Looking for cheap ~1TB ssd`s

[GlitchyDot]

Hi, im looking for some cheap 1TB ssd`s sub 50$ ( Obviously, im in Europe, but price would be give a take same in Euros +- few Euros ) to run vm for llm`s. Obviously it wont be used for anything else. no need of DRAM as it would cost more and just for llm model storage i think its not worth it.
Im in need of ssd`s due to constraint of space in my pc case and i have future plans to minimize even more.
Any suggestions ?

 

[SirDice]

I see Alternate (Dutch company) has the Crucial BX500 1 TB SSD for a little under 60 euro. It's a SATA SSD. A couple of other brands are similarly priced.

 

[Phishfry]

I ended up buying eight of those Crucial drives for an 8 bay Intel cage. San Disk was slightly more for 1TB.
Would have prefered enterprise SAS but nothing big sizewise cheap.

 

[lowkeyloki]

I'm pretty sure the cheapest 1TB SSD from a ... reputable manufacturer is the Crucial BX500.
I have a couple of these, have had for quite a while. They're fine. They're SLOW. No cache. SLOW. As long as that's ok for your use-case, you can't go cheaper unless you're willing to chance getting junky garbage.

 

[GlitchyDot]

I see Alternate (Dutch company) has the Crucial BX500 1 TB SSD for a little under 60 euro. It's a SATA SSD. A couple of other brands are similarly priced.

I completely forgot about Crucial BX series. Good idea to see how much is in my country.
Just checked yeah - these goas around 58-65 euros. Not bad.

As long as that's ok for your use-case, you can't go cheaper unless you're willing to chance getting junky garbage.

They can be as slow as mechanical .. im not using it for anything than llm model storage as it rumps up very quickly . few llms and you have 200GB used .

What about ADATA, KINGSTON,LEXAR,SILICON POWER ?
Some ADATA cost 50 euros for 960GB.

 

[cy@]

IMO you get what you pay for.

My Acer 4752 has a Samsung EVO 870 1 TB and my other two laptops have WD Black SN850X SSDs. Each is double the price you're looking at but they're each good for over 600 cycles.

Many times buying cheap means you will need to painfully replace sooner than later. IMO, I'm not worried as much about performance than I am about longevity. Financially, I don't like buying new stuff to replace the old because the old wore out sooner than expected. And with storage media, replacing SSD/disk on laptops is a PITA. Not from a replace the hardware POV but restoring data from backups. And, most people don't back up their laptops. They're hooped when a storage device fails.

Protect your data and your sanity. Do your homework. Look for something that has a good chance of lasting the life of your laptop.

My servers downstairs in my basement all use spinning rust. I use geom and ZFS mirrors. I replace failed disks about every 3-5 years. My oldest SSD is not nearly that old and the laptop it's in has been now relegated to a bge(4) testbed.

 

[Phishfry]

Kingston Good rest errrr emmmm. Lexar was good microSD....

I just bought a batch of 10 drives from a manufacturer I never heard of. StorFly. 25XE 960GB drives.
They look like an enterprise brand.

 

[GlitchyDot]

IMO you get what you pay for.

My Acer 4752 has a Samsung EVO 870 1 TB and my other two laptops have WD Black SN850X SSDs. Each is double the price you're looking at but they're each good for over 600 cycles.

Many times buying cheap means you will need to painfully replace sooner than later. IMO, I'm not worried as much about performance than I am about longevity. Financially, I don't like buying new stuff to replace the old because the old wore out sooner than expected. And with storage media, replacing SSD/disk on laptops is a PITA. Not from a replace the hardware POV but restoring data from backups. And, most people don't back up their laptops. They're hooped when a storage device fails.

Protect your data and your sanity. Do your homework. Look for something that has a good chance of lasting the life of your laptop.

My servers downstairs in my basement all use spinning rust. I use geom and ZFS mirrors. I replace failed disks about every 3-5 years. My oldest SSD is not nearly that old and the laptop it's in has been now relegated to a bge(4) testbed.

I agree, but im using on my desktop PC and its only for local llm`s .. nothing fancy, simple bhyve+gpu passtrough+1TB mirrored or 2TB striped to store models. i really dont need expensive plus worst case scenario i can wait for 5-30min to redownload. or im missing something ?

Kingston Good rest errrr emmmm. Lexar was good microSD....

