The best cheap boot drive, revive old laptops and servers
CT500BX500SSD1
Controller: Probably SMI
Memory: Probably Micron QLC
DRAM Cache: None
Sequential Read: 550 MB/s
Sequential Write: 500 MB/s
Random Read: N/A
Random Write: N/A
Endurance (TBW): 120 TB
Warranty: 3 Years
CamelCamelCamel.
Also high tier credit card.
Crucial Black X*
*eligibility criteria applies. Invitation only.
Great for NAS cache too I guess?
At this price it’s a no brained if you needed one.
Terrible for a NAS cache.
Not a high endurance drive and no cache on it.
It would work, but would be kinda pointless.
It's not a terrible drive, just not worth of being a cache drive.
I saw some testing that indicated adding an actual cache to a synology array didn’t create any discernible difference. So I wouldn’t bother either way.
People will complain that this drive has no DRAM cache, so makes it slow and unworthy.
I have been running one in my HTPC for 6 years, and it is going just fine.
At this price, it is indeed a no brainer if you need to upgrade a laptop, or just replace an ageing desktop SSD. I'd spend the (normally) few dollars extra for the MX500, but there's a big gap there now.
Having said that, the MX500 1TB for $89 is a good value option if you can make use of the extra space.
The price is really appealing as consumable cache… any insight into the TBW on these things?
Although the TBW is pretty low, for $39 you could buy one and just toss it when it fails.
As long as it's a pure cache drive (e.g. L2ARC for zfs), then you're not going to lose any data.
Remember though, QLC is slow(er) to write, so you might be better off with a TLC drive (eg. patriot P210 for $37.75 - assuming they're really TLC).
Thoughts on replacing an almost 6yr old Samsung 970? Maybe chuck two in raid?
Not an OS/boot drive.
Keep the 970. It's a faster NVME drive.
If I purchase this drive to replace my aging SSD, is there someway I can make a carbon copy of the old sdd (which contains the OS) and simply swap and drives and make it work ? I'm too lazy to reinstall windows and everything else again.
I used one of the easeUS programs - Partition Master. Did a carbon copy of the kid's drive with no issue. This was an OS/boot drive as well.
last I looked I think EaseUS was a Chinese program
up there with Huawei in the security of your data …
Thanks
I used the software yesterday and it failed after an hour or so. Used Macrium Reflect 8 without problem.
Silicon Power are $33 for 512gb @ UMart/MSY (if you have one close) and they have free software called ECHO. I have not used it so can't comment on how good it is…
$72 for the 1tb
Patriot is a little cheaper. The 480GB supposedly has DRAM cache. The 512GB model is cheaper too. There's also Silicon Power. You can see them in: Customers who viewed this item also viewed.
Hi - My partners MAC All in one is going quite slow. It was purchased new in 2017. I looked it up and a suggestion was to get an external SSD and load the OS onto it and it'll fix it? Anyone have experience in this? Would this item work (not sure if this is external or not, leaning towards internal?). Any help would be amazing thanks!
I have never used Macs, but there must be some way to open them, and replace the internal drive. That said, there are adapters that only cost a few dollars if you really want to use this externally.
External drives are just internal drives in enclosures. There's nothing special about them. Whether or not you can boot from external drives would depend on the system.
Does it have an internal SSD? I suspect it might be an spinning hard drive spinning at a slow 5400rpm. In which case swapping that out to a SSD would make a massive difference.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+Retina+4K+Display+(2017)+Hard+Drive+Replacement/92700
That Mac looks exactly like hers! I'll confirm the model when she's home, and if its a HDD or SSD. I haven't really tinkered too much with PCs, so I'll have to figure out if the physical size of this will fit. Would it be as simple as plugging this SSD into the same spot as the current HDD (after removing it)? Or do SSDs have different plugs?
EDIT: Looking through the instructions I might just get an external one. Don't want to risk damaging her Mac, it looks quite touchy.
They have exactly the same plugs the computer doesn't know the difference. Use time machine and make multiple backups.
It's a big enough performance boost that it's worth paying someone to do. It will extend the devices useful life by years. A 1tb drive is around $100 so if you're going to that effort you may as well load it up.
The external drive is probably a waste of time with no significant performance boost.
@scratchy: Oh really? I thought getting an external SSD and having it boot from that would be pretty much the exact same as having it internally?
@Pub Envelope: No, external drives connected via USB will always be slower. USB is a 'serial' interface, data can either be written or read, not both at the same time. SATA can send a read and write command concurrently.
I would suggest to buy a cheap external enclosure, clone the current drive to the external drive, then swap them. Worst case scenario you plug the old one back in.
I'm surprised any 2017 Mac still had a mechanical boot drive. I thought even the cheapest prebuilts switched to SSD before that.
Wholesale price is close to $50/tb
https://m.aliexpress.com/item/1005004354379763.html
1tb/2tb is sweet spot
$16.55 for this 120gb patriot
$23.50 for 240gb
https://www.amazon.com.au/Patriot-Burst-Elite-120GB-Solid/dp…
Ozbargain meet up to share the 10 pack? 🤣
Honestly who would need 10 120gb SSDs lol.
I don't understand, there is no requirement to buy 10.
Never said it was a requirement but it's literally one of the first options….
I don't think I could have spelt it out any clearer it was humour.
@pennypincher98: Oh right, for a different price that I was talking about. Well there might be use cases for that, but I suspect that is just targeted at budget PC builders.
@Budju: The joke being 10 Ozbargainers buying 1 SSD for $16.55 or $14 each if they met up because people on here spend dollars to save cents and time is worth nothing.
Showing as $47 for me now…
Seller store updated to Amazon AU, back order still available at $39
how do i select backorder? might be gone as well
Not showing in "other sellers" for me I now see its marked as expired
Wow great price
Would something like this make sense for a VIDEO SURVEILLANCE station? Video camera feeds?
I have an old sinology NAS (209 plus) that can take two SATA drives)
No, the constant writing would kill this low endurance drive quickly
Using standard mechanical SATA drives optimised for constant writing eg. WD Purple is still the best option
$38.2 now and in stock
The picture makes the ssd look like a power bank.