Guide on choosing storage for your Hardware.

[xlen]

So firstly we need to determine what kind of usage your device has.

Older PCs/Laptops that already have HDDs.

These kinds of PCs can greatly have their performance improved by just adding an SSD as a boot drive, e.g. I have an old laptop from 2007 with top specs from the time, with it's HDD it was pretty unusable, with an SU800 128GB SSD in it, it is a great daily machine for your daily needs and it can still compile some stuff.

Generally recommendation here is to go with mid-range SATA drives, something like SU650/SU800, BX500, MX300/MX500, micron 1100/1300, A58/A55.

Fresh new build for casual daily needs.

Here I would recommend getting something with good value and combine with a decent HDD, generally here you could go for SU800, SX6000 PRO, MX500, etc

Workstation.

Here you will have a difficult choice, does your storage pay for itself? Go for Samsung, if not then for primary storage go for Top tier performance SSDs like SX8200PRO/S40G/S50, MP600, EX920, Rocket 4.0, etc.

For secondary storage go for SSD/HDD raid and for tertiary have a dedicated NAS with performance HDDs.

 

This spreadsheet could help on choosing an SSD:

 

[GS]1gIr09k1g21awAho1h4uIb8jCklvgNIjkwrU_T9Rq2zk[/GS]

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...EAY_5i/pubhtml

Edited April 30, 2020 by ENTERPRISE

[ENTERPRISE]

Hey and welcome to EHW,

 

That is quite the list you have there, is that something you compiled yourself or collaboration ?

 

In any case for all my drives I went Samsung 960/970 NVMe's for OS and Game drives (for those that benefit from fast drives) other than that I have a Sandisk 1TB SSD for general storage. All my other storage needs are met by NAS. I have not stored the majority of my files on my PC for a longtime now.

[xlen]

Hey, this list was mainly done by me and it was influenced by other lists present around the web.

Talking about Samsung SSDs the only benefit from getting them is that they have higher warrantied lifespan, if you don't earn money with your storage you shouldn't consider buying them, like SX8200 PRO does have similar speeds and probably will match 970s lifespan

[ENTERPRISE]

Hey, this list was mainly done by me and it was influenced by other lists present around the web.

Talking about Samsung SSDs the only benefit from getting them is that they have higher warrantied lifespan, if you don't earn money with your storage you shouldn't consider buying them, like SX8200 PRO does have similar speeds and probably will match 970s lifespan

 

Well my system is a work and games rig so arguably the storage does make me money. To be honest I (like most) go for a trust worthy name, now that is not to say that another drive is not as trustworthy, but with the Samsung being a tried and tested product in my own use purposes, I have tended to stick with them. The downside is they do cost more for sure but it's a price I have been willing to pay for peace of mind.

 

When it comes to my next drive purchase I will have to take a look at the spreadsheet you provided for some more options

 

 

[axipher]

Thanks for putting this spreadsheet together, filtering it is a little cumbersome, so I'm hoping that the ExtremeHW can help me out here.

 

I'm looking for some new M.2 PCIe SSD's to use as Cache Drives on my UnRaid Server running on an Asus Prime X570-Pro with a Ryzen 3600x. I'm currently using two (2) Intel P660 512 GB M.2 SSD's:

- One in the upper motherboard M.2 socket with 4 lanes connected direct to CPU

- One in a PCIe 16x riser board that provides another 4x lanes direct to CPU

 

I needed the riser board as the lower M.2 slot is connected to the X570 Chipset and this causes some sync errors between the two SSD's so the solution after working with Asus was to put in the riser board so both M.2 drives are direct to the CPU.

 

 

 

So I'm looking for some good 1 TB drives to upgrade my Cache storage as well as better writes as I recently upgraded the network to 10 Gig.

[ENTERPRISE]

So firstly we need to determine what kind of usage your device has.

Older PCs/Laptops that already have HDDs.

