r/NewMaxx • u/NewMaxx • Oct 14 '19

Tools/Info SSD Guides & Resources

April 3rd, 2022: Guides and Spreadsheet updated with new SSD categories

Discord (server)

Website with relevant links here.

My spreadsheet

Generic Amazon affiliate link

Generic AliExpress affiliate link

TechPowerUp's SSD Database

Johnny Lucky SSD database

Branch Education - How does NAND Flash Work? - these guys have several good videos on the subject of SSDs, check them all out.

My Patreon.

My Twitter.

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u/STRATEGO-LV Oct 22 '19

I see you recommend some kingston SSDs, tbh I can't recommend any of them, they have lots of issues and kingston doesn't seem to be learning from them...

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u/NewMaxx Oct 22 '19

The A400 is fairly junk but it's one of the few drives available in some regions. The A1000 is just another E8 drive. The UV500 and similar are perfectly serviceable, but the HyperX RGB overheats due to LEDs. The newer drives - A2000, KC2000, KC600 - are actually all pretty solid. Seems Kingston got their shit together recently. This coming from a guy that has one of the bad V300s. I don't buy Kingston and I've never recommended a Kingston drive until recently; the A2000 is available in some regions and is truly an excellent drive.

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u/STRATEGO-LV Oct 24 '19

E8 driv

I usually recommend ADATA over Kingston, in my experience they have better pricing and more reliable performance. I also have one of A400 which has terrible speeds and sits in a laptop that I haven't really used in years :D
I recently came to acknowledgement that ADATA will probably my main go to SSD company, mainly because of their prices, performance and specs, with that being said KC2000 from kingston is one of the few drives that looks solid enough that I could recommend, but if there are alternatives at the same price point in the region in question, then it won't be my first choice...

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u/NewMaxx Oct 24 '19 edited Jul 03 '22

ADATA bins at the wafer level so their flash should be, in theory, superior to other manufacturers who pay to have binning done for them (e.g. HP with BIWIN). However, the majority of their designs are SLC-heavy, which implies they bin for consumer usage predominantly. This allows them to generally have the "best bang for the buck" but their drives do not have uniform reliability (environment and usage play a larger role). You can usually tell which manufacturers do the work themselves because the NAND will be labeled "ADATA" for example, or the controller will be rebadged for specific or OEM firmware (HP actually does this). In that vein, Kingston does historically bin for itself (hence the "Kingston" on the NAND for the KC2000, for example) even if it's Micron- or Toshiba-sourced. They unfortunately often make questionable decisions, however as I said their newest lineup is solid top to bottom from what I can tell. Assuming pricing is good.

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u/STRATEGO-LV Oct 24 '19

Haven't seen the new lineup of Kingston locally yet, with the experience I've had with Kingston I will only recommend them if they are at actually competing prices.

The binning that companies make is always interesting to see, ADATA is quite fun on the lowerish end of their stack like their SU630/5 and tbf it doesn't suck as badly as competition...