Favored/Favorite SSDs Right Now

[britechguy]

Just like everything else in our industry. There are very few actual manufacturers of technology hardware

Yup, which is one of the reasons I have not been brand loyal for virtually any component of computer systems for many years now. When shopping for myself, I'm strictly a price-oriented shopper, as I've found few, most often no, differences between "super deluxe-o" component X and bargain component X in actual field service.

 

[seashore]

With all brands, we update the firmware, and ensure the BIOS of the host computer is updated, when we upgrade/clone from spinner to SSD.

Interesting. I guess that's to improve reliability? I've never considered doing it so far and been ok, but maybe I've been lucky. Happy to do updates from now on if it reduces problems.

 

[labtech]

SSD have a limited amount of write cycles. Therefore, there are two major factors in when and how an SSD dies.

1) If a lot of data are stored on it, then very little space is left being use for page faulting and everything else thrown at it, which will wear out quicker the empty flash areas, eventually leading to failure (Biggest problem now seen with Apple's SSD nowadays, where people have huge Photos and Music libraries on the local drive, making them slow and wearing out quicker than anticipated).
2) The type of environment/application the SSD is used in (SSDs with poor quality chips and low over-provisioning, on a server, will die quickly, while on mom's or granddad's laptop surfing Facebook a few times a week, will last forever - since many folks here do a lot of residential and people are more on their smartphone than computers, then their SSD will take a while to fail).

Poor quality SSDs die from cheap electronic components, like the older Crucial models. Other die from poor firmware bugs like the older Intel models (those also had a power-related bug, which all manufacturers learned from) and just about all SandForce controller based older models.

Would recommend staying away from consumer line of SSDs by LiteOn, Adata and Kingston.

 

[carmen617]

I try to upsell any client who brings in a system with a spinner to an SSD. I buy mostly Samsung because I downsize many of my clients from 1TB to 250 or 500GB, and the Samsung Data Migration software is generally easy and reliable for a downsize clone. However, I've come across a few Dell Inspiron machines that are completely incompatible with Samsung, and for those a WD drive will work. I also go to Microcenter every so often and stock up on some cheap Inland drives to use for clean installs for cheapo clients and the occasional refurbishing of a suitable older system handed to me for disposal.

I've probably installed 300 or more SSDs in the last few years, and I've only had 2 fail on me. One was Crucial and one was PNY.

 

[MDD1963]

I've used 15-20 Crucial MX500 SSDs in an even mixture of both 500 GB and 1 TB capacities...

Never an issue, and nearly always $20-$40 less expensive than Samsung 860 EVO; if/when prices equal, I'd go w/ Samsung.

 

[Porthos]

Kingston

I had a client about a month ago with a dead one of these.

 

[Porthos]

I try to upsell any client who brings in a system with a spinner to an SSD

95% get done. Secret, I usually price work on a spinner higher and it makes it worth it for client to agree.

 

[carmen617]

95% get done. Secret, I usually price work on a spinner higher and it makes it worth it for client to agree.

I don't even make much more profit when I upgrade them, but if I do the upgrade first it makes it so much faster to work on the system than on one with a spinner, so it's worth it. However, occasionally I run into one of those awful laptops that makes you disassemble the whole thing to replace the drive. Let's just say I don't push as hard to upgrade those .

 

[britechguy]

. . . occasionally I run into one of those awful laptops that makes you disassemble the whole thing to replace the drive.

If it's only "occasionally" consider yourself lucky. I seem to be cursed by getting nothing but "near impossible to service because they were designed to be that way" laptops when I have to deal with a laptop.

I even have three that fit that description in my household at the moment, as it's becoming almost impossible to get anything else, particularly as the trend toward ultra-thin and light marches on.

 

[Porthos]

I don't even make much more profit when I upgrade them, but if I do the upgrade first it makes it so much faster to work on the system

Same. I do a 256 SATA SSD for $150 and I pay $30 for them now.
NVME a little higher depending on cost and difficulty of access like you said.

