# Technical science behind the SSD drives. Needs help to understnd for buying the best



## rakesh15 (Jan 6, 2006)

*Technical science behind the SSD drives. 
*
*( My PC is Dell XPS Tower 8930, 6 core, i7th, 8th Gen, 16GB mem, Win 10 Pro ) 
*
I am to purchase a good 500 GB / 1 TB SSD drive, - M.2 , NVMe, PCI, 2280 for my PC. 

What you should consider? - reading/writing speed / heat factor / something else? - for an overall good package. 

I am stuck between WD's black drive and Intel's SSD Drive and perhaps a similar higher quality one from Samsung, and can't take a decision.

Can someone compare these and advise me the pros and cons, and also other factors that should also be considered into account.

WD's blue drives, read and writes @ about 500 mb/s kinda low speed and hence no better as WD black ones, reads and writes around 3100-3470 (Read) / 1600-3000 (write) for their diff. capacity of black drives of 250gb/500gb/1TB.

Intel drive says they go upto, 1GB/s w/ five years warranty,.. 

Which one would you suggest from your past experience of purchasing the same and lesson that you learnt, next time for a better SSD? Can anyone explore their experience about a better SSD, comparing its technicality science and coursers price is also a concern, to buy an efficient drive in terms of quality n' quantity. 

My budget is 125+ USD around and can go with either 1TB / 500GB one, depending on the price and good make,..

WD blue drives are very slow hence out of my hunting list and few Samsung ones are also good ones, though expensive. People seems crazy behind WDC's black ones ! Used one will also be fine,. 

These links are my dilemma and I am stuck into, which one to go with,...? Any technicality and proper guidance for a hunt be helpful,..



Intel 1 TB and 2 TB, ( I can get reduced price by 30-35 dollars by CC and Codes ) 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Intel-66...lid-State-Drive-SSD-SSDPEKNW010T8X1/556985707


https://www.walmart.com/ip/Intel-66...lid-State-Drive-SSD-SSDPEKNW020T8X1/391269422


A typical one ( WDC ) sold very commonly on e-bay / Amazon.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/WD-Black-5...575?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l4275.c10#viTabs_0

https://www.ebay.com/itm/WD-BLACK-S...m=143302777267&_trksid=p2047675.c100010.m2109

https://www.ebay.com/itm/500gb-WD-M...m=233239963718&_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982

https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Wester...m=254250092082&_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=WDS100T3X0C&_sacat=0&_sop=15



WDC's Models :


WDS500G3X0C, WDS500G3XHC, ( 500GB)

WDS100T3X0C, WDS100T3XHC, ( 1 TB ) 


_Versus_


Samsung's 970 PRO, 970 EVO or 960


Please explore your thoughts @ Comparison / experiences. Thx. 


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## rakesh15 (Jan 6, 2006)

Intel's 1 TB drive: 

*Intel 660p 1TB m.2 2280 PCIe Encrypted Internal SSD SSDPEKNW010T8X1
*

 The specifications given at the bottom of below link, does it sounds good and competitive with WDC's black drives / Samsung's PROs / EVOs? 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Intel-660p-1TB-m-2-2280-PCIe-Encrypted-Internal-SSD-SSDPEKNW010T8X1/821235616

^ What is the difference between Gigabytes and Gigabits? Is this SSD at good speed? *


*


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## tristar (Aug 12, 2008)

Is your current SSD in a PCIe 3.0 slot ?

As a personal preference, I'd go with 970 Pro if it's about performance and you don't worry about the cost...

Also the use case matters, so what are you planning to do with it ?


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## rakesh15 (Jan 6, 2006)

^ I don't have any, yet. My PC came with 2TB Magnetic one. 
I saw and read many ppl complaining that after installing SSD they did not find much difference in speed except at start up, and hence, I would not buy WD's Blue drives, but better ones,......

I got Codes and coupons for Walmart and/or CCs and hence,.. just more wondered about the Intel drives, about where they stand for ? Competitive to Samsung and WDC? 

I agree, Samsung PRO are best ones,..... how about the heat factor? Do they make like WDC's black ones with letter "H" in its Model name , to fight heat specially ? 

Intel gives 5 yrs warranty, that's plenty,.. but can't compare or understand its other features,..


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

SSD's have no moving parts so don't really produce much in the way of heat.


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## rakesh15 (Jan 6, 2006)

Also, I noticed that Kingston is selling the one, with different kind of Chip-slots, that enters into the slot,.. so how they are compatible with my PC or perhaps not ! 

I don't want to end up in buying the wrong one, also,.. 

