The cheap SSDs thread

[Replay]

NAND shortages will continue into next year, according to the trade press. Not a fire or a flood this time, but high demand, and to some extent, the planar to 3D NAND transition.

 

[you2]

google and facebook fault.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ebay item # 301992984874

SK hynix SL308 2.5" 500GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) HFS500G3
Orders above per customer quantity limit will be voided

$109.99 FS

Newegg on ebay

I haven't read much about these SK Hynix SSDs. Seeing as how SK Hynix makes their own NAND, these SSDs might be comparable to Samsung, in terms of how they are priced. I don't know what controller they use either, whether it's their own, or if they're using a third-party. I don't know how vertically-integrated SK Hynix's SSD biz is yet.

 

[NeonFlak]

Ebay item # 301992984874

SK hynix SL308 2.5" 500GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) HFS500G3
Orders above per customer quantity limit will be voided

$109.99 FS

Newegg on ebay

I haven't read much about these SK Hynix SSDs. Seeing as how SK Hynix makes their own NAND, these SSDs might be comparable to Samsung, in terms of how they are priced. I don't know what controller they use either, whether it's their own, or if they're using a third-party. I don't know how vertically-integrated SK Hynix's SSD biz is yet.

It apparently uses an "in-house" controller from the company they purchased, Link A Media Devices (LAMD), Controller SK hynix SH87820BB.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It apparently uses an "in-house" controller from the company they purchased, Link A Media Devices (LAMD), Controller SK hynix SH87820BB.

Other than power-consumption, those LAMD controllers got good reviews in the Seagate 600 series drives.

These Hynix SSDs could be ones to watch.

 

[Matthew Drodge]

Thanks for the input. That doesn't sound so good. Hopefully, the ones I ordered won't die in 90 days. But, given that they're cheap Chinese ... "crap" (?), then they might indeed be crap.

Edit: Then again, I've had a cutting-edge, made from a US company, SSD die in a month too. So it can happen to any SSD.

Got 2 Hectron 500gb 's about 90 days ago and 1 is dead already.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Sorry to hear that. They do have a factory warranty, but I think that you have to send them back to HK or China.
(Go to hectron.us , I think.)

 

[cbn]

MydigitalSSD BPX M.2 2280:

https://www.amazon.com/MyDigitalSSD...2381&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=MyDigitalSSD+BPX

$69.99 120 GB
$114.99 240 GB
$199.99 480 GB

This PCIe 3.0 x 4 NVMe drive has the Phison E7 controller and 15nm MLC NAND. Review below:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mydigitalssd-bpx-nvme-ssd,4780.html

From the conclusion of the above article:

The MyDigitalSSD BPX SSD is the current entry-level NVMe SSD market leader. It matches the Intel 600p's pricing while delivering nearly the same performance as the higher-priced Patriot Hellfire M.2. The gap between the two Phison E7 products closes in the smaller 256GB-class capacity, but the real story is how close all of the MLC-based 256GB class drives are regardless of price. We found more performance variation in the larger 512GB-class products, but the MyDigitalSSD, with its aggressive pricing, still delivered more performance-per-dollar than any other product in our test pool.

MyDigitalSSD could have easily released this series with a two- or three-year warranty without remorse. Instead, the company chose to show confidence in the product and went with a premium 5-year warranty that rivals the best products on the market. The drive is not limited by a restrictive endurance rating, either; the 480GB model we tested sports a massive 1.4 PB (1,400 TB) endurance rating. That is 200 terabytes more than the premium Samsung 960 Pro 2TB NVMe SSD we just tested!

They did, however, make the following note regarding usage in laptops:

On the performance side, the MyDigitalSSD BPX is not the drive of choice for a notebook replacement. The drive runs cool and doesn't have any real-world thermal throttling issues, but the Phison E7 controller delivers less than desirable results on battery power in our Lenovo Y700-17. Phison doesn't see the same results while testing with Acer notebooks, and the company plans to debug on an identical Lenovo system to investigate the issue. If Phison and MyDigitalSSD can fix the notebook power issues we've seen, and keep a steady supply for shoppers, this drive may be the best overall NVMe SSD for consumers. It may even cut deep into Samsung's 960 EVO sales.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Newegg's ebay store has some deals right now.
Hyundai 120GB TLC $39.99
Adata SU800 128GB 3D-TLC $42.99
Adata SU800 256GB 3D-TLC $59.99
Crucial MX300 275GB 3D-TLC $59.99 (see price at checkout)
Crucial MX300 525GB 3D-TLC $104.99 (see price at checkout)

The last two seem like a Genuine deal. Wonder if they are phasing them out (they only have mid-range performance), or if something else is going on? Maybe just Newegg matching their own site's "Black November" pricing?

 

[Macgyversite]

So you are saying the Crucial is a better deal performance wise compared to the Adata?

 

[VirtualLarry]

So you are saying the Crucial is a better deal performance wise compared to the Adata?

