PC Buying Guide 2024

[Lerian]

So, I take back the recommendation for the Samsung 990 pro drives after I saw this. I was assuming that there's not much of a difference between the 980pro and the 990pro, but it seems that there is. My 980 pro drives are running fine for more than a year. So yeah, there's that.

[uOpt]

For m.2 NVMe SSDs I buy WD's sn850x models. No problems.

I don't trust Samsung.

[vignesh.vijay]

So, I take back the recommendation for the Samsung 990 pro drives after I saw this. I was assuming that there's not much of a difference between the 980pro and the 990pro, but it seems that there is. My 980 pro drives are running fine for more than a year. So yeah, there's that.

wow thanks for the heads up.. I would have got that.
So its between Crucial T500 or WD_Black SN850X ? I have had bad experiences with WD but it was long time back when i was using HDD.

[Lerian]

Samsung makes very good ssds, and 980 pro are among the most reliable and still have the best real life performance, even among PCIe5 drives. If you want to see what is the real life performance, look in CristalDiskMark the RND4K Q1T1 value. The 980 pro has 83-88Mb/s, and the 990pro 85-90mb/s. Almost the same. The Crucial T705, which is considered to be the fastest consumer SSD today reaching 14000mb/s in seq read, has only 76mb/s in RND4k. And it costs double.

The only gen5 drive with real life performance better than the samsung (that I know of) is the Corsair MP700, which can reach 93-95Mb/s in RND4K Q1T1 (not to be confused with Q32T1). Also it costs double than the 980pro. Is it worth it? I don't know. I would rather buy some enterprise grade sata ssd for the difference, to use as sample/project storage - even if they are limited in speed by the sata bus, they have low latency and fast access time.

Whatever you chose, you should definitely get a SSD with DRAM, check this list to see which have and which doesn't. As you can see in there, many companies have just rebranded SSDs with different software settings. And pay attention to RND4K Q1T1 value in crystaldiskmark, forget about the SEQ values as they don't really help (the seq speed only matters when you read/write large files, which in a DAW you only do when rendering, and that will be way slower due to the processing that needs to be done).

[Pictus]

Whatever you chose, you should definitely get a SSD with DRAM, (...)

For the boot drive or a drive you are constant writing, yes... For the rest no need.

[vignesh.vijay]

Whatever you chose, you should definitely get a SSD with DRAM, check this list to see which have and which doesn't.

I don't see the DRAM value on the sheet listed here.
Ok. So does it mean WD has the best among the lot? If so, I can choose that and get done with one decision
https://shop.sandisk.com/products/ssd/i ... XHE-00BCA0

[vignesh.vijay]

Update- I got a great deal at amazon for 9950x. So ordered it. Not sure what Unlocked means though
https://www.amazon.com/AMD-RyzenTM-9950 ... B0D6NNRBGP

[uOpt]

For SSD specs including whether they have DRAM use the techpowerup SSD database:
https://www.techpowerup.com/ssd-specs/

[Lerian]

Whatever you chose, you should definitely get a SSD with DRAM, check this list to see which have and which doesn't.

I don't see the DRAM value on the sheet listed here.
Ok. So does it mean WD has the best among the lot? If so, I can choose that and get done with one decision
https://shop.sandisk.com/products/ssd/i ... XHE-00BCA0

It is right there:


WD is also a good choice.

PS: about the memory, I just realized what you meant "memory made for intel". I think you are talking about the XMP settings, on the AMD you have to look for the EXPO settings. That's just some pre-defined memory timings/speed that are proven to work with specific CPUs. You just load the EXPO settings and you are done. I also have EXPO memory and it was easy to set up - load and done.

Another thing about memory, take the lower CL value as it comes with the lowest latency regardless of the speed (6400/6000). A DDR6000 module with CL30 is faster than DDR6400 module with CL36.

Unlocked means you can overclock/undervolt it. I suggest you will test undervolting it, as these CPUs can take lower power to achieve higher speeds at lower temps. Enjoy it, its the sweet spot in CPU power/price.

[AcrossTheSky]

For m.2 NVMe SSDs I buy WD's sn850x models. No problems.

I don't trust Samsung.

Samsung is absolute rubbish - Kingston nvme drives are far better

[vignesh.vijay]

cool, thanks for the suggestion.
On WD, there are 2 options now- SN850X vs SN850P
The only difference is SN850P is PS optimized and price is pretty much the same. SN850X is $30 less
Should I prefer one over the other?

[uOpt]

cool, thanks for the suggestion.
On WD, there are 2 options now- SN850X vs SN850P
The only difference is SN850P is PS optimized and price is pretty much the same. SN850X is $30 less
Should I prefer one over the other?

I only verified the X as being good.

[vignesh.vijay]

Ok great, thanks.. also does unlocked mean anything?
https://a.co/d/5Sgu0Pu

[Kaine]

Intel Ultra Series and 9800X3D DAWBench results
https://www.scanproaudio.info/2024/11/2 ... d-9800x3d/

[vignesh.vijay]

There's a good deal on crucial ram but it's 5600 mhz.
Is there a significant difference between 5600 mhz and 6400 mhz?

https://a.co/d/cAtHJcq