PNY CS900 480GB

A TLC SSD for QLC money? There must be a catch…

- Jeremy laird

SOLID STATE STORAGE prices have dropped off a cliff. We’re now talking sub-$100 for a 1TB drive, and below $50 for 500GB. That’s not far off half the price drives were going for six months ago. Insane.

Or it would be if such drives were easy to recommend. Often, they’re not. Broadly speaking, entry-level SSDs fall into two categories. First are drives based on TLC NAND memory from brands you’ve never heard of. Rolling the dice on one of those is an unnerving experience.

The other option is a QLC drive from a more reassuring manufacturer. Problem is, the underlying performance of QLC NAND memory is garbage. Given all such drives operate with some level of SLC cache, one can debate how often the true performance of the bulk of the drive will be exposed. But it’s certainly off-putting.