Hello, I need help regarding PC Storage

[mihaivoicu55]

Hello, here is my pc build

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	£269.59 @ Overclockers.co.uk
CPU Cooler	be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler	£74.97 @ CCL Computers
Thermal Compound	Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5 g Thermal Paste	£5.77 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard	MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard	£149.98 @ AWD-IT
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory	£83.58 @ Aria PC
Storage	ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	£99.98 @ Box Limited
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB GAMING OC PRO Video Card
Case	Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case	£79.98 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply	Corsair TXM Gold 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	£106.38 @ Amazon UK
Case Fan	Corsair LL120 43.25 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack	£65.98 @ Currys PC World Business
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£936.21
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-05-15 13:05 BST+0100

I am now getting close to using all my 1TB and was curious, what is the best way to upgrade my storage without losing anything?

I am still confused whether SSD is faster than HDD or what a HDD would acc affect but yeah, I just need help with the best possible storage upgrade solution that wouldn't sacrifice performance of the PC.

Thank you

[Chris Pratt]

You have an ATX B550, so there should be 3 M.2 slots and at least 6 SATA available (consult your mobo manual for exact numbers though). You've got one M.2 in use, so you've still got plenty of drive choices available.

 

NVMe (PCIe 3.0) SSD: 3500MB/s max

SATA SSD: 600MB/s max

HDD (SATA): 150MB/s max

 

HDD is only good for mass storage, with drives up to like 16TB available, but it's slow, and you will feel the slowness.

 

SATA SSD is plenty fast for most use cases, including gaming (currently at least), but there's no real reason to choose that unless you're out of M.2 ports, since it tends to be the same price as NVMe now.

 

NVMe you only need for very I/O heavy workloads like video and photo editing. However, again, tends to cost the same as SATA, so why not just get the faster drive if you can. Also, DirectStorage (PC version of next gen console fast storage) is coming, and games could foreseeably be using that within the next couple of years.

 

Long and short, get a NVMe SSD. Then, get a SATA SSD if you're out of M.2 slots. Don't get an HDD unless you need massive amounts of storage.

[mihaivoicu55]

13 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

You have an ATX B550, so there should be 3 M.2 slots and at least 6 SATA available (consult your mobo manual for exact numbers though). You've got one M.2 in use, so you've still got plenty of drive choices available.

 

NVMe (PCIe 3.0) SSD: 3500MB/s max

SATA SSD: 600MB/s max

HDD (SATA): 150MB/s max

 

HDD is only good for mass storage, with drives up to like 16TB available, but it's slow, and you will feel the slowness.

 

SATA SSD is plenty fast for most use cases, including gaming (currently at least), but there's no real reason to choose that unless you're out of M.2 ports, since it tends to be the same price as NVMe now.

 

NVMe you only need for very I/O heavy workloads like video and photo editing. However, again, tends to cost the same as SATA, so why not just get the faster drive if you can. Also, DirectStorage (PC version of next gen console fast storage) is coming, and games could foreseeably be using that within the next couple of years.

 

Long and short, get a NVMe SSD. Then, get a SATA SSD if you're out of M.2 slots. Don't get an HDD unless you need massive amounts of storage.

 

Sorry if I'm being dumb, but I can only see 2 SSD slots and one of them is bigger than the other, so does this mean I have to get a different sized SSD or?

[jwwagner25]

2 minutes ago, mihaivoicu55 said:

Sorry if I'm being dumb, but I can only see 2 SSD slots and one of them is bigger than the other, so does this mean I have to get a different sized SSD or?

Unless you are somehow talking about the slot for a wifi card, no, m.2 (22x80mm) slots on the motherboard are going to be the same size. I'm not aware of consumer boards which only have one full size m.2 slot and a 2nd smaller one (for storage)..

[mihaivoicu55]

2 minutes ago, jwwagner25 said:

Unless you are somehow talking about the slot for a wifi card, no, m.2 (22x80mm) slots on the motherboard are going to be the same size. I'm not aware of consumer boards which only have one full size m.2 slot and a 2nd smaller one (for storage)..

I just took a look at my manual and it says M2_1~2: M.2 Slots (Key M) and there is a M2_1 and M2_2 on there

[jwwagner25]

1 minute ago, mihaivoicu55 said:

I just took a look at my manual and it says M2_1~2: M.2 Slots (Key M) and there is a M2_1 and M2_2 on there

yes, per photos, you have a gen 4 slot above the first pciex16 slot. The 2nd m.2 slot is gen3 but otherwise the same as the other one as far as size is concerned. Personally if I were you, depending on your budget, get either:

a 2tb nvme to add to, or replace, current 1tb drive. use something like macrium reflect (free) to clone drive if choosing to outright replace... or, if budget is a factor, 

2) go for a 1 or 2tb 2.5" sata drive and keep your 1tb as-is. use the sata as additional storage as needed. The SX8200 nvme that you already have is just fine, really no need to replace or upgrade to pcie gen4. 

[mihaivoicu55]

1 minute ago, jwwagner25 said:

yes, per photos, you have a gen 4 slot above the first pciex16 slot. The 2nd m.2 slot is gen3 but otherwise the same as the other one as far as size is concerned. Personally if I were you, depending on your budget, get either:

a 2tb nvme to add to, or replace, current 1tb drive. use something like macrium reflect (free) to clone drive if choosing to outright replace... or, if budget is a factor, 

2) go for a 1 or 2tb 2.5" sata drive and keep your 1tb as-is. use the sata as additional storage as needed. The SX8200 nvme that you already have is just fine, really no need to replace or upgrade to pcie gen4. 

here is a pic of it, my SSD from my build is currently in the bottom M2_2 slot, and i can see there is a M2_1 slot but as you can see, it seems to be bigger, but it has the same name as the botton one

[jwwagner25]

no...again, they are the exact same size. You are talking about the heatsink that covers the slot, that's all. Take off the heatsink and you'll see they are the same size. 

[mihaivoicu55]

Just now, jwwagner25 said:

no...again, they are the exact same size. You are talking about the heatsink that covers the slot, that's all. Take off the heatsink and you'll see they are the same size. It's not complicated. 

Oh wow, I guess I just got confused by the heatsink because I never actually took it off due to the size, because I thought it would be different, so in this case, I would just need a new SSD to mount on there and that's it? What would be the process after mounting it, do I need to go into BIOS or can I just boot up my computer as usual. Also I am sorry, I am still new to the whole pc building.

[jwwagner25]

4 minutes ago, mihaivoicu55 said:

Oh wow, I guess I just got confused by the heatsink because I never actually took it off due to the size, because I thought it would be different, so in this case, I would just need a new SSD to mount on there and that's it? What would be the process after mounting it, do I need to go into BIOS or can I just boot up my computer as usual. Also I am sorry, I am still new to the whole pc building.

No worries, we were all beginners at one point. You would just boot up the PC as normal. Assuming you intend to keep your SX8200 you would just boot up and go into device manager, or your preferred disk management app. Might need to initialize the new SSD, but at a minimum will need to create new partition(s) on it before you can use it for storage. 

 

make sure to check for a film on the back of the heatsink and peel it off before putting it back onto the new drive.