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expired Posted by doboy007 • Jun 29, 2022
expired Posted by doboy007 • Jun 29, 2022

512GB Teamgroup AX2 3D NAND 2.5" SATA Internal Solid State Drive

+ Free Shipping

$37

$60

38% off
Amazon
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Deal Details
TEAMGROUP Inc. via Amazon has 512GB Teamgroup AX2 3D NAND 2.5" SATA Internal Solid State Drive (T253A3512G0C101) on sale for $36.99. Shipping is free.

Thanks to Community Member doboy007 for posting this deal.
  • Note: Must be sold by TEAMGROUP Inc and fulfilled by Amazon
Specs/Key features:
  • Read/write speed up to 540/490 MB/s
  • SATA III 6Gb/s transfer interface
  • Garbage collection, wear-leveling technology, ECC, S.M.A.R.T., and TRIM functions
  • DRAMless
  • 3-Year Warranty

Editor's Notes

Written by SaltyOne | Staff
  • About this deal:
  • About this store:
  • Refer to the forum thread for additional deal discussion.

Original Post

Written by doboy007
Product Info
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Product Info
Community Notes
About the Poster
TEAMGROUP Inc. via Amazon has 512GB Teamgroup AX2 3D NAND 2.5" SATA Internal Solid State Drive (T253A3512G0C101) on sale for $36.99. Shipping is free.

Thanks to Community Member doboy007 for posting this deal.
  • Note: Must be sold by TEAMGROUP Inc and fulfilled by Amazon
Specs/Key features:
  • Read/write speed up to 540/490 MB/s
  • SATA III 6Gb/s transfer interface
  • Garbage collection, wear-leveling technology, ECC, S.M.A.R.T., and TRIM functions
  • DRAMless
  • 3-Year Warranty

Editor's Notes

Written by SaltyOne | Staff
  • About this deal:
  • About this store:
  • Refer to the forum thread for additional deal discussion.

Original Post

Written by doboy007

Community Voting

Deal Score
+39
Good Deal
Visit Amazon

Price Intelligence

Model: TEAMGROUP AX2 512GB 3D NAND TLC 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal Solid State Drive SSD (Read Speed up to 540 MB/s) Compatible with Laptop & PC Desktop T253A3512G0C101

Deal History 

Sort: Most Recent
Post Date Sold By Sale Price Activity
07/09/24Amazon$29 frontpage
37
05/04/23Amazon$35 frontpage
47
05/03/23Amazon$20 frontpage
55
11/30/22Amazon$24
3
10/19/22Amazon$29
5
06/06/22Amazon$37 frontpage
50
11/01/21Amazon$40 frontpage
33
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Current Prices

Sort: Lowest to Highest | Last Updated 7/1/2025, 11:41 PM
Sold By Sale Price
Amazon$30.99

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Top Comments

jrb531
2133 Posts
458 Reputation
There has been alot of talk about Dram, SLC and dramless. If you already know what this means then skip this or add to anything I might have messed up on.

SSD's originally came out in SLC form which means each cell had it's own controller and you could write 1 byte at a time and it would just write to that cell. The problem is that this makes the SSD VERY expensive because every single cell needed a controller. Later came MLC then TLC now we have QLC.

SLC = 1 cell, 1 controller
MLC = 2 cells, 1 controller
TLC = 3 cells, 1 controller
QLC = 4 cells, 1 controler

(BTW What I am calling the controller basically is the read/write circuit so if you had to write 1 byte of data with SLC you only wrote the one byte. With QLC you have to write all four cells at the same time. This takes a longer time and slows down the writes and also makes the SSD wear a bit faster as you are sometimes writing data that did not need to be written to.)

So to speed up the writes once MLC/TLC/QLC hit, they started adding RAM to act as a buffer to speed up the writes. This cost more money but could really help make an SSD faster as long as what you were writing fit in the buffer.

So in the quest to get cheap and knowing that most people do not know or care about buffers or MLC or QLC, they started coming out with really cheap TLC and QLC SSD's that had no buffers and used cheaper and older controller tech. They were still faster than traditional hard drives and so what if they crapped out in 2-3 years instead of 5-8 years?

The reason I am writing all of this is that DRAM less SSD's are fine for data storage. Reading from an SSD is free... IE reads to not wear out an SSD, only writes do. So putting a game on a cheap SSD might be a bit slower but it will not normally wear out an SSD for most types of games.

