I found the Samsung 990 Pro 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD listed for $650 CAD, with the 1TB model at $379 CAD. It is advertised with sequential speeds of up to 7,450 MB/s read and 6,900 MB/s write. I'm building a system around a Ryzen 7 9800X3D or 9850X3D and an RTX 5070 Ti or 5080, and this would be my boot drive and main game storage. I also do light to moderate work in Google Workspace. Is the drive worth buying at this price, or would a less expensive SSD perform just as well?
3 Answers
The 990 Pro is a good SSD, but that price is extremely high for a gaming and general-use build. Its headline numbers are sequential benchmarks, and games rarely benefit much from them. A decent PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive with roughly 3,500–7,000 MB/s speeds will feel very similar for boot times, game loading, and Google Workspace. I’d buy based on price, warranty, endurance, and reviews rather than paying a huge premium for the 990 Pro.
That discount doesn’t necessarily make it a good deal—the starting price may just be inflated. Compare current prices for other reputable 2TB PCIe 4.0 drives before deciding. For a boot drive and game library, you’re unlikely to notice a meaningful difference between this and a cheaper quality model.
For your planned system, put the extra money toward the GPU or simply get more capacity. Even a good PCIe 3.0 SSD is already fast enough for most gaming workloads, while a reasonably priced PCIe 4.0 model gives you plenty of headroom. The 990 Pro only makes sense if you regularly move very large files or run storage-heavy professional workloads.
Related Questions
Lenovo Thinkpad Stuck In Update Loop Install FilterDriverU2_Reload