Best 120gb SSD under 30$ CAD

[Bing Chilling]

Looking for a cheap 120-240gb SSD to throw in my dads gaming computer
i'v been looking around on newegg and the KingDian S280 Series [www.newegg.ca] seems to be the best SSD you can get for under $30 CAD
according to the "Master list" for SSD's here[docs.google.com]
it has dram cache

Edit:Thanks to everyone for helping me decide i have bought KingDian S280 Series [www.newegg.ca]

[r.linder]

Really doesn't matter as long as it has DRAM, the whole point of SATA interface SSDs at this point is getting them for as cheap as possible, because the closer they get to the cost of some Gen3 M.2 drives, the more pointless SATA becomes.

I've used DRAM-less SATA SSDs, SATA SSDs with DRAM, and Gen3x4 SSDs as OS drives, you won't really notice a difference under most circumstances, and depending on your dad's experience with SSDs, he probably wouldn't be able to tell at all. My dad would be blown away by any SSD.

So if the KingDian S280 seems like the best deal for an SSD with/without DRAM you can find, go for it.

[Bing Chilling]

Originally posted by Escorve:

Really doesn't matter as long as it has DRAM, the whole point of SATA interface SSDs at this point is getting them for as cheap as possible, because the closer they get to the cost of some Gen3 M.2 drives, the more pointless SATA becomes.

I've used DRAM-less SATA SSDs, SATA SSDs with DRAM, and Gen3x4 SSDs as OS drives, you won't really notice a difference under most circumstances, and depending on your dad's experience with SSDs, he probably wouldn't be able to tell at all. My dad would be blown away by any SSD.

So if the KingDian S280 seems like the best deal for an SSD with DRAM you can find, go for it.

Fair enough,

it's primarily just to fix the 100% disk usage with doing anything on windows 10
his system crawls apon boot (pretty much have to let it sit for 1-3 mins after booting)
, and you're honestly right, any SSD would be a game changer in that respect.


thanks for help here. ill mark your reply as the answer.

[r.linder]

Originally posted by StoneYoda:

Originally posted by Escorve:

Really doesn't matter as long as it has DRAM, the whole point of SATA interface SSDs at this point is getting them for as cheap as possible, because the closer they get to the cost of some Gen3 M.2 drives, the more pointless SATA becomes.

I've used DRAM-less SATA SSDs, SATA SSDs with DRAM, and Gen3x4 SSDs as OS drives, you won't really notice a difference under most circumstances, and depending on your dad's experience with SSDs, he probably wouldn't be able to tell at all. My dad would be blown away by any SSD.

So if the KingDian S280 seems like the best deal for an SSD with DRAM you can find, go for it.

Fair enough,

it's primarily just to fix the 100% disk usage with doing anything on windows 10
his system crawls apon boot (pretty much have to let it sit for 1-3 mins after booting)
, and you're honestly right, any SSD would be a game changer in that respect.


thanks for help here. ill mark your reply as the answer.

No problem. Hope that issue is permanently dealt with and that he'll enjoy it a lot more than the drive he's currently using.

[xSOSxHawkens]

Depending on is board, if it has an m.2, you might be able to opt for a tiny dramless NVMe.

LTT did a vid recently on a 1TB dramless NVMe that was only $20.

Dramless SSD's on *sata* are a big no-no, both for regular SATA as well as M.2 Sata, but NVMe works differently, and due to how it operates it takes far less of a hit to performance when you take away the DRAM cache, so a cheap dramless NVMe will offer about the same performance as a cheam DRAM cached SATA.

If he lacks an M.2 though its a bit moot, unless you want to try an opt for a low end 10-15 buck riser card.

[Bing Chilling]

Originally posted by Escorve:

Originally posted by StoneYoda:

Fair enough,

it's primarily just to fix the 100% disk usage with doing anything on windows 10
his system crawls apon boot (pretty much have to let it sit for 1-3 mins after booting)
, and you're honestly right, any SSD would be a game changer in that respect.


thanks for help here. ill mark your reply as the answer.

No problem. Hope that issue is permanently dealt with and that he'll enjoy it a lot more than the drive he's currently using.

this is his current boot drive speed https://imgur.com/Z1Hr7tz

i just threw in some random one i had lying around when i gave him my older rig after upgrading.
it is an older am2+ board so i believe it's sata 2.0
though i can imagine that it's still gonna be a pretty large upgrade since that his current drive
doesn't even come close to saturating the sata 2.0 interface.

[Bing Chilling]

Originally posted by xSOSxHawkens:

Depending on is board, if it has an m.2, you might be able to opt for a tiny dramless NVMe.

