Recommendations for internal 2.5" ~250 GB SSD drive for PC

[MikeWill]

I need to replace my current INTEL SSDSC2KW240H6. 

Any recommendations for internal 2.5" ~250 GB SSD drive for PC?

 

[eisfeld]

My recommendation for a 250GB SSD is a 1TB SSD.

[ozimoron]

7 minutes ago, eisfeld said:

My recommendation for a 250GB SSD is a 1TB SSD.

Yes, that's the current value price point. No point to save $5 for a smaller driver. Yes, I'm exaggerating but you get the point.

[Xanthe]

Why would someone need a 250GB drive? Is it for an external drive, third drive or the main drive? Any drive will work. No need for recommendations. 

[ozimoron]

3 minutes ago, Xanthe said:

Why would someone need a 250GB drive? Is it for an external drive, third drive or the main drive? Any drive will work. No need for recommendations. 

Because their current drive isn't large enough for boot sector and default installed apps. Probably Windows.

 

I'm assuming they mean the "main drive".

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, MikeWill said:

Any recommendations for internal 2.5" ~250 GB SSD drive for PC?

Do you want a cheap one or a fast one?

SSD speed is a lot easier to measure and specify than HDD speed.

Have a look here: 

อุปกรณ์จัดเก็บข้อมูล (STORAGE & MEMORY CARD ) (jib.co.th)

You can see the speed and price. Buy a brand name and all should be fine.

[OneMoreFarang]

25 minutes ago, Xanthe said:

Why would someone need a 250GB drive? Is it for an external drive, third drive or the main drive? Any drive will work. No need for recommendations. 

Why not?

Some people don't have huge amount of videos, etc. 250GB is enough for lot of documents and normal life. 

[Thailand J]

I recommend Samsung Evo with 5 yr warranty. 

 

This is JIB price today, you may get better deal if you shop around.

5 yrs ago I paid 6290B for 500GB.

 

[MikeWill]

Yes, it is/will be the main drive. I have a second 1 TB HDD drive. Both internal.

For example, Crucial MX500

250 GB ~ ฿1,286.00,

500 GB ~ ฿2,415.00,

almost twice as expensive. 

All my apps, including Windows, take appr. 100 GB on SSD. The rest goes to HDD.

 

I'm not sure how good Crucial MX500 is.

[MikeWill]

Re: "Do you want a cheap one or a fast one?" - I prefer a reliable one. My current Intel SSD drive is no longer supported.

 

JIB's Samsung Evo with 5 yr warranty looks nice at ฿1,550.00.

(Unfortunaately, JIB does not have the Crucial brand.)

[Roger That]

10 hours ago, MikeWill said:

Yes, it is/will be the main drive. I have a second 1 TB HDD drive. Both internal.

For example, Crucial MX500

250 GB ~ ฿1,286.00,

500 GB ~ ฿2,415.00,

almost twice as expensive. 

All my apps, including Windows, take appr. 100 GB on SSD. The rest goes to HDD.

 

I'm not sure how good Crucial MX500 is.

I believe that the Crucial MX500 is regarded as one of the best SATA SSDs on the market so would probably be a solid purchase.

 

Unless you have a particular use case, performance differences are largely on paper and unlikely to be noticeable in real life, so just buy based on brand preference / price.

[fdsa]

both Micron/Crucial MX500 and Samsung 870 EVO are good, unfortunately many 870s made in 2021 have a critical hardware flaw which makes them die within several months of usage. You need to make sure to buy a drive made in 2022+ (or stick with MX500)

 

btw with MX500 there is a catch too - you need to buy an OLD drive instead of a new one ???? coz Micron started to put cheaper components in the new drives, e.g. less DRAM cache amount.

[MikeWill]

Dear fdsa,

Thank you for the words of advice and warnings.

[Mickeymaus]

22 hours ago, fdsa said:

both Micron/Crucial MX500 and Samsung 870 EVO are good, unfortunately many 870s made in 2021 have a critical hardware flaw which makes them die within several months of usage. You need to make sure to buy a drive made in 2022+ (or stick with MX500)

 

btw with MX500 there is a catch too - you need to buy an OLD drive instead of a new one ???? coz Micron started to put cheaper components in the new drives, e.g. less DRAM cache amount.

It seems to be a bit complicated ????

[KhunBENQ]

On 2/1/2023 at 12:55 AM, OneMoreFarang said:

Why not?

Some people don't have huge amount of videos, etc. 250GB is enough for lot of documents and normal life. 

