Jump to content

M.2 NVMe Storage recommendations/advice

Hey

 

Im working on a new workstation/gaming build after a fire took out 2 desktops and a laptop. Its been a while since I did a pc build (2013 to be exact) so trying to wrap my head around the new NVMe M.2 drives and (with appropriate amounts of LTT).

The pc will be used for heavy light-room and Photoshop use, with a modest amount of gaming. My main question would be what is the best configuration to set up the storage.

 

Current spare components:

Already have 6 x 500 GB 85 evo SSDS

1 Intel 540s 1T SSD

3 intel 540s 490 GB SSD

HDD for long term storage

 

New computer build plan:

i7 9700k

RTX 2070 windforce

32 GB 3200 MHz Ram (2x16GB)

Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi or Ultra Motherboard

Deep rock 4 or deep rock pro 4 cpu cooler.

Corsair RM750x 750W 80 Plus V2 Gold

Fractal designs s2 meshify case

 

Initially i was considering just using the SSDs I have on hand to save some $$. Running one 500 GB SSD for the operating system + instaled files, a 500 GB SSD for my games library and the 1 T SSD to store my Adobe applications, current light room catalogue and photos (Correct me if im wrong but i believe having the applications, catalogue and the images all one the one drive gives a bit of a performance boost?). 

 

My budget probably wont let me go overboard on multiple M.2 NVMe drives, how ever i can afford one 1T Samsung 970 evo plus m.2 or  two intel 660p drives (256 GB  and 1T). Given the SSD drives I already have, is it worth spending the extra an the M.2, how would you implement it into the build for the best performance increase, particularly for photo/video editing? Would you go with the m.2 for the operating system drive, then have lightroom and photoshop on the OS drive as well (or the os on the 256GB drive and photography stuff on the second 1T one if i go with 2x Intel 660p). Any other configurations or options to consider?

 

If i understand things correctly, when the M.2 is connected to the MB it uses up 2  SATA 3 ports, leaving me with only 2 SATA ports left if i get two intel m.2 drives?

 

Does the M.2 give a significant boost to lightroom/photoshop performance or should i stick with the SSDs for now (possibly spend the budget for the m.2s on an upgrade to a RTX 2080). Other build suggestions welcomed.

 

Cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Warezy said:

 

Should get a used 1080ti for around $500, it's equal to the RTX 2080.l

A lower cost Ryzen 7 1700 is likely good enough for your workload, just double check reviews for light room. Are you sure you need 32GBs of RAM?

Just get the WD Black 2nd gen NVMe SSDs, they also have 3K read/writes, but should cost less than the samsung drives.

Probably avoid the 660p in general due to it's design decisions.

I edit my posts a lot, Twitter is @LordStreetguru just don't ask PC questions there mostly...
 

Spoiler

 

What is your budget/country for your new PC?

 

what monitor resolution/refresh rate?

 

What games or other software do you need to run?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Warezy said:

Im working on a new workstation/gaming build after a fire took out 2 desktops and a laptop. Its been a while since I did a pc build (2013 to be exact) so trying to wrap my head around the new NVMe M.2 drives and (with appropriate amounts of LTT).

Start by telling us the budget for the PC and your location. Welcome to the LTT forums!

CPU: Intel Core i7-950 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R CPU Cooler: NZXT HAVIK 140 RAM: Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 (1x2GB), Crucial DDR3-1600 (2x4GB), Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3-1600 (1x4GB) GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 770 DirectCU II 2GB SSD: Samsung 860 EVO 2.5" 1TB HDDs: WD Green 3.5" 1TB, WD Blue 3.5" 1TB PSU: Corsair AX860i & CableMod ModFlex Cables Case: Fractal Design Meshify C TG (White) Fans: 2x Dynamic X2 GP-12 Monitors: LG 24GL600F, Samsung S24D390 Keyboard: Logitech G710+ Mouse: Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum Mouse Pad: Steelseries QcK Audio: Bose SoundSport In-Ear Headphones

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, Warezy said:

(Correct me if im wrong but i believe having the applications, catalogue and the images all one the one drive gives a bit of a performance boost?).  

If anything, it will be slower as your PC is pulling data to run the app and your source files at the same drive. That's in theory though, in practice the speed difference is irrelevant. The ease of file management is much more noticeable

 

27 minutes ago, Warezy said:

Given the SSD drives I already have, is it worth spending the extra an the M.2, how would you implement it into the build for the best performance increase, particularly for photo/video editing? 

I'd just get an NVMe SSD for the Adobe stuff and source files, while OS runs on a 850 Evo. Boot times dont really change between SATA and NVMe, but importing videos and stuff do.

 

Maybe like HP EX920/950, WD Black/SN750 or Adata SX8200 Pro? Not the QLC models like the 660p or Crucial P1 that's for sure, those havent proved themselves.

 

29 minutes ago, Warezy said:

RTX 2070 windforce

Might just ge a 2060 instead. Performance gap isnt big at all, has extra RTX stuff just in case Adobe decides to make use of them, but big price gap. Adobe stuff arent heavy on VRAM.

