Failure rates and RMAs might be more common when manufactuerers save a buck. Samsung SSDs for example are expensive AF, but they have a good reputation for reliablility and lifespan.
Of course, being diligent about backing up your data means that you might benefit from the savings with less worry about the risk. Or you could use the cheaper SSD for something like a Steam library where you may not care as much about long term data preservation.
Word of warning though: super cheap end might end up with you getting scammed, or things like SSDs without DRAM caches, which are slower than even HDDs.
As a personal example of Samsung reliability, my 11 years old samsung SSD is still kicking, despite being used as a cache for my Truenas homelab for half of it. This thing will outlive me 😆
From what I‘ve heard it‘s all about guarantees because SSDs have a tendency to just go bad sometimes. Some SSDs are more expensive because the manufacturer will offer a replacement for up to 5 years. You can expect these manufacturers to have better quality control too. They don‘t want to replace SSDs left and right after all.
Take this with a grain of salt because I never actually had to get an SSD replaced myself. But I would only trust a manufacturer that‘s been in business with a good reputation for 5 to 10 years. Cheap storage sounds tempting but for me it‘s not worth risking to lose my data over. Yes I make backups but still.
It depends on the use case. I use teamgroup high capacity SSD drives for short load things on my homelab but they are super slow for any kind of extended writing due to a number of factors such as cache writes. I had to warranty two of 5 that died within a few weeks but it has been fine once the duds were replaced and they were easy about honoring the warranty.
Again, fine for a homelab but I wouldn’t use them in my gaming rig where speed matters. For things like readimg of stored video and Linux isos, they work pretty good.
Semi related note: Is there any reason not to buy the cheaper SSD brands like kingspec and team group?
Failure rates and RMAs might be more common when manufactuerers save a buck. Samsung SSDs for example are expensive AF, but they have a good reputation for reliablility and lifespan.
Of course, being diligent about backing up your data means that you might benefit from the savings with less worry about the risk. Or you could use the cheaper SSD for something like a Steam library where you may not care as much about long term data preservation.
Word of warning though: super cheap end might end up with you getting scammed, or things like SSDs without DRAM caches, which are slower than even HDDs.
As a personal example of Samsung reliability, my 11 years old samsung SSD is still kicking, despite being used as a cache for my Truenas homelab for half of it. This thing will outlive me 😆
YMMV.
You gotta look up reviews. Both buyer track records, and focused reviews that look at what controller/NAND they use.
Many SSDs are basically the same as other brands internally. A few are wonky. It just depends.
From what I‘ve heard it‘s all about guarantees because SSDs have a tendency to just go bad sometimes. Some SSDs are more expensive because the manufacturer will offer a replacement for up to 5 years. You can expect these manufacturers to have better quality control too. They don‘t want to replace SSDs left and right after all.
Take this with a grain of salt because I never actually had to get an SSD replaced myself. But I would only trust a manufacturer that‘s been in business with a good reputation for 5 to 10 years. Cheap storage sounds tempting but for me it‘s not worth risking to lose my data over. Yes I make backups but still.
It depends on the use case. I use teamgroup high capacity SSD drives for short load things on my homelab but they are super slow for any kind of extended writing due to a number of factors such as cache writes. I had to warranty two of 5 that died within a few weeks but it has been fine once the duds were replaced and they were easy about honoring the warranty.
Again, fine for a homelab but I wouldn’t use them in my gaming rig where speed matters. For things like readimg of stored video and Linux isos, they work pretty good.
I got like 4 kingspecs. Work fine since 2025