2TB WD Black SN770 Gen4 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive

Choaf

Feb 3, 2023 5:42 PM

820 Comments

Joined May 2011

ChoafFeb 3, 2023 5:42 PM

820 Comments

Quote from xcopy

:

Decent price, but NO DRAM. I think/hope better drives will be this price soon... Would love to see a 4TB under $200, but won't happen.... yet/soon....

i think that might be a good ways away. i mean i hope im wrong but i can see them keep the 4tb over the 200 price for a while

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1

karekiu

Feb 3, 2023 5:46 PM

154 Comments

Joined Jul 2008

karekiuFeb 3, 2023 5:46 PM

154 Comments

I need an additional drive to mostly store and play games from steam etc. is this a good for that or should I getting something else

4

1

DonkeyFinest

Feb 3, 2023 7:45 PM

3.8K Comments

Joined Dec 2017

DonkeyFinestFeb 3, 2023 7:45 PM

3.8K Comments

Get 2 of these Crucial MX500 w DRAM and use 1 for boot and 2 for storage
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX...74469&th=1

OR

get Samsungs 2tb for 149.XX. Samsung has the MOST Tbw (terabytes written- longevity)
https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-In...e904010ad0

level 1
hojnikb
· 4 yr. ago · edited 4 yr. ago
Dramless SSDs are just fine for the intended purpose. Having no DRAM means less complex pcb, smaller/simpler flash controller, lower power draw (especially in idle) and overall lower cost (most noticebly on smaller capacities).
Obviously having no dram kills some performance (random writes especially) and consistency, so where performance is critical, you're not gonna use such a drive.
As for durability/endurance of such drive; it highly depends on the workload. Having no dram does not inherently mean less endurance (dram is only meant for mapping tables, not for write caching or something similar) so mapping tables on the actual flash have to be updated regularly anyway, regardless if drive has dram or not. If drive has lots of random write workload, having dram does speed up things and some flash translation layer updates can be cached to the dram and flushed back to flash at a delay (less updates to the actual flash).
Less endurance for dramless drives get thrown around a lot, but the bigger factor here is not the lack of dram itself, but just the fact, that such drives are usually lower cost, which means lower bins of flash are used and simpler controllers don't do as good of a job with ECC. This results in lower rated endurance.
Honestly, if implemented correctly, dramless drives are prefectly fine and shouldn't be disregarded.

Last edited by DonkeyFinest February 3, 2023 at 11:50 AM.

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FairNest1755

Feb 3, 2023 8:25 PM

1K Comments

Joined Sep 2019

FairNest1755Feb 3, 2023 8:25 PM

1K Comments

Quote from DonkeyFinest

:

Get 2 of these Crucial MX500 w DRAM and use 1 for boot and 2 for storage
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX...74469&th=1

OR

get Samsungs 2tb for 149.XX. Samsung has the MOST Tbw (terabytes written- longevity)
https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-In...e904010ad0

level 1
hojnikb
· 4 yr. ago · edited 4 yr. ago
Dramless SSDs are just fine for the intended purpose. Having no DRAM means less complex pcb, smaller/simpler flash controller, lower power draw (especially in idle) and overall lower cost (most noticebly on smaller capacities).
Obviously having no dram kills some performance (random writes especially) and consistency, so where performance is critical, you're not gonna use such a drive.
As for durability/endurance of such drive; it highly depends on the workload. Having no dram does not inherently mean less endurance (dram is only meant for mapping tables, not for write caching or something similar) so mapping tables on the actual flash have to be updated regularly anyway, regardless if drive has dram or not. If drive has lots of random write workload, having dram does speed up things and some flash translation layer updates can be cached to the dram and flushed back to flash at a delay (less updates to the actual flash).
Less endurance for dramless drives get thrown around a lot, but the bigger factor here is not the lack of dram itself, but just the fact, that such drives are usually lower cost, which means lower bins of flash are used and simpler controllers don't do as good of a job with ECC. This results in lower rated endurance.
Honestly, if implemented correctly, dramless drives are prefectly fine and shouldn't be disregarded.

I'm waiting for the 2 tb SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD drives to come down to about $100. I don't think I'll need D-ram cuz I'll be using it for file storage on 2nd drive slot in my laptop. The 1st drive slot will definitely have D-ram. I don't mind spending $20 bucks more for more price of mind of endurance.

4

dplane

Feb 3, 2023 9:15 PM

4K Comments

Joined Oct 2007

dplaneFeb 3, 2023 9:15 PM

4K Comments

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

The whole "no DRAM!" thing has gotten very played out. Most people won't need it/notice the difference. Many of the most popular and well rated drives don't have it. Same with the ubiquitous TBW ratings comments. Plenty of studies have shown even 600 TBW is plenty as a baseline and most people will never even hit that. The same studies have shown the majority of drives however well exceed their rated TBW multi fold.

