WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.880 As far as exciting PC components go, 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:10.360 storage is pretty close to the bottom. So, I can understand why many gamers 00:00:07.640 --> 00:00:14.720 simply add up their Steam backlog, key their target capacity into the filter 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:19.480 menu, sort by price, and click buy. I mean, it's not like your SSD impacts 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:23.800 gaming performance anyway. Or does it? Actually, it can. And even for 00:00:21.360 --> 00:00:28.200 day-to-day use, the difference between a bottom-of-the-barrel SSD and a good one 00:00:26.200 --> 00:00:32.040 can be a lot more than you would think from quickly glancing at a spec sheet. 00:00:30.560 --> 00:00:36.840 And I'm not just talking about performance. Some of the most popular 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:42.320 SSDs on the market are missing an important feature that also impacts 00:00:39.240 --> 00:00:46.800 reliability. I'm talking about cold, 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:48.840 hard cash, baby. That little DRAM cash 00:00:46.800 --> 00:00:53.640 chip right there can [music] make a big difference, and many SSD makers just 00:00:52.160 --> 00:00:57.840 don't want to talk about it. To the point where until you peel up the 00:00:55.680 --> 00:01:03.280 sticker, it can be hard to know whether their product has one or doesn't. Why? 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:08.240 Of course, the answer is the other kind of cash. So, let's talk about how to 00:01:05.720 --> 00:01:12.840 tell the difference, how much it matters or doesn't matter, and which 00:01:10.720 --> 00:01:16.320 manufacturers are transparent about their products, and which ones seem to 00:01:14.360 --> 00:01:20.560 be going out of their way to make this information harder to find. Just like 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:26.560 I'm going out of my way to tell you about our sponsor. See who? Their new 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:28.640 SeeWho Doro C300 Pro V2 is a full-body 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:33.720 adaptive ergonomic chair with some features you may not be used to seeing 00:01:30.960 --> 00:01:38.320 or SeeWhoing. See who what I did? Learn more by using our link in the 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:38.320 video description. 00:01:41.526 --> 00:01:43.546 >> [music] 00:01:45.640 --> 00:01:53.120 >> What's the difference between this SSD and this one? Well, if you knew that 00:01:50.960 --> 00:01:57.840 this one came later, and if you were already familiar with this one, you 00:01:55.280 --> 00:02:02.960 would probably think that the SE was short for second edition or special 00:02:00.360 --> 00:02:09.640 edition and that wow, that's a pretty good deal, right? Wrong. See, unlike the 00:02:06.240 --> 00:02:11.560 original, the sequel omits a DRAM chip 00:02:09.640 --> 00:02:15.920 making it about as good of a follow-up on the original as the return of Jafar. 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:20.171 But, if you look at the product pages or the technical specifications, you will 00:02:17.720 --> 00:02:24.680 find no mention of that important [music] difference. Now, the SE does 00:02:22.880 --> 00:02:30.680 have things about it that are better. It moves to PCIe Gen 4, but the thing is 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:32.640 that even in a best-case scenario, this 00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:36.760 drive hardly takes advantage of that increased bandwidth. So, what is 00:02:34.640 --> 00:02:41.680 supposed to be a product information sheet turns instead into a product 00:02:39.080 --> 00:02:46.160 marketing sheet and WD [music] is far from the only one engaging in this 00:02:43.160 --> 00:02:48.440 behavior. So, why does it matter? Well, 00:02:46.160 --> 00:02:53.680 your SSD is actually a tiny little computer inside your computer with its 00:02:51.240 --> 00:02:58.680 own little energy-efficient SOC called a controller. The SOC [music] contains a 00:02:55.760 --> 00:03:03.800 CPU, firmware, its own memory by the way, and everything it needs both to 00:03:01.040 --> 00:03:08.120 interface with your PC and with the NAND flash chips that actually store your 00:03:05.760 --> 00:03:12.080 data. The ones that have a DRAM cache are using that to store the flash 00:03:09.959 --> 00:03:18.120 translation layer, which is sort of like a map or a lookup table that tells your 00:03:14.959 --> 00:03:20.360 operating system exactly where all of 00:03:18.120 --> 00:03:24.480 the data is stored on the physical NAND that makes up your storage. Aside from 00:03:22.239 --> 00:03:28.519 improving performance by just knowing where your data lives, especially as the 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:34.000 drive becomes more full, that map helps your SSD to organize and decide which 00:03:31.320 --> 00:03:38.480 blocks are best to erase and where to write new data in order to minimize 00:03:35.920 --> 00:03:43.160 wear. But, since some drives don't have a DRAM cache, obviously that's not the 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:48.440 only solution. Modern drives do have some good enough workarounds so they 00:03:45.560 --> 00:03:53.080 don't need to use expensive DRAM, which is especially relevant today. For NVMe 00:03:51.200 --> 00:03:57.480 drives, the ones that look like this, host memory buffer is a feature that 00:03:54.760 --> 00:04:02.440 uses a little bit of your system memory to store this map. It's not as fast as 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:06.560 having it directly on board the SSD or as large, but given that this strategy 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:11.360 is usually employed in lower cost drives, the PCIe interface has enough 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:15.880 bandwidth for it to offer decent performance. Finally, the map can just 00:04:13.320 --> 00:04:20.320 be stored on the good old regular NAND. None of these strategies are as good as 00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:25.720 a dedicated DRAM chip on board though, which is exactly why years ago the 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:29.863 industry identified DRAM caches as an important factor for potential buyers 00:04:27.840 --> 00:04:34.480 and plopped it front and center. But [music] then, fast forward to today and 00:04:31.919 --> 00:04:40.440 do you know whether your WD Black SSD has a DRAM chip? I do. Let me explain. 