NVMe M.2, what's the best way to decide?

[ZAYANI]

Hello everyone.

I'm new to hardware upgrades. And so am asking for the best way to decide how to upgrade my TUF laptop storage.

I looked over some DIY videos of how to swap or add storage to the laptop (which looks straight forward) but was wondering where should I start? is there a benefit with NVMe's or should I just stick with SATA? I believe I have an extra slot on my laptop to add another NVMe stick plus space for a SATA (decisions, decision).

 

I just found this link btw: https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/asus/tuf-gaming-fx505dt

The Crucial P5 1TB seems like good choice to me and the numbers look impressive too. (1TB M.2 SSD • PCIe NVMe Gen 3 • 3400 MB/s Read, 3000 MB/s Write)

 

ASUS TUF Gaming FX505DT

AMD Ryzen 7 3750H  

GeForce GTX 1650

16GB DDR4

512GB NVMe M.2
 

[Korben]

Are you sure about the 2nd M.2 Slot? I didn't see one here:

 

 

The M.2 beneath the SSD is for the WLAN module, if that's what you mean. I'm not sure if you could even use it for storage (it may be only x1, so the bandwith is limited).

[Dutch_Master]

The "flowchart" (of sorts) for storage upgrades is something like this:

• how much storage do I need
• what's my budget
• which expansion options does my system have

Here it gets tricky: internal or external? Obviously, if your system allows internal storage upgrades, that's the preferred path. But if it doesn't, then external storage could be a viable solution.

 

Starting with external storage, the chart continues:

• which connection? USB2, FireWire (pretty much obsolete now USB-C/Thunderbolt has on par or even superior speeds), USB-C/Thunderbolt, network storage and of course the cloud.
• external power brick or powered via the connector? Not so much an issue with SSDs, but spinning disks are better powered externally.
• expandability of the solution. Does the enclosure offer extra space for more disks or do you need to buy a new enclosure for every disk? Could get expensive!

Fore internal storage:

• how much speed do I need? That depends on how much data you'll need/want to flow between storage device and CPU. In general, faster is better for heavier workloads. For light work, price becomes an important factor as well.
• As you've already established your minimum required capacity, get a storage device that's at least 2x (twice!) that capacity. It's full before you know it, trust me

The next steps of course are obvious: find a suitable device that's available to buy, get the lowest price, including shipping, and buy the product. Duh!