These kinds of PCs can greatly have their performance improved by just adding an SSD as a boot drive, e.g. I have an old laptop from 2007 with top specs from the time, with it's HDD it was pretty unusable, with an SU800 128GB SSD in it, it is a great daily machine for your daily needs and it can still compile some stuff.

Generally recommendation here is to go with mid-range SATA drives, something like SU650/SU800, BX500, MX300/MX500, micron 1100/1300, A58/A55.

Fresh new build for casual daily needs.

Here I would recommend getting something with good value and combine with a decent HDD, generally here you could go for SU800, SX6000 PRO, MX500, etc

Workstation.

Here you will have a difficult choice, does your storage pay for itself? Go for Samsung, if not then for primary storage go for Top tier performance SSDs like SX8200PRO/S40G/S50, MP600, EX920, Rocket 4.0, etc.

For secondary storage go for SSD/HDD raid and for tertiary have a dedicated NAS with performance HDDs.

 

This spreadsheet could help on choosing an SSD:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gIr09k1g21awAho1h4uIb8jCklvgNIjkwrU_T9Rq2zk/edit#gid=0

 

Hey bud,

 

If you publish your Google Sheet to the web we can embed it properly in your thread so you get a nice preview and people can browse it without having to go to the sheet on another Window

[xlen]

 

Hey bud,

 

If you publish your Google Sheet to the web we can embed it properly in your thread so you get a nice preview and people can browse it without having to go to the sheet on another Window

 

I tried, but to me it shows like this

[xlen]

Thanks for putting this spreadsheet together, filtering it is a little cumbersome, so I'm hoping that the ExtremeHW can help me out here.

 

I'm looking for some new M.2 PCIe SSD's to use as Cache Drives on my UnRaid Server running on an Asus Prime X570-Pro with a Ryzen 3600x. I'm currently using two (2) Intel P660 512 GB M.2 SSD's:

- One in the upper motherboard M.2 socket with 4 lanes connected direct to CPU

- One in a PCIe 16x riser board that provides another 4x lanes direct to CPU

 

I needed the riser board as the lower M.2 slot is connected to the X570 Chipset and this causes some sync errors between the two SSD's so the solution after working with Asus was to put in the riser board so both M.2 drives are direct to the CPU.

 

 

 

So I'm looking for some good 1 TB drives to upgrade my Cache storage as well as better writes as I recently upgraded the network to 10 Gig.

 

So, for ease of use you can switch to 4x PCIe sheet and sort by speed or NAND type, for caching drives you will always want to have DRAM and probably a heat-sink.

Also as you're using those 660p's their lifespan will be pretty short because of the QLC NAND used.

As a side note you can try out the gen 4 SSDs if you can get a PCIe riser board that supports it, otherwise I'd try going for some of the top tier SSDs from ADATA(best value) or Samsung(best warrantied lifespan), generally either Samsung or Micron TLC NAND with 4x interface and DRAM and preferably one of the top tier controllers.

[axipher]

 

So, for ease of use you can switch to 4x PCIe sheet and sort by speed or NAND type, for caching drives you will always want to have DRAM and probably a heat-sink.

Also as you're using those 660p's their lifespan will be pretty short because of the QLC NAND used.

As a side note you can try out the gen 4 SSDs if you can get a PCIe riser board that supports it, otherwise I'd try going for some of the top tier SSDs from ADATA(best value) or Samsung(best warrantied lifespan), generally either Samsung or Micron TLC NAND with 4x interface and DRAM and preferably one of the top tier controllers.

 

Thanks for that, I think I'm between the following two options:

1) SSD 970 EVO

2) XPG SX8200 Pro PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 Solid State Drive

 

Both don't come with heat sinks, unless I go for the GAMMIX version of the ADATA drive, but that heatsink doesn't look all that useful.

 

 

Any recommendations on 3rd party M.2 Heatsinks?

[xlen]

 

Thanks for that, I think I'm between the following two options:

1) SSD 970 EVO

2) XPG SX8200 Pro PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 Solid State Drive

 

Both don't come with heat sinks, unless I go for the GAMMIX version of the ADATA drive, but that heatsink doesn't look all that useful.

