Is DRAMless SSD worth on boot + storage?

[Memes]

Want to upgrade to a 2TB NVMe SSD so my choices were the Lexar NM790, Solidigm P41 Plus, and WD SN770 and found these all have no DRAM and I read it was mixed that nowadays it just uses your PC Ram or dont get a DRAMless SSD cause read and write would be random but I want to make sure to get the most out of my SSD so what would be your guys recommendation under $100?

[Syad]

do you want a single ssd? then get something good there is no reason not to.
do you have space for 2 ssds? then get a small good OS ssd, and w/e for the data drive (ie NM790)

[Memes]

Originally posted by Syad:

do you want a single ssd? then get something good there is no reason not to.
do you have space for 2 ssds? then get a small good OS ssd, and w/e for the data drive (ie NM790)

got space for two ssd the maid one would be pcie 4.0 and the other would be pcie3.0

[r.linder]

They're fine but you may as well get better if you can afford it

[Memes]

Originally posted by 尺．し工几句ヨ尺:

They're fine but you may as well get better if you can afford it

but would dramless be alright for game storage?

[Syad]

Originally posted by Memes:

got space for two ssd the maid one would be pcie 4.0 and the other would be pcie3.0

Well, then get a samsung 256gb-1tb for the OS and the NM790 4tb. If it's just for playing games, it will suffice. If you absolutely do not want to go over the budget.. then the price difference between the NM790 2tb and a 2tb samsung isn't that high in absolute terms, so can just go for a samsung 2tb.

[Memes]

Originally posted by Syad:

Originally posted by Memes:

got space for two ssd the maid one would be pcie 4.0 and the other would be pcie3.0

Well, then get a samsung 256gb-1tb for the OS and the NM790 4tb. If it's just for playing games, it will suffice. If you absolutely do not want to go over the budget.. then the price difference between the NM790 2tb and a 2tb samsung isn't that high in absolute terms, so can just go for a samsung 2tb.

I have a ADATA SX8200 Pro 512GB SSD for main and boot but want to swap it out for a 2TB

[Lord Flashheart]

Originally posted by Memes:

Want to upgrade to a 2TB NVMe SSD so my choices were the Lexar NM790, Solidigm P41 Plus, and WD SN770 and found these all have no DRAM and I read it was mixed that nowadays it just uses your PC Ram or dont get a DRAMless SSD cause read and write would be random but I want to make sure to get the most out of my SSD so what would be your guys recommendation under $100?

The price of SSDs are falling in price as time goes on.
The downside is their longevity is becoming worse.
No DRAM is a longevity issue, compared to one with DRAM.
Also using TLC (3 bits/cell) and especially QLC (4 bits/cell).

The question to ask is how bad would a failure of the drive be.
If you have regular backups, would be an inconvenience.
If not, possibly a disaster.

Another option is RAID 1 OS & games, which would be 2x cost.
Maybe RAID 1 for OS & 1 drive for games, which could be downloaded again.

[Syad]

Originally posted by Memes:

I have a ADATA SX8200 Pro 512GB SSD for main and boot but want to swap it out for a 2TB

Well, then you are in the clear, provided you install it as a secondary drive. lack of dram doesn't affect sht but writing, which you aren't going to do much on a gaming drive. Personally i'd still go for the 4tb nm790, it has great value, or the 2tb samsung because the price difference is so small, but a 2tb dramless will do just fine.

2tb will fill up in an instant.

[r.linder]

Originally posted by Memes:

Originally posted by 尺．し工几句ヨ尺:

They're fine but you may as well get better if you can afford it

but would dramless be alright for game storage?

Yes

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by Memes:

Originally posted by 尺．し工几句ヨ尺:

They're fine but you may as well get better if you can afford it

but would dramless be alright for game storage?

Yes of course, cause once the games are on there, running them is just going to be a series of reads, not heavy writes.

[Agent]

As an OS drive? No, get DRAM to be on the safe side. DRAMless is fine until it isn't. I started getting hangs and stutters on my old NVMe drive that was DRAMless.

[Agent]

Originally posted by Syad:

Originally posted by Memes:

I have a ADATA SX8200 Pro 512GB SSD for main and boot but want to swap it out for a 2TB

Well, then you are in the clear, provided you install it as a secondary drive. lack of dram doesn't affect sht but writing, which you aren't going to do much on a gaming drive. Personally i'd still go for the 4tb nm790, it has great value, or the 2tb samsung because the price difference is so small, but a 2tb dramless will do just fine.

2tb will fill up in an instant.

If you're modding games you're actually going to be doing a lot of writes. Those 4k texture packs and asset replacements aren't small in size.

[Syad]

Originally posted by Stacked:

my old NVMe drive

More writes needs a better ssd, and dramless is a budget solution with corners cut everywhere, especially, god forbid, QLC, blaming reduced performance on dram is a case of correlation does not imply causation, although it is indeed a possible factor. Your ssd is probably very beat up, have you tried Secure Erasing it?

https://www.anandtech.com/show/2738/8

[Agent]

Originally posted by Syad:

Originally posted by Stacked:

my old NVMe drive

More writes needs a better ssd, and dramless is a budget solution with corners cut everywhere, especially, god forbid, QLC, blaming reduced performance on dram is a case of correlation does not imply causation, although it is indeed a possible factor. Your ssd is probably very beat up, have you tried Secure Erasing it?

Yes I've done an erase via the vendor software through bootable USB made 0 difference.

Opening tabs or opening any application the OS just hangs for a couple seconds before going back to normal

[pasa]

It's not like old days or SATA dramless stuff -- the SSD directly sitting on the PCI-E bus can use HMB, memory from the system for its needs. So functionality-wise there's little diff from that having its own dram. Just count for that memory pool be reserved, then the speed tests tell the rest of the story.

OTOH, few months ago my top candidate was a kingston 2T HMB drive for it had a significant price advantage. Then looking at the offers today, the price diff vs 970evoplus is trivial. Actually it's less than the projected cost of 2G system ram. So I'm going with that instead. Unless there's another big shift coming.