Is a FireCuda SSHD good for gaming?

[Corrosion]

So I'm on a gaming laptop that supports 2 SSD slots (I think the NVMe one is already this one, the other is probably SATA), and one 2.5 inch HDD.

The combination is, as of now: 250GB SSD (out of which 77 GB was already used up by Windows) + 1TB HDD (750 GB of this is used by my Steam Library...Literally have a string of ~70 GB games smh)

Needless to say I will, at some point upgrade. But I'm not sure what...

-SSDs are universally recommended, but I keep finding only 1TB ones (which sort of defeats the point, no? I would like 2TB) and are MUCH more expensive.

-HDDs for 2TB are cheaper and easier to find but everyone advises against them (why?)

Then I found this [www.amazon.in] SSHD which is sort of decent in price for me. But opinions are mixed online, despite it being marketed as for gaming. 2TB storage IS the sweet spot for me though lol.

Alternatively, someone suggested that I buy a 1TB SSD ( like this one [www.amazon.in]), use it in the slot and then transfer all my games into it.

Wouldn't this still always be a 1TB cap??? 2TB SSDs are hella expensive, ain't no way I can afford one anyway....as for fast boot-ups I already have that with the Windows-only SSD installed on my laptop.

What do you think I should do? I have bad internet so uninstalling a game is always a pain because I know I will spend 2 days installing it if it's like AC: Origins, which is 70 GB.

[SeriousCCIE]

I would avoid devices without the dram cache. They may be priced "budget" but seem to perform a bit worse than that.

[GURMAN]

жжж

[nullable]

引用自 Autumn_：

I'm prettt sure that WD Blue doesn't have a DRAM cache, you can get Crucial P1 for couple dollars more, and should perform better.

And I agree with your statement about drive config.

Doesn't matter, it'll still blow an HDD or SSHD out of the water in every user case. It may not perform as well as every other SSD out there, but you can say that about the P1 as well.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wd-blue-sn550-m2-nvme-ssd-review-best-dramless-ssd-yet/2

That being said, I'd have hangups buying a DRAMless SSD too because of the idea of DRAM being a benefit. But it doesn't look like the P1's DRAM makes it superior in practice. In fact it looks like the DRAM on the P1 doesn't make for automatic wins in a bunch of tests.

So in the "anything is better than an HDD/SSHD by miles category, for the cheapest price" category, the SN550 seems plenty serviceable to me. And my hangups about DRAMless may not be wholly rational.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

SN550 is widely considered one of the best low-budget NVME drives for gaming. It may not have DRAM but this doesnt really affect the gaming performance.
WD Blue`s previous generation was not the greatest but this one is pretty good.

[Autumn_]

引用自 Brockenstein：

引用自 Autumn_：

I'm prettt sure that WD Blue doesn't have a DRAM cache, you can get Crucial P1 for couple dollars more, and should perform better.

And I agree with your statement about drive config.

Doesn't matter, it'll still blow an HDD or SSHD out of the water in every user case. It may not perform as well as every other SSD out there, but you can say that about the P1 as well.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wd-blue-sn550-m2-nvme-ssd-review-best-dramless-ssd-yet/2

That being said, I'd have hangups buying a DRAMless SSD too because of the idea of DRAM being a benefit. But it doesn't look like the P1's DRAM makes it superior in practice. In fact it looks like the DRAM on the P1 doesn't make for automatic wins in a bunch of tests.

So in the "anything is better than an HDD/SSHD by miles category, for the cheapest price" category, the SN550 seems plenty serviceable to me. And my hangups about DRAMless may not be wholly rational.

Ignore my previous statement then, you appear to be correct, my bad.

The SN550 seems like a fine budget drive.

I guess I have the same woes about a DRAMless drive as you then, considering I instantly wrote this drive off.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Wouldnt DRAM versions help as the drive ages though?
Brand new thats one thing, but a few years old i would think would make a difference.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

引用自 ☥ - CJ -：

Wouldnt DRAM versions help as the drive ages though?
Brand new thats one thing, but a few years old i would think would make a difference.

Doesnt matter for SN550, it`s based on WD Black SN750 SSD controller design and is designed with static RAM that makes it handle write operations like it actually had DRAM.
Plus newly developed flash technology for better read performance.
Hence the 5 year warranty it has instead of 3 years like most SSDs without DRAM.

[UserNotFound]

I've heard some rumors about Seagate HDD/SSD's giving up the ghost recently, as to how true, can't say as I have Seagate and other drives die on me. As for OP's conundrum, best to go with whichever SSD (2.5" SATA, NVME M.2, NVME SATA) that suits his system.

Get a 2TB SSD if games are what you want to install, DRAMless SSD's should not be a problem for games and it'd make nary a difference. My main rig has a 256GB NVME M.2 Gen3 for OS, and 4TB Samsung 860 EVO + 2TB 860 QVO + 2x 1TB 860 EVO, and yet I feel they're not sufficient for the games I have on Steam, EGS, etc.

Keep the games you play more often on the fast drives, my fave games in my SSD's, and games you don't play quite that often in your HDDs. That's what I'd done, my fave or more often played games are installed in my SSDs, while games that I play occasionally are stored in a 6TB WD Black (partitioned into 2 partitions of equal size).

I play Metro Exodus quite often, and since I have it installed in two rigs, one's on SSD and the other on a regular WD Black, the game level load time difference between SSD and HDD is quite appreciable between the two.

[_I_]

its the drives produced around 2010 era with the taiwanese head sliders that would get stuck to the platters

very common on the 2.5in hgst and a few others