Capacity: 2TB
Form Factor: M.2 2280
Interface: PCI-Express 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3
Read Speed : up to 2400MB/s
Write speed : up to 1750MB/s
PNY CS1031 M.2 2280 NVMe SSD 2TB $118 Delivered @ PCByte
951
Winman on 01/04/2023 - 20:45 pcbyte.com.au (1509 clicks)
Last edited 01/04/2023 - 22:08 by 1 other user
Last edited 01/04/2023 - 22:08 by 1 other user
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Absolutely.
thanks dude just got ordered one :)
$129 at MSY / Umart vs $118 at PCByte.
If your local MSY / Umart have it instock then it's worth the price difference to pick up locally.
Umarts in NSW got it for $118 too,
only those selected stores though.
Says online as like special opening or something like that
Can we price match the $109 at JW earlier
Also a good price on these if you want a faster drive: https://www.pcbyte.com.au/p/western-digital-wd-black-sn770-2…
Should post it here as a new deal. Really good price for SN770 2TB drive.
edit: missed specs, answered own question.
grabbed one from pcbyte a few days ago 128, tempted to buy another at this price.
can't believe i waited so long before buying an NVME drive (doesn't matter that its gen 3), just using it as a 2tb games drive. moved everything off my HDDs lmao. never will i have to see textures loading up again lol! still using a 256 sata ssd as my boot drive tho lmao
Still haven't found I need more than 256GB SSD for my boot drive personally at the moment.
looks like there are only 2 left in stock!
Tempting, is this brand any good? Read/write speeds consistent at the least (i know it won't perform like a premium m2 drive/brand)
The brand is decent for the money but the endurance of this drive is only rated at 480TBW for the 2TB, which is suitable to be used as a game storage drive for like steam for a example but i wouldn't use it as a primary SSD in a PC
"""Only"""
It's almost 500tb. 99.9% of people here will never use anywhere near that within its 5 year warranty. That's about 350gb written on it every single day continuously for 5 straight years. You'd have to empty the ssd every single week and refill it.
TBW is a dick measuring contest at this point, it's functionally useless because even budget drives like this have an extreme amount of tbw.
100%
Sick of seeing people shit on cheap SSDs and act like they're garbage because they 'only' have 480tbw endurance. Or the fact that they don't have DRAM. It's an SSD and it's cheap AF. You're getting 90% of the benefits compared to an SSD that's 50%+ more expensive.
It's like, just because you think it's worth the extra cost doesn't mean the cheap one is ewaste.
@azza10: A freaking MEN. I'm so tired of these idiots thinking that an SSD needs high TBW for it to be relevant. So naive and idiotic.
Any idea if these SSD's can last an indefinite amount of time if the amount of data written on it is minimal like less than a GB a day?
Or are there are other components or factors that will make it break down say before a 50 year longevity period?
I am trying to do research and find out info on what actually makes a SSD die or break down hypothetically if TBW endurance durability was infinite or not a ruling factor etc.
What other stuff can cause the m.2 ssd to fall apart?
@AlienC: With SSDs, it is best to keep them turned on regularly. 80% of my SSDs which died so far were hardly used ones. The remaining 20% are either the SSD model is known to have design issue (prone to failure) or inferior grade cheap SSD(s) which came with the mini PC (while I did use that SSD regularly, it did die after I returned from a holiday (basically, that mini PC was turned off for about 2 weeks)). My experience is that SSDs are not ideal for cold storage. Zero of the failed ones managed to reach 5% of TBW with majority of them failed to even reached 1.25 TBW (that includes a 1TB PCIe gen 3 SSD with DRAM). With all backups (regardless of the storage type), you need to check them regularly. The reality is that:
- None of the storage device type is 100% reliable.
- MTBF / warranty on storage devices are limited so manufacturers already know these devices degrade in reliability as time goes on.
- SSDs have higher chance to just die completely all of the sudden, rather than HDDs, which can a higher chance to have some warning signs before hand.
- The push of TLC and QLC actually makes it harder to read the data in the long run.
- Having SSDs powered on allow the SSD firmware to do some regular house keeping, which is good for the SSDs.