Look at double slots at insertion area,.. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Kingston-D...m=133093525694&_trksid=p2047675.c100752.m1982


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

If this is the correct model it has the required slots https://www.dell.com/support/manual...382dca-dcb9-4733-b429-585f37c709b6&lang=en-us


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## rakesh15 (Jan 6, 2006)

*^^ Mine is a Desktop, XPS tower,....*


https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Dell+XPS+8930+Tower+



Dell XPS 8930 Tower system, 

Processor: Intel Core 8th Generation i7-8700 
Processor (6 Core,3.20GHz,12MB Cache,65W) 
Windows 10 Pro 64bit English
2 TB 3.5-inch SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
16GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2666MHz (2X8GB)
Tray load DVD Drive (Reads and Writes to DVD/CD)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti with 4GB GDDR5












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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

If you are going to provide a link please post one to the exact model not Google now there is a model listed as 8930 Tower and this is it https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/desktops-and-all-in-ones/xps-tower/spd/xps-8930-desktop/CDX89313 read the specs on the page.
I strongly advise that you get into the habit of doing that before you ask questions it may save you a good deal of time, and tristar has already suggested a model of drive so I am unsure whay your looking at things on Ebay particularly used items there are no guarantees with that type of purchase.


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## rakesh15 (Jan 6, 2006)

Samsung PROs seems to be expensive, they are higher in price even for a 512 GB.















Can someone compare this with WD Black and Intel ones - technicality point-of-view?


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Do you mean this https://www.wd.com/products/wd-outlet/wd-black-nvme-ssd-2018.html as the price is not cheap either.
All newer tech is costly and there are other makers but avoid ebay and get it from the more reliable and trusted sources so you have a warranty.


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## rakesh15 (Jan 6, 2006)

Number 2X in their Model numbers are older ones, new 2019 year makes, may be have "3X" number in their Model. I agree, all new technology is expensive, especially Makes like Samsung or WDC. 

BTW, on e-bay also, there remains few hugh and reputable sellers, even stores of WD, n' other major companies,..and warranty is covered ( provided you bought, new one ) as per my talk with few major companies,.. Amazon also, many a times, remains as their main seller for such Big companies,..and warranty is covered,.. 

Part, that confused me,,.. does Intel 1 TB cards work even faster than Samsung and WDC?












^ Excerpt from : https://www.walmart.com/ip/Intel-66...rypted-Internal-SSD-SSDPEKNW010T8X1/821235616


I had preferred buying from Walmart due to some Coupons/ discount Codes I have,.. and they don't sell Samsung or WDC Black,..


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

This one from Samsung https://www.samsung.com/uk/memory-storage/950-pro-nvme-m-2-ssd/MZ-V5P512BW/ has 2.5GB/s read speed and 1.5GB/s write speed so the read speed is faster the write slower


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## rakesh15 (Jan 6, 2006)

970PRO ( Samsung ) also read sand write at the speed of, 3500/2700


https://www.samsung.com/uk/memory-storage/970-pro-nvme-m2-ssd-/MZ-V7P1T0BW/


and similarly, WDS100T3 X0C or XHC ( 1TB, WD's best SSD ) runs at read/write speed of 3470 / 3000


Hence, never compromise with speed or it will get obsolete very fast,... and you may not feel the speed criteria advantage of buying a SSD!


What other factors you expect from any SSD drive , besides these,... what is endurance and other such parameters, that may affect the performance of any SSD ?


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

You will find plenty of comparissons here https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=ssd+nvme+m.2+vs+hdd and what is considered the best value, personally as long as it runs well I don'r fret over it to much as the next new thing will be along in a few months.


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

joeten said:


> You will find plenty of comparissons here https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=ssd+nvme+m.2+vs+hdd and what is considered the best value, personally as long as it runs well I don'r fret over it to much as the next new thing will be along in a few months.


The next new things: https://ttrdatarecovery.com/services/ssd-data-recovery/after-solid-state-drives/


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Yup it is technically possible just not quite there yet but they will put out a lot of hype for it and many will be quick to take it up when it is available.


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## tristar (Aug 12, 2008)

Intel's Optanes are probably what are the best, in my opinion, and Sam's Pro and Evo are close behind...

If you're using a HDD then even an entry level SSD even Silicon Power/WD green will show you a huge performance difference.. So go for any SSD and you will see a performance difference...

Evo and Pro are far better than Intel's 660 series, there are 760s as well now in the market..

So just go for an entry level SSD, I think it should be plenty..


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## Lead3 (Jun 14, 2006)

joeten said:


> SSD's have no moving parts so don't really produce much in the way of heat.