00:04:37.480 --> 00:04:44.000 The top end SN850X does, but the SN7100 and SN770 do not, which is weird because 00:04:42.760 --> 00:04:49.320 if you go back a little further to the SN750, that drive does have a DRAM chip. 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:52.760 Not the SN750 SE though. [music] And things are even worse in WD Blue. Did 00:04:51.200 --> 00:04:57.680 you know that if you buy a SATA WD Blue SA510 in 2 TB, it has a DRAM chip, but 00:04:55.720 --> 00:05:02.400 the smaller sizes of the same model don't? Are you confused yet? 00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:08.680 You should be. No, really. You should be. As far as we can tell, WD 00:05:05.640 --> 00:05:10.360 Black, Blue, Green, etc. are just colors 00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:13.960 that exist [music] more to trick you into thinking something is better than 00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:18.120 it is than they are about clear and consistent product labeling for 00:05:15.640 --> 00:05:23.160 consumers. And WD is not the only one guilty of this. 00:05:20.440 --> 00:05:28.960 SanDisk, Seagate, MSI, Corsair, Crucial, and Netac have all been guilty at times 00:05:26.640 --> 00:05:33.000 of not sharing whether their drives use DRAM or not. Now, to be fair to our 00:05:31.480 --> 00:05:38.040 corporate overlords, please don't punish me. Being DRAM-less doesn't make an SSD 00:05:35.840 --> 00:05:42.720 useless. Doesn't even make it bad. Modern drives with host memory buffer 00:05:40.400 --> 00:05:47.760 can be perfectly performant, especially as a secondary storage drive or for for 00:05:45.560 --> 00:05:52.080 And I will always say that real world performance trumps whatever you can put 00:05:49.640 --> 00:05:55.680 on a spec sheet. But I also always say that consumers have a right to be 00:05:53.440 --> 00:06:00.440 informed about what they're buying. And too often, we were not able to confirm 00:05:58.200 --> 00:06:04.800 whether a device had a DRAM chip or didn't without resorting to a 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:09.680 third-party resource like TechPowerUp or just having the physical drive in our 00:06:06.920 --> 00:06:14.160 hands so that we could peel off the heat spreader {slash} sticker, likely voiding 00:06:11.960 --> 00:06:18.840 our warranty. And this is important because there is one situation where I 00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:23.200 would strongly recommend a DRAM cache, and that's as an operating system drive. 00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:27.520 This is especially true as your drive starts to get older and more full, but 00:06:25.720 --> 00:06:32.280 you will notice a difference in system responsiveness during background 00:06:29.560 --> 00:06:36.240 operations like system updates or virus scans. And furthermore, if you wanted to 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:40.760 play a game that benefits from DirectStorage, that is, streaming game 00:06:38.400 --> 00:06:44.520 assets directly from your SSD, it might not be a terrible idea to have a DRAM 00:06:42.520 --> 00:06:47.880 cache drive for that as well. I think the most frustrating thing about this 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:52.200 for me, though, is how easy it would be for manufacturers to fix it. Samsung, 00:06:50.440 --> 00:06:56.480 for all of their participation in this problem of some drives being DRAM-less 00:06:53.960 --> 00:06:59.680 and others not, at least actually says whether their drives have DRAM right on 00:06:58.320 --> 00:07:05.680 the product pages. I shouldn't have to praise them for that, but here we are. So, what do we do? 00:07:03.040 --> 00:07:10.440 Well, we vote with our wallets. WD is dead as an SSD brand now, but SanDisk 00:07:08.400 --> 00:07:14.080 still exists as a separate entity and has had a similarly spotty history. 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:19.040 Though, to their credit, they've begun specifying the cache in their new Optimus lines data sheet, so [music] 00:07:17.280 --> 00:07:22.960 that's progress. As for the companies who do disclose things properly, well, 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:27.760 Samsung we already mentioned, but also Kingston and Acer Predator all list 00:07:25.919 --> 00:07:32.360 whether their drives have a DRAM chip. So, as new Gen 5 SSDs continue to come 00:07:30.440 --> 00:07:37.280 onto the market, pick the ones that let consumers know what the heck is inside 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:40.520 them. And I mean, just generally, make your voice heard. If you were 00:07:38.520 --> 00:07:44.280 researching an SSD and you had to dig deep to figure out whether it had D-RAM 00:07:42.360 --> 00:07:48.080 or not, let the manufacturer know that that major shopping experience 00:07:45.880 --> 00:07:53.320 frustrating. While you're at it, let them know about our sponsor. Sihoo, 00:07:50.400 --> 00:07:57.880 their new Doro C300 Pro V2 office chair was built with your comfort in mind. 00:07:55.800 --> 00:08:02.520 Their signature Dinacore system offers full body dynamic support, not just for 00:08:00.280 --> 00:08:07.000 your back, but in the headrest, lumbar, and armrests as well. The chair moves 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:10.920 with you as you adjust and get more comfortable with something they call 00:08:08.520 --> 00:08:15.280 Synchro-Flex, which means you won't be constantly readjusting how you fit in 00:08:13.520 --> 00:08:19.040 the chair. 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Or you can even sign up to their mailing list to save an additional $50. 00:08:50.400 --> 00:08:58.400 You guys enjoyed this video, maybe you'll enjoy the time we water-cooled an SSD. Totally unnecessary, but definitely 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:58.400 fun.