Just out of curiosity: how many different controller manufacturers are there ? because i think most of the drives are basically same just different names and pricing. and controllers are giva take made by same companies and supplied to majority of these brands.
Its like with water cooling pumps - major pump brand and 90% is rebranded and price difference due to brand.

 

[Phishfry]

Well Kingston was there at the beginning with the X-25. Was it an Intel Drive with Kingston markings? I dunno.
Yes there are lots of tie ins. As cy@ says do your homework.
Lots of Ford versus Chevy. Coke versus Pepsi.
I am Samsung fanboy. I can't always afford it.
Like I mention every once in a while you gotta gamble. If you feel good about it buy it.

 

[cracauer@]

I have a bunch of Crucial MX500. I wouldn't go lower than that.

 

[bgavin]

I inherited a big bucket full of Kingston KC300 which are 128gb.
These are SATA-III disks and none have failed in many customer installations.

That bucket also had some Micron MX500s, also which have proved very reliable.
They are not as fast as the M2 disks, but I don't expect them to be, either.

I use the small 128gb SSD for System volumes, larger physical ones for Data volumes.

 

[cy@]

This reminds me. M.2 SSDs come in two flavours. SATA and NVMe. My HP laptop takes either SATA or NVMe SSDs in the M.2 slot. The hardware will use either protocol. NVMe SSDs perform better but you pay more for NVMe. Find out what your MB will accept and plan accordingly.

 

[bgavin]

I recently upgraded my grand daughter's WD Blue SSD with a Samsung 990 Pro with heatsink.
Very nice hardware.. the heatsink is an especially nice touch for the NVMe extra heat and lack of fan cooling.
I've seen a number of bricked cheap SSD, so I see no point in going cheap.

 

[cy@]

I recently upgraded my grand daughter's WD Blue SSD with a Samsung 990 Pro with heatsink.
Very nice hardware.. the heatsink is an especially nice touch for the NVMe extra heat and lack of fan cooling.
I've seen a number of bricked cheap SSD, so I see no point in going cheap.

Yup. You get what you pay for.

 

[USerID]

I recently upgraded my grand daughter's WD Blue SSD with a Samsung 990 Pro with heatsink.

350 US dollars in Ukraine. For this money I can buy a used laptop in good condition Dell Latitude 5410 (14" • i5 10210u • 16gb • ssd 240GB). 68 US dollars - The rest of the money. You can drink.

Yup. You get what you pay for.

It's a marketing slogan. You're overpaying.

 

[_martin]

I would not buy cheap SSDs , not worth the problems.
In my local shop 1TB SSD WD Blue goes for 83,90E. That would be my choice. I have many WD blue SSDs and nvme sticks (10+), no problems at all.

I had 4 120G kingston SSDs in LAB (I think A400 or alike) - none of them survived for more than 2 years; actually some way less.
I still have 80GB intel SSD (ssdsa2m080g2gc), my first ever ssd. I bought in 2010 for 211.45E. I still use it in LAB as boot disk.

On server I use WD Red ones. One of my server has these with cca 97160 powered on hours. True, not the busiest server there is but stil..

 

[cy@]

350 US dollars in Ukraine. For this money I can buy a used laptop in good condition Dell Latitude 5410 (14" • i5 10210u • 16gb • ssd 240GB). 68 US dollars - The rest of the money. You can drink.

This is a totally different kettle of fish. You can replace any component, except storage, and your data is still safe.

A 240 GB SSD is pretty tiny. I've put 250 GB on my 1 TB SSD, mostly with git repos and 30 years of email. My work laptop has a 250 GB which is 70% full and all files are stored in the company cloud, requiring a VPN connection to do any real work.

Booze is mostly a waste of money.

It's a marketing slogan. You're overpaying.

I've bought cheap before. Had to replace it sooner than better quality stuff.

Take paint for example. Cheap paint will last for 3-5 years. The neighbour down the street painted her house about ten years ago. Three years later it looked like crap. Good pricier paint can last up to ten. We did our fence with a high quality paint ten years ago, double the price the cheapest paint I could buy. It still looks good. I paid extra for the paint and saved myself having to repaint it twice or maybe three times.

SSDs are spec'd for greater or fewer cycles. You take a chance when you pay half the price for an SSD with one third r one sixth of the expected life. You may replace it after a few short years or you may get lucky. If you're handy with a soldering iron.