1. Price Too Good to Be True
- If a “1 TB NVMe” is selling for $20–30 while a Crucial or WD is $50–60, it’s almost always cutting corners:
- DRAM-less
- Tiny or no SLC cache
- Low-end controller
- Unknown NAND quality
2. Check the TBW / Endurance Rating
- Reputable brands publish TBW (terabytes written) or DWPD (drive writes per day).
- If the spec sheet doesn’t list TBW at all → 🚩 red flag.
- Example:
- Samsung 1TB = 600 TBW
- Cheap 1TB = maybe 100 TBW (or not listed).
3. Look for DRAM
- DRAM SSDs = consistently good performance.
- DRAM-less SSDs = sluggish when doing random I/O (booting OS, multitasking).
- Specs sometimes mention “HMB” (Host Memory Buffer) for NVMe drives — that means DRAM-less, using your system RAM instead (better than nothing, but still slower).
- Rule: For your boot/system drive → avoid DRAM-less.
4. Sustained Write Speed
- Specs often list “up to 3500 MB/s”, but that’s only the burst speed in cache.
- Good manufacturers publish sustained write performance beyond cache.
- Cheap SSDs can drop from 3500 MB/s → 100 MB/s when cache runs out.
5. Brand Transparency
- Reputable brands (Samsung, Crucial/Micron, WD/SanDisk, Kingston, Intel) tell you:
- NAND type (TLC, QLC, etc.)
- Controller used
- Cache design
- No-name brands often don’t specify, because it changes batch to batch.
6. Reviews & User Reports
- Check benchmarks on sites like StorageReview, AnandTech, TechPowerUp, Tom’s Hardware.
- On Amazon, look for reviews that mention slow sustained writes or feels slower than HDD — classic signs of cut-rate SSDs.
✅ Quick Rule of Thumb (my cheat sheet):
- Boot / main system drive → Buy TLC NAND + DRAM (Samsung 970/980 EVO, Crucial MX500, WD Black/Blue SN570, Kingston KC3000, etc.).
- Bulk storage / game drive → DRAM-less NVMe (like Crucial P3, WD SN350) is fine if price is right.
- Never trust a no-name “too cheap” SSD unless you don’t mind if it dies or runs like a USB stick.