The 860 Pro drives are MLC, and MLC is def the way to go for write endurance, they may be SATA, but if you are after that endurance prices are cheaper now on them. You are right, Samsung has gone a little backwards with the 980 Pro, being TLC, Pro to me always meant MLC on Samsung, not happy with that trend.
Yeah, I am torn.
The truth is, that with each generation of controller, NAND quality and whatever magic makes the controllers work (write amplification, wear balancing, DRAM cache's etc.) improves. There is a reason you essentially can't buy an SLC drive anymore. They just aren't necessary. MLC got better to the point where it could fill that role.
The question is, have we gotten to the point where TLC is really ready to supplant MLC in high write applications?
My old 512GB Samsun 850 Pro SATA drives I have been using as write cache for years are MLC and are rated at 150TBW each. At 69,000 power on hours, and 317110382829 LBA's (~147.6 TB) written they are both listed at a wear leveling count of 30%, so they are starting to get close. (well, I mean, if 70% wear came in 69000 hours, that means I have ~30,000 hours or 3.5 years left, but I don't want to push it TOO far)
The aforementioned Inland Premium drives are Phison E12 TLC drives. The 512GB model (to keep it as close to an "apples to apples" comparison as possible) is rated at over 5x the write endurance, at 780TBW.
If these numbers are accurate, and measured the same way Samsung did on my old 850 Pro's, maybe MLC really is no longer needed? I mean those old MLC 850 Pro's are going to give me a projected final lifespan of 11.25 years in my high write environment. If the Inland Premiums truly get 5.2x longer life, that should give me 58.5 years. I don't know if I'll be around in 2080 (probably not unless we see some amazing medical progress!), but I suspect my current server build will be long obsolete...
