One of the main problems facing the SSD industry is the stagnation of the SATA interface in terms of speed. SATA 3 has been with us for too long and doesn’t seem to care too much about HDD speeds. But SSDs are suffering this breakdown, so the choice for a gaming PC of the latter is crucial if we want to maximize performance and durability. Therefore, today we offer you the best 500 GB SATA SSDs on the market.
The best 500 GB SATA 3 SSDs
Western Digital Blue
He was one of the last to arrive, but it is no less important. It offers top-of-the-range performance of 560 MB / s in reading and 530 MB / s in sequential writing. Its resistance reaches up to 200 TBW in this model. Its memory is based on 64-layer TLC and houses a four-channel Marvell 88SS1074 controller with LDPC.
SanDisk Ultra 3D
It is basically the same SSD as the Western Digital Blue, since they share 64-layer TLC 3D NAND Flash memory and Marvell controller. They are differentiated by the inclusion in this model of SanDisk’s ncache technology, which optimizes the performance for its buffer in burst mode, theoretically improving speed in certain scenarios ( 560 MB / s for reading and 530 MB / s for writing) .
Crucial MX500
Crucial is one step behind in terms of performance compared to the previous two options. And it offers 560/510 MB / s respectively thanks to its 64-layer 3D TLC NAND Flash manufactured by Micron, where these will be backed by a Silicon Motion SM2258 controller and a 360 TBW resistor.
Samsung 860 Pro
Although it may not seem like it, the best Samsung SSD for gaming on SATA 3 is still the PRO range. What is surprising is that they carry Samsung’s own NAND Flash with 2 bits, that is, MLC, but it is that in addition to this, it manages to incorporate a Samsung MJX controller with 512 MB of DDR4 SDRAM cache to maximize performance.
It offers like the rest of its competitors a performance of 560/530 MB / s with a durability of 1.5 million hours in use.
Kingston KC600
Again we have NAND Flash TLC 3D here, and although we will not have the performance of the best SSDs in the comparison ( 550/520 MB / s ), it will be very close. Its controller will be a Silicon Motion 2259, the next version to which the Crucial carries, instead, the brand guarantees a durability of 1 million MTBF hours.
Patriot Memory Burst
It is possibly the big surprise in the last year and a half for its performance and quality. It achieves speeds of 560 MB / s in sequential read and 540 MB / s in sequential write, thanks in part to a Phison PS3111-S11 controller. It has a 32 MB cache DRAM in SDR format, although the company does not specify the type of NAND Flash used for its cells. For its performance and durability shown it is more than likely that it uses MLC, since the brand guarantees 425 TBW.
As we can see, the choice between models is really for details, almost all of them border on the same performance, others offer greater durability, others a better price, some a better controller and instead some models have better NAND Flash chips. The choice of the best SATA SSDs has been difficult, since there are models with very similar benefits, but with lower-level features that also influence the price.
These options are the best of the best of each house today, something that we must take into account in all its aspects.
