, the impact of going from 80MB/sec to 400MB/sec is a lot higher than going from 400 to 1,000. And most of the time, even when I'm doing something that is supposedly bottlenecked by the SSD (like, say, loading a game level into RAM) I still see my SSD blinking away idly, apparently bottlenecked by something else, like, say, texture decompression or network latency. My limited experiments logging I/O activity in Resource Monitor backs this up - reads from my SSD will rarely exceed 150MB/sec during a gaming session.

 

[techne]

Unless you're doing what could only be described as "hardcore" workstation workloads, it's unlikely you'd notice the difference.

No hardcore workload here. I've been doing a lot of HVEC encoding, but in this case the disk I/O is the least of my problems - I'm not even using the SSD as storage.

I just want a larger SSD and a sata disk with sufficient space is more than enough for my needs. But, for obvious reasons, I'm also keeping an eye in the M.2 thing...

 

[Namo]

No hardcore workload here. I've been doing a lot of HVEC encoding, but in this case the disk I/O is the least of my problems - I'm not even using the SSD as storage.

I just want a larger SSD and a sata disk with sufficient space is more than enough for my needs. But, for obvious reasons, I'm also keeping an eye in the M.2 thing...

I can see you've 32gb RAM and i7. I repeat, just go with Crucial MX300. That would be apt for you. Leave the M.2 thing.

Even I am planning to buy a SSD, but my requirement is not upto 1TB's. I would keep my OS/programs/games into SSD and other media stuffs into my HDD. And for that, I am planning to get Transcend SSD 370S 256GB (MLC) - which is more than enough for a regular user

 

[Namo]

Unless you're doing what could only be described as "hardcore" workstation workloads, it's unlikely you'd notice the difference.

Most desktop storage workloads consist of brief spurts of random activity, followed by a few seconds of waiting for user input, and only occasionally a long sequential transfer.

Spinning drives suck at random I/O. But even a "slow" SSD handles those brief spurts with aplomb. Upgrading to a faster one usually just means shaving milliseconds off of an already brief wait. (Even going from 100ms to 20ms isn't going to be noticeable - your brain can barely process the 100ms delay.)

The sequential stuff is noticeable, but again, the impact of going from 80MB/sec to 400MB/sec is a lot higher than going from 400 to 1,000. And most of the time, even when I'm doing something that is supposedly bottlenecked by the SSD (like, say, loading a game level into RAM) I still see my SSD blinking away idly, apparently bottlenecked by something else, like, say, texture decompression or network latency. My limited experiments logging I/O activity in Resource Monitor backs this up - reads from my SSD will rarely exceed 150MB/sec during a gaming session.

That explains everything. Thanks for the detailed explanation. Initially, I was planning to get Samsung 950 NVMe- thinking my OS boot up time/file transfers will be faster than a regular ssd, say - from 10 sec to 3-4, but now as you said it would be in milliseconds - so that's not worth spending for NVMe for a home user. Even a regular/home user who do normal stuffs (excl. photoshop,video editing) I don't think one even need samsung 850 evo forget 850 pro, so even a decent ssd with read speeds around 500 like transcend ssd370s which has awesome reviews would be best. Gonna buy that

 

[techne]

I can see you've 32gb RAM and i7. I repeat, just go with Crucial MX300. That would be apt for you. Leave the M.2 thing.

Even I am planning to buy a SSD, but my requirement is not upto 1TB's. I would keep my OS/programs/games into SSD and other media stuffs into my HDD. And for that, I am planning to get Transcend SSD 370S 256GB (MLC) - which is more than enough for a regular user

The Transcend 370S 256GB is a lovely drive (with much better write speed than the 128GB model).

Yes, a system drive with 256GB is OK for most users and I'm very happy with my 840 EVO. But it's not enough to install a few games and a few virtual machines. So, I'm still running my VMs from a "black" WD HD, and this is a very strong reason to upgrade. I was hoping for a 512GB drive in the OP, but now I'm really starting to think that 1TB would be the sweet spot.

And yes, I'm thinking about a "traditional" sata drive. I don't even like the idea of running a solid storage device without a Faraday cage (and this is another favorable point regarding the 370S with its aluminum case.) But, in the end, the deciding factors will be price and (I live in a peripheral country) availability. I mean, a good M.2 offer would be really tempting...

 

[Namo]

The Transcend 370S 256GB is a lovely drive (with much better write speed than the 128GB model).

Yes, a system drive with 256GB is OK for most users and I'm very happy with my 840 EVO. But it's not enough to install a few games and a few virtual machines. So, I'm still running my VMs from a "black" WD HD, and this is a very strong reason to upgrade. I was hoping for a 512GB drive in the OP, but now I'm really starting to think that 1TB would be the sweet spot.

And yes, I'm thinking about a "traditional" sata drive. I don't even like the idea of running a solid storage device without a Faraday cage (and this is another favorable point regarding the 370S with its aluminum case.) But, in the end, the deciding factors will be price and (I live in a peripheral country) availability. I mean, a good M.2 offer would be really tempting...

May I know in which country you live? Anyhow, you can always import products. Amazon US.

Well, since the deciding factor is price and you're looking for "traditional" SATA - then I would say you should go with WD Blue (upto 6tb) for the reliability/longevity purpose and sell your WD Black since now you're buying a SSD. And buy Transcend 512GB 370s (you'll get free 3.5" mounting bracket which no other SSD will provide) though a bit costlier when compared to 256 one, but 512 would be enough for you in "most" circumstances.

P.S : Leave the M.2 part, its not worthy enough. Rest your call!

 

[techne]

May I know in which country you live? Anyhow, you can always import products. Amazon US.

Well, since the deciding factor is price and you're looking for "traditional" SATA - then I would say you should go with WD Blue (upto 6tb) for the reliability/longevity purpose and sell your WD Black since now you're buying a SSD. And buy Transcend 512GB 370s though a bit costlier when compared to 256 one, but 512 would be enough for you in "most" circumstances.

P.S : Leave the M.2 part, its not worthy enough.

Thanks for the advice. It will be taken in account.

Take a look at a random product offered at Amazon and you'll understand my point. Pay two, get one...

 

[Namo]

Thanks for the advice. It will be taken in account.

Take a look at a random product offered at Amazon and you'll understand my point. Pay two, get one...

Hmm alright mate. Lemme know what you end up buying