M.2 or 2.5 inch?

[wantcpuhelp]

Im looking for another SSD to store my games on and I decided to get the MX500 500gb since its only $57, but Im not sure whether to get the m.2 or 2.5 version. I already have a 2.5 inch so if I get the 2.5 inch version itd just be 1 extra wire (my power cable has multiple sata power connectors on 1 wire) but itd be way less of a hassle installing the m.2, though since I can only install it on the front of my motherboard itd probably slightly heat up my system considering how hot SSDs run

[wantcpuhelp]

I forgot to add,  Ill only be able to connect the 2.5 inch to my sata 3 port, would that slow it down? My motherboard is a B450m Mortar Titanium

[Firewrath9]

whichever one is cheaper.

[wantcpuhelp]

Just now, Firewrath9 said:

whichever one is cheaper.

theyre both $58

[Altruist]

imo m.2...less wires

[Firewrath9]

7 minutes ago, wantcpuhelp said:

theyre both $58

I'd get the M.2 if you have more than 1 m.2 slot, becuase if you upgrade to a NVMe, then you couldn't fit it, and with sata, you have 6 so you should be able to add as many extra drives you want.

 

[thisforumsucksassdeletemya]

NVMe and M.2 are not mutually exclusive technologies...

[Firewrath9]

3 minutes ago, violentnumeric said:

NVMe and M.2 are not mutually exclusive technologies...

if you have 1 M.2 slot, and its filled with a SATA drive, and you just bought a NVMe SSD, you cant use both at the same time. Dont mention PCIe adapters, as those steal lanes from you CPU, and cost extra, and dont mention U.2 becuase name a single U.2 consumer drive. THERE ISNT ONE

[Kedohawyr]

Buy the 2.5" version

 

• From the price both versions use the SATA interface so you don't get any more speed from the M.2 slot
• You have very few (maybe only 1) M.2 slots but plenty of SATA ports. If you buy an NVMe later you could be forced to ditch this drive if it's M.2 to make room.
• If something goes wrong with your system and you need to recover data it's much easier to find a way to plug a 2.5" SATA into another system, there are even dirt cheap plug and play USB adapters available.

[dizmo]

In your case, I'd go with the 2.5". You already have the wires there, so you're not really saving much cable management, and since it's already built, as you said, it'll be a PITA to install an m.2 drive for no real net gain.

1 hour ago, Firewrath9 said:

if you have 1 M.2 slot, and its filled with a SATA drive, and you just bought a NVMe SSD, you cant use both at the same time. Dont mention PCIe adapters, as those steal lanes from you CPU, and cost extra, and dont mention U.2 becuase name a single U.2 consumer drive. THERE ISNT ONE

Does it really matter if it takes lanes from the CPU? No, it doesn't, because chances are you don't need them anyway.

[Firewrath9]

18 minutes ago, dizmo said:

 

Does it really matter if it takes lanes from the CPU? No, it doesn't, because chances are you don't need them anyway.

but if he has a high end GPU (say a 2080 ti) or in the future (i.e. 3y from now) a GPU that will be slightly bottlenected by a PCIe 3.0 8x link, that might be bad. for example, on a i7-2600k or similar 16x pcie 2.0, if you only had 8 lanes of pcie 2.0 (which was perfectly fine back then) but then upgraded to a current/last gen (i.e. 1060,1070,2060,980,970) midrange GPU, the equivalent of a PCIe 3.0 4x would bottleneck, while a PCIe 3.0 8x lane wouldnt.

 

TL;DR: having a PCIe 3.0 8x for a gpu might affect future graphics perf in the future, As there will prob be 2080 ti class graphics for 500-800$ in 3-5 years.

(epic fail: I just realized that there is a 4x chipset pcie expansion slot on most mobos LMAO)

[dizmo]

16 minutes ago, Firewrath9 said:

but if he has a high end GPU (say a 2080 ti) or in the future (i.e. 3y from now) a GPU that will be slightly bottlenected by a PCIe 3.0 8x link, that might be bad. for example, on a i7-2600k or similar 16x pcie 2.0, if you only had 8 lanes of pcie 2.0 (which was perfectly fine back then) but then upgraded to a current/last gen (i.e. 1060,1070,2060,980,970) midrange GPU, the equivalent of a PCIe 3.0 4x would bottleneck, while a PCIe 3.0 8x lane wouldnt.

 

TL;DR: having a PCIe 3.0 8x for a gpu might affect future graphics perf in the future, As there will prob be 2080 ti class graphics for 500-800$ in 3-5 years.

(epic fail: I just realized that there is a 4x chipset pcie expansion slot on most mobos LMAO)

Yes, but you don't build for something that far in the future, you build for now.

Chances are more likely that a complete system overhaul would be needed by the time GPUs are using that much bandwidth, as by that time we'll have moved on to PCIe 4.0.