Sandisk X400 vs Samsung 850 Evo vs Crucial MX200

I've decided to hold on to my current laptop for a bit longer. To breathe some life into it, I've decided to increase the RAM from 6GB to 16GB (not sure if it's overkill, but I've experienced some "systems slowing to a crawl" thrashing at time, and it's not that expensive), and, more importantly finally make that jump to SSD. I've narrowed down to the three drives after reading around.

Given that my 640GB is pretty full right now, I am looking for a 960GB/1TB drive. Yes I may be able to clear enough space for a 480GB/512GB drive in the short term, but it's just going to be a hassle trying to keep the capacity within those limit.

The Samsung 850 Evo seems to be the best performing drive. In Japan though, it has never dropped below around £260. I note that prices are swinging quite a bit in the UK, but sometime dropping towards £200. Since I'll be back in the UK for 2-3 weeks in August, so I am thinking off till then.

The Sandisk X400 is a pretty new drive and seemingly the fastest planar TLC, though quite a bit behind Samsung. The TBW is over double Samsung's, but I wonder how important that is. It's £215 in Japan, so I think a bit cheaper than what I've seen in the UK, but more than what I've seen the 850 Evo cost (I am a bit worried that the pound will result in price inching back up though).

The Crucial MX200 is the only MLC drive in this list. And the only reason it's here really. Performance wise, it's a bit of a toss up compared to the X400, and behind the 850 Evo. Warranty is the shortest at 3 years. In Japan, it's about £230, so again, might be a bit cheaper here.

Any thought? If I was to order today, I'd probably go for the X400, but I must say that the Evo looks much faster in the reviews, though I wonder if the difference outside benchmarks. It would also kind of suck if by the time I am back to the UK, prices shoot up to £275 or something (though with the 4TB drive out recently, I'd expect prices on lower capacity to gradually drop).

Also, can I simply clone the content of my current HD to the new drive and do a straight swap?

Thanks.

Performance on SATA drives seems to be limited by the interface so most large capacity new drives from big brands tend to perform around the same. The 850 EVO still edges out the competition in benchmarks but it's not clear that anyone would notice the difference between drives in real world usage. I'd go for the drive with the longest warranty and best price so long as it's within 10% of the 850 EVO in benchmarks.

There are plenty of tools to clone drives. Gparted (linux liveusb) and Minitool (more user friendly) are two free ones I know of.

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Originally Posted by TooNice

Given that my 640GB is pretty full right now, I am looking for a 960GB/1TB drive. Yes I may be able to clear enough space for a 480GB/512GB drive in the short term, but it's just going to be a hassle trying to keep the capacity within those limit.

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Does your laptop have an optical drive? Could something like this be an option? Smaller, cheaper SSD for Windows and programs, but keep bulk data on your existing drive.

Hmm, that could be an option. I *have* used my optical drive in the past two years, but admittedly not enough that I would miss it too much. It would also ensure that my current drive doesn't sit around collecting dust.

Is the cost/GB kind of on free fall, or has things been pretty stable in the past two years?

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Originally Posted by TooNice

Hmm, that could be an option. I *have* used my optical drive in the past two years, but admittedly not enough that I would miss it too much. It would also ensure that my current drive doesn't sit around collecting dust.

Is the cost/GB kind of on free fall, or has things been pretty stable in the past two years?

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USB optical drives aren't expensive...

As for cost/GB it's fallen, but I wouldn't describe it as free fall by any stretch.

It's still one more thing to carry (I am relocating which is why I am trying to get this out of the way) ;) Out of curiosity (and in the interest of saving £30 or so), do you think that a laptop optical drives would work with a SATA-to-USB adapter? I don't see a reason why it wouldn't given unless optical drives consume more power than 2.5" HD and can't be powered by USB unless specially made for it, but what do you think?

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Originally Posted by TooNice

Is the cost/GB kind of on free fall, or has things been pretty stable in the past two years?

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It fell quite a lot last year but levelled off and hasn't fallen much yet this year.

Why not just install the SSD where the hard drive currently is with the OS on it and put the HDD in the DVD caddy. Then when you want to use the DVD drive just swap it in.

I've been looking at SSDs for a few weeks now and, AIUI, Samsung's 3-D VNAND technology is more 'robust' than the flat-earth varieties.
Been to busy on Thing's That Must Be Done to get an SSD and meanwhile, for some unfathomable reason, the Samsungs (EVO & Pro) have increased in price :mad:

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Originally Posted by TooNice

... do you think that a laptop optical drives would work with a SATA-to-USB adapter?

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Yes, the power requirements are generally quite low.

I have a laptop DVD-RW that lives in a USB caddy myself.

@Iconix
That's pretty much what Bagnaj97 mentioned, and I am looking into it :) I'd prefer being able to attach the optical drive via USB with some kind of adapter if possible though. Swapping the HD/BD drive is not a big amount of work but it still a bit more than ideal.

@Giraffe
Hmm, but Samsung's TBW is 150, against Sandisk's 340. Well, that's for the 1TB. If I go down to 500/512GB, it pretty much levels. Actually, I must say that the 500GB Evo is looking good to me now. It has the same performance rating as the 1TB version, almost the same TBW as the 512GB Sandisk, and priced the same.

@DDY
Thanks!

1. So the RAM did me a lot of good. Hurrah!
2. I went for the 500GB 850 Evo.. tried to clone with Minitool, didn't work.. then tried again with Macrium, and it did. Works a treat. Hurrah!.
3. Went on to try and remove the BD combo drive to put my old HD in instead. Stripped screw looks pretty hopeless with the tools that I have. Boo!

I have a Samsung 850 Evo 960Gb that I bought for £184 at the last Amazon Black Friday sale. Timing is everything :)

I am amazed by now light those things are. It feels like I am holding an empty metallic name card holder.