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expired Posted by cheeknowe • Mar 20, 2024
expired Posted by cheeknowe • Mar 20, 2024

Teamgroup T-Force Vulcan Z SLC Cache 3D NAND TLC SATA III SSDs: 480GB $28, 240GB

+ Free Shipping

$18

$26

30% off
Newegg
47 Comments 40,383 Views
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Deal Details
Various Retailers have Teamgroup T-Force Vulcan Z SLC Cache 3D NAND TLC 2.5" SATA III Internal Solid State Drives on sale as listed below. Shipping is free unless otherwise noted.

Thanks to Community Members cheeknowe & bigsnyder for finding this deal.

Available:Additional Details:
  • 3D NAND smart upgrade option for gaming
  • Enhanced performance for seamless cutscenes
  • Smart optimization to ensure reliable performance
  • Shock-resistant, vibration-resistant, and reduced noise interference

Editor's Notes

Written by citan359 | Staff
  • About this product:
    • 3-year or TBW (Terabytes Written) limited warranty.
    • Free Technical Support and Customer Service on TEAMGROUP's official website.
    • 4.7 out of 5 stars rating at Amazon based on over 3,700 customer reviews
  • About this store:
    • Seller TEAMGROUP Inc. has a 99% positive rating in the last 12 months with over 16090 lifetime feedback.
    • Don't have Amazon Prime? Students can get a free 6-Month Amazon Prime trial with free 2-day shipping, unlimited video streaming & more.
    • If you're not a student, there's also a free 1-Month Amazon Prime trial available.
    • You can view Amazon's Return Policy here.
  • Additional Note:
    • Please see the original post for additional details & give the WIKI and additional forum comments a read for helpful discussion.

Original Post

Written by cheeknowe
Product Info
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Product Info
Community Notes
About the Poster
Various Retailers have Teamgroup T-Force Vulcan Z SLC Cache 3D NAND TLC 2.5" SATA III Internal Solid State Drives on sale as listed below. Shipping is free unless otherwise noted.

Thanks to Community Members cheeknowe & bigsnyder for finding this deal.

Available:Additional Details:
  • 3D NAND smart upgrade option for gaming
  • Enhanced performance for seamless cutscenes
  • Smart optimization to ensure reliable performance
  • Shock-resistant, vibration-resistant, and reduced noise interference

Editor's Notes

Written by citan359 | Staff
  • About this product:
    • 3-year or TBW (Terabytes Written) limited warranty.
    • Free Technical Support and Customer Service on TEAMGROUP's official website.
    • 4.7 out of 5 stars rating at Amazon based on over 3,700 customer reviews
  • About this store:
    • Seller TEAMGROUP Inc. has a 99% positive rating in the last 12 months with over 16090 lifetime feedback.
    • Don't have Amazon Prime? Students can get a free 6-Month Amazon Prime trial with free 2-day shipping, unlimited video streaming & more.
    • If you're not a student, there's also a free 1-Month Amazon Prime trial available.
    • You can view Amazon's Return Policy here.
  • Additional Note:
    • Please see the original post for additional details & give the WIKI and additional forum comments a read for helpful discussion.

Original Post

Written by cheeknowe

Community Voting

Deal Score
+36
Good Deal
Visit Newegg

Price Intelligence

Model: TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 240GB SLC Cache 3D NAND TLC 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal Solid State Drive SSD (R/W Speed up to 520/450 MB/s) T253TZ240G0C101

Deal History 

Sort: Most Recent
Post Date Sold By Sale Price Activity
04/30/24Amazon$18
1
03/08/24Amazon$20
24

Current Prices

Sort: Lowest to Highest | Last Updated 5/17/2025, 01:50 PM
Sold By Sale Price
Amazon$17.99
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Top Comments

Like so many other cheap SSDs, you don't know what you're actually going to get until you receive the drive. It appears there's at least two significantly different variants of the Vulcan Z (without even getting into the QLC version). One is based on the SMI 2259XT controller and the other uses the Phison S11. Both are low end DRAM-less SATA controllers. I've had decent luck with Phison S11 based drives but will note they tend to have a very small static pSLC cache. Some of the SMI 2259XT based drives have a massive dynamic pSLC cache, which utilizes the entirety of the free space. They can also be "lazy" about flushing the pSLC to TLC/QLC, sometimes not even starting until it's roughly 4/5 full. This has its pros and cons.

Personally, I've observed several drives using SMI controllers suffer immense (>99%) performance degradation on data stored in native NAND (TLC/QLC). One of the drives I've seen affected was a 2TB Team Group Vulcan Z. I just thought I'd toss out this warning, since this controller is often (but not always) used in the Vulcan Z. For anyone wondering what they got, without having to disassemble the drive, you can potentially tell by the firmware version.

FW version W0... - Likely SMI 2259XT

FW version SBFM... - Likely Phison S11

Affected drives may not manifest the issue until they've ever been filled at least 25% full (for TLC) or 20% (for QLC) AND some time has passed. The issue often does not show up in benchmark programs but can be visible in Task Manager. It can also result in a blatantly obvious performance reduction.
The 480GB is only $10 more. Kid's computer running the 1TB model for a couple of years now. Works great.
Haha, no, I've used REAL no name brands and TeamGroup has many, many reviews of their various SSDs, SD cards, etc, so just because they aren't an old-school name brand, I would say that they are well established.

