Should I go with an NVMe as 'future proofing' or should I just go M.2 SATA?

[c0mplexx*]

My MOBO has an M.2 slot and I want to use it. I know there's basically only a point in NVMes if you deal with a lot of file transfers and I don't currently but i'm thinking of going the NVMe route in case it will matter in the future.  

Currently all I do is game and do UX/UI designs so I don't really have a use for it but i'm thinking of learning to code apps in the future so it might help me there as well?

I'm not really sure what to go with, thinking of going 1TB as well

[SpaceGhostC2C]

- Check if your motherboard supports SATA M.2, PCIe M.2, or both

- Check prices, there may not be that much of a difference between the less sophisticated PCIe SSDs and the SATA ones

[LunaP0n3]

NVMe drives are really fast. Though if you hit them up hard, they get hot really fast and they thermal throttle. I get 20Sec boot times to the desktop in my laptop from the time I push the power button. But as @SpaceGhostC2C said, you need to check for compatibility. Some motherboards disable SATA ports to get the bandwidth they need.

[c0mplexx*]

23 hours ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

- Check if your motherboard supports SATA M.2, PCIe M.2, or both

- Check prices, there may not be that much of a difference between the less sophisticated PCIe SSDs and the SATA ones

 

25 minutes ago, LunaP0n3 said:

NVMe drives are really fast. Though if you hit them up hard, they get hot really fast and they thermal throttle. I get 20Sec boot times to the desktop in my laptop from the time I push the power button. But as @SpaceGhostC2C said, you need to check for compatibility. Some motherboards disable SATA ports to get the bandwidth they need.

 

 

To my understanding they're compatible, i'm not too certain on what those ASATA ports are though

 

an m.2 SATA Crucial MX500 1TB would be ~$165 while an NVMe Samsung 970 EVO 1TB is ~$225 (or crucial ct1000p1ssd8 which is ~$140 but i'm assuming i'm giving up on something here)

[SpaceGhostC2C]

4 hours ago, c0mplexx* said:

 

To my understanding they're compatible,

Yes, you can use either PCIe or SATA.

4 hours ago, c0mplexx* said:

i'm not too certain on what those ASATA ports are though

Would have to check the manual, maybe some external port or some U.2 port...unless you plan to use more than 4 SATA drives besides your M.2 drive, it doesn't really matter - just make sure to use the ports labeled just "SATA" in your motherboard's diagram for any additional drive.

 

4 hours ago, c0mplexx* said:

 

an m.2 SATA Crucial MX500 1TB would be ~$165 while an NVMe Samsung 970 EVO 1TB is ~$225

Yes, but they are different in many ways. Samsung SSDs tend to be on the most expensive side.

4 hours ago, c0mplexx* said:

 

(or crucial ct1000p1ssd8 which is ~$140 but i'm assuming i'm giving up on something here)

There are many details that matter for SSD performance, and then again there is more than one dimension to perfromance (random reads, sequential writes, large files, small files, etc, etc), and many details of their design that matter for them (bits per cell: TLC, QLC, SLC, etc; SCL cache availability, the drive's internal controller....). For example, TLC drives are in principle faster than QLC drives, but QLC drives with an SCL cache can make up for a lot of the difference.

You can get a veeery rough idea of performance by looking at the rated read and write speeds (but bear in mind that this are manufacturer self-reported). You'll see the fastesr tier reporting figures in the 2000-3000+ MB/s range, lower tier PCIe SSDs in the 1000-2000 MB/s range, good SATA drives typically in the ~500 MB/s, and lower end / older SSDs as low as 200-300 MB/s. Again bear in mind that this is a very coarse, not-standardized measure, meant only to get a clue of the type of drive you are looking at when you lack further information. Manufacturers like Samsung, Crucial, Intel, etc will usually have more info on their websites.

 

TL;DR: you don't need more than SATA SSD speeds, so you're fine either way. If found at similar prices, a TLC PCIe SSD or a QLC with SCL cache would be faster than SATA, in case you ever need it.

[c0mplexx*]

1 hour ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Yes, you can use either PCIe or SATA.

Would have to check the manual, maybe some external port or some U.2 port...unless you plan to use more than 4 SATA drives besides your M.2 drive, it doesn't really matter - just make sure to use the ports labeled just "SATA" in your motherboard's diagram for any additional drive.

 

Yes, but they are different in many ways. Samsung SSDs tend to be on the most expensive side.

There are many details that matter for SSD performance, and then again there is more than one dimension to perfromance (random reads, sequential writes, large files, small files, etc, etc), and many details of their design that matter for them (bits per cell: TLC, QLC, SLC, etc; SCL cache availability, the drive's internal controller....). For example, TLC drives are in principle faster than QLC drives, but QLC drives with an SCL cache can make up for a lot of the difference.

You can get a veeery rough idea of performance by looking at the rated read and write speeds (but bear in mind that this are manufacturer self-reported). You'll see the fastesr tier reporting figures in the 2000-3000+ MB/s range, lower tier PCIe SSDs in the 1000-2000 MB/s range, good SATA drives typically in the ~500 MB/s, and lower end / older SSDs as low as 200-300 MB/s. Again bear in mind that this is a very coarse, not-standardized measure, meant only to get a clue of the type of drive you are looking at when you lack further information. Manufacturers like Samsung, Crucial, Intel, etc will usually have more info on their websites.

 

TL;DR: you don't need more than SATA SSD speeds, so you're fine either way. If found at similar prices, a TLC PCIe SSD or a QLC with SCL cache would be faster than SATA, in case you ever need it.

should I maybe go with an NVMe if I'm planning to learn to code apps (Java specifically) in the future? or it won't do that much with those kind of files?

 

[Thready]

I think you may be overthinking this a little bit. NVME and SATA SSDs are going to be very similar in real world performance (boot times, game load times). Where they differ is in things like data transferring and most people don't have a ton of data to transfer at any given time anyway.

 

Honestly I would get a cheaper NVME drive as you can get a 1 TB cheaper one for about the price of a M.2 SATA drive. I got the Sabrent Rocket as my boot drive and I love it. 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

12 hours ago, c0mplexx* said:

should I maybe go with an NVMe if I'm planning to learn to code apps (Java specifically) in the future? or it won't do that much with those kind of files?

 

I don't think writing software has much to do with disk speed to be honest, but I'm not a developer. 

[Kilrah]

Development is small amounts of data, but LOADS of IO operations.