Which disk is a better choice for an OS disk?

[qwertyx7ts]

Hello,

 

I have two disks in my Thinkpad E480 - an Samsung 850 Evo SATA 256GB (as my data disk), and a NVMe x2 Lenovo's LENSE20256GMSP34MEAT2TA 256GB (currently as a OS drive).

 

Which of these is better, based on the ATTO benchmarks I did (if you need any other bench, just tell me)

 

On the left is the Samsung, on the right the lenovo (please note that the OS was running on the Lenovo at the time of the bench run)

 

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

i would always use m2 over standard sata for os drive

[goto10]

i would go for the m.2 too, yes, but a good sata wont make you feel like your machine is slow

[qwertyx7ts]

Generally I agree, but as you can see, there are certain I/O sizes, where the Samsung is considerably better - that's why I'm interested, on how these numbers reflect on the day2day usage having an OS installed on it.

[tech.guru]

the performance will be dependent on the workload you do.

for example browsing the internet, writes a lot of small files.

 

an m.2 with a high write speed using low block sizes will be the best performance for internet. 

 

when a computer boots up it reads a lot of data from disk.

an m.2 with a high read speed will improve boot up times.

 

and there is also the applications you install and use. each will have a read and write profile, but looking at most consumer ssd the difference is usually in write speed on more expensive drives. certain applications are write intensive (photoshop, compiling etc) and will notice the most significant performance improvement.

 

your mileage will vary depending on your usage. you will need to research your workload to know if you will see any significant improvements. no one can answer this for you.

[qwertyx7ts]

This laptop is used for heavy internet browsing  (many tabs open and loaded), and occasionally having some VMs running. Other than those two workloads, maybe some vintage gaming or media consumption  - nothing really heavy, but sometimes it feels that the computer has more to give. I played with cooling (repaste, dual heatpipe cooler from dGPU model), i's running dual channel 16GB memmory, so my sights are on the storage now.

 

Also a question - will it be, considering my workload, beneficial to upgrade the m.2 nvme drive to something better, also considering that the m.2 slot is only connected via 2 pcie lanes?

[lostboy]

SATA 2.5 vs SATA M.2 gives you roughly the same performance in comparable drives (AKA WD Blue Sata vs WD Blue M.2 Sata). I'd personally keep my OS on the SATA 2.5 with a Samsung 850/860 EVO, and a NVMe based M.2 drive for my large workload stuff. 

It gives you the performance where you need it (Provided that you DO need it)