My oldest SSD is over 10 years old. It was used quite heavily. SSD health is reporting 60% rating despite not having a re-allocated sector yet. The low rating is due to wear level being quite high (basically, all the cells are still usable, but they've been written quite a few times already).
It's better to assume storage devices will fail over time and rotate / introduce new, fresh copies of backups from time to time. Don't believe in TBW, especially for cold storage purpose. Unfortunately, with SSDs, the reliability can only be determined over time, but SSD makers like to swap components these days. If you ended up purchasing an SSD which is later known to have a high failure rate, the best approach is to not store critical data to it (or bare minimum, have another backup).
@AlienC: Nothing is guaranteed to last a long time, be it ssds or hdds. Spinning disks are more reliable if it's something you just dump data on here and there and keep powered off (aka cold storage), ssds if its constantly on.
Best practice will always be backups, more specifically the 3-2-1 backup system.
I paid 129$ last week. Grrr
This + pcie adapter https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B08TBW12B8/?coliid=I1NHI4SV0602…
or just Patriot P210 2TB https://www.amazon.com.au/Patriot-Internal-Solid-State-P210S… ?
I'm not sure the adapter is the right one (if not, which one please?)
The adapter claims 64Gbps throughput, but apart from providing an additional storage spot, would this combo perform better?
Purely game storage (maaaybe little video encoding)
Also, do we think prices are coming down for good, or just low now to clear stock, and will go back up? Conflicted over HODL vs FOMO, as I don't really need it right NOW.Just wait. Ssd deals have been popping up daily, getting cheaper by the week.
How much cheaper can it be? 2tbs for $120 is quite low already…
I won't go less than 90… can it?
Sure can. How much are 240gb ssds? I picked up 2 of them for 40 bucks last year.
Cheap kiwi said he didn't need them now and I can't imagine ssds (or any depreciating tech) to ride in costs so the only logical thing to do is wait until he needs it. By then it will be as cheap if not cheaper.@shiny1: Yeah but 8 times 20 = $180
Also many times the 4gb m2 sticks cost more per gig than the tb ones, so….
I think 119 delivered is a fair price for 2 tbs of sh*tty and cheap m2 Nvme memory - I bought gigs just to store games and movies on my laptop via it's gen 3 m2 slot.
I have the same nvme ssd+pcie adapter that I bought a week ago, performs fine so far. I have it plugged into a pcie 2.0 slot (old budget b450 board) so it's not running at full speed but I still get 1.5gb read/write, no issue with gaming.
Thanks all, and especially @JerraJones - great use-case example, very helpful. May even be worth getting a double adapter for those wanting 4TB sub $300 (probably still double sata ssd speed even if accessed simultaneously?) https://www.ple.com.au/Products/641819/orico-dual-m2-nvme-to…
Would anyone here actually take a punt on aliexpress "4TB $18 or 16TB $32" external hard drive. This store only been open long enough to have 99% rating (105) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005289382295.html?spm=a2…
- but other sellers with similar products down to 70%….That cheap PCIe gen 3 x4 double adapter isn't great because:
- It only has 1 PCIe gen 4 slot, the other one is m.2/SATA.
- Will the card be put in a slot that's wired to the motherboard chipset? If so, then you also need to be aware of potential further performance reduction.
- If you have a B450 board for example, once you use the chipset x4 slot (which is actually a PCIe gen 2 x4), if your motherboard has 2 m.2 slots, one of them will most likely be disabled (because that shares the same bandwidth as that slot). So, you lose one m.2 slot form motherboard (to permit one new one - net gain is 0), and the m.2 SATA is basically a converter.
- If you have a motherboard that does PCIe bifurcation for the x16 slot, then you most definitely don't want to get a x4 card.
@netsurfer: Thanks @Netsurfer - a lot of that went <whoosh> for me, but I am sure others more across this will appreciate the detail more.
I have a MSI Z490 A Pro, using the 2nd m2 slot kills 2 sata connections, so I don't use that anyway, however good to know some PCIE slots may have the same effect, I will have to check if ever I go this path! Even with limited throughput would still appear quicker than sata SSD rates (if expansion p/$ is more important that raw speed). Seems my board has bifurcation support (yay?), but all talk leads to RAID which is not my focus@Cheapkiwi: In your case, single PCIe x4 m.2 / NVMe expansion card makes sense as your second PCIe x16 (physically x16, but only x4 wired) is really just a x4 but can take a physical x16 size card (running at x4). There are some cheap cards on AliExpress. The Amazon one you posted seems decent (heatsink provided and currently has a 15% discount).