The issue is using a cheap DRAMless SSD as a boot drive. NEVER NEVER do this!

Your boot drive is constantly writing small amounts of data to the drive and the DRAM will buffer this and then write to the drive in larger chunks and not constantly. Now I know many of you will say that you have been using a cheap DRAMless SSD as a boot for years but let me ask you this question....

Is the $20 you save really worth the risk on using one of these as your boot drive? Here are the technical details if you want to read up on it.

https://www.mydigitaldiscount.com...flash.html

P.S. There is a third type of SSD you will read about and this is the DRAMless SLD drive. Basically they stick a small amount of fast SLC on a SSD without DRAM and while this is better than having nothing, you really do not save much IMHO
pelo
1418 Posts
285 Reputation
This a DRAMless disk. Not knocking on the deal, but putting it into perspective. Price wise, dram-less disks go lower than disks with RAM.
nicessgg
139 Posts
26 Reputation
I just care more whether it is reliable, I do not want to lost my data just because I picked a discount disk.

63 Comments

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Jun 29, 2022
1,418 Posts
Joined Jul 2011
Jun 29, 2022
pelo
Jun 29, 2022
1,418 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank pelo

This a DRAMless disk. Not knocking on the deal, but putting it into perspective. Price wise, dram-less disks go lower than disks with RAM.
1
1
Original Poster
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Jun 29, 2022
9,343 Posts
Joined Dec 2013
Jun 29, 2022
doboy007
Original Poster
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Jun 29, 2022
9,343 Posts
Quote from pelo :
This a DRAMless disk. Not knocking on the deal, but putting it into perspective. Price wise, dram-less disks go lower than disks with RAM.
I think you're asking too much at this price point if you're disappointed that it's DRAMless. It's a bargain basement SSD.
4
Jun 29, 2022
139 Posts
Joined Jul 2012
Jun 29, 2022
nicessgg
Jun 29, 2022
139 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank nicessgg

I just care more whether it is reliable, I do not want to lost my data just because I picked a discount disk.
1
1
Jun 29, 2022
6,208 Posts
Joined Nov 2012
Jun 29, 2022
R3DTR1X
Jun 29, 2022
6,208 Posts
Good deal for raspberry pi. Much faster than SD card
Original Poster
Pro
Jun 29, 2022
9,343 Posts
Joined Dec 2013
Jun 29, 2022
doboy007
Original Poster
Pro
Jun 29, 2022
9,343 Posts
Quote from nicessgg :
I just care more whether it is reliable, I do not want to lost my data just because I picked a discount disk.
Personally wouldn't trust this for critical data. It's more for a backup to a backup Smilie
4
Jun 29, 2022
70 Posts
Joined Jan 2015
Jun 29, 2022
aznguitarfrik
Jun 29, 2022
70 Posts
Can i use this to upgrade ps4 hard drive?
1
Jun 29, 2022
200 Posts
Joined Aug 2009
Jun 29, 2022
vietn95
Jun 29, 2022
200 Posts
YMMV but I bought this the last time it went on sale, the drive failed in less than a week. Returned it and paid a couple more bucks for the micro center brand one.

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Original Poster
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Jun 29, 2022
9,343 Posts
Joined Dec 2013
Jun 29, 2022
doboy007
Original Poster
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Jun 29, 2022
9,343 Posts
Quote from vietn95 :
YMMV but I bought this the last time it went on sale, the drive failed in less than a week. Returned it and paid a couple more bucks for the micro center brand one.
I guess you "lucked out" that it failed during return period laugh out loud
2
Jun 29, 2022
2,133 Posts
Joined Jun 2004
Jun 29, 2022
jrb531
Jun 29, 2022
2,133 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank jrb531

There has been alot of talk about Dram, SLC and dramless. If you already know what this means then skip this or add to anything I might have messed up on.

SSD's originally came out in SLC form which means each cell had it's own controller and you could write 1 byte at a time and it would just write to that cell. The problem is that this makes the SSD VERY expensive because every single cell needed a controller. Later came MLC then TLC now we have QLC.

SLC = 1 cell, 1 controller
MLC = 2 cells, 1 controller
TLC = 3 cells, 1 controller
QLC = 4 cells, 1 controler

(BTW What I am calling the controller basically is the read/write circuit so if you had to write 1 byte of data with SLC you only wrote the one byte. With QLC you have to write all four cells at the same time. This takes a longer time and slows down the writes and also makes the SSD wear a bit faster as you are sometimes writing data that did not need to be written to.)

