A list of the drives that have hit or will soon hit my test bench.
Jan 4, 2021
- Benjamin Wachman
Tags:
#Methodology-v1
#Testbed-v1
#SSD
#NVMe
#SATA
In case anyone reading this is eager to know what other drives I’ll be testing in the near future, I figured I’d provide some lists:
| SATA SSDs | ||
|---|---|---|
| Drive | Capacity | Notes |
| Crucial MX500 | 500GB | Retail Drive |
| Intel 520 | 180GB | Sandforce-based SSD from yesteryear |
| Samsung 850 EVO | 500GB | Retail Drive |
| Samsung 860 EVO | 1TB | Retail Drive |
| Samsung PM871b | 128GB | OEM Drive |
| NVMe SSDs | ||
|---|---|---|
| Drive | Capacity | Notes |
| Intel 660p | 1024GB | Intial QLC entry, Retail Drive |
| Samsung 960 Pro | 2048GB | Retail Drive |
| Samsung PM981a | 256GB | OEM Version of 970 EVO |
| Samsung PM981a | 512GB | OEM Version of 970 EVO |
| Samsung PM991 | 256GB | Larger capacity of previously reviewed PM991 128GB |
| Toshiba XG6 | 256GB | Smaller capacity of previously reviewed XG6 1024GB |
| Western Digital SN520 | 256GB | Larger capacity of previously reviewed SN520 128GB |
| Western Digital Blue SN550 | 1000GB | Retail Drive |
It is my intention to review each of these drives, either individually or in a roundup, before moving onto my next generation Testbed - v2.0. I’ll likely iterate my testing Methodology as well - also to v2.0 to include some more real world tests and possibly retool or retire some of the existing tests.
The idea is to get a bit of a baseline published for a moderate sample of SATA and NVMe SSDs in varying capacities from different vendors before retiring my first testbed. I purchased the Asrock Z97E-ITX/ac to replace an existing system, not to act as a dedicated testbench. In my mind Tesbed v1.0 should already be EoL, I just need to get around to replacing it.
There’s a chance that I might provide reviews for a couple more drives, but that’ll depend on my ability to purchase them or swap them out of existing systems.
Once I transition to Testbed v2.0, I’ll retest all of the previously tested drives and then begin adding more, including PCIe 4.0 drives.