 

 

Any recommendations on 3rd party M.2 Heatsinks?

 

both options are great, I own the SX8200 PRO 1TB, runs cool and is quite fast.

Generally most heatsinks that come with SSDs are enough, but if you're searching for 3rd party look at copper heatsinks with large surface area

[ENTERPRISE]

 

I tried, but to me it shows like this

 

The way in which you tried to embed it was not quite correct. I have embedded it for you with the method used on the site. However, it seems the document is not yet published. You can see how to embed sheets and how to publish the page by checking out our site guide, look in the "Available BBCODES section" : https://extremehw.net/forum/main-for...guide-features

 

Cheers

E

[xlen]

 

The way in which you tried to embed it was not quite correct. I have embedded it for you with the method used on the site. However, it seems the document is not yet published. You can see how to embed sheets and how to publish the page by checking out our site guide, look in the "Available BBCODES section" : https://extremehw.net/forum/main-for...guide-features

 

Cheers

E

 

You're right document was shared and not published, I tried to embed the documents unique ID, but for me firefox is still blocking it, no idea why

[ENTERPRISE]

 

You're right document was shared and not published, I tried to embed the documents unique ID, but for me firefox is still blocking it, no idea why

 

No problem I have fixed it on the first post for you, oddly enough the embed link that Google give you never works so you just take the Sheet ID from the standard sheet link, for example see below image.

 

 

 

We are however going to have a new system for all site embeds in the coming future to make it easier.

 

Thanks,

E

 

 

[xlen]

I'm working on a better UIX in the sheet and as you can see in the main sheet I've changed it dramatically, while other sheets still use the old system, waiting on feedback for that from as many people before I decide how to continue.

[ENTERPRISE]

I think the new system is better, will have to see what others think. Thanks for taking the time to improve it bud.

 

By the way how did you collect all this data ?

[xlen]

I think the new system is better, will have to see what others think. Thanks for taking the time to improve it bud.

 

By the way how did you collect all this data ?

 

Most of the data can be found in manufacturer spec sheets and reviews+there are other people that make such spec sheets, mine is different from other existing ones with that that it makes recommendations and set's performance tiers, others usually simply throw them in simple categories don't actually analyze the data in a way that everybody can understand it.

[xlen]

Anyways if people will like the new improved style better that's where this is going to.

[ENTERPRISE]

 

Most of the data can be found in manufacturer spec sheets and reviews+there are other people that make such spec sheets, mine is different from other existing ones with that that it makes recommendations and set's performance tiers, others usually simply throw them in simple categories don't actually analyze the data in a way that everybody can understand it.

 

That is awesome ! That certainly must take a while for you to collect all this data, or at the very least it has been a while in the making. This will be something I will use for quick reference for the next solid state drive I purchase.

[ENTERPRISE]

Actually one recommendation I would make is to freeze the title bar, when you scroll down the sheet it would be good for that to follow with you so you can tell what column conforms to what, I just found that out now when doing a little more browsing.

[xlen]

Actually one recommendation I would make is to freeze the title bar, when you scroll down the sheet it would be good for that to follow with you so you can tell what column conforms to what, I just found that out now when doing a little more browsing.

 

In the published version, it doesn't seem to be frozen, but it's frozen in Gsheets

 

[ENTERPRISE]

 

In the published version, it doesn't seem to be frozen, but it's frozen in Gsheets

 

Odd, that must be a limitation of the embedding.

[xlen]

 

Odd, that must be a limitation of the embedding.

 

That's what I thought

[schuck6566]

Want 2 add my thanks for gathering and posting all this info also. :thumbs_thumbsupup:

[xlen]

Updated the whole spreadsheet to the new standard, there are a few issues with color recommendations on few drives, but I think I've fixed the main sheet's errors where there were a few, also updated the list with like 40 new drives(hadn't updated for a few months).

[ENTERPRISE]

Nice this looks great !