Internal SSD recommendations?

[Richard I]

I have an ASUS TUF Gaming Laptop with a 256GB SSD. Looking to upgrade to a 1TB at least. Wasn't sure if there were certain brands/models that are higher quality. Also not sure what the difference in quality could be. I'm looking at the 870 QVO SATA III 1TB Samsung SSD. Not sure what much of that means but I saw samsung SSD's are highly regarded.

[UserNotFound]

My laptop came with a pretty decent 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD, but it isn't enough, plus I'm somewhat OCD about keeping games separate from OS drive. So, I'd gotten a totally crap 2TB SSD in the WD Green, it was on sale and cheap (or rather, cheaper than most).

It has totally bad TDW but for my usage scenario, it's just fine as I'd be installing games in it, and these games would more or less be permanently installed in it. So, no constant writes and rewrites which can shorten the 'lifespan' of an SSD.

There may be some who'd say avoid the QVO SSDs from Samsung, but I find nothing wrong with them. I have a2TB Samsung QVO SATA SSD in my main rig, and it's doing a bang up job is all I can say.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Crucial MX500

[Overseer]

The QVO are good drives for storage but their flash memory is slow when writing data and don't last as long. So once the X GB of cache are full you will be facing your lower investment.
I think up to 2 TB models the QVO aren't really worth it compared to the 870 Evo but you have to check your local prices.

[Illusion of Progress]

For SATA, either the Western Digital Blue, Crucial MX500, or one of the Samsung 8x0 Evo (Not QVO) are all pretty much among your top common choices, and you really won't notice a difference between either of them for the most part, so I'd choose whichever is cheaper or you have a brand preference for.

The QVO drives are more intended as mass storage, as they tend to be cheaper and a bit slower/lower on longevity. That said, there's nothing necessarily wrong with using one as a main drive if you already have it or don't mind those things, but the aforementioned examples would be better choices for that.

[Guydodge]

i wouldnt upgrade per say i would do a clean install of windows on the 256gb you have
and install a second ssd for game storage.crucial mx500 (as i see mentioned above is
a very reliable mid priced ssd ive have one for years now) its the ideal setup.

[mtono]

Originally posted by Farmer Ted's:

I have an ASUS TUF Gaming Laptop with a 256GB SSD. Looking to upgrade to a 1TB at least. Wasn't sure if there were certain brands/models that are higher quality. Also not sure what the difference in quality could be. I'm looking at the 870 QVO SATA III 1TB Samsung SSD. Not sure what much of that means but I saw samsung SSD's are highly regarded.

i decided for my own, not to believe the hype, but i want best ssd. in my case i made the decision for intenso ssd and i also have sandisk ssd. no problems since years. i just dont get what they mean with their prophecies of when my ssd is totally destroyed. i dont care anymore and data backup is more important to me. if you need the fastest one, you can read which one it is in reviews.
my2ct

[Hugh J nuss]

I use an evo and a qvo and cannot tell the difference between the two other than transferring large files. After 40gb or so, the qvo slows down, but is still far faster than an HDD. I would recommend the evo, but if you can only afford or find the qvo, you will notice no difference in games

[UserNotFound]

I have a 4TB EVO, and a 2TB QVO, I use them to store my games, more or less permanently (games I don't play as often go into my 6TB WD Black HDD). Honestly don't notice any difference between them in terms of performance.

[AmaiAmai]

I use cheap SSDs and haven't had any issue with them. Been using the same drives since 2012 (oh no!) and 2016, and they are still going strong despite being "off brand."

Just so you know, partitioning scheme and operating system choices will matter much more than the "specs" listed on the drive. The workload will also matter, even down to the programming language the program you are using is written in.

If you have millions of small files, for instance, and you use a program to copy them, it's possible there will be no real difference in speed to justify cost because you will be I/O bound anyway.

Other scenario, if your board already has a drive or shares the controller with another drive, the maximum speed will be limited by the controller's output -- another I/O bound case.

Other other scenario, if you are moving multiple files on multiple disks connected in multiple ways, the operating system you use (Windows) will slow the disk down anyway.

Since my drives are always full of small files and set to use smaller blocks, it isn't worth it to care about brand.

eDIT: Not exactly the same, but here is an example on the "speed" protocols difference on performance...note the negative performance in some cases --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YoRKQy-UO4

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Why SATA?
Your Laptop should have 2 or 3.M2 slots inside

Loading stiff won't matter much here, everything will be fast as long as using any sdd over a hdd.

Nvme isn't even really faster unless you do tons of writes that would normally take longer on slower drives. Games won't be any faster. However the OS will be extremely fluid.

I'd even go as far, if budget allows, to also replace the original ssd with a good 1TB, as smaller ssds are slower as well.

Look at 980 PRO or 970 EVO. Or perhaps something from WD or Sabrent

[Agent]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Why SATA?
Your Laptop should have 2 or 3.M2 slots inside

Loading stiff won't matter much here, everything will be fast as long as using any sdd over a hdd.

Nvme isn't even really faster unless you do tons of writes that would normally take longer on slower drives. Games won't be any faster. However the OS will be extremely fluid.

I'd even go as far, if budget allows, to also replace the original ssd with a good 1TB, as smaller ssds are slower as well.

Look at 980 PRO or 970 EVO. Or perhaps something from WD or Sabrent

I don't think the pro's or evo's are 100% necessary. If it's purely for gaming a standard 980 will do just as well. Samsung's HMB does a good enough job without the premium cost that comes with DRAM.

[Electric Cupcake]

Samdung is crap. I favor Silicon Power's storage.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

If you use any dram-less ssd, you're most likely going to run out of ram trying to load or run large things off of it unless you have around 32GB or more of system ram.

EVO isn't something expensive. The EVO models go for what cheap crap brands sell their entry levels for; for the most part. But yes a 870 QVO would be fine also. If using as a secondary games drive then I'd suggest a 2TB.

In any PC with M2 slots; you usually have M2 slots that accept specific SSD types. Not all of them are necessarily going to support NVME. So check the online pdf manual for your specific laptop model to be sure.

[Agent]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

If you use any dram-less ssd, you're most likely going to run out of ram trying to load or run large things off of it unless you have around 32GB or more of system ram.

EVO isn't something expensive. The EVO models go for what cheap crap brands sell their entry levels for; for the most part. But yes a 870 QVO would be fine also. If using as a secondary games drive then I'd suggest a 2TB.

In any PC with M2 slots; you usually have M2 slots that accept specific SSD types. Not all of them are necessarily going to support NVME. So check the online pdf manual for your specific laptop model to be sure.

I suppose in my case it has been fine because I do run 32GB.

[Overseer]

The Samsung Pro are definitely overkill. For that additional TBW you have to go much deeper into your pockets. Pro makes sense for video editing or other write-heavy endeavours. Not for gaming.