While they have no moving parts, they do produce heat. Their temperatures are comparable to other drives.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Never noticed much heat on my laptop it is always pretty cool seldom hear the fan unless the room is really warm. 
Maybe NVME are different.


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## satrow (Feb 4, 2012)

NVMe are different, Samsung (and other) early models would throttle back during heavier usage and users were rigging them with alt. heatsinks/fans to keep them cool. More recently, various makers have outfitted many of their performance models with heatsinks.

Optane is way different, seemingly only really suited to repetitive tasks/software and completely unsuitable for things like running VMs.


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## rakesh15 (Jan 6, 2006)

Lead3 said:


> While they have no moving parts, they do produce heat. Their temperatures are comparable to other drives.


 That's what I heard. They produce heat. That's why WDC makes two version for their 500GB bad 1TB drive, one with and without heat factor, the heat being taken care off,....

I remember, few pieces were in market which you plug in behind the PC in USB slots and using an air antenna they were bringing TV to your PC for local digital free channel available in the area,.. ( no moving parts inside ) and the major complain about all was, they were getting too much heated,..


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, I agree with Tristar, almost any branded SSD, will bring a noticeable performance boost. One element not mentioned is the importance of updating the units firmware, most reputable manufacturers include a management util for this, such as Crucial Storage executive, I have a crucial SSD.


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## rakesh15 (Jan 6, 2006)

Kingston A1000 M.2 2280 240GB


^ I will be probably buying this card, which has its almost same price of 42-43 dollars at Walmart, Amazon and E-bay for new one,.. ( Me having 25 dollars Walmart coupon money.. hence paying 17.50 USD ) 



Comments?


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## spike6479 (Apr 6, 2011)

I have a WD 500GB black mvme SSD I bought from newegg for $150 a year ago. I have been quite pleased with it. It does run quite hot, in the low 70'sC. It is in a PCIe 3.0x4 slot.


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## satrow (Feb 4, 2012)

rakesh15 said:


> Kingston A1000 M.2 2280 240GB
> 
> ^ I will be probably buying this card, which has its almost same price of 42-43 dollars at Walmart, Amazon and E-bay for new one,.. ( Me having 25 dollars Walmart coupon money.. hence paying 17.50 USD )
> 
> Comments?


Slower than the best *SATA* drives.


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## rakesh15 (Jan 6, 2006)

Here is, I inquired more with tech guys of WDC and found some thingies / insight,..

1. Heat factor is a concern and hence they had to make particular Models with Letter H in it ( in my, first post here ) , initially they made 250GB which had no Model for Heat factor taken care off, and hence it was added in their later 500GB and 1TB versions,..to fight the heat.

2. Normal SATA III, good quality, magnetic drives run around 250-300 read/write speed range,....... and WD's Blue SSDs run only 550 around, so hardly doubled speed and hence many people do not feel the noticeable speed difference in SSD, while converting from HDD to SSD. 

3. All the SSDs ( be it WDC / Kingston / Crucial) having two notch in the insertion points, are older and nearly old /outdated technology,... ( such as 3D NAND SSD WDC ) and one should stay with NVMe PCI, for better performances,..

4. All latest computers capable of taking SSD cards with one slot at insertion ( NVMe PCI ) can also take all the cards with older technology of two slots at insertions ( like above post's Kingston picture ) , but the computers who were meant for two slots ones, can not take the, one slot ones ( NVMe PCI )

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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

satrow said:


> Slower than the best *SATA* drives.


Saywhatnow? SATA III is rated 6Gb/s (Gigabits per second) which is 750MB/s (Megabytes per second)! That A1000 SSD boasts 1500MB/s and 1000MB/s read/write speeds, twice as fast as SATA III. Are you saying there is a SATA SSD that's faster than that???


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## satrow (Feb 4, 2012)

Boasting about speeds that are largely dependent upon having an equal or better secondary drive to transfer to/from, or that often only apply to specific workloads, doesn't give the full picture:



> To that end, the Kingston A1000 largely fails to make use of the extra headroom offered by its PCIe 3 x2 interface. There are a few benchmarks where the A1000 is far faster than a decent SATA drive like the Crucial MX500, but there are just as many situations where the A1000 ends up being slower. Overall, the A1000 is a bit faster than SATA SSDs, but not by enough to be really noticeable.





> It's disappointing to have the new lean NVMe command set that was designed to reduce latency used for a product that has higher latency than a SATA SSD. If you want SATA performance, you can still get it with lower cost SATA products, and in some cases get a more responsive system (Crucial MX500, Samsung 850/860 EVO, and so on).
> 
> The A1000's increased sequential read and write throughput separates it from the SATA products. That helps when you transfer large files, like movies, music, and high-resolution pictures. We all perform these tasks on a routine basis and a 3X reduction in the time it takes to complete the transfers is significant, but we don't think those tasks warrant taking a hit in system responsiveness to save you a few minutes per day.
> 
> ...