Recently replaced my creeping old HDD with a cheap NVMe type SSD of 512 GB (cost 1550 Baht). Max speeds about 3000 read, 2300 write MB/s.

After (re)installing Windows 10 and my usual stuff I have 60 GB used

It's a Kingston brand, not the latest hightech and as I read they put together "specials of the day" from the semiconductor market.

Bulk data (images, videos, documents etc.etc.) is on a HDD (partition).

[MikeWill]

Dear KhunBENQ,

Where did you purchase your drive?

Did you install it yourself?

[MikeWill]

Dear fdsa,

Please inform, where is it possible to find the date of manufacturing of the drives? 

[Roger That]

1 hour ago, MikeWill said:

Dear fdsa,

Please inform, where is it possible to find the date of manufacturing of the drives? 

I doubt you'll be able to.

 

I wouldn't overthink it, any drive is likely to be fine for general use.

[tomazbodner]

2 hours ago, MikeWill said:

Dear fdsa,

Please inform, where is it possible to find the date of manufacturing of the drives? 

I checked my P3 (alas 1TB) and I can see that on the side of the box it says (c) 2022 Micron, and on the bottom, there's a sticker with size and speed at the bottom, the number starts with 22 just under top barcode. I believe therefore my drive is from 2022. On the SSD stick I can't see anything to indicate manufacturing year.

 

 

 

[tomazbodner]

I just checked MX500 box and that 22 at the start of the barcode might not be the year of manufacturing as mine shows:

 

But side of the box shows (c) 2020-2021...

 

 

I don't know if this is correct but if this isn't it, I don't know how you could check.

 

 

Maybe if you're buying from Legend, it might be worth to ask them. I bought from their shop in Lazada, but bought from their shop directly before as well, and their support is excellent.

[KhunBENQ]

17 hours ago, MikeWill said:

Dear KhunBENQ,

Where did you purchase your drive?

Did you install it yourself?

I bought at our local Advice shop. Not before I had checked that my 3 to 4(?) year old motherboard has an "M.2" slot (that's different from what the OP describes).

Installing is not more than plugin and find a screw to fix it.

Then going into BIOS and change boot order.

Be aware: many users want to "clone" an existing Windows installation. That's an extra effort.

But I routinely reinstall Windows and programs every 2 to 3 years. And so I did reinstall Windows 10 and all the stuff on the new SSD. I withstand the W11 pressure as long as W10 gets security updates.

 

[KhunBENQ]

That's the new "drive" ????

[fdsa]

21 hours ago, MikeWill said:

Dear fdsa,

Please inform, where is it possible to find the date of manufacturing of the drives? 

Samsung writes the production date on the box, near the barcode. 

Micron doesn't seem to publish the production date on the box. I've just checked my MX500's and saw the same "22" at the start of the barcode and "© 2020-2021", so it really might not be a production year. Actually you won't see any difference in the DRAM cache amount for "home" usage so you could buy any MX500 available.

Just make sure to not buy the 870EVO made in 2021, 2022 is fine.

 

20 hours ago, Roger That said:

I wouldn't overthink it, any drive is likely to be fine for general use.

unfortunately this is not right, some SSDs are even slower than the HDD.

[Roger That]

49 minutes ago, fdsa said:

unfortunately this is not right, some SSDs are even slower than the HDD.

Go on...?

[MikeWill]

Quote

 

Dear fdsa,

Please inform, where is it possible to find the date of manufacturing of the drives? 

 

Here are the pics of CRUCIAL MX500 250GB box. Does the year of production exist there?

[fdsa]

8 hours ago, Roger That said:

Go on...?

sorry, I'm too lazy to search for exact models. Just remember that cheap SSDs (usually chinese noname but sometimes even brand ones) could drop down to 10 MB/s continuous write speed while even the slow HDDs have 100+ MB/s continuous write speed, not even mentioning the random write.

This usually happens when a drive has QLC type storage + no DRAM cache.

[fdsa]

8 hours ago, MikeWill said:

Here are the pics of CRUCIAL MX500 250GB box. Does the year of production exist there?

not likely, but judging by the firmware version "045" this is the latest model "B47" https://www.techpowerup.com/ssd-specs/crucial-mx500-250-gb.d947

Don't worry, this is a good drive. You won't see any difference with 250 GB versions, the real difference appears with 1TB+.

[MikeWill]

I bought and installed CRUCIAL MX500 250 GB (see pic).  

 

Transferred data from old to new SSD. I think that I need to Repair Install of Windows. 

 

[MikeWill]

Should I update the firmware of Crucial SSD?

 

 

[MikeWill]

Update failed.