SSD 860 EVO/PRO

[bononos]

Is the 860 EVO/PRO still the ssd to beat for price/value? I'm thinking of getting the PRO for better longevity but the EVO has about double the space for the same price.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Pretty much. The MX500 is also very decent, so much they're practically interchangeable. Both are essentially maxing out the SATA interface. If cost is the primary concern, the BX500 is worth a look. But it does come with caveats.

About the only thing the PRO has going for it is it's absolutely massive endurance. So unless you're doing a ton of writes, get the EVO. Even then, burning through that 600TBW (1TB model) is going to take a while. You'd have to write almost a full TB a day for endurance to be a problem, and then it'd still last almost 1.5 years. I can't think of any consumer workload coming remotely close to doing that.

 

[gipper53]

The Pro is still the best SATA drive on the market, but its advantages are not worth the VERY hefty price premium for practically all use cases. If you need performance, it costs as much or more than many very good NVMe drives that are an order of magnitude faster. As for endurance....unless you have a workload that is writing like 100+GB every day to the drive, the chance of wearing out any 500 GB or larger SSD during its useful lifetime are slim. You'll likely upgrade it for capacity or performance reasons long before it's worn out.

Right now the advice on SATA drives is pick whichever of the following models you find the best deal on. They are all comparable in real world performance:

860 EVO
Crucial MX500
WD Blue 3D / Sandisk 3D Ultra (same drive)

 

[bononos]

You're right about the Pro being overpriced next to NVME. I'm not too invested in the high TBW rating (especially after what was said in another thread about how TBW doesn't mean a whole lot because there is no real standard for it) as much as being afraid of speed degradation of tlc drives (non-3d tlc). And I'm not happy with the tlc drives that I got, they can get real slow at times.

 

[Chikara]

3D TLC is slightly more durable but somewhat cheaper than 2D MLC. So, if you care about durability and price, 3D TLC should be the choice.