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

While I agree that the A1000 isn't doing justice to the NVMe protocol or its PCIe 3.0 x2 interface, I religiously read through all of the AnandTech review and noticed the A1000 stayed beyond the reach of SATA SSDs in just about each test and offering serious competition to other low-end NVMe SSDs. While upgrading from a decent SATA SSD to the A1000 won't offer much of a noticeable performance improvement;

users who are simply looking for a reasonable step up from SATA SSDs should seriously consider the Kingston A1000

True, it is a horrible choice for certain specialized workloads, but for ordinary everyday use, it is plenty fast. If you're "upgrading" from a decent SATA SSD to the A1000 hoping to be impressed by PCIe-NVMe speeds, you'll be disappointed. Would I recommend this for a first-time SSD user on a budget? Most definitely. If they can spend a bit more for higher-end SSDs though, the better.


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## satrow (Feb 4, 2012)

Stancestans said:


> While upgrading from a decent SATA SSD to the A1000 won't offer much of a noticeable performance improvement;
> 
> users who are simply looking for a reasonable step up from SATA SSDs should seriously consider the Kingston A1000


Not sure that quote ties in with their "Overall, the A1000 is a bit faster than SATA SSDs, but not by enough to be really noticeable." Paying for an 'upgrade' where they might not notice any improvement also merits consideration.



Stancestans said:


> True, it is a horrible choice for certain specialized workloads, but for ordinary everyday use, it is plenty fast. If you're "upgrading" from a decent SATA SSD to the A1000 hoping to be impressed by PCIe-NVMe speeds, you'll be disappointed. Would I recommend this for a first-time SSD user on a budget? Most definitely. If they can spend a bit more for higher-end SSDs though, the better


You'd recommend it without ascertaining the likely workloads? That same 'ordinary everyday use' could well be what Tom's references to 'taking a hit in System responsiveness' (cf. better SATA SSDs) were aimed at.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

satrow said:


> You'd recommend it without ascertaining the likely workloads?


Of course not. "Everyday ordinary use" is at best a very loose phrase. It can be anything depending on the user's intended use. Here, I'm making an influenced guess based on previous interactions with the OP. Bragging rights are on cue here :grin:, if you catch my drift.


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## rakesh15 (Jan 6, 2006)

Stancestans said:


> Saywhatnow? SATA III is rated 6Gb/s (Gigabits per second) which is 750MB/s (Megabytes per second)! That A1000 SSD boasts 1500MB/s and 1000MB/s read/write speeds, twice as fast as SATA III. Are you saying there is a SATA SSD that's faster than that???



Talking to some Tech-guys, any good Sata-III, generally runs at 250-300
reading and writing speed,... Kingston's A1000 selling at 42.50 around price at many places,.. and even on e-bay bids you can grab around 30.00 easily,.. has 1500 / 800 Reading / writing speed,.. OK for the beginners, if bought at good price. 



Other one, I found interesting is PNY's 250GB, Model CS3030 gives 3500/1050 speed., not bad - around 56.62 at Walmart,...


One best bet be, Samsung 970 evo plus 250GB, around 63-64 dollars on Amazon found,.... gives 3500 / 3300 speed,...


One more economically interesting I found, WD's black, latest Model WDS250G3X0C ( no heat factor safe-guarded , though ) giving 3100 / 1600 speed , while buying from theirs web site and requesting coupon from them,... for 25%, price can smash down to 59-60 dollars , I perhaps may go with this,.. 



SSD helps,... ( the way understand and was explained... ) 

1. Booting the system faster and bringing the desktop faster,...
2. Reading from the HD is faster, that means,.. any software installed on SSD opens faster hence you see the speed there,... say opening of the already installed programs
3. Writing - means copying files onto SSD and something to write from either an another HDD/flash/ net.. etc.


But, for surfing, web browsing, page opening on net, watching movie.video,clips, images on net ( FB / twitter ) or YT / netflix / Prime / Hulu / Verizon-Comcast TV watch, hbonow / xfinity / Kodi / Leonflix / Teatv / directv kinda Movie-vdo, watching TV on monitor,.. or any such kinda watch,.. etc,... you will *N O T *_s__ee_ any difference in speed. 'Coz that area depends on your own,.... Computer processor speed, Memory, internet speed, Cores and such,...




...


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