You gain 1 more m.2 NVMe SSD slot but it is through the chipset (still okay I guess).
I cannot see PCIe Bifurcation mentioned on the main x16 slot. I am certain that board doesn't support x8 / x8 bifurcation mode since the second PCIe x16 slot is x4 only. However, if it does support (x4 x4 x4 x4) on the main x16 slot and you don't give a damn about gaming, you could add 4 additional m.2 SSDs to the x16 slot through bifurcation, but your gaming will suffer greatly due to the GPU running x4 via the chipset.
@netsurfer: @Netsurfer, thanks again for the input. I'm not running a high (or even mid) GPU, so high/fast detail is not a concern for me in gaming (but no-one loves a load-screen!). I guess there are better pcie expansion cards out there, for others also considering this route.
Nand prices are continuing to fall so I wouldn't be surprised to see 2TB NVMe drives fall below $100
Not seen a single comment about this being DRAMless drive yet ?
But yea price is so good for a 2TB drive
At this price, that's a given (it is DRAMless).
So you look at this deal (and the previous $109 + delivery one) and then someone posted a decent review… However, you might still be cynical about this. So, just to balance things out a bit, some not so great things to consider about this SSD:
- TBW rating is on the low side for 5 year warranty. Yes, TBW is not an objective figure, but sometimes low figures open the door for NAND swap (which is the case here).
- There are at least 2 different types of NAND chips reported for this: YMTC 3D NAND and Spectek 3D NAND. The latter, is more common in later batches.
- Quoting from a review I saw: for those unaware, Spectek peddles the lower bins of Micron’s chips.
- The reviewer also had issue with his YMTC NAND based version - it was DOA (dead on arrival).
- Another issue with NAND swap is that what you read on a review could be for a different NAND type (so your results could be different).
- Temperature for this SSD isn't that great (but not that many SSDs actually run very cool).
With PNY SSDs, your warranty is through the retailer / seller.
TL;DR: Have realistic expectation so assume you could receive Spectek based inferior grade NAND. At this price, it is still attractive. Probably use it for non important data (games - coz you can re-download) or make sure you have a backup of important data you put on this SSD.
In case people are concerned about the Spectek NAND part, here is a bit more information (however, please consider the following unofficial):
PNY currently uses Spectek AL grade NAND. Basically, it is Crucial NAND which did not reach 100% usable blocks. Only ~95% of the blocks are usable.
So the question is, did PNY put in more cells (doubtful) or simply lower the specs (i.e. TBW) given that there are less spare cells to work with? Overall, I think it is okay as most people don't expect really high TBW with these cost effective SSDs. I wouldn't worry too much about it. I have a Sandisk Extreme SSD with multiple re-allocated sectors (basically some cell blocks are no longer usable) and I have been using it for years. If you really care about high TBW, you have to accept spare cells being used for retired / bad cell blocks anyway.
PNY isn't the only SSD makers using Spectek. Team, AData, Transcend, Silicon Power also use Spectek in some of their products. Some people think Crucial does too. Goldenfir and KingSpec use Spectek, but they do use even worse grade ones.
This is not a problem and unlikely to affect life or performance of the device.
It's generally not a problem. Obviously, there is at least 5% less spare cells available. However, TBW is overrated for general public, all my SSDs which died all had less than 5% of quoted TBW. It could be an issue for server environment running 24x7, but for that type of usage, one would have the funding to get at least an SSD with DRAM.
can these be lower soon?
Possible, because the $109 + delivery deal sold out quickly so this deal got posted.
Some people reported they got free shipping for the $109 deal whereas someone indicated the shipping was ~$12 for him.
Thanks man, i will wait for a while anyway, not in a hurry for me.
can i use this for a xbox one x as an external SSD? is this better than the Samsung Evo SSD on the other deal?
You could use this an external SSD for XBox One X, you need to get an external enclosure for NVMe SSD. One X and Series X both only support USB 3.0 (though Microsoft may call it USB 3.2 gen 1), so there is generally no real advantage on getting low cost NVMe SSD for that. Also, majority of NVMe SSD enclosures start with USB 3.2 gen 2.