LTT did a vid recently on a 1TB dramless NVMe that was only $20.

Dramless SSD's on *sata* are a big no-no, both for regular SATA as well as M.2 Sata, but NVMe works differently, and due to how it operates it takes far less of a hit to performance when you take away the DRAM cache, so a cheap dramless NVMe will offer about the same performance as a cheam DRAM cached SATA.

If he lacks an M.2 though its a bit moot, unless you want to try an opt for a low end 10-15 buck riser card.

it's an old AM2+ ddr2 board with a phenom ii x6 1070t

[r.linder]

Originally posted by StoneYoda:

Originally posted by Escorve:

No problem. Hope that issue is permanently dealt with and that he'll enjoy it a lot more than the drive he's currently using.

this is his current boot drive speed https://imgur.com/Z1Hr7tz

i just threw in some random one i had lying around when i gave him my older rig after upgrading.
it is an older am2+ board so i believe it's sata 2.0
though i can imagine that it's still gonna be a pretty large upgrade since that his current drive
doesn't even come close to saturating the sata 2.0 interface.

If it's SATA2 then it shouldn't even make a difference whether or not it's DRAM-less or not, because SATA2 bandwidth is literally half that of SATA3. No matter what SATA SSD you use, it won't go above 300 MB/s.
Though you should still get one with DRAM because he can always upgrade the rest of the PC and still use the SSD later on.

[Bing Chilling]

Originally posted by Escorve:

Originally posted by StoneYoda:

this is his current boot drive speed https://imgur.com/Z1Hr7tz

i just threw in some random one i had lying around when i gave him my older rig after upgrading.
it is an older am2+ board so i believe it's sata 2.0
though i can imagine that it's still gonna be a pretty large upgrade since that his current drive
doesn't even come close to saturating the sata 2.0 interface.

If it's SATA2 then it shouldn't even make a difference whether or not it's DRAM-less or not, because SATA2 bandwidth is literally half that of SATA3. No matter what SATA SSD you use, it won't go above 300 MB/s.

i'v heard that Many Dramless SSD's can be around the same speed as a new 7200rpm hard drive. is that even true? it's hard to find alot of info around these lower end SSD's

[r.linder]

Originally posted by StoneYoda:

Originally posted by Escorve:

If it's SATA2 then it shouldn't even make a difference whether or not it's DRAM-less or not, because SATA2 bandwidth is literally half that of SATA3. No matter what SATA SSD you use, it won't go above 300 MB/s.

i'v heard that Many Dramless SSD's can be around the same speed as a new 7200rpm hard drive. is that even true? it's hard to find alot of info around these lower end SSD's

LTT did tests on a DRAM-less SSD awhile ago, in some instances it can be slower than a mechanical hard drive. However, I used to run a low end gaming system with an A10-7860K and R9 270X with a Crucial BX300, which is DRAM-less, and it was still much faster than my WD Black 1TB. It very much depends on the specific SSD. I imagine if you get one from a really cheap and dubious brand that it may be worse than a WD Black.

[emoticorpse]

If it's constantly 100% disk usage, even after pc is booted, then the drive isn't the problem.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Look at 240gb at the least.
Crucial, WD Blue, ADATA

[_I_]

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#f=3&t=0&A=115000000000,16000000000000&sort=price&xcx=0

adata, patriot, team, silicon power, inland

when shopping newegg, make sure the seller is newegg, else its most likely a chinese seller

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Yes when on Newegg there is box to tick for Newegg Stock, click this to hide all 3rd party sellers

[Bing Chilling]

Originally posted by Escorve:

Originally posted by StoneYoda:

i'v heard that Many Dramless SSD's can be around the same speed as a new 7200rpm hard drive. is that even true? it's hard to find alot of info around these lower end SSD's

LTT did tests on a DRAM-less SSD awhile ago, in some instances it can be slower than a mechanical hard drive. However, I used to run a low end gaming system with an A10-7860K and R9 270X with a Crucial BX300, which is DRAM-less, and it was still much faster than my WD Black 1TB. It very much depends on the specific SSD. I imagine if you get one from a really cheap and dubious brand that it may be worse than a WD Black.

well i bought the one i listed in my original post.
there's a few video's on youtube
doing a teardown and review showing speeds and that it has dram
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz9GpOWjYfg&t=1s

so i believe i'm covered

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Look at 240gb at the least.
Crucial, WD Blue, ADATA

there aren't any 240gb SSD's under $30 including shipping
they are about $40
and it's really just for boot, any larger games will be put onto a HDD.

[_I_]

its $10 more for twice the space, go for it