m.2 Recommendations on storage upgrades!

[Jesperado]

Hi everyone!

 

I'm in need of some tips and recommendations. I'm planning on buying two new storage devices, one of them being the Samsung 980 PRO 500GB (or 1TB) M.2 SSD for Windows 10 and programs, and the other a 2TB drive for games and other heavy applications. I am however unsure if I should go for another M.2 SSD, or just a fast SATA SSD. I just got the i7 11700k and the MSI Z590 PRO. I know the Z590 comes with one M.2 slot with 64 gb/s and PCIe 4.0, and 2 more PCIe 3.0 with 32 gb/s. Will getting another M.2 drive affect performance of the boot drive? I'm not really familiar with what affects what when it comes to PCIe slots and all of that, hence this post!

 

The question is then: should I go with 2 M.2 drives or one M.2 and one SATA? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

MIght as well get 2 m.2 ssds, no reason to go sata these days for most uses.

 

Id probably get a cheap ssd for boot, as the performance difference won'tmatter for almost all uses.

 

The second m.2 will run off chipset lanes in most boards, so won't affect gpus

[dizmo]

Why do you want a 980 Pro? Generally it's a waste of money for most consumers.

Why are you separating the drives? What's the difference between heavy applications and the ones on the Windows drive? I'd just get a bigger single drive.

 

The chances of you noticing a change in performance is nil, just like changing from SATA to NVME is unlikely to have any noticeable changes unless you're moving around tons of huge files on a regular basis.

 

[RAM555789]

An M.2 and sata are usually gonna be within 1 second or so of each other when it comes to loading games. It really just comes down to the price difference between the two, and how much your care about that second saved. You mentioned other heavy applications but without knowing specifically what these applications are its hard to know if there will be any kind of performance changes when comparing the two.

[Jesperado]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

Why do you want a 980 Pro? Generally it's a waste of money for most consumers.

Why are you separating the drives? What's the difference between heavy applications and the ones on the Windows drive? I'd just get a bigger single drive.

 

The chances of you noticing a change in performance is nil, just like changing from SATA to NVME is unlikely to have any noticeable changes unless you're moving around tons of huge files on a regular basis.

 

I guess I don’t need 2 drives, it’s just what I’m used too, as I currently have the big games, apps and files on my SSHD, and Windows 10 and some programs on the SATA SSD. I’ll look more into the speed difference and how noticable it is, but as far as I’ve seen and read, it’s pretty noticable.

[Jesperado]

1 hour ago, RAM555789 said:

An M.2 and sata are usually gonna be within 1 second or so of each other when it comes to loading games. It really just comes down to the price difference between the two, and how much your care about that second saved. You mentioned other heavy applications but without knowing specifically what these applications are its hard to know if there will be any kind of performance changes when comparing the two.

I see! I guess my other «heavy apps» are mostly Adobe programs and Maya which I use for my studies. Other than that it’s mostly big AAA or AA games and photos, wallpapers, documents and the lot.

[Jesperado]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

MIght as well get 2 m.2 ssds, no reason to go sata these days for most uses.

 

Id probably get a cheap ssd for boot, as the performance difference won'tmatter for almost all uses.

 

The second m.2 will run off chipset lanes in most boards, so won't affect gpus

Guess going with two M.2s is more future proof than SATA? Don’t really know if that comes into play any more as there are no moving parts like in an HDD. 

[dizmo]

26 minutes ago, Jesperado said:

I guess I don’t need 2 drives, it’s just what I’m used too, as I currently have the big games, apps and files on my SSHD, and Windows 10 and some programs on the SATA SSD. I’ll look more into the speed difference and how noticable it is, but as far as I’ve seen and read, it’s pretty noticable.

Where have you read that? Ever single piece of literature and video (from a reputable source) I've seen has shown virtually no difference. Synthetic benchmarks really mean nothing.

[RAM555789]

4 hours ago, Jesperado said:

Guess going with two M.2s is more future proof than SATA?

Not really, future proofing there both SSDs. (storage is not like CPUs or GPUs where new technology comes out every couple of years) The only reason I could see someone getting an M.2 over a sata cable is if they want a really clean case with minimal cables. NVMe drives still really only have applications at larger business levels that need access to a lot of data in real time. 

[Jesperado]

4 hours ago, RAM555789 said:

Not really, future proofing there both SSDs. (storage is not like CPUs or GPUs where new technology comes out every couple of years) The only reason I could see someone getting an M.2 over a sata cable is if they want a really clean case with minimal cables. NVMe drives still really only have applications at larger business levels that need access to a lot of data in real time. 

I see. Thanks a lot!

[Jesperado]

9 hours ago, dizmo said:

Where have you read that? Ever single piece of literature and video (from a reputable source) I've seen has shown virtually no difference. Synthetic benchmarks really mean nothing.

Maybe I’m tripping then, but I’ve read reviews on hardware stores here in Norway on a few different M.2 drives, for example the 980 PRO, and other costumers have said it’s noticeable with both Windows 10 and games launching. Obviously I get that it’s not a HUGE difference except for when you need to transfer massive files on a regular.

[dizmo]

5 hours ago, Jesperado said:

Maybe I’m tripping then, but I’ve read reviews on hardware stores here in Norway on a few different M.2 drives, for example the 980 PRO, and other costumers have said it’s noticeable with both Windows 10 and games launching. Obviously I get that it’s not a HUGE difference except for when you need to transfer massive files on a regular.

Likely just a placebo effect. Or people that have bought it and want to justify their purchase to themselves. 

[RAM555789]

11 hours ago, Jesperado said:

Maybe I’m tripping then, but I’ve read reviews on hardware stores here in Norway on a few different M.2 drives, for example the 980 PRO, and other costumers have said it’s noticeable with both Windows 10 and games launching. Obviously I get that it’s not a HUGE difference except for when you need to transfer massive files on a regular.

You can check out benchmarks on youtube and all. I haven't checked specifically for windows, but for games they all were about 1-1.25secs load difference.