So to speed up the writes once MLC/TLC/QLC hit, they started adding RAM to act as a buffer to speed up the writes. This cost more money but could really help make an SSD faster as long as what you were writing fit in the buffer.

So in the quest to get cheap and knowing that most people do not know or care about buffers or MLC or QLC, they started coming out with really cheap TLC and QLC SSD's that had no buffers and used cheaper and older controller tech. They were still faster than traditional hard drives and so what if they crapped out in 2-3 years instead of 5-8 years?

The reason I am writing all of this is that DRAM less SSD's are fine for data storage. Reading from an SSD is free... IE reads to not wear out an SSD, only writes do. So putting a game on a cheap SSD might be a bit slower but it will not normally wear out an SSD for most types of games.

The issue is using a cheap DRAMless SSD as a boot drive. NEVER NEVER do this!

Your boot drive is constantly writing small amounts of data to the drive and the DRAM will buffer this and then write to the drive in larger chunks and not constantly. Now I know many of you will say that you have been using a cheap DRAMless SSD as a boot for years but let me ask you this question....

Is the $20 you save really worth the risk on using one of these as your boot drive? Here are the technical details if you want to read up on it.

https://www.mydigitaldiscount.com...flash.html

P.S. There is a third type of SSD you will read about and this is the DRAMless SLD drive. Basically they stick a small amount of fast SLC on a SSD without DRAM and while this is better than having nothing, you really do not save much IMHO
Last edited by jrb531 June 29, 2022 at 02:00 PM.
13
2
Original Poster
Pro
Jun 29, 2022
9,343 Posts
Joined Dec 2013
Jun 29, 2022
doboy007
Original Poster
Pro
Jun 29, 2022
9,343 Posts
Quote from jrb531 :
There has been alot of talk about Dram, SLC and dramless. If you already know what this means then skip this or add to anything I might have messed up on.
Nice write up. Thanks
1
Jun 29, 2022
412 Posts
Joined Dec 2021
Jun 29, 2022
momgoes2college
Jun 29, 2022
412 Posts
Is the plain Vulcan series the only one Team group has with dram? Looks like they only have other slc cache models on Amazon.
Jun 29, 2022
2,179 Posts
Joined Nov 2014
Jun 29, 2022
TurtlePerson2
Jun 29, 2022
2,179 Posts
Quote from doboy007 :
Personally wouldn't trust this for critical data. It's more for a backup to a backup Smilie
I wouldn't trust any drive for "critical data." Back up your stuff off your computer if you care about not losing it.
Jun 30, 2022
5,190 Posts
Joined Jul 2017
Jun 30, 2022
Luigis3rdcousin
Jun 30, 2022
5,190 Posts
It also should be mentioned, some companies do some clever things with their controllers that the Dram doesn't matter. Look at crucial BX series for example. It's still a far better drive than a Kingston ssd which is also dramless. But Kingston and crucial are gonna be reliable. Where as other groups like team group, inland, pny, sandisk etc, they have to cut corners. It's pretty easy to see how easy and quickly they run out of steam.

You can use crystal disk info and run the random read write test. But increase it to 5-10gb. And watch the read writes plummet.

Another test that can be done to test the possible speed, reliability and durability of an ssd is to download a very large file, a video file that's 5-10gb, maybe make one yourself with a video editing program or upload it from your iPhone. Transfer and copy it from one folder to another. And at some point, especially the cheaper drives, watch the read writes go from 400+ down to 40-80mbps and even slower.

One thing that I will say, I have tested this on various drives and I observed inland, pny, sandisk and Kingston come to a crawl on this test. The crucial BX series did not come to a crawl. It kept up with the MX series almost as long. I haven't tested any Samsung drives or their QVO but I think there's a reason why they have a good reputation in the industry so we don't have to question them
2
Jun 30, 2022
2,133 Posts
Joined Jun 2004
Jun 30, 2022
jrb531
Jun 30, 2022
2,133 Posts
Im a huge fan of the mx500's

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Original Poster
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Jun 30, 2022
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Joined Dec 2013
Jun 30, 2022
doboy007
Original Poster
Pro
Jun 30, 2022
9,343 Posts
Quote from jrb531 :
Im a huge fan of the mx500's
Personally own one 1 TB and looking to pickup a 4 TB.

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