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Multiple vs. Single M.2 NVMe SSD

Hi all

 

I plan to buy a Samsung 970 Plus 1 TB as storage drive and maybe an additional Samsung 970 Plus 240GB or 500GB for boot drive. I know SSDs do not function like HDDs. Nevertheless, I am wondering if there is any advantage to use multiple M.2 SSD (boot and storage drive separated) compared to a single M.2 SSD (boot and storage drive not separated).

 

Does two M.2 NVMe SSD have any advantage over a single M2. NVMe SSD?

 

If I use multiple M.2 SSD, will it better to have the faster M.2 SSD as boot drive or as storage drive?

An issue here is, that the M.2 SSD with smaller capacity has less speed than the SSD with higher capacity (240GB < 500 GB < 1 TB).

 

If I just use one M.2 SSD, does partition it affect its performance?

Can I freely partition a M.2 SSD with disk management? For example, can I just partition my 1 TB M.2 SSD to 188 GB and 812 GB? Or are there any things to consider like partition alignment that only allow me to partition my SSD to a specific size?

 

I have upgraded my PC for the first time, and I would appreciate your help!

 

 

 

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I mean if you're moving big files around 2 M.2 disks make a lot of sense, otherwise you can go with SATA SSD's.

 

I personally am using two M.2 drives atm, but that's because I hate wires. :P

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Im running a 500 GB 970 Plus as a boot drive but i also install my most used programs on it and use my second 1 TB SATA SSD for my steam library and other stuff that requires a lot of storage space. I recently had problems with my 970 M.2 tho because it cooked itself. I suspect it was the motherboards fault tho because the Gigabyte Aorus Elite has some issues...

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5 minutes ago, Andiq said:

Im running a 500 GB 970 Plus as a boot drive but i also install my most used programs on it and use my second 1 TB SATA SSD for my steam library and other stuff that requires a lot of storage space.

Same here.

But, well, PCIe SSDs does not feel faster than sata SSDs. They definitly are on bench but they don't really feel like it. 

 

So to answer you questions :

23 minutes ago, Broccolii said:

Does two M.2 NVMe SSD have any advantage over a single M2. NVMe SSD?

If you mean having 2x512gb vs 1x1tb, the answer is no. Actually, I feel like it is more friendly user to have 1tb vs 2x512gb and a big drive is often faster than smaller drives (in bench)
If you mean having 2x512gb PCIe SSD vs 1x512gb PCIe SSD + 1x512gb Sata SSD, well, you well copie stuff faster from one another but do you copy files that often ?

 

25 minutes ago, Broccolii said:

If I use multiple M.2 SSD, will it better to have the faster M.2 SSD as boot drive or as storage drive?

You won't feel any difference.

 

26 minutes ago, Broccolii said:

If I just use one M.2 SSD, does partition it affect its performance?

I don't think so. Not sure on that one. But who need partitions nowadays ?

 

27 minutes ago, Broccolii said:

Can I freely partition a M.2 SSD with disk management?

Well, I am not partitionning my disks for years anymore. But I guess you can.

 

One thing you need to know is that you may need to change some stuff in the UEFI when the nvme disk is plugged in. (boot sequence, activate the nvme etc...)

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2 minutes ago, Niklos said:

But who need partitions nowadays

You could for example make a partition on an SSD to make it act like a cache for an HDD. Probably there are other use cases, but I can't think of any more either.

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I have a 2TB 970 Plus for files, and an old-fashioned 240GB SATA SSD for system, I did not see any performance increase in my system having os on NVMe. 

The real difference for me 4K video editing, without any lags, or slowdowns; but on the other hand I had to install a heatsink and an additional 4cm fan to keep the M.2 below 60°C (it turns on when the drive temp goes over 45), os got frozen from overheating, when it restarted, the drive was mounted in read-only mode, it had to cool down for normal operation. I have Samsung Magician installed, so I have no clue what could happened. The mobo is ASUS B250f

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42 minutes ago, Broccolii said:

I plan to buy a Samsung 970 Plus 1 TB as storage drive and maybe an additional Samsung 970 Plus 240GB or 500GB for boot drive

id consider a lot of other SSDs before paying the extra for the 970. it doesnt offer anything interesting over much cheaper drives. 

 

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30 minutes ago, merco said:

You could for example make a partition on an SSD to make it act like a cache for an HDD. Probably there are other use cases, but I can't think of any more either.

Yeah, that's a good exemple. But, well, most of the people put their app and OS on SSDs and files on HDDs so, I don't think there is many people doing such a thing.

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46 minutes ago, Niklos said:

If you mean having 2x512gb vs 1x1tb, the answer is no. Actually, I feel like it is more friendly user to have 1tb vs 2x512gb and a big drive is often faster than smaller drives (in bench)

Hey Niklos, thanks for your replies and just answer my question one by one.

 

What is your opinion on "I plan to buy a Samsung 970 Plus 1 TB as storage drive and maybe an additional Samsung 970 Plus 240GB or 500GB for boot drive"?
Would you maybe leave out the small boot drive SSD?

and thanks for all helpful replies!

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Well, it depends. What do you means by "storage drive" ? If you are talking about a drive to put your movies/musics/pictures, it does not make sence to me. You'd better go with an HDD.

If you want to put your softwares on it, it is OK. Overkill for sure, but not bad at all.

Here is what I have personnaly done :

 => NVME SSD 1tb => OS

 => Sata SSD n°1 480gb => files waiting for transfert. I mean, the files that I am using for a certain amount of time, or download or whatever. When I am done, it goes to the NAS + Softwares

 => Sata SSD n°2 1tb => games

 => HDD n°1 => Storage

 => HDD n°2 => backup storage
 => HDD n°3 => Windows Backup.

 

NAS (with HDDs + 1 cache SSD) => storage + second backup + media server (cache SSD is way overkill but I had it around doing nothing so... It's better there than on the shelf.)

 

Is all of that overkill ? Yes DEFINITLY. But my computer is really silent and very responsive. And the SSD's are less than half full which should be good for their life span.

Why NVME SSD instead of SATA SSD for OS ? Because the SSD that had the OS on it passed out. SO I bought a new one and I wanted an NVME SSD. No good reason, just wanted it, period. (BTW, that dead SSD has been repeared by some random dude I met on a forum. Big thanks to him ! And then, I had no use for it so... It ended up in the NAS.)

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