 

[Diggs]

Same. I do a 256 SATA SSD for $150 and I pay $30 for them now.
NVME a little higher depending on cost and difficulty of access like you said.

This was the exact size and pricing I was using but SSDs have gone up a bit in price and I am using better(?) name brand drives so I am charging $175 for a 250 GB.

 

[Dean Spyropoulos]

Has anyone had any luck with Teamgroup SSD?

 

[fincoder]

I'd rather he not have to go through a Feature Update in very short order after all that's already occurred.

Feature updates are now optional, for maybe 6 months or longer, after that they are forced.

I no longer automatically upgrade to the latest, and sometimes install the previous version if I suspect issues with the latest. I've had a graphics driver issue on a 2004 install so I'm being cautious.

 

[fincoder]

Has anyone had any luck with Teamgroup SSD?

I've used maybe 40-50 TeamGroup SSDs. I've had one of the earlier 480GB Evo models fail completely after about a year of use in a Macbook, distributor Synnex handled the return and refunded as credit. In the last year I've been using the TeamGroup GX2 256GB/512GB models and have had no failures.

I've also had Samsung, Sandisk and Kingston failures (only 1 or 2 each brand). Had about 5 Intel SSDs fail even though I haven't used large numbers, haven't used any in a while

 

[alexsmith2709]

Has anyone had any luck with Teamgroup SSD?

I've got one in the PC im using at the moment, I've only had it a week, but its still working so +1 for not being DOA!
It looks like Teamgroup produce their own things and the data sheet doesnt give any indication of what components are inside

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Interesting. I guess that's to improve reliability? I've never considered doing it so far and been ok, but maybe I've been lucky. Happy to do updates from now on if it reduces problems.

To improve reliability and compatibility, from both sides. The firmware of the drive itself, and the BIOS of the host computer.
No matter which brand of drive, although...granted.....>95% of the drives we've installed were Crucial. MX series only, not the more budget BX models. Have literally over a couple of thousand out on the field, they're doing well.

 

[britechguy]

The firmware of the drive itself, and the BIOS of the host computer.

On the machine I'm currently trying to "revive from the dead" the existing BIOS/UEFI dates from 2013, there's an update from December 2018 that will be promptly applied.

It's perversely amusing, but PNY's own support page links to a firmware update page that is currently giving a 404 - Not Found, about which they've been notified.

 

[britechguy]

Well, PNY responded to me very promptly saying there is no firmware update for the CS900 SSD at this time. It took under 10 minutes, from firing the machine to the install completing on Windows 10, Version 1909. I decided to be conservative given the current issues being reported with Version 2004.

After Windows 10 was in I ran Dell's BIOS updater and went up to their most recent version for the Optiplex 3010, dated December 2018, from a version from 2013.

Bad news on the potential for recovery for the original WD Blue Caviar HDD, with the recovery lab saying, "The drive's read/write heads are badly mangled. Depending on how many times it was powered on in this condition, recovery might not even be possible since some drive-specific firmware code is stored on the platters. We can't know the condition of that code until we actually replace the read/write heads from a donor drive." I know that the client tried to fire it up multiple times, and I needed to do so just to try to determine what might have been going on. He's now got to decide whether he's willing to pay what a "complicated" recovery would cost.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@britechguy, that's ~$150 for the donor drive to take a peek, and probably $750 or so to get the data back if possible. Call it $1000, I just did it myself.

 

[HCHTech]

Largely because of posts here when SSDs first became a thing, we use only Samsung 860s and 970s - whether for upgrades or builds. I like standardization and their cloning and drive management softwares have been bulletproof in our experience. Like @YeOldeStonecat , we always upgrade the BIOS and firmware - every time. We always double the customer's data footprint for sizing, then also quote the next size up and let the customer choose.

We do our standard parts markup on whatever we paid for the drives, no need to gouge...er....over-profitize. I'll have to look at how many we've sold, I haven't kept track of that statistic. I remember a single DOA drive, but no failures. I'm sure there is a Quickbooks report somewhere - I'll post that info if I get a chance.