Brainstorm: Cheapest and most worth considering SSD 2.5 to choose?

Hardware Hub
1

Hi,

I need to buy one new SSD 2.5 SATA for a handy drive for various temporary OS installations.
Something as cheap as possible.
Even 120-128GB will be enough.

It’s not worth spending a lot of money on this drive because it will be sitting in a drawer most of the time anyway.

For a similar purpose, some time ago I bought two ADATA Ultimate SU650, one 120GB and one 512GB. They seem ok.
And I’m currently also thinking about another 120GB… but maybe something better is worth considering in these low price ranges of $12-18?

Silicon Power ACE A55
Patriot P210
Patriot Burst Elite
Verbatim Vi550
X-Star Saber-Tooth Shark
GOODRAM CX400
AFOX SD250-128GN
other…

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My go-to has been Team Group, I have a couple - I think of the AX series - all to revitalize older hardware by getting it off hard drives, and I’ve been happy with them.

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3

used lots of these
I also buy new takeout intel ssd’s for $9-10 on eBay all the time

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4

In my area, only Team Group GX2 is available in this price range. :slight_smile:

5

I see Intel 545S for a little over $12… I was thinking about Intel but somehow I don’t feel motivated to buy used. :slight_smile:

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6

Used Intel DC S3700. The 100GB is rated for 1.8PB and the 200GB version is rated for 3.7PB of endurance. You can get them used for around $10-20.

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7

Grab something that uses DRAM cache and not a craptastic controller.
Kingston KC600, Transcend SSD370S etc

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8

If you’re going bottom of the barrel I wouldn’t go lower than a Kingston A400. It’s dirt cheap but gets the job done.

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9

Are you looking for the drive to hold the .iso images for the various os?

If so get a flash drive and install ventoy to the drive. ventoy make the flash drive bootable and creates a selection menu based on the available .iso on the drive. Yes you can just add and remove the .iso at will with no issues and you can have multiple versions of an os (windows 11 22h1 / 22h2 / 23h1 / windows 10) on it with no issues.

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Not exactly. Working installed systems to boot.
Pen with ventoy and iso I have and use. :slight_smile:

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11

I have one Kingston A400 120GB for a few years and it is ok. But currently the price exceeds the budget and the sense of spending such money. :slight_smile:

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12

Price-wise they are beyond the point of spending that much money on a drive that will mostly sit in a drawer, otherwise they are definitely worth considering. :slight_smile:

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Looks 100GB interesting although in my area they want $31 without shipping. lol :slight_smile:

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Since you’ve already made up your mind buy the cheapest one you can find and don’t complain and it works like crap? :slight_smile:
Sandisk Plus can be found really cheap at times but it performs about as good as a decent USB stick which is the overall performance of these cheap DRAM-less drives.
https://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/OffersOfProduct/4694680_-ssd-plus-120gb-sandisk.html

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15

Ahh! Gotcha!

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16

Well, this whole thread has been about the best of the cheapest crap from the beginning. :slight_smile:

You know, I understand that these are absolutely the lowest shelf drives, but I’m on an extremely tight budget after my dad’s death, and this drive will be used a maximum of a few times a year for a few hours. It will be a loose drive for dirty, temporary startups without speed requirements, as long as it’s faster than an HDD and it’ll be enough. :slight_smile:

I was originally aiming for the ADATA Su650, which is hard to call super quality, but it’s just such a cheap, OK drive. But I thought I’d ask what others see as reasonable at such low prices that’s worth it instead.

All suggestions are appreciated by me, but at the end of the day, the budget and the fact that I can’t spend money on this specific need hold me back.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions, I am checking all of them to see if I have them available locally and how much they would cost me at the end of the day.

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