Samsung Evo SSDs all have DRAM and are likely to have better sustained write. The price advantage of this SSD would mean even getting an enclosure would end up cost less. Also, for XBox One X, sustained write is a non-issue because the internal storage is an HDD and your NBN won't saturate the SSD at all.
For XBox use, absolutely any SSD is just fine - just buy the cheapest in the capacity you want. Load times barely change between fast and slow SSDs 👍
Don't forget you can only run older titles from the external drive - Series X games need to be on the real internal drive…
Thanks guys for the help!
This looks good…………..but is the Key M or B or MB.
Need to know my Asus only take Key M.Key M (there are 5 contact pins on the edge).
https://www.partitionwizard.com/images/uploads/articles/2020…
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41EV7CKOhEL.jpg
Thank you for your question and you are most welcome have a nice day.
Thanks AlienC for your reply.
It would be good if suppliers or good Oz bargainers could/would show
the Key for the newer SSD they that they say are good to consider.
Its such a mine field to sort out, and I think many purchases have been made
for the wrong type to suite their needs.As the SSD supports PCIe gen 3 x4, it has to be M keyed (that's the standard).
B&M key means the SSD is PCIe gen 3 x2.From Dell: distinguish the differences between m2 cards
But, you are still cynical and won't accept anything other than a real photo of it. Well, that's easy too since an OZBer already posted a link to a review. One of the photos:
Real photo of an actual CS1031 2TB SSD, front side and back side
It's not a minefield, it just requires some reading and understanding of the m.2 specs. If you are still scared, then just go to an actual store and ask to see one before you buy.
Price $129 now!!
I ended up purchasing one to store games and media files - $120 for 2tbs isn't bad at all imo
Pcbyte wouldn't refund the difference on a day price difference (i have yet to receive it) . Concerned on the customer service now
Amazon doesn't do that either (though I guess if it is cancellable, you could re-order OR they do let you return it once you received it).
It comes down to how much you want the SSD. If it is really a concern, ask them to cancel the order.
Amazon has free returns, does pcbyte?? Might be an issue
When you contacted PCByte, had they sent the SSD? If the price difference is such a big deal, then ask PCByte to cancel the order if unwilling to price match. As for after sale service, it is not as clear cut as you think. Amazon's SSD return / warranty experience is not all positive for OZBers. One OZBer complained he was unable to get the status of his return for nearly a week (not sure what happened at the end). My experience with a local retailer - not PCByte (within driving distance) was okay. After 4+ years, I got a full refund for my faulty Kingston SSD (it did involve a phone call, an e-mail and a drive to the store), but I got the full refund on the spot.
Most people buying this at that price are FOMO. We know SSD prices are still dropping but some of these OZB deals are enticing.
@netsurfer: The item was still waiting to be dispatched. Item purchased om the night before the price change
that shouldn't be a neg
you aren't entitled to a discount after the sale just because it went on sale later
would it be nice? yes - but expected? no
you can count on one hand how many stores have this as a policy
This is like less than a day after sale. It makes no sense they expect customers to refuse the delivery instead of just cancelling the processing of the order before they had even sent. Still no eta or dispatch notice a week later
So I just got mine delivered today and apparently it's got a phison controller or component when I ran a report on Aida64 -
Also, please refer to the following picture/diagram for information regarding the SSD's transfer speed(s) via CrystalDiskMark.
So testing a 40gb bluray mkv rip (ford vs Ferrari) I ended up getting 1.7gb/second sustained read and 1.4gb/sec second sustained write speeds.
Towards the end of the write the card throttled down, so I'm going to purchase and install one of those minired nvme heatsinks that's on the crucial p5 plus right next to it, and see how that goes.
If the write slows down towards the end of writing 40GB file, that means the SLC cache could be less than 40GB. Also, generally, for sustained write speed, we tend to discard the SLC cache write speed portion (and look at the actual TLC NAND mode write speed).
Hmmm yeah true, that could be the case since the transfer/read is still 1.7gb/second…
450mb/sec is still A-Okay
how much gb is left on these? it wont be 2tb but close? can someone check please!
would this be good for a second drive in my laptop just for my steam game library?