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Boot Drive: M.2 or SATA SSD?

Scrungo
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Hey guys. I have a new build that I'm finishing up and I was wondering whether I should install Windows on the M.2 or SATA SSD. I saw that SSD showdown video Linus did where he had his employees do a blind test on a bunch of different SSDs, and it looked like the regular old SATA drive was the favorite from a stability and perceived performance standpoint.

 

What do you guys think is the best option here? I am definitely worried about slow loading and stability issues with this PC. In my eyes, it's not an upgrade if it doesn't perform better and that includes stability

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It depends on the budget.

At the lower end, a m.2 ssd will be just as bad as a sata ssd, so it won't make any difference.

If you don't buy the cheapest stuff, a nvme ssd will have higher iops compared to sata, and slightly better speeds (~ 2000-2750 MB/s reads vs 560 MB/s for sata SSDs)

You may as well use the m.2 connector, if it's there...

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M.2 is much faster (Crucial's are at least consistently fast... all their M.2s have upwards of 2000 MB/s read.). SATA is budget-friendly but is slower then M.2. Do it on the M.2 if you have one (you do). BTW, what M.2 do you have? If it has better read/write speeds use it

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Well I already have both is what I'm saying. I have a XPG SX8200 Pro M.2 vs. Samsung 850 Evo SATA SSD. I'll go with the M.2 if you guys think that's the better option. It is brand new, and the other SSD is old and from my current PC.

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Definitely do that. Even smaller copy-paste jobs feel noticably snappier. Boot times would probably be just about the same, though.

 

The 850 Evo still makes a good game drive. 

 

What do you mean by stability?

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3 minutes ago, Dav!d said:

Definitely do that. Even smaller copy-paste jobs feel noticably snappier. Boot times would probably be just about the same, though.

 

The 850 Evo still makes a good game drive. 

 

What do you mean by stability?

Well in that LTT video, people said that the frametime was kind of choppy when playing games and doing video editing on the M.2 drive vs. the SATA one. I was thinking that maybe M.2 still has some growing pains since it's a relatively new concept compared to the battle tested and hardened SATA interface

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