 

 

CPU: i7-2600K 4751MHz 1.44V (software) --> 1.47V at the back of the socket Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Extreme4 (BCLK: 103.3MHz) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 RAM: Adata XPG 2x8GB DDR3 (XMP: 2133MHz 10-11-11-30 CR2, custom: 2203MHz 10-11-10-26 CR1 tRFC:230 tREFI:14000) GPU: Asus GTX 1070 Dual (Super Jetstream vbios, +70(2025-2088MHz)/+400(8.8Gbps)) SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB (main boot drive), Transcend SSD370 128GB PSU: Seasonic X-660 80+ Gold Case: Antec P110 Silent, 5 intakes 1 exhaust Monitor: AOC G2460PF 1080p 144Hz (150Hz max w/ DP, 121Hz max w/ HDMI) TN panel Keyboard: Logitech G610 Orion (Cherry MX Blue) with SteelSeries Apex M260 keycaps Mouse: BenQ Zowie FK1

 

Model: HP Omen 17 17-an110ca CPU: i7-8750H (0.125V core & cache, 50mV SA undervolt) GPU: GTX 1060 6GB Mobile (+80/+450, 1650MHz~1750MHz 0.78V~0.85V) RAM: 8+8GB DDR4-2400 18-17-17-39 2T Storage: HP EX920 1TB PCIe x4 M.2 SSD + Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD, 128GB Toshiba PCIe x2 M.2 SSD (KBG30ZMV128G) gone cooking externally, 1TB Seagate 7200RPM 2.5" HDD (ST1000LM049-2GH172) left outside Monitor: 1080p 126Hz IPS G-sync

 

Desktop benching:

Cinebench R15 Single thread:168 Multi-thread: 833 

SuperPi (v1.5 from Techpowerup, PI value output) 16K: 0.100s 1M: 8.255s 32M: 7m 45.93s

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Geography said:

Start by telling us the budget for the PC and your location. Welcome to the LTT forums!

Thanks discovered LTT while researching some PC components and got hooked on some of the crazy tech projects. Thinking of salvaging the working bits of some of the computers the died and doing a mini gaming pc or something after the main PCs are build.

 

Budget for the full pcs around 3000 AUD at the moment, but still waiting on final insurance settlement value for the dead PCs before i know if i can push it any higher.
Im in Australia so from what i understand we get a pretty big Australia tax on hardware and electronics.

 

12 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

Should get a used 1080ti for around $500, it's equal to the RTX 2080.l

A lower cost Ryzen 7 1700 is likely good enough for your workload, just double check reviews for light room. Are you sure you need 32GBs of RAM?

Just get the WD Black 2nd gen NVMe SSDs, they also have 3K read/writes, but should cost less than the samsung drives.

From what i understand Photoshop is a bit of a memory hog and will take as much memory as you can give it. Some of the tasks i do in photoshop are fairly heavy, aligning, blending 60+ RAW photos, time lapses with hundreds of RAW (~40 MB each) photos (although ill probably move to a video editing program for that when I decide on one which might be more efficient) 

 

Ive currently got a PC that i can use, although its not ideal, I might stay with for a while and wait till the new AMD CPUs hit, then compare then with the intel options. At the moment i was leaning towards Intel because adobe software currently makes better use of a higher clock speed than more cores (except for export functions, which i typically just let run while i go do something else).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Warezy said:

Budget for the full pcs around 3000 AUD at the moment, but still waiting on final insurance settlement value for the dead PCs before i know if i can push it any higher.
Im in Australia so from what i understand we get a pretty big Australia tax on hardware and electronics.

Check out this build: 

I managed to squeeze in an i9 9900K. You can also add the storage you already have to this build if the 1TB PCIe SSD isn't enough.

CPU: Intel Core i7-950 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R CPU Cooler: NZXT HAVIK 140 RAM: Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 (1x2GB), Crucial DDR3-1600 (2x4GB), Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3-1600 (1x4GB) GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 770 DirectCU II 2GB SSD: Samsung 860 EVO 2.5" 1TB HDDs: WD Green 3.5" 1TB, WD Blue 3.5" 1TB PSU: Corsair AX860i & CableMod ModFlex Cables Case: Fractal Design Meshify C TG (White) Fans: 2x Dynamic X2 GP-12 Monitors: LG 24GL600F, Samsung S24D390 Keyboard: Logitech G710+ Mouse: Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum Mouse Pad: Steelseries QcK Audio: Bose SoundSport In-Ear Headphones

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, Warezy said:

From what i understand Photoshop is a bit of a memory hog and will take as much memory as you can give it. 

image.png.c551f8747c18fe99111924131a2b51ac.png

No idea what you're talking about. ?

 

(/s in case that wasn't obvious)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, King Poet said:

 

No idea what you're talking about. ?

 

(/s in case that wasn't obvious)

Haha youve still got 60% left at least! haha, just had a look while doing an import and DNG convert in lightroom, cpu 100% memory 14 out of 16 Gb with out much else happening in the background.Think ill still go with at least 32 gb with room to upgrade to 64 later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×