Not, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that their regular price (on the Crucials) is normally a bit higher. Therefore they are a deal. But they only have mid-range performance, compared to something like a Samsung EVO 850.

 

[Mike64]

I don't know how it compares to earlier pricing for this drive, but the PNY - CS1311 480GB for $105 as a Best Buy "Deal of the Day" seems worth mentioning...

 

[daveybrat]

I don't know how it compares to earlier pricing for this drive, but the PNY - CS1311 480GB for $105 as a Best Buy "Deal of the Day" seems worth mentioning...

Thanks Mike, looks like Amazon matched the price as well:

https://www.amazon.com/PNY-CS1311-4...UTF8&qid=1479210093&sr=8-6&keywords=480gb+ssd

 

[lupi]

Cruicial 275@60, 525@105.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IAGSD68/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mmochamp-20&th=1

 

[alaricljs]

Cruicial 275@60, 525@105.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IAGSD68/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mmochamp-20&th=1

This may end soon, the Newegg ebay deal is over (for now?)

 

[mindless1]

These are now back in stock.

Edit: Sale at NeweggFlash is now over. If anyone got in on this sale, and bought the TLC S55 model drive, I would be interested in your comments.

I bought this from Amazon 2-3 months ago, not 'egg, but it is the TLC S55 model. It has a plastic casing, ~2/5ths length circuit board (which BTW allowed me to put one in an old IDE laptop with an adapter, a laptop that was in mint condition to use for various specific tasks, not everyday use laptop purposes. The adapter was this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191344715284

It was pleasantly surprising how much it made an ancient laptop feel as fast as a new budget model for light use.

Anyway, mine has a Marvell 88NV1120 DRAM-less controller, and 4 flash chips of whatever they are, lol I was too lazy to try to find out, but here is a higher resolution pic of the internals:

I can't give you a good estimate of the performance because I have only two scenarios, one on an IDE adapter which obviously adds overhead and less than 133MB/s peak, and one on a Marvel chipset based PCIe SATA3 controller that is known to be a bottleneck. I consider it a good value upgrade for SATA2 or 1 based systems *at the right price*, not for native SATA3 running off a good chipset SATA controller.

I wouldn't have one for the boot/OS drive in a main use system, but for the right price (when on sale) it works for me.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Thanks for the pics and info!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hey, Intel 600p M.2 PCI-E NVMe SSDs on sale at Newegg on ebay.
256GB for $79.99
512GB for $132.99 (I think, don't have the page in front of me)
and 1TB for $300 and some change.

I guess the 512GB is the best price/GB deal.

These are 3D TLC, and PCI-E 3.0 x4, but they really don't perform all that much better than a Samsung 850 EVO in the real-world. But at least, now they're priced similar to Crucial MX300 SATA6G 2.5" SSDs, which are also 3D TLC.

 

[pbroussard]

Crucial MX300 275GB M.2 $66.50
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IAGSDJ0

 

[Martinlover]

Samsung 850 EVO 500GB, a low as $160 and change.

Dunno if this qualifies, but I just found it on Jet:

https://jet.com/product/Samsung-850-EVO-MZ75E500BAM-500GB/040abd0bf53447efbc486c38fd287b55

I have two of these and they just keep on giving. $160 if paid with a debit card seems a nice price.

 

[Zim]

Samsung 850 EVO 500GB, a low as $160 and change.

Dunno if this qualifies, but I just found it on Jet:

https://jet.com/product/Samsung-850-EVO-MZ75E500BAM-500GB/040abd0bf53447efbc486c38fd287b55

I have two of these and they just keep on giving. $160 if paid with a debit card seems a nice price.

It doesn't qualify as a hot deal since it's the same price everywhere else... and to be honest, I'd be looking for the pro version at this price. $80/250GB is about $10-20 above the norm.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The 850 EVO 500GB has been as low as $135 in the past. So no, that's not a hot deal, historically speaking. It's warm though. (They've been as high as $180 or maybe $200 at introduction.)

 

[pbroussard]

I'm sure some of you are in the same boat as me, have TB's of data on mechanical hdds, and have always kept older files there, with a 240GB ssd as OS drive. With windows 10, there's an option to set storage location for apps, music, pictures, documents etc. You'd need a 2nd drive in your laptop or computer, as it doesn't seem to work with mapped drives. Here's a nice writeup about it- http://www.windowscentral.com/how-manage-file-storage-windows-10

 

[VirtualLarry]

Crucial MX300 2TB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive - CT2050MX300SSD1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820156149&ignorebbr=1

$498.00 FS @ Newegg

Ok, so maybe not SO cheap, but it is pretty humongous for an SSD. Without much of a premium over the 1TB, in terms of price/GB.

 

[you2]

MX300 2TB has been running around $500 for the past week or two. Amazon also has it for that price; alas it is not quite as good as the 850 EVO; I'm waiting for cyber monday to see if there are any real deals on 2TB drives.