47 Comments

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Mar 22, 2024
1,400 Posts
Joined Oct 2006
Mar 22, 2024
clsA
Mar 22, 2024
1,400 Posts
I put the 2TB Vulcan Z QLC in my PS4 and it's been working great for nearly a year now
1
Mar 22, 2024
232 Posts
Joined Jan 2009
Mar 22, 2024
bigsnyder
Mar 22, 2024
232 Posts
The 480GB is only $10 more. Kid's computer running the 1TB model for a couple of years now. Works great.
Original Poster
Mar 22, 2024
1,787 Posts
Joined Oct 2005
Mar 22, 2024
cheeknowe
Original Poster
Mar 22, 2024
1,787 Posts
Quote from bigsnyder :
The 480GB is only $10 more. Kid's computer running the 1TB model for a couple of years now. Works great.
Thanks, I didn't notice that - anyone who needs half a terabyte on the cheap, this works great!
Mar 23, 2024
2,057 Posts
Joined Oct 2011
Mar 23, 2024
MWink
Mar 23, 2024
2,057 Posts

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

Like so many other cheap SSDs, you don't know what you're actually going to get until you receive the drive. It appears there's at least two significantly different variants of the Vulcan Z (without even getting into the QLC version). One is based on the SMI 2259XT controller and the other uses the Phison S11. Both are low end DRAM-less SATA controllers. I've had decent luck with Phison S11 based drives but will note they tend to have a very small static pSLC cache. Some of the SMI 2259XT based drives have a massive dynamic pSLC cache, which utilizes the entirety of the free space. They can also be "lazy" about flushing the pSLC to TLC/QLC, sometimes not even starting until it's roughly 4/5 full. This has its pros and cons.

Personally, I've observed several drives using SMI controllers suffer immense (>99%) performance degradation on data stored in native NAND (TLC/QLC). One of the drives I've seen affected was a 2TB Team Group Vulcan Z. I just thought I'd toss out this warning, since this controller is often (but not always) used in the Vulcan Z. For anyone wondering what they got, without having to disassemble the drive, you can potentially tell by the firmware version.

FW version W0... - Likely SMI 2259XT

FW version SBFM... - Likely Phison S11

Affected drives may not manifest the issue until they've ever been filled at least 25% full (for TLC) or 20% (for QLC) AND some time has passed. The issue often does not show up in benchmark programs but can be visible in Task Manager. It can also result in a blatantly obvious performance reduction.
8
2
Mar 23, 2024
29,817 Posts
Joined Oct 2010
Mar 23, 2024
Medic311
Mar 23, 2024
29,817 Posts
ive had bad luck with cheap SSDs shitting the brick after 4 or so years

are these any good? reliable for long term? just need a few in some relatives' laptops they are almost out of space with their factory OEM 256GB SSDs so figured i would jump on the 480GB variant in this deal.
Mar 23, 2024
1,254 Posts
Joined Nov 2007

This comment has been rated as unhelpful by Slickdeals users.

Mar 23, 2024
29,817 Posts
Joined Oct 2010
Mar 23, 2024
Medic311
Mar 23, 2024
29,817 Posts
Quote from gerf :
The computer I'll put it in doesn't support Win11 anyway so I'm not worried.
I don't follow?

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Mar 23, 2024
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Mar 23, 2024
JKimRX
Mar 23, 2024
1,116 Posts
Quote from Medic311 :
I don't follow?
Linux, probably
Mar 23, 2024
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Joined Aug 2006

This comment has been rated as unhelpful by Slickdeals users.

Mar 23, 2024
9,552 Posts
Joined Oct 2008
Mar 23, 2024
Danzilla
Mar 23, 2024
9,552 Posts
Heh... hard to decide if getting a 16GB SD card (from Newegg with 480GB) at this point really adds anything... maybe just for the spare adapter. On the other hand I'm not sure I want to encourage them to add useless crap to my order(s).

Cheap, but not exactly super hot deal. Regular price more like $31, so only saving around 10% on the 480GB model. While the 240GB model is maybe a better deal and enough for some uses, it's still not a great choice IMO when the 480 is only $10 more for 2x the space and should be a bit faster with more life (more space = less wear overall with same usage.)
Last edited by Danzilla March 22, 2024 at 09:50 PM.
Mar 23, 2024
1,249 Posts
Joined Jul 2016
Mar 23, 2024
BerMM2
Mar 23, 2024
1,249 Posts
Quote from Medic311 :
I don't follow?
Their PC is too old to expect another 4 years of use.
Mar 23, 2024
122 Posts
Joined Jul 2019
Mar 23, 2024
Ariana31
Mar 23, 2024
122 Posts
Quote from Medic311 :
ive had bad luck with cheap SSDs shitting the brick after 4 or so years

are these any good? reliable for long term? just need a few in some relatives' laptops they are almost out of space with their factory OEM 256GB SSDs so figured i would jump on the 480GB variant in this deal.
Never used an SSD. My RAID 0 Hard Drives still kicking after 15 years.
1
4
5
Mar 23, 2024
2,520 Posts
Joined Mar 2009
Mar 23, 2024
dreamliner77
Mar 23, 2024
2,520 Posts
Quote from Ariana31 :
Never used an SSD. My RAID 0 Hard Drives still kicking after 15 years.

Way past time to upgrade that.
2
Mar 23, 2024
823 Posts
Joined Feb 2017
Mar 23, 2024
theshopper2022
Mar 23, 2024
823 Posts
Anyone have experience with Kingchuxing [ebay.com]

Need a 1tb drive, never heard of this brand
5

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Mar 23, 2024
672 Posts
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Mar 23, 2024
CouponFinder99
Mar 23, 2024
672 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank CouponFinder99

These are great for upgrading old PCs or adding fast storage when nvme slots are full.

Make sure you backup any critical information to the cloud or another drive.
2

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