Hello,
between Samsung 970 pro 512GB and 970 EVO Plus 500GB SSDs which would be the better choice?
The 970 pro is a bit older, but I believe it is 2bit MLC vs EVO Plus's 3 Bit MLC, which should improve lifespan, right? Product Description claims 300TBW for EVO Plus and 600TBW for 970 Pro.
The price here is around $165 for 970 EVO Plus and $195 for 970 Pro.

Thanks for any suggestions.
I plan to install a Linux distro on the SSD.

Is this thread visible in the forum? or did the forum eat it?

The thread is visible.

970 Pro. Better lifespan.

It depends on what you want to use it for. Maximum performance (eg, heavy 4K video editing) = If there's only $30 in it then personally I'd for the PRO. If you just want a a general system / boot disk for gaming, etc, personally I'd go for a Crucial MX500 ($108 for 1TB) or Samsung 860 EVO ($130 for 1TB). You might notice a minor difference in speed between SATA vs NMVe in real-world (outside of benchmarks). You will very definitely notice 500GB vs 1TB when you inevitably run out of room. :-)

The Crucial MX500 is what I have recommended left and right for several months now. The Samsung EVO tends to be faster for home use than the Pro. All three have excellent reviews.

Are you looking for a SATA SSD using the SATA cable?

Looking for an M.2 NVME ssd for a laptop.

EDIT: SATA is also a possibility. If I go for 1TB as some of you have suggested, then NVME would not be covered by budget.

I see your message, but I have no idea what you are talking about. Too big words for me.

Then again, I am mainly interested in HDDs anyway due to their bigger storage size.

Can someone tell me what is the memory type for Crucial MX500? It is not those 4bit mlc type like samsung QVO?
How is lifespan of these drives?
1TB Crucial MX500 would cost somewhere around $135 here.
I can live with SATA speeds, if it has good lifespan, as cost per GB is pretty decent.

First of all, sorry for not being of much use. My nitpicking days are behind me.

I used to worry about SSD lifespans too, four years ago when I bought my first one. Experience shows that even with decent regular usage, it still has at least 20 years of lifespan ahead of it to this day.

If you're sticking to anything in and above mid-tier SSDs, focus more on the level of performance you need out of then and on price. Unlike other numbers thrown at us in the interest of marketing, tests have shown most SSD drives outlive their theoretical lifespans anyway.

MX500 is 3-bit like 860 EVO. Lifespan is good, far more than most people will see. Don't forget that if you can buy 1TB instead of 500GB, then endurance naturally doubles anyway. Eg, 970 EVO 500GB (300TBW endurance) is generally competing with MX500 1TB (360TBW endurance) and not MX500 500GB (180TBW endurance) on price. And IIRC, an endurance test put it at hitting almost a Petabyte (3x higher in practise than official rating). Warranty is also the same 5 years.

If you want NVME you could buy that Intel's cheap qlc model 600P and then replace it in a dozen years when its lifetime runs out.