Which of these 5 SATA III SSDs would you recommend?

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Fun Guy

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Oct 25, 1999
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Decided to wait until my next build to go the M.2 route, so I am just upgrading my nearly-full 256GB boot/OS SSD to a 512GB piece.

Here are the five SSDs I am looking at: Newegg 5-Drive Comparison

The Intel drive looks interesting at $135, but what is 3D TLC? I know what 3D NAND is, but...

The Crucial MX500 and Samsung 850 both have 5-egg scores, but the Crucial has far fewer reviews...

The Samsung 860 looks okay @ $150, but is using V-NAND 3-bit MLC. Is that bad?

Thoughts?
 
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Feb 25, 2011
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No reason the get the 850 over an 860, so that's out.

3D TLC is 3D NAND that uses TLC switching. It's the only kind of TLC you should get. (non-3D TLC sucks.) The 850 and 860 also use TLC (3-bit MLC is a cowards way of saying the same thing.) V-NAND is Samsung's fancy name for 3D NAND.

The 860 EVO will be the fast one on that list. Of the other three, whichever is cheapest will be the "best." So it's basically a competition between the 860 EVO at $150 and the WD Blue at $120. If this is a boot drive, I'd get the faster drive. If it's not, I'd get the slower drive and some good beer.

I'd be a little careful with the WD Blue though - the newer versions of the drive us 3D TLC NAND (that's good!) but if newegg has some older stock, the one you receive may still use planar TLC NAND (that's bad!). The photo is of the newer 3D NAND drives (that's good!) but if you get some old stock or something (that's bad!) you should complain and return it.
 

ao_ika_red

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Aug 11, 2016
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The 860 EVO will be the fast one on that list. Of the other three, whichever is cheapest will be the "best." So it's basically a competition between the 860 EVO at $150 and the WD Blue at $120. If this is a boot drive, I'd get the faster drive. If it's not, I'd get the slower drive and some good beer.

I'd be a little careful with the WD Blue though - the newer versions of the drive us 3D TLC NAND (that's good!) but if newegg has some older stock, the one you receive may still use planar TLC NAND (that's bad!). The photo is of the newer 3D NAND drives (that's good!) but if you get some old stock or something (that's bad!) you should complain and return it.
I'm here just for adding more data to digest.
WD Blue 3D NAND SSD review by AT:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/1179...estern-digital-wd-blue-3d-nand-1tb-ssd-review

WD Black 3D NAND SSD review by AT:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12543/the-western-digital-wd-black-3d-nand-ssd-review
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
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Sep 28, 2005
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what motherboard are you running?

do you have a nvme slot?

if you do, i dont recommend either, nor do i recommend you investing in any sata SSD less then 1TB.
So i would recommend you go the NVMe route now if you have the slot.
 
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