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DonkeyFinest

Feb 3, 2023 9:15 PM

3.8K Comments

Joined Dec 2017

DonkeyFinestFeb 3, 2023 9:15 PM

3.8K Comments

Quote from FairNest1755

:

I'm waiting for the 2 tb SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD drives to come down to about $100. I don't think I'll need D-ram cuz I'll be using it for file storage on 2nd drive slot in my laptop. The 1st drive slot will definitely have D-ram. I don't mind spending $20 bucks more for more price of mind of endurance.

Sounds good. According to the news these ssd and memory ram prices are going to be lower and lower. You can already see that.

clsA

Feb 3, 2023 9:34 PM

1.8K Comments

Joined Oct 2006

clsAFeb 3, 2023 9:34 PM

1.8K Comments

I'm not saying these drives are not good
but the SN850 and SN850X are much better

3

1

mattymsu25

Feb 3, 2023 9:38 PM

1.2K Comments

Joined Nov 2020

mattymsu25Feb 3, 2023 9:38 PM

1.2K Comments

Quote from clsA

:

I'm not saying these drives are not good
but the SN850 and SN850X are much better

I got the 850x 2TB for an extra $27 at MC. Worth it.

1

JakeW3302

Feb 3, 2023 10:24 PM

2.3K Comments

Joined Feb 2019

JakeW3302Feb 3, 2023 10:24 PM

2.3K Comments

Quote from xcopy

:

Decent price, but NO DRAM. I think/hope better drives will be this price soon... Would love to see a 4TB under $200, but won't happen.... yet/soon....

Don't really need dram anymore with these modern controllers. They are being phased out.

6

1

VioletTent657

Feb 4, 2023 7:45 AM

2.5K Comments

Joined Aug 2018

VioletTent657Feb 4, 2023 7:45 AM

2.5K Comments

Quote from dplane

:

The whole "no DRAM!" thing has gotten very played out. Most people won't need it/notice the difference. Many of the most popular and well rated drives don't have it. Same with the ubiquitous TBW ratings comments. Plenty of studies have shown even 600 TBW is plenty as a baseline and most people will never even hit that. The same studies have shown the majority of drives however well exceed their rated TBW multi fold.

Then the manufacturers should stop setting such values as means of squirreling out of their warranty obligations.

1

Intranetusa

Feb 4, 2023 7:46 AM

752 Comments

Joined Nov 2015

IntranetusaFeb 4, 2023 7:46 AM

752 Comments

Quote from xcopy

:

Decent price, but NO DRAM. I think/hope better drives will be this price soon... Would love to see a 4TB under $200, but won't happen.... yet/soon....

I understand DRAM is useful for SATA SSDs, but is DRAM useful for NVMe SSDs? I read that NVMe has tech that bypass the need for DRAM...

Anyone have benchmarks or articles displaying this?

3

1

ferrous1

Feb 4, 2023 6:57 PM

495 Comments

Joined Nov 2013

ferrous1Feb 4, 2023 6:57 PM

495 Comments

Can I put this in my ps5 without a heatstink

SirEbral

Feb 4, 2023 8:07 PM

279 Comments

Joined Sep 2015

SirEbralFeb 4, 2023 8:07 PM

279 Comments

Quote from dplane

:

The whole "no DRAM!" thing has gotten very played out. Most people won't need it/notice the difference. Many of the most popular and well rated drives don't have it. Same with the ubiquitous TBW ratings comments. Plenty of studies have shown even 600 TBW is plenty as a baseline and most people will never even hit that. The same studies have shown the majority of drives however well exceed their rated TBW multi fold.

Agree on all points, especially if like me, you're still using a machine with PCIe 3.0. I just replaced my Samsung 980 non Pro 1TB with this today just for the capacity. I benchmarked the 980 first at 50% capacity, then cloned my drive over to the WD. After getting it up and running I benchmarked the WD with the same data as the 980 had and the numbers are literally Identical on the older bus. As for TBW, by the time I buy a newer PC with PCIe 4.0 or whatever is current then, I'll probably be ready for a new drive anyway and just leave it in this PC to pass along to somebody who needs one. Not a gamer anymore so really any SSD is better than a mechanical drive. I just want my stuff to boot as fast as my current PC allows, and load stuff as fast as well. No need for a new PC for that since the 980 and this drive both accomplish that.

Marzero1

Feb 4, 2023 8:10 PM

45 Comments

Joined Dec 2016

Marzero1Feb 4, 2023 8:10 PM

45 Comments

Nice I needed something to replace my 2TB Samsung 980 pro after it got stuck into Read-Only mode because of their firmware bug.

2TB WD Black SN770 Gen4 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive

$135

$150

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