I just spotted the SK Hynix P31 SSD for sale for those who might be interested:
I am still waiting for my frame to arrive, so I haven’t tested compatibility myself. I have been hearing great things about this SSD online though.
My framework laptop hasn’t arrived yet but I did order this SSD after looking into the reviews and speed tests. It looks to be really fast, faster than what Framework sells and most other SSDs in this price range. I’m also planning on getting RAM elsewhere as well, just to save a few bucks. I’m not 100% certain on compatibility but considering that this is basically a standard Intel machine I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
This is a gen3 device. It will work in the framework however the framework supports gen4 devices which will run faster. The wd sn850 is a faster drive.
1 Like
Tom’s Harware Review of SK hynix Gold P31 says it’s a solid performer that really stood out in power efficiency. Thanks for the tip on the sale @Somebody!
1 Like
Batch 4 here. Should I buy or wait? Set on this drive through from my research.
Huh, apparently I should have waited for this sale. I got one of these, in large part because of it’s excellent power consumption specs (both efficiency under load and the idle power consumption).
This is true, but PCIe 4.0 drives tend to be more power hungry.
Looking at the anandtech review of the wd sn850 it’s pretty power hungry. It’s personally not what I’d pick for a laptop unless it’s a desktop-replacement that’s plugged in all the time. Out of SSDs compared in that review, the sn850 has some of the highest power consumption there in some of it’s less deep idle states. The exception is in it’s very deepest sleep state shown as the “laptop” test in that review, but note that in that very deepest sleep state the sn850 also takes 39 ms time to wake from that deep sleep which is relatively slow. That said it’s power efficiency under load is not bad, even if it’s not topping the charts either.
You certainly will get faster peak transfer speeds with a wd sn850, but you’d likely pay for it with less battery life and a little more latency when the drive is waking from idle in it’s deepest sleep state.
(EDIT: However, it appears sn850 is certainly a substantial improvement from the wd black sn750’s idle power consumption, which looks to be really quite poor across multiple reviews. In some ways I’m surprised that Framework is offering the wd black sn750 among it’s list of drive options for DIY edition, given how bad the idle consumption apparently is. It makes the sn850 look real good in comparison. Maybe the sn750 has some better firmware since the reviews I’m seeing, but it’s not like it’s just the one review where I’m seeing the sn750 being rather poor for idle power consumption.)
2 Likes
Yup, the SK Hynix Gold P31 seems pretty sweet on laptops. And they just released the 2TB version, which I both had a friend get and also got myself.
Definitely seems to be an ideal drive for Framework. And it’s on an amazing sale right now. All of the sizes.
1 Like
Holy cow the numbers on the SN750. I ordered the laptop with that drive because I wasn’t too worried about performance, but the power consumption is pretty off-putting. Here is hoping they can modify my order without causing too much delay…
If anyone has both I’d be curious about A/B testing the real-world battery impact, I couldn’t find anything online ( bought the sn850 with my framework).
Also keep in mind, the faster a drive can write, the faster it will get to an idle state. I myself got a Samsung 980 Pro 1TB as it seems be be a good trade off between speed and power economy.
Yeah, that’s very true. As far as power efficiency under load (which accounts for that), the 980 Pro and P31 basically share the top spot in the review I linked before. The 980 pro also has respectable idle efficiency (yes the 6mw in the deepest power state is 2x what some others are, but that’s still insignificant, and it also has respectable time to wake up from that deepest power saving state similar to the P31)
Anandtech produces excellent reviews, and they’ve got data for the power efficiency of the P31 vs the 980 Pro. Even accounting for the faster speeds in the 980 Pro, the P31’s power efficiency is astounding - it uses about half the power or less for the same operations.
Not quite, you gave the comparison link for the SSD 980, not 980 Pro. Big difference.
You want this link https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2729?vs=2727
It’s a lot closer with the 980 Pro. Both are among the top contenders for power efficiency under load, with varying results depending on workload.
Good catch. The ATSB power efficiency is still quite similar though, which might be more reflective of real world use.
I purchased one of these, because I think it will run cooler than some other options and still be plenty fast.
Here is a link to the tomshardware review:
This is on sale again at a 15% discount on Amazon right now. I purchased the 2TB one while waiting for my Batch 5 DIY edition laptop.
1 Like
I had also seen this sale and got the 2TB for my batch 5.
I’m thinking still waiting to see what 4th gen goes on sale for Black Friday. I don’t need more than 512 gb of space. But I could be wrong going forward.
I’m going to be locked into ddr4 sadly.
Anyone know how the SN730 compares to the SK Hynix gold P31 in terms of efficiency and battery life?
Thanks
Doubtful - the WD SN730 is an OEM version of the SN750, but with updated flash. There are no reviews of the SN730, it’s not available for retail purchase.
Here’s someone stating that it’s close to the P31 and quoting power state numbers I think, which shows lower power than the P31 in most states: